Spencer is contacted by a rich old lady, Lily Ellsworth, seeking his help in clearing her grandson of murder charges. The boy together with a young friend entered their high school one afternoon wearing ski masks each carrying two automatic pistols. They proceeded to kill teachers and students before finally being captured by local police. Both of the boys had confessed to the crimes and were being held in jail. But, Lily was convinced that her precious Jared was innocent and offered to pay handsomely for Spencer to prove it so.
Spencer honestly related to the old lady that the boy was probably guilty but agreed to take on the case anyway. There had to be a reason for the rampage and he determined to find out why. At least if the boy was not innocent he probably could receive a lighter sentence if there were extenuating circumstances to be considered.
As Spencer begins to ask around he finds that everyone in the small town including the parents of the boys wants this tragedy put behind them and the boys locked up for a long time. No one wants to talk to Spencer so he has to sometimes get tough and sometimes be charming to get answers.
But Spencer is nothing if not determined. He probes and finds out that there are some pretty heavy sexual indiscressions on the part of the school President and the school psychologist. The president was blackmailing the pretty young psychologist forcing her to provide sex to him. He was holding pictures of her and the young Jared naked together over her head. She and Jared had been having an affair for a couple of years before he found out.
The psychologist claims that she loves Jared and that he loves her and they were to be married as soon as he turned 18. But she has a tendency to lie a lot and Spencer is skeptical about her motives. He does manage to provide these circumstances to the authorities and get a little more fairness into the trial of Jared in the end.
“School Days” is another in a long line of Parker mysteries that capture the reader with compelling character development and a story that is fascinating. I give it an 8 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
