Ray Elkins mystery - 02 - Color Tour by Aaron Stander Read Free Book Online Page A

happy for them, happy that they’d found one another and made a warm home together.
    “Ray?” Lisa asked, jarring Ray back to the room.
    “Yes?”
    “You look like you’re far away,” Lisa said, refilling her wine glass and looking up with concern. “Are you okay?”
    Ray sighed and nodded. “I have a lot on my mind tonight. You know how it goes.”
    “Can I ask… ?” Marc paused.
    “Go ahead,” said Ray, knowing what was coming.
    “So, what happened? Double homicide?”
    “I thought we weren’t going to mention it,” said Lisa.
    “It’s okay,” said Ray. He summarized all the public information about the murders, including the fact that one of the victims was a teacher at Leiston School. And then he said to Lisa, “You went there, didn’t you?”
    “Yes, ninth and tenth grade. By my junior year, Mother wanted me closer to home and enrolled me at Kingswood.”
    “Tell me about the place. I just have the bits and pieces I’ve heard over the years.”
    “I have bits and pieces, too, but perhaps they’re different from yours. My grandmother knew the family, even got invited to tea parties there in the old days.” Lisa sipped some wine as she organized her memories. “And Mother knew Gwendolyn Howard, she was the second Mrs. Howard. She started the school in the ’60s. I think she was probably thirty years younger than her husband. His parents built the estate as their summer home. Gwendolyn had been a teacher before they married and was very interested in progressive education. Soon after they retired up here he died, heart or something. She was left with that enormous mansion and lots of money. She had been very taken with the educational philosophy of A. S. Neill and the way he ran his school, Summerhill.”
    “I can remember reading Summerhill during my brief excursion into ed courses, when I considered a career as a high school English teacher,” said Ray. “Summerhill, let me think, lots of stuff about freedom and kids making their own choices.” He paused. “Schools should focus on the psychological health of their students rather than pouring knowledge into them. It was very ’60s. Made lots of sense to me at the time,” he paused and looked thoughtful. “Actually, it still makes sense.”
    “Good memory,” said Lisa. “Mrs. Howard went to England, studied with Neill, and came back and started the school. She called it Leiston, the name of the village where Neill’s school was located. But Leiston was her version, or perhaps vision, of Summerhill. It was just a high school because she didn’t like working with younger kids. I think Neill would have argued that high school was too late to start. The kids would have already been ruined by traditional schooling.”
    “How many students?”
    “Ninety-six, twenty-four in each grade. She had an elaborate formula based on groups of six and multiples of six. Six students per class for laboratories, twelve for lectures. Twenty-four students in each house, that’s what they call the dorms.”
    “What’s special about six?”
    “I have no idea. But I’m sure there was some sort of theoretical basis. Maybe number of lines of communication, that sort of thing.”
    “Why did your mother send you there?” asked Ray.
    “It was during father’s first illness. You know about his depression?”
    Ray nodded.
    “Mother thought it would be best if I didn’t have to deal with it. He was no longer working; he was at home then and quickly deteriorating.”
    “So, was there a Summerhill-like freedom when you were a student?”
    “Actually, no. Leiston had started to change a lot before I got there. The school had gotten a reputation for drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll. They were doing their best to shed that image as quickly as possible. By the time I arrived they were making the place much more structured and academic.”
    “Any great scandals when you were a student?”
    “No, just the usual boarding school stuff. We used to gossip