Free Echoes in the Darkness by Joseph Wambaugh

occasion to drive her principal home one day she felt his eyes slide over her like a steamy wet cloak.
    He said things like "Pat, its not easy being a fellow like me in the company of a beauty like you. You see, I'm aware that I'm not attractive, but it doesn't mean I don't have needs."
    Trying not to jam the gas pedal through the floor, Pat said, "Gee, wasn't that a swell lunch?" and anything else that popped into her head to change the subject.
    "Tell me, Pat," he said, "do you like to have your body relaxed? Through massage for instance?"
    She started shaking a little, but then he said, "You know, there are other ways to make money. You could have a second career if you wished."
    And as she was getting ready to say, "Gosh, thanks, Doctor Smith, but I'd make a lousy masseuse," he totally surprised her by saying, "You should consider a security job. I see you as a very fine security officer. What do you think of that?"

    Chapter 6

Echoes in the Darkness (1987)

    The Gunman
    As the school year of 1977-1978 and the tenure of Dr. Jay C. Smith drew to a close at Upper Merion, there were a lot of plans being made by Bill Bradfield and his firiends. Vince Valaitis had become gradually aware of a lessening of contact with Bill Bradfield while he and Sue Myers tried to keep the Terra Art store from bankruptcy.
    When he did see Bill Bradfield, the older man was always complaining about having been wrong to take on the responsibility of "helping" fellow teacher Susan Reinert, who he said was constantly bothering him for advice or money loans.
    "She's so pathetic and needy," he told Vince Valaitis, "I can't bring myself to just ignore her, but I wish she'd leave Upper Merion and go away."
    Vince was by then twenty-six years old, and not as frequently mistaken for one of the students. But most of the faculty still found the young teacher refreshing and fun. A couple of minutes into one of his excited monologues on horror flicks and the other grownups felt like taking him to a monster movie and feeding him jelly beans.
    He was the kind of guileless young guy who wasn't ashamed to say, "Sure I've had a sheltered life but it was a nice shelter."
    Vince Valaitis was so loyal that he'd kept his sandbox pals from kindergarten. Vince could make you worry that with a checkbook in his pocket he might someday meet a guy with an honest face and a pinkie ring selling timeshares in Atlantic City. People just wanted to protect Vince. He looked more vulnerable than Liza Minnelli.
    At one of the end-of-terms soirees, Susan Rienert, who'd had a drink or two, sat at Vince's feet and put her arms around his knees and told him how good-looking he was, which of course was true, and how much she liked him, and of course everybody liked him.
    But Vince got nervous about the pass and reported it to Bill
    Bradfield who said it only went to prove what he'd been saying all along, that Susan Rienert was a frustrated neurotic who would jump into bed with any man in order to find a husband.
    Vince knew that Susan Reinert did not always have an easy time of it financially and once when she was hard pressed he gave her money to buy Michael a cub scout uniform. But Bill Bradfield warned his young friend to stay away from that sexstarved creature, even though he knew that Vince Valaitis had a sex life like Saint Francis of Assisi. Warning him to stay away from Susan Reinert for fear of being ravished made little sense, unless viewed as a tendency of Bill Bradfields to keep certain people apart, for reasons of his own.
    Another of Bill Bradfields coterie was a young fellow a year older than Vince. Bill Bradfield had seen a great deal of Christopher Pappas over the years, but he usually arranged it so that Vince Valaitis and Sue Myers were not part of his social life with Chris.
    Chris was not as easy to get to know as Vince Valaitis, but in his own way, he was another young man who some thought needed protection. Chris was of medium height, sturdily built, and looked