Chapter 9 - The Schoolyard Stalker
A cornered animal is at its most dangerous when it realizes there is no escape.
On Monday morning, the schools reopened after the short winter break. I dropped Micah off at St. Jude’s Elementary, watching him walk through the double glass doors with his backpack strapped over his shoulders. His scalp was healing nicely; the pink skin was fading, and his spirits had returned. He had spent the morning talking about how he wanted to build a mountain tunnel for his locomotive.
I lingered in the parking lot for fifteen minutes, watching the perimeter. Something in my gut—the ancient instinct of a parent who knows wolves are circling—told me not to leave right away.
At 8:15 AM, a battered silver sedan pulled into the visitor drop-off lane.
My mother’s car.
My heart spiked into my throat. I shifted my SUV into gear and pulled forward, parking diagonally across the visitor lane, blocking her vehicle from advancing toward the main entrance.
I stepped out of my truck, closing the door firmly behind me, and walked directly toward her driver’s side window.
Evelyn was sitting behind the wheel. She looked ghastly. Her silver hair, usually immaculately coiffed in a salon blowout, was pinned up haphazardly. Her lipstick was smeared slightly past the lip line, and her eyes were bloodshot and frantic. She had a colorful gift bag sitting on the passenger seat beside her.
I tapped sharply on the glass.
She rolled the window down two inches, a manic, artificial smile instantly stretching across her face. "Gregory! What a surprise to run into you here."
"Turn the car around, Evelyn," I said, keeping my hands inside my coat pockets, my voice low and lethal.
"I just came to give Micah his Christmas present," she said, her voice trembling with manufactured sweetness. "He left before he could open his gift. A grandmother has a right to give her grandchild a gift, Gregory. You can't keep us apart."
"You don't have a right to breathe the same air as him," I said. "You poured boiling grease on his head."
"It was an accident! I was reaching for the rolls!" she snapped, dropping the smile in a split second, her eyes blazing with that familiar, terrifying cruelty. "You are destroying this family! Do you know what you’ve done? The sheriff came to our door this morning with an eviction summons! Thomas had chest pains! Ross is sleeping on our sofa because his apartment landlord won't renew his lease without a guarantor!"
"That sounds like a personal problem for three grown adults," I said. "Here is what is going to happen right now. You are going to put this car in reverse. You are going to drive out of this parking lot. Because behind me, Officer Higgins—the school resource officer—is already walking toward us."
Evelyn’s eyes darted to my rearview mirror. Sure enough, the uniformed officer had stepped out of the front office doors, hand resting lightly on his utility belt, observing the blocked drop-off lane.
"You are an evil, unnatural son," Evelyn hissed, tears of pure hatred pooling in her eyes. "You will rot in hell for what you are doing to your father and me."
"Maybe," I said. "But my son will grow up safe from monsters like you. Reverse. Now."
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She threw the sedan into reverse with a violent jerk of the transmission, tires screeching against the asphalt as she backed wildly out of the school drive and sped down the avenue.
I stood there until her car vanished around the corner, my hands trembling inside my pockets. She wasn't just desperate; she was completely unhinged.
