Page 35 of The Perfect Obsession
“All right then.I guess you can come in.”
“Do you need me to come too?”Perry asked Ryan.
“I think we’re good.”
Jessie stepped in first and immediately saw what had made the loud thud earlier.A glass vase had fallen onto the rug beside Carroway’s desk.The fake flowers had tumbled out and were strewn over the floor.
“I got startled when Perry mentioned the police,” he explained, seeing where Jessie was looking, “and accidentally knocked that over.So you can take your hand off your weapon, Detective.”
He nodded at Ryan, whose fingers still rested on the top of the holster.They remained there despite the suggestion.
“Never mind then,” Carroway said with a shrug, sitting behind his desk and motioning to the two chairs in front of it.“What can I do for the LAPD, considering that we’re not even in L.A.County?”
He was right.Camarillo was technically in Ventura County, one county north.But they’d gone farther afield than this to pursue a case.
“We want to talk about your time as headmaster at Thornfield Academy,” Ryan said without preamble.
Jessie watched Carroway closely to see how he’d react.The man’s eyes went wide, which wasn’t a shock considering how his tenure there had ended.But she couldn’t gauge whether his surprise was related to anything other than that.
“What about it?”
“As we understand, it ended unceremoniously, with accusations of wrongdoing and your departure.”
“Those allegations were false,” Carroway hissed, pointing a shaking finger at Ryan.“The girl who made them did it out of malice.”
“And yet you resigned,” Jessie noted.
“I didn’t want to put my family through a trial,” he insisted.
“But by resigning, you gave the impression that the accusation was legitimate,” she said.
“An unintended consequence.I thought I could retire quietly to avoid the messiness.But in order to get the complaint dropped, I had to officially resign.Had I known the impact of that technicality, I would never have done it.”
Jessie found his claims dubious at best.To her, he sounded like a person trying to hold on to a sense of martyrdom because otherwise, he’d have to deal with what he’d done.If the whole thing was B.S., she doubted that someone this arrogant and self-righteous would have caved.His resignation suggested there was fire behind that smoke.Amanda Krantz’s comments earlier this morning reinforced her suspicion.
But regardless of the truth, his agitation could be a boon to the investigation.Carroway hadn’t yet refused to talk.Rather, he was focused on defending himself.If he got exercised enough, maybe he’d let something slip.So she pushed.
“And yet resigning didn’t help.Your wife still left you, didn’t she?”
“That was about more than the student’s allegation,” he objected.“We had other problems that couldn’t be solved.Now I have a question foryou.You’re spending all this time attacking me over a false, ‘alleged’ claim from a decade ago.What does that have to do with anything today?”
Jessie turned to Ryan.It was his turn to throw Carroway off guard while she watched.
“It appears that you remember Caroline Sheffield,” he observed.
“You obviously know that I do.What—has she made some new allegations?Isn’t there a statute of limitations on this kind of crap?”
“She’s dead,” Ryan said flatly.“She was murdered three nights ago.”
Carroway’s mouth was open, ready to go off on them.But upon hearing Ryan, his jaw froze.It seemed to be in suspended animation.After several seconds, he managed to gulp.Then he reached for a glass of water on his desk.As he took a sip, Jessie noticed his hand was shaking.A bit of water spilled out of his mouth and dribbled down his cheek.He wiped it away quickly.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he finally said.“But you can’t possibly think that I was involved.”
“Right now we’re following several leads,” Ryan lied.“But you’d admit that you had animosity toward Ms.Sheffield.You’ve already exhibited some of it here today.”
“That was a long time ago,” Carroway swore.“I haven’t thought about her in years.I only got upset because you brought it up and made it raw for me again.”
“But for all intents and purposes, she got you fired,” Ryan continued.“That’s why you’re teaching at a school in the middle of nowhere rather than serving as headmaster at a revered institution.”
