Page 160 of Depraved Boys

Raising my chin, I straightened my spine and pulled back my shoulders. Mrs. Benazir would have to take our complaint seriously if she didn’t want her cash cow to wither and die. When we reached her office, I knocked on her door.

“Enter,” she said from the depths of her room.

I pushed the door open and glowered into her eyes.

“Miss Ever—” Mrs. Benazir’s face fell. “What on earth are the police doing here?”

“Sebastian’s going to give a statement before we discuss the terms of my return, and I’ll explain.”

The older woman dropped back in her seat. “Mr. Garraway?”

The headmistress’s secretary scurried inside with two extra chairs, which she set at either side of the wooden seat in front of the headmistress’s desk.

Sebastian sat and cleared his throat. “I wish to report a sexual relationship between myself and a member of staff that started when I was thirteen.”

Mrs. Benazir hissed through her teeth. “Why did you wait until you were in the sixth form to report it?”

“I believe this woman to be victimizing Willow because of our relationship.”

The headmistress shook her head. “If a member of my staff were molesting a student, I would know all about it!”

I turned around and shot WPC Dobson a see-what-I’m-having-to-deal-with raise of the eyebrow. The policewoman pursed her lips. “Why don’t we take Sebastian’s statement and discuss school policies later?”

Mrs. Benazir’s mouth clicked shut.

Without going into too many details, Sebastian outlined an account of daring himself to sleep with Miss Claymore. He described how he would deliberately talk in class to get detention and then start up conversations about books he noticed on her shelves.

As he spoke, my insides twisted into knots. Swap the subject matter of books for bereavement, and he described how he and I had gotten close. The only difference between Miss Claymore and me was that she spent months resisting his advances, and I had caved after a ride home in his jeep.

I slid down in my seat and focussed on Mrs. Benazir’s reactions. Her mouth widened an inch with each scandalous revelation: their first kiss, his first handjob, the day she unbuttoned her blouse and let him suck her nipples, and the day she drove him to a cabin he had built, and they’d finally had sex.

“Do you have an approximate date for when intercourse took place?”

“The Saturday after term ended.”

The police officers turned to Mrs. Benazir, who looked up the date. “Saturday, the twenty-fifth of June.” Her lips moved. “But do you have proof of your allegations?”

He pulled out a large envelope from the inside pocket of his blazer. “This is a sample of the love letters she sent. I also have underwear and some digital photos of us together.”

Mrs. Benazir winced. “But it was only the one time?”

Sebastian cringed. “The next academic year, a girl confided in her that she had been in a relationship with a friend, only to be told by two girls that she was the victim of the pull-a-pig game.”

“Sorry.” Sergeant Modal tilted his head to the side. “Pull a pig?”

Mrs. Benazir explained the game, which made WPC Dobson’s nostrils flare. I’ll bet she wanted to know why the headmistress hadn’t stamped it out.

Sebastian continued. “She made my life difficult for me in my fourth year until I gave in to her demands for a peaceful life.”

“Sexual demands?” asked the sergeant.

He bowed his head. “Yes.”

My brows drew together, and I no longer felt any affinity with Miss Claymore. She should have backed off once she knew about the game, not stalk him for years.

“When was the last time Miss Claymore harassed you for intercourse?”

Sebastian wiped his brow. “Monday, the tenth of December.” After a pause, he added, “Two-thousand and nineteen.”