Her face fell. “Oh,” she breathed out. “Right. Is she?—?”
“I need to talk to you about Clara privately,” I told her.
Lily took in the seriousness of my stance and my unwavering glare and took action. Within five minutes, the teaching assistant from the class next door was supervising hers.
When we were outside the classroom, Lily turned to me. I could see the worry in her expression clearly now. “What about Clara?” she asked. “Rafe, where is she?”
“I do not wish to conduct this discussion in the middle of a corridor, and due to the seriousness of the situation, Mrs Clayton should be present.”
“The seriousness of the…” Lily muttered, her eyes going wide. “Oh my God, has something happened to Clara?”
I blinked at her. “What? No. Clara’s fine.”
She let out a huge breath, her shoulders sagging in relief and I started to have an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Thank Christ,” she said, with real feeling. “Okay, let’s go and see Mrs C.”
Once we were in Mrs Clayton’s office, with both of them looking at me expectantly, I let rip with my misgivings.
“You have a ClarabelleMasonin your employ,” I said. Miss Clayton’s head tipped to the side. She glanced at Lily and then back at me. The woman knew Clara’s full name, that much was clear. This was not a surprise to her. I frowned down at her. “Are you in the habit of employing people who have to go by false names?” I said in a stern voice. “I would have thought that in order for there to be a correct DBS check, you would need to be using the person’s full and correct name.”
“We’ve done all the relevant checks on Clara,” Mrs Clayton snapped. “Yes, we knew that Morris was not her real surname, but there were exceptional circumstances that we?—”
“Do those exceptional circumstances include your employee being part of a criminal network so horrific that it has been the source of nearly thirty percent of all violent crime in east London for the last two years?”
Mrs Clayton frowned at me then. “Part of?” she whispered.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lily put in. “Clara is not part of their criminal network.”
“I’m sorry, did you not just admit that her surname was Mason?”
“Just because that’s her bloody surname doesn’t mean that she has anything to do with those animals,” said Lily, her voice rising now.
“Let me be clear,” I said, having had enough of this nonsense. Why on earth these women felt they needed to cover up for Clara’s ongoing association with her family was a complete mystery. “I will not have my son attend a school that employs someone like Clarabelle Mason. Her employment will be terminated with immediate effect, or I will be withdrawing my funding from the current plans for the new performing arts studio. I will also be withdrawing my son from this school and encouraging my friends to do the same. I saw Clarabelle with her family yesterday in court. She very muchdoeshave everything to do with them.”
I was quite pleased with my rant. I felt it conveyed all the threats and disappointment in a dignified manner. However, it was as if Mrs Clayton and Lily hadn’t heard me. They weren’t even looking at me. They were staring at each other.
“Oh God,” said Lily in a shaky voice.
Mrs Clayton’s gaze snapped back to me then. “Listen to me, Rafe. You tell us right this minute where Clara is.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Did you not hear me? I do not want Clara employed at the school here anymore, and furthermore?—”
“For fuck’s sake, Rafe!” shouted Mrs Clayton, and my mouth fell open in shock. I had never heard her utter anything that could even vaguely be classed as a swear word, let alone imagine that she could actually pull out the F-bomb. “Have your little temper tantrum another time. Tell us where Clara isnow.”
I threw my hands up in frustration. “With her fucking family, I imagine,” I said. “She seemed pretty cosy withthem yesterday in court, where she was sitting directly behind the defendant in an extremely high-profile criminal case.”
Mrs Clayton sat back down heavily in her chair, her face draining of all colour as her hand went to her throat.
“I am sorry that I had to inform you of this,” I said stiffly. I didn’t want to give the poor woman a heart attack after all. “And I am sorry that you trusted someone like Clarabelle Mason, but quite frankly, I?—”
“Shut up, Rafe,” snapped Lily.
“How dare you speak to me in that manner? I?—”
“I’m afraid I’m going to need you to rein in the arsehole long enough to tell us where the fuck Clara is,” Lily continued as she glared at me across the room. “You may not give one single shit about her well-being, but I assure youwe do.”
“Why should I give a shit about Clarabelle Mason’s well-being?” I said, losing my grip on my temper now.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Lily said, “maybe because you’re in love with her? But then I wouldn’t expect a stone-cold fuckwaffle like you to take something petty like that into consideration.”
