Bad News
“Principle Rooney,” spoke Jon Rooney’s intercom. His secretary, Betty, a wonderful older woman on the plump side, sounded very grave. “Could you see Officer Tate,
please. It is urgent.”
Jon was instantly up from behind his desk and proceeded to the door. He had a terrible feeling. He opened the door to his office where one of his former students stood, now in full manhood, wearing a Mart Police Sergeants uniform. Nathan Tate had graduated about 4 years before and had been an officer in Mart for almost 2 years. He was a sharp young man and would easily make sheriff within a few years. If he stayed in this one traffic light town long enough that is, Jon thought to himself. Nathan had too much potential to use this small town as just a stepping-stone to greater things.
“Mr. Rooney,” Tate said, sticking his hand out to Jon. Jon noticed that the easy smile was not present on Tate’s handsome face. This must be very bad news. Jon started to wonder if one of his students was in deep trouble or worse. Jon shook Tate’s hand, and steeled himself.
“Come on Nathan, don’t leave me in suspense. What is going on?”
“Its Frank Lane, Mr. Rooney. He was found dead this morning by EMT’s responding to a 911 call.”
Jon felt like someone just kicked him. Frank Lane? Jon just saw him last night, barely 7 hours ago. It was then that Jon finally noticed the muffled sobs of Betty. Jon could not believe his ears.
As if Nathan was reading his mind he said, “Believe it. I just left the morgue. I made the ID myself. Frank is my cousin and all his family…”
“Yes, I remember,” Jon, said. Frank Lane’s parents were killed in a car accident last year, and about 6 months ago his only sibling, a younger sister, died of breast cancer. She was only 22. How can so much bad shit happen to one guy in so little time? If Frank had been a total asshole then no one would care. But Frank Lane was one of the most active individuals in the community that Jon had ever known. At 26, Frank was already a pillar of Mart. He was also one of the most sought after bachelors of the small town. At least until about 2 months ago, when Frank had first started to tell Jon about this crazy dream he had been having.
Jon was about to thank Nathan for coming to tell him personally, when a funny thought struck him. Again Nathan was reading his former Principles mind.
“I came to tell you in person and to ask you to come to the station with me to answer a few questions,” Nathan said without emotion.
“What’s going on Nathan?”
“Mr. Rooney, please come with me, sir.”
What the hell was going on? Jon felt like yelling at this young man that he was just informed of the death of a good friend, and Nathan was looking at him like a damned suspect! Jon laughed nervously. Not a bright move, because Nathan’s eyes narrowed slightly as he took another step closer to Jon. “Now I don’t know what this is about, but I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with Frank’s death.”
“Mr. Rooney,” Nathan said with an even voice. “I just need to ask you a few routine questions, because I have reason to believe that you may know who is responsible for calling 911 this morning.”
Now Jon was utterly confused. How the hell should he know who called 911 this morning. Something was not right here. What did it matter that they knew who called 911? “Okay,
let's go Nathan. The sooner we get this out of the way, the sooner I can start grieving a friend,” Jon turned to his Secretary. “Betty, not a word of this goes out. Call Mrs. Cassidy and have her sub for Frank’s classes.” Jon grabbed his suit jacket from the coat rack and gestured for Officer Tate to lead the way.
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