Bad Company(27)

I felt as if I was caught up in a horrible nightmare. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.

Mr Knowles turned to Murdo. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Murdoch.’ His voice was soft. ‘I’ll have to suspend you while this matter is being investigated.’

Diane began crying again. ‘Why do they have to investigate it, Daddy?’ She crumpled into her father’s arms, still holding on to me. ‘Why won’t they believe Lissa? He’s always bringing her down, Dad. Belittling her.’ She used Murdo’s own word to condemn him. ‘Belittling me too. They’re going to try to make us out to be liars, Dad. Just because Lissa’s dad’s been in jail are they going to hold that against her for the rest of her life?’

I felt whatever colour was left drain from my face. Diane was clever, cleverer than I’d ever imagined her to be.

Mr Connell pulled me to him protectively. ‘Indeed they will not. I won’t stand for it.’

‘We will give everyone a fair hearing, Mr Connell,’ Mr Knowles said deliberately. ‘No one in this school will be branded a liar unless it can be proved beyond doubt. But Hamish …’ he corrected himself. ‘Mr Murdoch is one of our most popular teachers. His reputation is at stake. His future as a teacher. Of course this has to be investigated.’

Mr Connell was furious. ‘He has no future as a teacher. I’ll make sure of it. The mud from this will stick. A man like that, with a temper like that, should never be in charge of children. I’ll make sure he never teaches again.’

Murdo didn’t flinch. Instead he stood taller.

I was the one who shrank inside.

Murdo not a teacher? He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had. He brings a lesson to life with his passion and his anger. And teaching is everything to him. We had once asked him what he would do if he wasn’t a teacher and I will always remember his answer.

‘Ach, you can put me in my coffin and bury me deep if I can’t teach.’

And because of me, he might never teach again.

And still I couldn’t open my mouth. I couldn’t bring myself to tell the truth.

Now, I began to cry.

Diane hugged me close. ‘Look what he’s done, Daddy. Now he’s made Lissa cry.’

‘You take Lissa out of here,’ her father ordered. ‘I have things to discuss with these …’ he hesitated, ‘these teachers.’

She hugged me all the way from the office and once we were safely out of earshot she whispered in triumph, ‘Told you I’d get him, didn’t I?’

I lifted her bandaged hands and looked at them. ‘Did you do this to yourself?’

She grinned. ‘It was worth it. Old Murdo will never teach again, not now.’





Chapter Sixteen


June 1st

What have I done? What have I done?


Did I really only write that this morning, only a couple of hours ago? I’ve spent that time, sitting here on my bed rereading my diary and going through all the events that have led up to today. I see now how I changed when Diane came into my life. Or was I always such a horrible little snob? Looking down my nose at people, hurting them at every turn.

But no, I can’t have been. Murdo said he’d never known me to be deliberately hurtful till Diane came along.

But I won’t blame her.

Murdo always says take responsibility for your own actions. So from now on I will.

Murdo. He has taught me so much. Will he ever teach any student anything again?

He said that Diane belittled people to make herself seem important. That true greatness comes from recognising other people’s worth.

He always did recognise other people’s worth. From Harry Ball with his mathematical brain, to Ralph Aird.

He made even the dumbest person in his class feel they had something to offer.

There was never a teacher like Murdo.

And I’ve just ruined his life.

My diary told me something else too. How J.B. changed after he read it. Read how I hated him, read how horrible I’d become, read of the terrible thing I had done to Ralph. And when he read how much I wanted to go to Adler Academy he knew he’d need money to send me there. The kind of money he could only earn by working again for Magnus Pierce.

The mysterious phone calls had begun in earnest after that. He had seemed to come to a decision. To have a purpose. The purpose being to turn back to crime.

And I had driven him to it.

Magnus Pierce and Diane. They had a lot in common. Both of them wanted to rule people’s lives. They both made people do bad things.

J.B. and I have a lot in common too. I see that now. He didn’t tell on Magnus Pierce out of some false sense of loyalty. And I backed Diane up for the same reason.