“About how her husband is drowning,” said Sabine.“If the girl is dead, that marriage dies with her.Everything that’s happening revolves around Spero, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re worried that Tim might also be involved.”
Damn, the woman was good.
“Is he?”I asked.
“Would I be sleeping with him if I thought he was?”
“From what you’ve told me, you were sleeping with him before you knew much more than his name.”
“I hope you’re being facetious,” she said.“Otherwise, you’re just being mean.”
“Let’s go with facetious.But Spero is a small school.If there was something off about it, Sadlier must have noticed.”
“He did, but Spero pays reasonably well, and year-round, which is rare up here.Tim did his best for the boys.It was a job he used to like, even when it was hard.”
“So what changed?”
“That’s what you’ll have to ask him.”
The Kennebec River Brewpub was part of a resort called Northern Outdoors.On this particular evening, in the downtime between leaf-peeping and winter sports, it was uncrowded, with only a handful of tables occupied by men who looked like hunters.Tim Sadlier was in a corner as far removed as possible from everyone else, drinking a dark ale.He stood awkwardly when we approached, as though unsure whether the done thing was to embrace Sabine or give her a manly pat on the back.She settled the issue by rubbing his arm affectionately, and he and I shook hands.I realized I was hungry, and this would be my only opportunity to take a break from the Shop ’n Save, so we ordered flatbreads to share, and a house salad as a sop to our arteries.I drank water, Sabine asked for a fruit beer, and apart from thanking the server when it arrived, she said little more for the next hour.She wanted me to form my own impressions of Tim Sadlier, unmediated by interference.
By the end of the conversation, I had no doubts about Sadlier’s character but more about Spero.Sadlier told me of the incident with Anthony Marshall, of Leonard Levesque and his hostility toward Scott Theriault, and of Scott himself.
“I knew he sneaked out nights,” said Sadlier.“He wasn’t the only one who did, but Scott would go read with a flashlight, orsmoke a cigarette if he’d managed to bum one.If I was working late, he might come find me.I’d let him help, and then he’d head back to thedorm.”
“What about the running away?”I asked.
“That happened twice in the weeks after he arrived, and before I got to know him better.He learned fast that it wasn’t worth the effort, and life at Spero was hard enough without losing all his privileges.The first time I caught him wandering around after dark, I thought he was trying to slip out again, but he said he wasn’t, and he only wanted to be alone for a while.I made him promise to stay on the property, otherwise I might lose my job.He promised he would, and he kept that promise.”
“But he didn’t, did he?He went north and died.”
“I don’t understand that,” said Sadlier.“No one does.”
“And was it just time to smoke and be alone that Scott wanted?”
“I thought so.Company too, when it suited him, or what passed for it with me.”
“You liked him.”
“I did.He had no business being at Spero.”
“Could he also have been sneaking out to meet someone?”
“Like who?”
“A girl,” I said.
“The police asked me that same question.I said I didn’t know.I stay late at the school one or two evenings a week, and other than that, only if I have to cover for staff.I get paid extra for the hours.So I know how quiet it is up there, but not so quiet that I’d hear a vehicle if it stopped far enough away.”
“Sabine told me that you felt the school had changed for the worse, and you were less happy there now.Why?”
“Apart from dead kids?It’s Renders, the new assistant principal.He’s a disciplinarian.He’s too weak to be anything else.He and Santopietro are tight, though.”
“Who else is Santopietro tight with?Roger Teal?”
