Justice Or Vengeance? (3)

Putting his phone down once again, Bazel sighed at how this case really was becoming more convoluted.

"The Irish Mafia, seriously? They are more akin to a group of cockroaches rather than a group of men. No matter how hard we press them they always dissipate into smoke the moment a big bust is about to happen, only allowing for the capture and prosecution of small scale disposable leaders. I remember the last time they reared their heads, when I had just joined the office. The frenzy of my seniors, the amount of time and effort they put into charging the scum, and the sadness as too many of the big fish got away scott free in a series of unusual occurrences. Looks like I am front and center in this one this time around."

Keeping his cool, he tossed his phone towards Mr. Schmitz was still sitting across from him letting him get the confirmation that his son has been taken into police custody safely.

"Speak, there is only so many hours in the day" demanded Bazel, his impatience starting to get to him.

"Yes, yes. Thank you very much, I will" began Schmitz.

Sitting up straight this time, he began to recount his tale and how it involved Lily.

"At first the class was just like any other class, everyone was a bit shy at first or only stuck with the small groups of friends that happened to be put into the same class this year around. Lily Venas was like the rest, shy but kind to others around her and very studious. After about a month, however, a new student joined as a late arrival. Zaira Mcgrath is her name, a prideful and arrogant girl who quickly formed a large group of friends in the class with all the other girls. Those who did not join her group were either bribed, bullied, or ostracized until they eventually joined up simply due to the pressure. I tried stopping this at first, I even brought this up to the head of discipline and the vice principal on more than one occasion...." Schmitz paused for a moment, his breathing quickening once more but this time not due to fear or stress but due to anger.

"At first the process was normal, she was temporarily removed from class and sent to the head of discipline. Yet, nothing was done no matter how many times she was sent. I guess she grew tired of my meddling, because after about a week of me trying to get her under control in my class I started to get harassed. In school it was small things, stuff that kids would think of and do: Thumb tacks on the seat, messing with my chair, graffiti on the board and the like. But at home...at home...it was worse. My windows were shattered again and again, my tired slashed, and blood splattered on my doors. I still persisted, believing foolishly that it was some small time gang of hoodlum friends that Mcgrath had. Yet...one day after I had personally removed McGrath from my room when she slapped another student so hard they were knocked unconscious, I immediately began receiving pictures of my son on his way to school. I started getting videos of people following him around, and men in suits would watch my house day in and day out. When I tried to go to the police...they kidnapped me and brought me to a room. In the room was a livestream of two men following my son, holding a gun up to his back without him noticing....I no longer intervened with McGrath after that."

Bazel looked up from his notes, also checking the recording device he had switched on to make sure it was still on, then prompted the silent Schmitz with a question.

"Why are you so sure that your kidnapping was related to McGrath?"

Schmitz laughed in self mockery before saying, "because she told me straight to my face the day I had removed her from my class. She said that I would regret annoying her so much, and that I better keep a close eye on my son. At the time I shrugged it off as a passionate reaction from a child who was apparently raised by animals but time soon proved me wrong."

"I understand" said Bazel, as he switched off the recording and flipped to a new page in his notes.

"Now tell me about what Lily experienced while she was here, just a summary and include any major events as well."

Schmitz nodded and started once more,

"At first she just went along with the flow, not really antagonizing Mcgrath and her crew but also not taking the initiative to interact with them. This all changed when something happened, a conflict between the two I believe that erupted over a series of confessions that Lily received. This is nothing unusual, it is a high school after all and students begin to experiment with romantic relationships. Lily Venas' situation was unique, however, as following a performance by her at one of the school rallies she began to get a confession of love almost every day. I guess McGrath did not like someone else getting so much attention, so she began bullying her out of spite. This began right around the time that I had been threatened into silence, so I was helpless but to watch. Her books were stolen, her pencils crushed, her desk moved and seat had its leg sawed partially off so that they would collapse when she tried to sit in it."

Schmitz sighed, a clear look of regret on his face.

"Lily Venas took it all in stride, never getting angry or retaliating. Even when she had water dumped on her upon entering the room, or her change of clothes for gym cut up into pieces. Every time they threw something at her she would ignore them and produce a spare pencil or article of clothing to replace the damage. Even when things got physical there was naught but a peep out of her. Even when she was regularly shoved to the ground by random passerby in the halls, slapped by McGrath and her cronies for not greeting McGrath properly, or jumped by a group of boys who appeared to view her as some kind of promiscuous woman leading on several men at once."

"I remember that incident, that was when I first got involved. When she returned all beaten and bruised, her clothes torn and shoes missing I flew into a rage. Every single boy involved was thrown behind bars, and I personally threatened the principle. Afterwards she was never touched again, or so I thought...how wrong was I Mr. Schmitz?" asked Bazel, his face calm but his voice anything but.

"Unfortunately, quite wrong Mr. Venas. With your actions they realized that Lily Venas had a backer and one that was not a pushover either. They stopped doing anything physical, in clear fear of being put behind bars for their action. In fact McGrath even began to act kind and cordial, at least on the surface. Yet she spread rumor after rumor about Lily Venas even when she was putting on a kind act, slowly causing the entire school and staff to view her as a problem child. She was constantly harassed by random people not even involved, who did the work for McGrath by keeping up the bullying. Her grades suffered as other teachers assumed that the reason why she was not turning in her work was due to her being too busy sleeping around or doing drugs all day. It got so bad that there was some days she just locked herself in the bathroom, for even her spare clothing was stolen or ruined in some way or another. To the entire school, she became person non grata whom everyone blamed or literally spat upon to release whatever problem they had. All with McGrath secretly manipulating things from the shadows, threatening or bribing both students and staff to be on her side" finish Schmitz, once more deflating into his seat donning a look of defeat.

Bazel on the other hand had long stopped writing, his eyes wide open in shock and his pen crushed to pieces in his right hand.

"How useless...how useless...how useless" was all that went through his mind, continuously disparaging himself for his mistakes.

"How did I not notice, how did I not see...what good am I?"

His shock turned into sadness, which turned into self loathing.

"They WILL pay."

Self loathing, then, turned into anger and finally hatred. Hatred which extended not only to those who had wronged his family, but also to himself.