Free The Body in the Bonfire by Katherine Hall Page

banged against the wall. A breathless voice shouted, “Mrs. Fairchild? Are you here?” Faith went through the diningarea into the foyer, almost colliding with a young black teenager.
    â€œYou must be Daryl,” she said.
    â€œI am and get your coat. I’ll explain while we’re walking. I didn’t think you’d want to miss this.”
    Faith grabbed her coat from the coatrack and hurried after him.
    â€œMiss what? Where is everybody? What’s going on?”
    Daryl Martin smiled. It was a beautiful sight. Patsy had described him accurately. His deep brown eyes seemed to melt into his smooth skin. He was tall and moved with the grace of an athlete. His well-shaped head was defined by a thick tangle of dark hair, cut short.
    â€œAt the end of breakfast, just when everybody was getting ready to split for their projects, the headmaster comes running in and announces that there’s an all-school emergency meeting in the chapel at nine-thirty.”
    â€œDo you think it has anything to do with what’s going on with you?”
    â€œThat was my first thought, too, but I didn’t see how he could know anything about it unless you or Mrs. Avery said something, and I was sure you hadn’t.” There was no mistaking the emphasis he put on those last words, that implicit warning for the future.
    â€œThen I thought it was probably the usual,” Daryl continued. “He’d found a joint someplaceor an empty beer can. Project Term is a little—very little—looser than school usually is, so I figured he wanted to read us the riot act and set the tone. He’s a big one for setting the tone. But I was wrong.”
    They were almost at the chapel and boys were continuing to stream in.
    â€œSo what is it?” Faith stopped. Once they were inside, Daryl would have to sit with his class, while she made herself as inconspicuous as possible in the rear.
    â€œSomebody’s ripped off something from Mrs. Harcourt and she’s bullshit. Wants to address the school. Have everybody turn their pockets inside out.”
    â€œHow did you find out?”
    â€œWent into the kitchen and asked Mabel. In the kitchen, they know everything that goes on in the school. Well, maybe not everything, but a lot. And Mabel’s always been very good to me. One of my people.”
    Faith nodded. “I met her—and Mrs. Mallory.”
    â€œNow, she is definitely not one of mine, and I’m not sure she’s one of yours, either. Some kind of whole separate race thing going on there.”
    Faith laughed. It had been less than five minutes, but she knew why Patsy was so taken with Daryl and why she had agreed to help him on his own terms. If the situation weren’t so deadly serious, she might even describe herself as having fun. Someone had stolen something from Zoëand Zoë meant to get it back. It should be quite a show.
    â€œMeet you at the class. We don’t know each other, remember. I’ll stay after and we can talk then.”
    Faith nodded and thanked him loudly for informing her about the schedule change. Connie Reed rushed past her, uncomprehending, flushed and obviously upset. Efficient as she was, it obviously hadn’t occurred to her that Faith would be cooling her heels at Carleton House. Whatever was missing must be significant, Faith thought. Daryl disappeared into a sea of bobbing heads and chatter. The whole school was excited. She slipped into a seat at the rear of the chapel and kept her coat on. It was cold in the chapel—cold as only an old New England stone edifice in January can be. There were no pew cushions—too unmanly—and the chill seemed to travel straight from the depths of the frozen ground through the slate floor, up the sides of the mahogany pew, and directly into every bone in Faith’s body, starting with her coccyx.
    Robert Harcourt stepped forward to address his flock. There was instant silence.
    â€œI