The chapter starts out pretty good:
It's such...raw and sparse prose... and Brew's body and soul is still crawing for that amber-coulored liquid. He is really having an ordeal with this, all the time...anyway...I still needed a drink. Sometimes beeing sober is like drowning; after a certain point, you know you're going to breathe, no matter what. But you don't - not until you pass out. I didn't go to a bar; I went to meet Ginny.
Brew leaves the Larsen's to meet Ginny at the School board. They arrive almost simultaneously.
Something's going on within Brew that Ginny is responsible of...I can feel that Brew's secretly in love with her...I was glad to see her. The sun on all those parked cars gave the day a glare of futility - everybody in the whole city could go crazy, rape eachother and drop dead, and it would't make one damn bit difference to the sun. Ginny was a good antidote for that kind of thinking.
He always feel good around her...They discuss what they have come up with...and Ginny tells of another unworthy parent, Mrs Swift, who seemed to be glad to be rid of of her daughter - "ungrateful chippy, running off and leaving her poor mother all alone like that", she tore the note with the letter when she recieved it...and then the Hannibals, who were more ordinary and cared for their daughter, they reported her missing but didn't do "more" about it. They had the letter and the note...yep, same watermark...and all the girls were alone when they disappeared...
And now they enter the building of the school board and in the middle of an office landscape we are introduced to:
This is the first look at Julian Z Kirke,secretary...what an introduction! Another of SRD's ugly characters, already looking like a suspect...he brings them to his boss, Chairman Paul Stretto where Ginny lays it all out for him about the two missing girls. She wants to see files of the girls.. to look for clues. Stretto plays the question over to Kirke who is unvilling at first to give anything away on behalf of confidentiality. Ginny brings it up that there are seven dead girls as well. This stirs Stretto up, and he offers them help, but still needs permissions from the parents, in writing. Ginny tells them that the seven girls have been murdered. She shows them the notes and explains the connection....a man came out of an office at the back of the room. He had light blonde hair, sleepy eyes, and a mouth so sharp and strong it looked like he ate steel for breakfast every morning. He wasn't in a hurry, but somehow he gave the impression he was pouncing.
He said, "Sondra." His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through all the work in the room, and a woman two desks away from him flinched. She was young and pretty. After I noticed that, I saw that all the secretaries who looked particularly miserablewere young and pretty. He went over and held a sheet of paper in front of her. He handled the paper gently enough, but in some strange way the movement made it look an act of violence. "Type it again," he said. "This time get it right." His tone was sarcastic enough to draw blood.
Vintage SRD!:) Love this stuff!The next minute, I was surprised to see a change come over Mr Paul M Stretto, Chairman of the Board of Education. All of a sudden, he didn't look like a man who just happen to have a lucky face any more. He looked like he had a right to that face.
After reading the notes Stretto calls for Astin Greenling and Martha Scurvey. They are to witness that he believes what Ginny has told him and that Ginny and Brew are to be given any help they want, that is to see the files. They are dismissed, picks up the notes and leaves his ofice. Kirke is back shortly with the files, but does not leave them alone when Brew and Ginny read them through. They didn't find anything in them, just took some notes. On their way out Brew is confronted by Kirke where he says:
Yes!:) Give him what he deserves...but the feeling at the end of the chapter was that it was all for nothing. They didn't get anywhere..."You're wasting your time. By the time they reach junior high, all the girls in town are nothing but little whores. There's nothing special about the ones that run away. Did you know that we're practically having an epidemic of V.D. among the junior-high boys?"
I wrapped my arm around his upper arm and dug in my fingers until his face turned white. Then I whispered back at him, "Watch your mouth. You're talking about my niece."
I gave his arm an extra squeeze to remember me by then I went to catch up with Ginny. I was grinning, but I wasn't amused.
A lot of people were introduced in this chapter, a lot of good and interesting characters; Stretto, Kirke, Sondra, Astin, Martha, are some involved i all this? I end with a quote on Stretto...
This chapter was full of these kind of observations...He looked like the kind of man the republicans wish they could run for president. Strong lines in his face, a mane of silver hair, resonant baritone voice, just a hint of well-earned fat on his tall frame. He was siting at the head of the table as if he had been born there. For a second, I couldn't figure out what he was doing in a lowly job like the Board of Education chairman, when he could have been elected mayor tomorrow - with a little help from TV. But as we shook hands I got a closer look at him. He was younger than he seemed and if my eyes wern't tricking me, the fine silver of his hair came out of a jar. Probably he was saving mayor for later. After which he'd take a crack at governor.
Though I might be safe after all:
