Free Echoes in the Darkness by Joseph Wambaugh Page B

Pennsylvania German milkmaid, bursting with energy and opinions and a need for approval.
    Soon, Shelly started wearing a Greek sailors cap like the one Bill Bradfield wore. And after listening to Bill Bradfield on Catholicism, Shelly became convinced that she should begin taking instruction to convert. It wasn't long until Sue Myers was peeking out of her classroom window watching Bill Bradfield greeting the girl with a kiss. For a teacher, that could be a dangerous little maneuver on any high school campus, even one with the laissez faire policies of Dr. Jay Smith.
    Neither Susan Reinert nor Shelly seemed as threatening to Sue Myers as a woman Bill Bradfield had been seeing on and off for a few years, a woman from Annapolis.
    Rachel had originally come to Upper Merion to talk to Bill Bradfield about his advanced students as potential candidates for St. John's College in Annapolis, a liberal arts institution that promoted the Great Books concept.
    Sue Myers had met Rachel on the very day that she'd scored the one-kick decision over Susan Reinert. When Sue saw the way Bill Bradfield was looking at Rachel she realized she might have more kicking to do.
    Bill Bradfield started urging students toward a further education at St. John's, Annapolis, or at the colleges sister campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
    One summer, he and Sue Myers took a trip to Santa Fe so he could enroll in a seminar. Sue had to live in a godawful apartment in the outskirts rather than being close to the school where he spent most of his time. It made her wonder. Then she discovered that Rachel was also at the New Mexico campus.
    Rachel was a very articulate, seemingly intelligent young woman, as petite as Susan Reinert. She wore no makeup; her clothing was modest; her shoes were flat. Her black hair was slashed down the middle and looked like it was combed with a steam iron. She had good bones and possibly could be attractive but probably never would be.
    To Sue, she looked like she belonged on a widows walk in 19th-century fiction, floating between the gables. Rachel was
    different and mysterious and Sue Myers feared her more than the others.
    This one, she thought, could be a Bill Bradfield "keeper." Sue was delighted to learn that Rachel had been married at one time. Sue believed that Bill Bradfield could never sustain a relationship with a woman who was not a virgin. Yet the more Sue studied Rachel the more she realized that this young woman looked as virginal as any that prowled the moors in a Gothic novel. And that's how she looked: Gothic.
    Chris Pappas enthusiastically agreed to join Bill Bradfield in a summer program at St. Johns in Annapolis where Rachel would be "helpful" to them. There would be vigorous tutorials, seminars, papers to be written on the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. Chris hoped to emerge more qualified, more confident.
    As for his mentor it would be a very busy summer. He now had a whole bunch of people to keep apart.
    Apparently, Bill Bradfield had talked to Susan Reinert about his fear that some of the folks in his summer seminar might not be up to snuff, morally speaking.
    Susan fired off a contemptuous letter early that summer showing that she was aware of his friendship with Rachel:
    I think its a bit hypocritical for you to rave about St. Johns lack of moral standards and "bed hopping" when you arranged to have your physical needs met from very early on. I wonder if your visits there are so emotionally difficult because you're unsuccessful in reconciling your own past and present to your idea? Why don't you accept yourself and not preach celibacy to others. Please think about what you can offer me come September.
    I want: 1) You to love me. 2) You to be separated from Sue. 3) Us to work through our problems.
    Love, Sus
    Rachel's name began explicitly surfacing in Susans other letters that summer:
    You have sent out messages to many women that you were interested in them sexually and that you cared for them in a special way,