Free The Queen of Cool by Claudia Hall Christian

absolute apology,” Mr. Sinclair said. “In my forty
years of teaching and administrating, I’ve never seen a teaching
professional behave as she has. Do you know her
personally?”
    “ I’ve never met her before
today,” Don said.
    “ I will support Lo’s
transfer to anywhere else she’d like to go. Arlington Heights is
closer to your new home,” Mr. Sinclair said. “After all these
years, almost every principal owes me a favor or two. Where would
you like to go?”
    “ I don’t know,” Lo said.
“My mother graduated here. My brother went here too. And my little
sister goes here. I…”
    “ Why don’t you give it some
time? I can arrange for your sister Lisa to transfer as well,” Mr.
Sinclair said. “I’ll give you the rest of the week off. You let me
know by the end of the week. You can start fresh on
Monday.”
    “ And Ms. Kincaid?” Don
asked.
    “ Don’t you worry about her,
Don,” Mr. Sinclair said. “She won’t be a concern to Lo or any other
student in this school or any other.”
    Mr. Sinclair stood and escorted them out of
his office past the smug Ms. Kincaid.
    “ Thank you for
understanding,” Mr. Sinclair said.
    He held out his hand to Don. Don shook
it.
    “ Lo,” Mr.
Sinclair put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I had your
mother in my geometry classroom. I never knew her to do a thing she didn’t want to. I’m certain you’re the same. Please
accept my personal apology.”
    Lo gave an embarrassed nod.
    “ You are both very lucky,”
Mr. Sinclair said. “Take care of each other.”
    With a nod, the principal turned back into
his office. Don put his arm around her and they walked to his
Mercedes.
    “ Are you glad we came in?”
Don asked when they were in the car.
    “ Thanks,” Lo
said.
    He leaned over to kiss her. Breaking off, he
smiled.
    “ Lolita, my ass,” Don
laughed.
    Lo joined his laughter.
     
    Lisa gently shook Lo’s shoulder.
    “ We’re back,” Lisa said.
“What was so awful about the lawyer?”
    “ His office manager is Ms.
Kincaid,” Lo said.
    “ Your old English teacher?
No way,” Lisa said.
    Lo nodded.
    “ Let’s go in and you can
tell me everything,” Lisa said.
    Q
    Monday afternoon—2:25 p.m.
Downtown Fort Worth
     
    Days: 16
     
    Lisa and Lo had arrived at exactly two
o’clock and they waited. After twenty minutes, Lo told the
receptionist they were leaving. They made it to the elevators
before Don’s attorney, Jaden Sadler, came running out of the
office. He apologized profusely and escorted them back to a small
conference room.
    “ I have some great news,”
Jaden said after they were all seated. “But first, let me go
through everything.”
    He passed a packet of papers to Lisa and to
Lo then set one in front of himself.
    “ Currently the business is
called Henry Downs Air Conditioning or HDAC – kind of a play on the
whole HVAC thing,” Jaden said. “It’s located in Arlington, near Six
Flags. You probably remember their vans. Or I should say, I
do.”
    “ Yeah,” Lisa said. “They
were Dallas Cowboy colors with a big metallic blue HDAC on the
side. Gosh, they were everywhere.”
    “ Exactly,” Jaden said. “For
the last twenty years or so, HDAC has served the entire Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex. It even had the air conditioning contract for the
new stadium. But here’s the weird thing.”
    “ What?” Lo
asked.
    “ The business never made
that much money,” Jaden said. “My buddy at the state pulled tax
returns from the last three years. Even though HDAC did a lot of
business, it wasn’t very profitable. After expenses, it made about
thirty thousand a year.”
    “ I’ll go through their
books and find out why,” Lisa said.
    “ We’ll need that,” Jaden
said.
    “ We?” Lo asked.
    “ I’ll get to that,” Jaden
said. “The good news is that Don hasn’t touched the profits from
this business in a year or two. There’s an account with his
father’s name on it with sixty-seven thousand dollars