While he waited for the sink to fill with warm water, he also waited for Ezra to move in for the kill. They had a dishwasher, but when they needed to talk, the other one always knew because one of them filled the sink and did the dishes by hand. It forced them to stand next to each other, but not necessarily look at one another, and made difficult conversations easier. His son didn’t disappoint, although he did wait for his father to be elbow deep in the dishwater before he picked up a towel and moved to his side.
Ezra turned on the radio, the music so low it could barely be heard. Lucas handed him the first clean plate to dry.
“Soooo… now I see why you left the dance early.”
“Wipe that grin off your face, mister.” Lucas flicked soap bubbles at him. “She was the reason, but not so we could hook up.”
They went back to the task at hand.
“Are you happy?” Ezra asked.
“More than.”
“Good. You deserve it. And I will refrain from saying, ‘I told you so.’”
He shoulder-checked the boy who was grinning like a loon. However, the smile dropped quickly. “I promise not to say anything to anyone, even if directly asked. But after the subtle attempt at questioning this morning, and the muddy state of hervest and SUV, I’m guessing her spending the night is not what we need to chat about.”
“No, it’s not.” He washed several dishes before he spoke again. “How are the students reacting to Thursday?”
“Some are still scared. A few are angry that some jackass messed with our homecoming week, and they’re mad because you and the police couldn’t catch them. Most are already past it.”
“If you heard rumors, you’d tell me, right? I mean, I don’t want you snitching with every single thing you hear, but if it was really important?”
“Of course I would.”
“Even if it wasn’t about me? Say, another teacher?”
“Dad. You mean Officer Hookstead.”
“Well, this morning, yeah, but another teacher or staff member in general.”
“Yes, I would. And no, I haven’t heard of anyone really pissed off at any of the faculty or staff. Other than Ryker, that is. But he’s always pissed about something lately.”
“Has he said anything specific about Elyxandre? I mean, Officer Hookstead?”
Ezra stopped drying the plate in his hand and stared out the window. “I was going to say no, but on Thursday, he did say something odd. It wasn’t a threat. It was something to the effect of ‘Now we get to see how she responds.’ It was such a weird thing to say.”
“Why do you think it’s weird?”
“Well, why would he care how she responded to a threat? I mean, yeah, I guess there’s a natural curiosity about how that gets handled, but when we were waiting at Riverbend for the buses, he seemed overly interested in any bit of information he could collect.”
“He’s in your AP Computer Science class, right? Is he any good?”
“Not as good as me, but he’s good.” All dishwashing came to a stop. “You think he did the hoax, don’t you?”
“He’s pretty mad about his consequences for the school raid. I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t at the top of my suspect list.”
Nodding, the boy looked down into the sink, as if somehow he was going to find truths in it. “He definitely blames Officer Hookstead for that, which is weird because you’re the one who gave him the consequence.”
“He’s pretty smart, yes?”
Ezra hesitated. “His ranking is a few off from mine.”
“That doesn’t really answer the question. What aren’t you saying?”
“He… Look, I don’t know anything for a fact, but the rumor is, he takes shortcuts.”
“You mean he cheats.”
