"I'm afraid I can't disclose that," said Hardy. He fiddled with his tie. "We have an NDA in place for that situation."
Blue's irritation flared into outright anger. "You paid off someone?"
"Do you know how difficult it is to fire a tenured teacher?" asked the principal. "The teacher's union has an ironclad contract with our school district. The best I could do was six-week unpaid suspension. He was due back into school today."
"So you had a reason to kill him."
Hardy's skin bleached of what little color the man had in his pasty skin. "No! I didn't kill him. I planned to put him in one of the offsite facilities grading papers for other teachers. Like I said. He's tenured. And he had fifteen years on the job without a single complaint. I did the best I could, Sheriff."
"Not good enough. You should've never hired that rapist," said Blue flatly.
