Bear Naked

Chapter Twelve

Before she knew it, more officers had arrived at the scene. Several of the theatre kids who were practicing after school stood in the doorway and watched the whole scene. Great, Amanda thought, by tomorrow everyone at school will know all about this and know that I am, once again, the target.

Officer Leidulf gave his son a nod of recognition and then pulled Amanda into a warm hug. "I am sorry this happened," he told her simply. And then, "Come on. You, me and Officer Shadur are going to have a long talk."

They went into one of the school's conference rooms. . Amanda told them everything she could remember of the incident. "What did he mean by the others," she asked.

"What do you think he meant?" Officer Shadur asked.

"I don't know," she protested. "It sounds like there are other people involved. Did he mean the guy that attacked me at the basketball game?"

"It almost sounds," Officer Leidulf said carefully, "like someone might have hired this guy to attack Amanda? What do you think of that?"

Officer Shadur shrugged. "A sex offender hiring a hit man? Doesn't really fit the MO, I wouldn't think."

Officer Shadur went on "And that sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory, honestly." He added, "Unless you know something I don't?" Aaron shook his head, no. To Amanda, Officer Shadur said, "Do you know of any reason a person or group of people might want to harm you?" She shook her head no as well.

"Okay then," Officer Leidulf said, "tell us about this guy again. Every detail you can remember, anything that might help us identify him."

She started talking again, "He was big-bigger than my Uncle Darren even."

Both officers nodded, knowing her uncle's formidable height.

"About six five or six six," Amanda specified. "He had dark-blond hair. His eyes were gray. His arms had a ton of tattoo work." She kept looking at Connor's dad as she talked. She wasn't sure if she should say something in front of the other officer, but she was sure this was the same guy Mitch had described hanging out at his bar.

"This tattoo work?" Officer Leidulf finally asked her. "Anything distinctive?"

"Umm, there was a clover on one arm with AB in the center, swastikas on either side."

"Aryan Brotherhood," Officer Shadur said matter-of-factly.

"He's in a gang?" Amanda said with disbelief. Why would a gang be after her?

"It's mostly a prison gang. Safe bet he's been in prison," Officer Shadur replied. "When you see a guy with Aryan Brotherhood tattoos, it's almost a sure bet he's done some hard time. That will be helpful. Can you identify this guy if we bring him in?"

Amanda nodded.

As soon as she got home that night, she found her cell phone and called Jay.

"Hey, Amanda, how are you holding up?" he asked cautiously.

"I need to talk," she said.

"Okay, shoot," he replied.

"It's about Connor and his friends," she went on.

"What about them?" he asked.

"Have you noticed anything weird about them?" she asked.

He laughed weakly, "Like what? They all live together? They all do everything together? Like in a pack." he said. "We've discussed that plenty. Why do you ask?"