Free Promise You Won't Tell? by John Locke

supervision, has already caused irreparable damage to her reputation and standing in the community.”
    “Fancy language aside, what’s your actual threat?”
    “Mrs. Underhill, against my strong recommendation to the contrary, is willing to sweep your slanderous, libelous actions aside, provided you immediately cease your investigation.”
    “Is that it?”
    “No. I’ll require you to sign a statement to the effect you were mistaken in your conclusions, that your investigation focused entirely on the hearsay of children outside the presence of adults, that it was ill-advised, careless, flawed, and that you apologize for your irresponsible and outrageous public remarks.”
    “I assume you’ve already drafted the letter?”
    “As a matter of fact, I have.”
    He removes a letter from his valise and says, “This is your lucky day, Ms. Ripper. My client has given you a free pass. A gift.”
    “Against your better judgment.”
    “That’s right. I have a strong feeling she’ll regret this. Sign at the bottom, please, when you’re ready.”
    We stare at each other a minute. Then I say, “Got a pen?”
    “I do.”
    He hands me a pen, I use it.
    He collects the paper and says, “You got off lucky this time, Ms. Ripper. You should go out and buy a lottery ticket.”
    I stand.
    He looks at my signature and frowns.
    As I head for the door I notice Kelli and Lydia checking to see what I wrote on the signature line: Is this some sort of joke?

My entire case hangs on a rumor.
    Are nude pictures of Riley floating around in cyberspace?
    I hope so.
    Wait. That sounds really bad. You know what I mean, right?
    What I’m saying, if there are no nude photos, Riley has no case. As Roemer just proved, everything that’s happened can easily be explained away by a competent defense attorney.
    Not to mention I could lose my license and have my ass handed to me by a number of attorneys, including Ethan Clark’s father.
    What we have here is the absence of photos, which in lawyer-speak means, there was no crime. I mean, I know there was a crime, and I can narrow the suspects to fifteen, if we can agree there were ten boys, a mom, and four girls besides Riley.
    Speaking of the mom, Lydia Underhill, could there be a reason her husband, Mitch, is out of town? Could they be separated?
    Is Mitch, a possible suspect? Is that why he’s not around?
    This is what’s crazy about my job: you have to suspect everyone.
    Having said that, my gut feeling on Lydia is she’s a good parent who probably didn’t want Kelli to have a sleepover that night. She probably relented because arguing with Kelli about it wasn’t worth the hassle. As a former teen, this is an easy conclusion to draw. I had a mom, I know the drill.
    I also believe Lydia when she says Kelli isn’t the type to steal liquor from her parents, or allow friends to drink in her home, or open the door to boys at such a late hour.
    So what factor created these circumstances?
    I have no idea. But one possibility is Kelli’s stepdad has moved out.
    Maybe he’s run off with his secretary, or perhaps he and Lydia are undergoing a trial separation. Maybe Saturday night Lydia was upset about the situation with her husband, and didn’t feel like having girls in the house. Maybe that’s why she retreated to the bedroom and closed the door.
    Lydia strikes me as a responsible parent. I doubt under normal circumstances she’d close herself up in an upstairs bedroom while teenage girls were awake in the house.
    Did Lydia go to the room to cry about the current state of her marriage? Did she turn on the TV so no one would hear her crying? Did she close the door so no one would see her drinking?
    All these things are possible. Otherwise, how could she not know Parker’s mother arrived at midnight to collect her daughter? How could she not hear ten boys in her house? How could she be completely oblivious that kids were going up and down the back stairs, or that Riley spent the entire night in