Bad Company Read online

  Diane flushed and licked her lips.

  He stopped right in front of her.

  At first I thought she was going to refuse but after a moment she got to her feet, defiance in her every move.

  ‘Now, why don’t you share with the class what you just said?’

  Diane wouldn’t even meet his gaze. She didn’t answer him, but I could tell by the nerve throbbing in her cheek just how angry she was.

  ‘Forgotten already, have you?’ Murdo looked round at the rest of the class who had all turned to face him. ‘Shall I tell you what she said?’

  He turned back to Diane. ‘Diane Connell says that Ralph only got that commission because the Council felt sorry for him. Did you hear that, Ralph?’

  Even then his gaze never left Diane.

  I glanced at Ralph and his smile had disappeared.

  Murdo continued. ‘This is our Council, by the way, which evicts old ladies from their homes if they can’t pay their rent. This is our Council, which throws blind people out of our libraries when they try to bring in their guide dogs.’ He batted his eyes in feigned shock and the class began to snigger. ‘Ooo, but they’re all heart when it comes to our Ralph. Och, they decided, the poor wee laddie. Let’s give him this commission. He’s rubbish but we just feel so sorry for him.’

  Now he was laughing too. He smiled over at Ralph. ‘Och, isn’t that nice, Ralph?’

  For a moment he let the class laugh. Laugh with him, and laugh at Diane. And Diane didn’t like it one bit.

  Suddenly his voice became an angry roar again. ‘Do you know what your problem is, Diane Connell? The only way you can feel important is to belittle other people. And I am telling you now, and I genuinely hope it helps you to know this, that true greatness comes from recognising other people’s worth. Maybe then, you can find your own.’

  He stared straight at her. I knew, because I know the kind of teacher Murdo is, that he really did want her to understand that. He wanted to change something in Diane. But Diane wouldn’t look back at him. She kept her eyes downcast, and sucked in her cheeks as if she had something sour in her mouth.

  Finally, he shook his head. ‘Stay behind after class, Diane. I want to talk to you.’ And he began to walk back down the aisle to Ralph.

  And suddenly, the class were applauding again, only this time they were applauding Murdo.

  I stood at the door while Murdo spoke to Diane. His voice was soft at first, but grew steadily louder when he realised he was getting no response from her.

  ‘Lass! I’m only trying to help you!’ he yelled at her. ‘Do you want to go through your whole life being totally obnoxious?’

  Diane tutted in that superior fashion of hers and looked away with a long sigh.

  ‘I will not have you speaking to me like this,’ she said.

  Murdo’s eyes went wide and he roared so loud I thought he was about to invade England. ‘I will speak to you any way I choose, lassie, if it’s for your own good. And you can bring your father here and I’ll tell him the same thing. Do you hear me!!!!’ With that Murdo lifted the desk lid as high as he could and banged it down ferociously. Diane jumped and so did I.

  ‘Ach, get out of my sight, lassie!’ Murdo bellowed at her. ‘And if your behaviour doesn’t improve I’ll be sending for your parents.’ And Diane swung round and left him.

  ‘Thank goodness I’m going to Adler Academy!’ I’d never seen her so angry. Tears were starting in her eyes but she kept swallowing them back. ‘Trying to humiliate me in front of the whole class. Who does he think he is? Well, he’s just stepped over the line. I’ll get my own back on him.’ She suddenly pulled me back to face her. ‘And you’re going to help me.’

  ‘Me?’ The thought did more than dismay me. It terrified me.

  ‘Yes, of course, you. I helped you get back at Ralph Aird. Now it’s your turn to help me get back at Murdo.’

  She turned from me then and I shivered. It was a warm May afternoon, but it was Diane who made me shiver. There was something really scary about her.

  ‘I’m going to make him very sorry he ever treated me like that.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  May 31st

  I can’t think what Diane is planning for Murdo. What can you possibly do to a teacher? No one’s ever going to believe anything a pupil says, especially a pupil like Diane. Though I didn’t say that to her. I hope she just forgets about it. Murdo’s anger never lasts. He used to hate Ralph Aird too. I can remember him bellowing at him when Ralph had done something particularly nasty – which was often. Once, he even ran him all the way to the headmaster’s office when he caught him trying to flush Harry Ball’s gym shorts down the toilet. Trouble was Harry Ball was wearing them at the time.

  And now look at Ralph. You would think he was Murdo’s favourite. And all because one day he’d caught him doodling a sketch of him in his English jotter.

  We’d all held our collective breath expecting Murdo to yank Ralph to his feet and frogmarch him out of the school.

  Instead, he held it up for all the class to see and he said, ‘Ralph Aird, that is extremely good.’

  After that, whenever Ralph had an essay to write, Murdo insisted he illustrate it as well. So Robinson Crusoe came to life on the pages of Ralph’s exercise book and Shylock the moneylender, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. And Ralph came to life too – until the day I destroyed his collage.

  I told all this to Diane, hoping it would make her see that Murdo had no real favourites and that once he spotted her potential she’d be his darling!

  But nothing I said could calm her down. ‘He had no right to say he’d inform my parents if my behaviour doesn’t improve. Who does he think he is? He’s nothing but a big Highland savage. How dare he speak to me like that.’

  What she said frightened me. But the way she said it frightened me more. Because she sounded just like me. Arrogant, sure she was better than everybody else, looking down her nose at the rest of the world.

  Belittling people to make her feel important. Murdo’s words came back to me.

  I was glad to get away from Diane for once. Diane frightened me today.

  Was that only yesterday I wrote that? So much has happened since, it seems like an age away. I went downstairs after I’d finished writing my diary and I found Mum crying in the kitchen. Mum never cries, and that scared me.

  ‘What’s wrong? Has something happened?’ I asked her.

  But she wouldn’t say.

  ‘It’s him, isn’t it?’ I jerked my head towards J.B. in the living room. ‘What’s he done?’

  ‘He’s done nothing, Lissa,’ she snapped at me.

  There was an atmosphere all through our meal. Mum hardly spoke and she even scolded Margo when she tried to stuff her dinner into the back of Jonny’s fire engine. She usually laughs when Margo does that. I’ve heard her giggling as she lifted one of Jonny’s trucks and an avalanche of mashed potatoes and mince cascaded from the back. Last night, Margo was scolded and the poor little thing looked puzzled and hurt.

  J.B. put his hand over Mum’s and squeezed it. And do you know what? She pulled her hand away. I’ve never seen her do that before. Something was going on, but what?

  It was midnight when I woke up, thirsty. I was still half-sleeping as I stumbled out of my room and made my way downstairs for a glass of milk.

  As I passed the living room I heard his whispered, furtive voice. J.B. was on the phone.

  I crept closer and listened.

  ‘I hope you know the risk I’m taking,’ I heard him say softly. Then after a pause when the other person was obviously speaking he added, ‘You’ll protect me? Now, where have I heard that before?’ He didn’t speak then for a moment and I realised by the odd ‘OK’, ‘Yes’ that he was listening to instructions. It was his final words that told me everything I needed to know.

  ‘I told you. I’ll do what you want. I know when I’m beat.’

  Forget the glass of milk. I took the stairs two at a time to get back into my bedroom
before he came into the hall.

  But I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t. Because it was all happening again. He was going back to work for Magnus Pierce. He’d tried to keep away from him, but now, without a job, he knew he was beat. Soon, he’d be back in prison and Mum couldn’t take that for a second time.

  Why was he such a fool? Would he never learn? No wonder Mum was crying. I never hated him so much as I hated him last night, knowing he was going to ruin what little we had.

  And I couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

  There was an atmosphere in the house this morning too, and I only added to it. I couldn’t look at him. I only heard Mum say one thing to him, and it just confirmed what I already knew. ‘I don’t want you to do this, Jonny. It’s too dangerous.’

  And his whispered answer. ‘I don’t have any choice, Liz.’

  The phone rang while I was forcing down some breakfast and I held my breath as Mum answered it.

  ‘Lissa, it’s for you. It’s Diane.’

  With a sigh of relief I hurried to the phone. Diane’s voice was a torrent of breathless whispers. ‘You promise you’ll back me up this morning. No matter what?’

  ‘Diane, what’s wrong?’

  But she didn’t answer me. ‘I can’t talk now. But just you promise. Anything I say … anything!’ She repeated it through gritted teeth. ‘You agree with me. Promise?’

  ‘What is it you’re going to do?’ I felt sick to my stomach. She was planning something. Something terrible, I just knew it.

  ‘Can’t talk any more. Have to go.’

  And the line went dead.

  I was angry with the world this morning. That’s my excuse. No one cared about me. Not my parents. Certainly not J.B. None of my classmates. They didn’t even talk to me any more. And definitely not Murdo. It seemed I, along with Diane, was the only one of his students who lacked potential.

  Diane was the only friend I had. I couldn’t risk losing her. No matter what she’d planned I decided, I’d be behind her one hundred per cent.

  Mr Becket, the deputy head, was waiting for me at the school gates. He stood with his arms folded, his face stern. ‘Lissa Blythe!’ His voice was as grim as his face. ‘The headmaster’s office. Right now!’

  ‘What’s up now?’ I demanded. I wasn’t in the mood to be polite. It had to be something to do with Diane, but at that point I was more angry than nervous.

  I was kept in the headmaster’s outer office while Mr Becket stepped inside to announce my arrival. The secretary pursed her lips at me in an angry frown.

  What had Diane come up with? I began to sweat and could feel guilt written all over my face. Mr Becket appeared at the office door. ‘Inside,’ he ordered.

  With as much confidence as I could muster, I marched into the office.

  But my confidence took a real knock when I saw what was waiting for me.

  The headmaster was standing behind his desk and his face was grim. Beside him, Murdo. He was ashen-faced as if he’d just had a terrible shock. And there in front of them, sitting in two chairs, were Mr Connell and Diane. She was crying, sobbing back tears. When she heard me come in she jumped to her feet and rushed toward me. She held out her hands and I saw, for the first time, that they were bandaged.

  ‘Oh, Lissa. I’m so glad you’re here.’ She grabbed at the lapels of my blazer. ‘Tell them,’ she was pleading with me. ‘Tell them you saw everything. You heard everything.’ Her shoulders heaved with her sobbing. ‘Tell them it was him.’ Now she pointed one of her bandaged hands at Murdo. ‘He did this! Tell them he slammed down the desk on my hands … and you saw him doing it!’

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mr Knowles, the headmaster, beckoned me forward. Now, I was sure it was me who was ashen-faced. ‘I think we’ll hear this from Lissa herself,’ he said sternly.

  Diane clutched at my arm. ‘She saw it all. She’ll tell you exactly what happened.’

  Mr Knowles snapped at her. ‘Keep quiet, Diane.’

  But she didn’t. She babbled on nervously, telling me everything I needed to know to back up her story.

  ‘He was so angry with me. I’ve never seen him so angry. And he made me put my hands in the desk and then … he slammed it down on my fingers. He’d made me stay behind after class. And he’s never liked me, ask anyone. He doesn’t like Lissa either.’ She turned to her dad then. ‘We don’t belong in this school, Dad. Neither of us.’

  Mr Knowles looked at me. ‘We must know the truth, Lissa. This is a very serious allegation.’

  My mouth was dry. So dry my lips were stuck together. I couldn’t have answered in that moment if you paid me. I looked at Diane, crying, squeezing my hand. Like my friend? Or was that a warning to back her up?

  I looked at her dad. He was holding his anger in check. He believed his daughter without question. Would J.B. have as much faith in me? Somehow I didn’t think so.

  And then my eyes fixed on Murdo. If only, at that moment, his look had been soft, repentant. Pleading even. Reminding me of how much I liked him, deep down.

  But Murdo’s eyes were full of that fire he was so famous for. He didn’t look like a sheepish little Highland terrier, so much as a Rottweiler ready to go for my throat. He didn’t expect, or want my sympathy. He only expected the truth. Nothing else. But, there was something else in that look. It only took a second for me to know what that ‘something else’ was. Murdo wanted the truth. And he wasn’t expecting to get it. Not from me. Not from Lissa Blythe, who was always lying. Who had destroyed Ralph’s precious collage. Whose father was a crook.

  Fine, I thought. I won’t let him down.

  My voice trembled when I answered. ‘It’s all true. I saw everything. I saw him do it just like Diane said.’

  Murdo drew in a shocked breath and his eyes never left me. I could feel them burning into me, although now I couldn’t hold his gaze. Instead, I looked at Mr Connell. He was nodding, as if he had only been expecting me to confirm Diane’s story.

  Suddenly Murdo exploded, doing his own case no credit at all. ‘Tell the truth, Lissa! You know that is a downright lie!’

  But his sudden outburst had only proved, to Mr Connell at least, that all we said was true.

  ‘This is the kind of man you allow to teach children!’ he demanded of Mr Knowles. ‘Well, let me tell you, I will make sure he will never teach children again. I’ll go to the authorities. I’ll go to the papers. I have connections, Mr Murdoch. I intend to sue you. I intend to sue this school. You picked on the wrong student when you picked on my daughter.’

  Diane glanced at me, she wasn’t crying now. She’d won and her look seemed to say; ‘told you he’d be sorry.’

  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?