“No,” Nancy said.
“It’s a copy of the summary of the police report on the murder of one Michael Houseman, until last night the most famous crime to have been committed in this town. It’s not hard to get hold of, by the way. It’s a public record. I actually obtained it nearly six months ago, after that incident when two girls pushed Diane into the trash Dumpster out by the athletic field and then piled the door of it with heavy objects so that she couldn’t get out. Do you remember that incident?”
“Yes,” Nancy said. “We did—”
“You did nothing,” David Asch said. “My wife came in to see you at the time. You gave her a lecture on how we should send Diane to therapy to ‘help her with her problem.’”
“She does have a problem,” Nancy said. “She has several of them. And we did try to do something about the incident with the Dumpster, we just couldn’t—”
“Prove who had done it? Yes, of course. Except that Diane told you who had done it.”
“We can’t initiate disciplinary proceedings that might end in expulsion on one student’s say-so,” Nancy said. “And that’s especially so in this case, because Diane has an almost paranoid obsession with the girls she accused—”
“Diane has an obsession?”
“Yes, she does. She—”
“They follow her around while she tries to avoid them. That doesn’t sound to me like she has an obsession. It sounds to me like they have an obsession. Just as it sounds to me like they have a problem. Not Diane.”
“I realize that as her father—”
David Asch leaned forward and flipped open the report. “I bookmarked the page for you,” he said. “And I highlighted the relevant passages. Don’t worry about making a mess of it. I made copies. One to leave with you. One to keep for myself. One to give to other people.”
“What other people?”
“This morning, I gave it to a reporter for the National Enquirer that I met in JayMar’s. He wasn’t keeping it to himself. We had a very nice talk, he and I. About you. And Elizabeth Toliver. And Diane. Do you know what a parallel case is?”
“Nobody listens to the supermarket tabloids,” Nancy said stiffly.
“Oh, everybody listens to them,” David Asch said. “But I’m not leaving it at that. My old college roommate now works on the national desk of the New York Times. I’ve talked to him, too. I talked to him a good long time ago, if you want to know the truth, but now the—problem—with Diane is newsworthy. You’re newsworthy. And that makes all the difference.”
“I don’t see what you think you’re going to accomplish,” Nancy said, and now she was not just stiff. She was frantic. “I really can’t make the other girls like her. I can’t do anything. What do you think it’s going to get you to blackmail me?”
“I’m not blackmailing you,” David Asch said. Then he laughed. That wasn’t very nice, either. “I wouldn’t bother to blackmail you. There’s no point. I’m not telling you what I’ll do if you don’t help Diane. I’m telling you what I’ve already done. Oh, I’ll do a little more of it. There’s no reason not to. But by and large, it’s already done.”
“I don’t get it,” Nancy said. “I really don’t understand what you want. What’s the point here? What are you trying to accomplish?”
“Let’s just say payback’s a bitch,” David Asch said. He was still smiling when he stood up. “The year after next, we’ll be gone, Diane will be at a good college and I’ll never have to speak to you again. But it would be interesting to see if I can get you fired long before that. Don’t you think?”
He closed the attache’ case and picked it up. The report was still lying in the middle of Nancy’s desk. He made no move to take it. Nancy thought the air was waving, but she couldn’t be sure. It was hard to tell what was going on in the real world, and what was just her mind, reeling. She’d heard about minds reeling, but she’d never believed they actually did, until now.
A second later she looked up and was surprised to see that she was alone. David Asch had left without saying good-bye, or taking her hand, or doing any of those other things that are required by politeness. The rain outside was coming down harder than ever, and the thunder was harsh and close. The only light in the world came from the lightning that broke out in sheets to backlight the sky. This cannot be happening to me, she thought.
Then she put her head down on her desk and closed her eyes.