Liars' Games (Project Chameleon Book 1) (10 page)

Ten minutes before the assembly, Claire stood
up, preparing to go to the auditorium.
Just breathe. You can do this. Pretend you’re in a lecture hall giving a talk to your freshman college students.

She glanced at her watch.
Guess it’s show time
. She walked out of her office and bumped into Ron.

“Nervous?” he asked.

Claire gave a half smile. “Ron, you have no idea.” Although Ron’s disposition toward her had warmed slightly since yesterday morning’s meeting, she had discovered his general manner was a bit formal, distant with most people. Knowing that was who he was had changed her perspective, and made her a bit more comfortable with him now than previously.

Entering t
he auditorium, Claire resisted the urge to cover her ears. The noise inside was deafening, reminding her of the tube station back home in England and the train station in Boston at the height of rush hour. Students were supposed to be seated but half were wandering around, cavorting with classmates, or throwing things at each other. Paper airplanes floated through the air, reminding Claire of kids in a daycare, only much bigger. Despite their childlike behavior, these particular children were far from innocent.

As students began noticing
Claire and Ron, they nudged each other and gradually quieted. Ron took a seat up front as curious eyes watched her walk up onto the stage alone.

Claire attached a lavaliere microphone to her jacket lapel and stood in front of a podium that had been set on the stage. She took a deep breath and let it out,
looking around the crowded room.

“Good Morning. Most of you don’t know me yet, so I w
ill start out today by first introducing myself and telling you a little about me.” Of course, it was the brief story made up by Brad and his superiors.

Surveying the massive room, she spotted Frank Lawrence and Steve Jens
en standing with a group of teachers, not far from the stage. The expression on their faces was one of intent interest. Both men were observing the students, as well.

“Now that you know a
bit more about me, I want to talk to you today about our new plan for this school. We, the faculty and administrators of Midland High School, are making some changes to make this a much better school, to improve the environment and educational opportunity for all. We are going to make that our primary goal for this year. We need all of you to work with us to reach that goal. We need—”

Boos and profanity rang out and drowned out Claire’s voice. About twenty students stood up and wandered around the auditorium, some shoving each other and taunting students who were still seated.

“Quiet! Sit down,” she shouted. No one paid attention. Could they even hear her over the noise?

Ron came to her side and shouted into another microphone, his voice louder and stronger than hers, but instead of helping, it
seemed to add fuel to the ruckus. About fifty more students jumped up from their seats and threw hats, water bottles, and shoes into the crowd.

Claire moved, intending to get off the stage and try to intervene
. Ron grabbed her shirt sleeve and shook his head.

Teachers rushed toward the students and herded them out of the auditorium, leaving Claire and Ron standing onstage helpless. Claire looked toward Frank and Steve. To her dismay, they were looking at her and whispering, and then they turned and walked out without stopping to talk to her.

Claire’s cheeks burned as she left the stage and weaved through the crowd on her way back to her office. It was bad enough to lose every shred of credibility in front of the whole school, but in front of her supervisor, too?

She sat at her desk and held her head in her hands. For all her education
and supposed intelligence, she apparently hadn’t a clue how to proceed.

Claire dealt with minor problems most of the next day and was preparing for the next assembly to be held on Thursday. Her phone rang and she immediately recognized Steve Jensen’s voice.

“
The reason I’m calling is to let you know I think you’re efforts at the school are commendable. Sorry we rushed out without speaking with you.” 

“Thanks. Sometimes I have doubts whether it’s do-able. I guess it’s still early in the process.
This is a big task and I guess setbacks are to be expected.”

“It’s good to be realistic. But don’t let minor setbacks
like yesterday deter you. Frank might attend your next assembly. Unfortunately, my work schedule is still so insanely busy I probably won’t make it. Anyway, the reason I called was to see if you’d have dinner with me Friday night.”

Claire hesitated for a moment. “Uh, I—I don’t know. Is that a good idea?”

“Well, I didn’t bore you too much the last time we had dinner, did I?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“We can discuss it Friday night, okay?”

“I—
uh, I guess so. Meet at the same restaurant?”

“Sounds like a plan. See you t
here at six.”

She hung up the phone. All right, the first dinner with him might not have been a date, but this one? Oh God. What was she doing?
And more importantly, what was she going to wear this time?

When Claire arrived at home that evening,
Nanny Kate picked up her handbag and college text books. Instead of leaving, Kate hesitated near the front door, looking as if she wanted to say something. Claire gave her a quizzical look and asked, “Something wrong?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, on Monday you asked me to tell you if I saw anyone acting peculiar, or watching us. And, well, there was a guy at the park this afternoon. Today was one of the few days this week when it was warm enough to go, you know, so we left here after lunch and walked there.” She paused
.

Claire nodded, hoping that would encourage the girl to continue.

“This guy was standing around, watching the kids play on the equipment. I guess there were about a dozen kids and half a dozen moms, and a couple of nannies. I wasn’t the only one who noticed the man. Some of the moms were sitting at a picnic table chatting and then started whispering and pointing to the man. I walked over to them and asked if they’d ever seen him before. No one had.”

Claire felt a wave of nausea. “What did he look like?”

“He was old, like late thirties if I had to guess. He had dirty blonde hair, I think. After a few minutes, the moms got up and rounded up their kids. They left while I was tying Marcus’s shoe that had come untied. Soon as I finished, I realized the man was standing less than three feet away from us. He asked me who I was and who the little boy was. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, that takes a lot of nerve, doesn’t it?”

Claire’s heart was racing, but she tried to remain composed. “What did you do?”

“I remembered what you’d said about strangers, and then I picked up Marcus and ran.”

“Did he follow you?”

“I don’t think so. Should I have called the police? And should I avoid the park?”

Claire glanced over at Marcus who was watching TV. “I don’t know if we need to call the police. Not yet, anyway.
If you see him again, please call me right away. I think it’s definitely a good idea to avoid the park for now.”

After Kate left, Claire dialed Brad’s number, but he didn’t answer. She left a message.

On Thursday morning, after spending the night lying awake and worrying about the watcher, Claire decided to cancel the assembly. She called Frank and let him know about the cancellation
. Then, since she hadn’t heard back from Brad, she called him and left another.

She didn’t have time to go shopping
for another dress. When Friday night came, she wore the black dress again, adding a red necklace and matching earrings and styling her hair differently, this time letting it curl naturally and then pushing the hair on the left side behind her ear. With the dress, she wore a red cashmere sweater that she’d bought when she first arrived in Denver.

At
the restaurant with Steve, Claire struggled to find a safe topic to discuss. She didn’t really want him asking questions about work. Nothing good had happened. She also didn’t want to talk about her cancelled assembly, or explain her reasons for cancelling.

After they ordered their meals, she asked, “You told me that you and Frank grew up together and went to school together.”

Steve smiled. “Yeah, we’ve known each other since we were in kindergarten. That’s a long time. I won’t tell you how long. Trust me. It’s been decades.”

Claire laughed. “Have you always worked together, too?”

“No, no,” Steve said, shaking his head. “That’s recent. After we graduated college, Frank moved to Chicago and I moved to Los Angeles. Worlds apart. We stayed in touch though. Attended each other’s weddings, that sort of thing.”

Silence ensued. He’d given her the perfect opportunity to ask about his marriage and divorce but
if she did, he would ask about her love life. Instead, she chose the safer route. “How did you both come to work here in this school district?”

His brow creased a little and he took a sip of wine. “I’m not married anymore in case you were afraid to ask. Been divorced for many years.”

She felt her face grow hot. “I—I, well Frank already told me that.”

“Ah.”

Again silence.

“Did both of you start working here at the same time?”

“No. I’ve been here a little over three years. Shortly after I started, one of the four assistant superintendents retired. I immediately thought of Frank.”

“That was really nice of you,” Claire said. “Friendships like yours are hard to find.”

“They are indeed. Though sometimes I worry if I did him a disservice. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to have a job, and as far as jobs go, the pay is not bad here. But Frank’s job and my job are stressful. We put in tons of overtime and we have little time for private lives. He sometimes complains that he worries his wife and kids will forget him because he’s working such long hours.”

She nodded, not knowing how to respond.

“So what about you,” Steve said. “I don’t see a ring on your finger.”

She quickly covered her left hand with her right and felt daft for doing it. Obviously it was too late. She tried to make light of it. “You’re too observant. Has anyone ever told you that before?”

He laughed. “As a matter-of-fact, yes.”

Before he could ask anything else, the waitress
miraculously appeared with their meals.

After she left, and they beg
an eating. Steve quickly returned to the conversation. “So I take it you’re not married.”

“I’m not.”

“Divorced?”

She bit her lip and looked down at her plate, while she debated how to answer. Finally, she said, “No. I was engaged
. We actually broke up a few months before the wedding date. I suppose now in hindsight that was for the best.”

“Certainly cheaper,” Steve said in between bites of food.
“I mean finding out before spending the money for a wedding,” he added, smiling.

They went on to talk about global warming, super volcanoes, alternate energy
, and other miscellaneous trivia. An hour later, as Steve put his credit card back in his wallet, he said, “Why don’t we catch a movie? I’m not sure what is playing. Maybe we can find something to see.”

“That sounds nice.” She hadn’t been to a theat
er in over a year. Until now, she hadn’t realized how much she missed it. She and Callum used to go every other weekend.

They left the crowded restaurant and stood in the parking lot together, trying to decide what to do about having two cars there.

“Why don’t we just both drive to the movie theater and meet there?” Claire said. Steve agreed. Once there, it didn’t take long to discover that most of the movies had started about a half hour earlier, but they did find one action movie that was about to begin.

It was around eleven
o’clock when the movie let out, and Claire and Steve discussed the movie as they walked out to their cars. It turned out to be a much better movie than Claire feared. When they arrived at the parking lot, they stood next to Claire’s car, and she kept pushing her windblown hair out of her eyes. She knew she was stalling for time more than anything else. She wasn’t sure what was expected, so she said, “I had a good time, Steve.”

“I had a great time. I hope we can do this again.” He paused, and looked uncertain for a moment before he spoke again. “I don’t know how you feel, and I don’t want to pressure you
. I like you and I’d like to see you again—outside of work, I mean.” He hesitated, looking thoughtful, then said, “Please don’t feel you have to go out with me, of course. I’d never pressure you, or anyone, that way. I’ve never dated someone who worked for me, and I really shouldn’t do it now. But with the long hours I work, how else am I supposed to find someone, you know? It’s tough finding the right person to be with.”

Claire bit her lip,
again stalling for time.