The Witch of Agnesi by Robert Spiller Read Free Book Online

Divine entered the gym. They both halted at the podium. In contrast to the hawk, Divine appeared docile, almost frightened. He could easily have been the mascot’s intended prey.
    Divine unwound the microphone from its goose-neck and stepped in front of the podium. “Students and staff of East Plains, I regret the need to inform you of a tragedy.”
    Bonnie felt her chest tighten.
    “Stephanie Templeton, Senior class President, captain of the Knowledge Bowl team, died early this morning.”
    “What?” Bonnie said louder than she meant to.
    Heads turned in her direction. Divine stared at her from the gym floor and frowned.
    “Sorry,” she mouthed. She’d been expecting news of Peyton Newlin, had steeled herself for the worst. But Stephanie? Bonnie shook her head as if to refute this bolt out of the blue.
    “Announcements concerning funeral plans will be posted in the Gazette and the East Plains Register. The family asks that phone calls be held to a minimum. Please respect their wishes in this hour of sorrow.” He handed the microphone to Lloyd.
    Islands of grief erupted around Bonnie. Students wept openly, cursed out loud. A trio of girls with Stephanie Templeton blond hair clutched at one another, their faces leaking water. A freshman boy from Bonnie’s Algebra One class, his face an empty mask, hammered his fist into the steel seat again and again.
    Lloyd’s voice insinuated itself into Bonnie’s anguish. “. . . are in the building if you need to talk to a counselor. For those of you wanting to go home, the busses have arrived.” His eyes met Bonnie’s, and he signaled her to join him at the far end of the gym.
    As Bonnie made her way down to the gym floor, she came face to face with Diane Wynn, the school librarian. The woman’s cheeks were wet, her eyes redrimmed. “That poor girl. She was like a ray of sunshine, so beautiful. Do you have any idea what happened?”
    Bonnie shook her head and pulled the relative stranger into an embrace. They wept together. Students clearing the stands patted their shoulders and backs and moved on.
    “I’ve got to go, Diane,” Bonnie whispered into the librarian’s hair, and pulled back. “Lloyd’s waiting on me. Are you going to be okay?”
    The woman sniffled and offered a frenetic nod.
    “I’ll be fine. I’m going to go home and hold my little boy. I might never let him go.”
    “Give him a hug for me.”
    Lloyd waited by the wrestling loft stairs. When she approached, he started walking up to the loft.
    She followed.
    He moved to the back of the loft and sat heavily onto a weight bench. “I’ve got to get out to the busses, but I have to tell you a few things before I go.” He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.
    She joined him on the bench.
    “Just before dawn a man walking his dog discovered Stephanie’s body in a gully near Fulton Hill.”
    The world suddenly shrank to one isolated weight bench. Bonnie’s hands went to her mouth. “Stephanie went home with her mother. What was she doing on Fulton Hill in the middle of the night? That’s a good five miles from her house.”
    Lloyd gripped her hands in his. “I can’t answer that question, Bon, but Franklin Valsecci wants you to call him. He’s hoping you’ll remember anything that might explain the girl’s murder.”
    “Murder? They know that for sure?”
    He squeezed her hands until she met his eyes.
    “The back of her head was crushed. They found a bloody baseball bat near the body.”

    BONNIE STRADDLED THE WEIGHT BENCH STARING AT her cell phone. She sat alone in the loft. From the absence of noise below she might be the only one left in the entire gym.
    Stephanie’s death kept circling in her mind, but not far removed spun Peyton Newlin’s disappearance. There had to be a connection.
    She punched in Franklin’s office number.
    He picked up on the second ring. “Valsecci.”
    “It’s Bonnie. You wanted to talk with me?”
    “I just need to pick your brain a bit. Tell me