Part 6 (1/2)
Natalie Towne was teacher crush material. She was youthful and elegant and had Jan ever been a high school student with a teacher like this, she'd have had a major thing for her.
Natalie handed her a report as she took a seat in front of the desk.
”What's this?” Jan said.
”A recent research paper Maddy wrote. When I heard she was missing and that investigators would be here to talk to us, I read it over again.”
Jan leafed through the pages. They were heavily marked with red ink.
”It doesn't look like she did very well on it.”
Natalie leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs. They were excellent legs, covered to the knee with a tailored skirt. Then she uncrossed her legs and moved her chair forward and Jan lost her view. She turned back to the paper.
”Actually, she did very well on it. This copy is my own and I marked it up last night as I was reading.”
”Okay. Why don't you tell me why you brought it in?”
”Can I ask whether you have any idea what's happened to Maddy?”
Jan saw the look of concern on Natalie's face, more genuine than she'd seen from Maddy's parents.
”I'm afraid we don't know at this point.”
”This is the first year I've had Maddy in cla.s.s and school just started a couple of months ago. I don't know her well. But she turned this paper in last week and it alarmed me. Maybe I should have said something to her parents about it.”
Finally, Jan thought. Maybe someone knows something about this kid.
”First of all,” Natalie said, ”the paper is huge. I asked for fifteen pages and she gave me thirty. Kids don't do that. But she wrote very pa.s.sionately on the subject of the new wave of right-wing insurgency groups.”
”As in the militias? That sort of thing?”
”Yes, in general. Less on the military aspect than on the desire of the these groups to live free of government interference.”
Like the Objectivists, Jan thought. Like her own father. She felt a sucking sensation, like being pulled into quicksand.
”The thing that struck me about the paper wasn't the subject matter. That's interesting and timely and a good topic for research. It really was more about how she wrote about it.”
Natalie reached over to the paper in Jan's hands and flipped through to the last page.
”Her summary describes her state of mind best, I think. It's what alarmed me when I heard she was missing.”
Jan read the last paragraph of the paper.
”The range of opinions expressed by these conservative groups is very broad. As broad as America itself. Some are hateful, bigoted, and unrepentant. Some are crazed by religion. But some just want to be left alone, to live as true Americansin the pursuit of happiness. To live free of unnecessary and ridiculous regulation. To leave the truly talented unfettered so that they can soar. When those that crave that freedom are robbed by their government of the ability to experience it, they are morally obligated to leave that government in order to form their own more perfect society. Of course, this is viewed by the media and the average stupefied American as extremist. They can't understand those who are not content with the lowest common denominator. But their opinion does not matter to the gifted who seek to live with like-minded individuals. They will be living in a world apart.”
Jan was silent for a moment. ”She sounds much older than sixteen,” she said.
”She's a good writer,” Natalie said. ”But her black and white thinking gives away her age. You remember that, don't you? If you could only have this or that, your life would be perfect. This is the right way; yours is the wrong way. It's all absolutes and very few shades of gray.”
The idea that a sixteen-year-old would want to live away from the world seemed insane to Jan. It was precisely what she'd escaped from.
”I have no idea if this has anything to do with Maddy's disappearance, but I wanted to let you know about it,” Natalie said.
”So you think Maddy may have run away to live with like-minded individuals, as she puts it?”
”I don't know. I've marked the areas in the paper where she advocates her position. See what you think.”
Jan looked at her notebook. ”I've heard the book Atlas Shrugged mentioned. Do you have any thoughts on why that book would be important to Maddy?”
”You don't need to know much about the plot of the novel to see why, and Maddy does reference it in her paper, which isn't really appropriate in a research thesis. Atlas Shrugged is a novel. Rand portrays the government as a collection of dunderheads h.e.l.l-bent on punis.h.i.+ng people for their creativity and production, especially if an idea or invention improves the lives of others. The government in her novel will find a way to rob you of any motivation to implement it.”
”She's clearly anti-government, then.”
”Yes, but we have to remember the context. Atlas Shrugged depicts a government that has powers ours does not, that takes steps toward socialism and communism that ours never has. It's a fictional US government, and it's in response to this fictional government that the hero of the book, John Galt, sets up a new society in a remote area of the country. It's a society where the individual will be freely rewarded for the work they produce and not concerned with what a government decides is in the best interest of the ma.s.ses.”
”But she's too young to have been thwarted yet. Or even to see yet whether she has ideas good enough to be suppressed.”
”True, though she's very intelligent and I don't doubt she has confidence in her ideas. That comes through in her writing. But I don't think she has a very clear idea of what she's running to.”
”I'm sure she doesn't. I appreciate you reaching out to us about this.”
Natalie tore a corner off Maddy's paper and wrote her number down.
”Please call me if you want to talk this over further. I'm really concerned about Maddy.”
Jan gave her one of her cards and watched as Natalie walked out of the office on her excellent legs. Nice, but not Catherine Engstrom nice.
The next person up came complete with whistle around the neck, athletic shorts, polo s.h.i.+rt with the high school logo on the front, and...Yep, Jan thought, lesbian hair.
”I'm Yvonne Kuterasaminsky.” The woman smiled. ”Call me Coach. It's easier.”
Jan grinned and closed the office door. Coach said with a chuckle, ”Usually when a door closes around here, someone's getting an a.s.s-kicking. Am I in trouble?”
”No a.s.s-kicking today. I'm looking into Maddy Harrington's disappearance.”
Coach nodded and sighed. ”It's never a good thing when they take off, you know? I mean, even when it turns out they're okay and no real harm done, it's still bad that something made them leave in the first place.”
”Any idea what might have made Maddy leave?”
”None,” Coach said. ”I only know her on the soccer field. And she's not even on the team now. She was with me for two seasons and then she didn't come out this year. Not sure why...she really seemed to enjoy the game. She played well and she played all-out.”
Interesting, Jan thought. So Maddy wasn't just all about computers.
”How was she with her teammates?”