“He says he can’t afford it,” he said. “But he signed me up to be a night security guard, only his idea of security isn’t exactly just babysitting the school.”
My head tilted back. “Is anyone at the school at night?”
“Usually just me, but now there’s no one. He’s got me either tailing that Kota kid or trying to follow Mr. Blackbourne. Kota at least I can find pretty easily. Mr. Blackbourne disappears. And I kind of really don’t care. I think I’d rather go back to sitting at the school. It was quiet there and I didn’t have to run around in the middle of the night.”
That was how the faux bomb could have been planted. If it was Volto, he was able to get in easily if Mr. Morris was out running around. He didn’t have guards to worry about. “What’s your number?” I asked.
Mr. Morris raised a dark eyebrow. “Not interested in whatever you’re selling, sweetheart.”
“I’m in the same position,” I said. “He’s threatened my grades unless I help him deliver where this school is and help him get the guys out of school. But if we’re both going the same direction, it’s a waste of time. The guys are going to get rattled with someone following me all the time. They’ll wonder if I’m in on this.”
“I’ve already tried following everyone. It’s dead. They never go there. They go to that diner or shopping or to each other’s houses. Typical teenager stuff.”
“But they’re starting to trust me,” I said. I glanced at Luke, who had his hands on his hips, waiting. “If I have your number, I can call when I learn something new. You can stay home and pretend you’re checking up on me and give yourself a break. Or at least start following other leads. I’ll give you details so you won’t have to be up all night. No need for both of us to be out. If we’re working together, we might as well save our resources. And you can let me know if you pick up anything. We may be able to get out from under this fiasco sooner.”
Mr. Morris twisted his lips, glancing back out at Luke on the bike. “How do I know you’re not going to feed me a bunch of shit?”
“Because I don’t like Mr. Hendricks either, but even if he finds a way to kick the guys out of school, he’s still up to something. This may not end even if he gets the guys to leave. The fact that he’s using so many people makes me wonder why. I think it’s wrong that he can’t give you a raise good enough to live on. If he’s not going to have security in the first place, he can afford to raise your salary and not having you working so much.”
“That’s what I said.”
“So if I can just call you with updates, you won’t have to go out and you can spend time figuring out other things. And if he’s asking questions, I can feed you details when you need.”
He frowned. “I’m not the only one he’s got on your tail, though.”
“Who else is there?”
“I don’t know. I just know there’s more than me. Hendricks doesn’t go out but he gets more information than I deliver to him. I know there’s someone watching Blackbourne all the time whenever possible. Which is usually never, because he always disappears.”
I pursed my lips. “It makes me wonder what Hendricks has going on that he doesn’t want anyone finding out.”
“He’s wasting a lot of money on this goose chase,” Mr. Morris said.
“So whatever it is,” I said, “it’s big and involves a lot of money. Money he could be using to raise your salary and everyone else’s, too. I want to find out what.”
Mr. Morris glanced once more at Luke. He opened the middle console and fished out a card, writing down a number on the back. “I want a report every week. I can’t promise I won’t follow the others, but I’ll try not to follow you if I can help it.”
“It’s harder to get them to go there, I think, if we always have someone following. And you should switch cars,” I said. “They know yours now.”
“It’d be easier if I had another one.” He handed me the card. “If you figure out what Hendricks is up to, I want to know.”
I nodded. “Ditto.”
He rolled up the window. I backed away and he put the car into reverse.
“What did you do?” Luke asked as he rolled the bike forward, watching Mr. Morris drive off.
I held up the card like a prize. “You can tell Kota that I’ve learned how to make friends.”
LUKE, THE THIEF
Twenty minutes later, Luke had pulled into a sleeping neighborhood, very similar to the one I lived in, with middle-class homes, large yards, secluded from main roads by lots of trees.
Luke pulled into the drive of a quiet house. There weren’t any other vehicles in the driveway. He stopped the bike, and tugged at me to climb off.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, looking up into the dark house. It was a small, one story ranch-style home. I stumbled on my bare feet on the concrete drive. My legs were vibrating hard from riding for so long and because I was exhausted. I unstrapped the helmet. “Where are we?”
Luke hit the kickstand into place, tilting the bike. He climbed off. He approached me, hands cupped and he planted his palms on my cheeks so I’d focus on him. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“What?”
“I need you to do that quiet thing you do and help me get something.”
My heart started thundering. “You mean steal something?”
“It belongs to us,” he said. “Only it got taken. I can’t say how or why, okay? You’ll have to trust me. I’ve been ordered to get it back.”
Was that true? “What is it?”
He twisted his lips, tilting his head. His palms massaged my cheeks. “I don’t know if I can tell you.”
“I can’t help you take something if I don’t know what it is.”
“Let’s just get through this first part,” Luke said. “I want to get out of sight right now.”
Was he serious?
Luke released me, turned and started heading to the front door.
I stood there staring after him. Was I really going to do this?
And what in the world was he thinking, heading toward the front door if he was going to break in? I dropped the helmet onto the seat of the bike, and then dropped the jacket there, too. It was too bulky if I was supposed to help him.
“Luke,” I stage whispered, jogging to catch up behind him. “We can’t just barge in.”
“We’re not,” Luke said. He fished a key out of his pocket.
My eyebrows shot up. “How is it we need to be quiet if you’ve got a key and no one’s home to see us anyway?”
“This isn’t the place we’re going in for. This is just the ruse.”
I didn’t understand, but he turned from me and unlocked the door. He stepped inside, felt for a light a
nd turned it on.
The home smelled of cinnamon and apples. The foyer was overwhelmed with handcrafted stuffed chickens hanging from the walls and photographs of an elderly woman with two adult children under each arm. This was someone’s elderly mother’s house? Where was she?
“What are we doing?” I whispered again, understanding he wasn’t being quiet, but deathly afraid of him being wrong and feeling way too creeped out just waltzing into someone’s home.
“Come on,” he said. He found my hand and led me inside. We weaved our way through to a rear kitchen. He found the light, flicking it on to reveal an old linoleum floor and matching countertops in the tiny space. “Stay here,” he said.
He was going to leave me? I stiffened. “Don’t.”
“Hang on, I’ll be right back.” He set off again toward the living room. I jumped when I heard the television turning on. Luke returned a minute later. “Let’s go.”
Luke headed toward the back door. Once we were outside, he left the big door unlocked, but closed the screen door behind it. The darkened back yard loomed in front of us.
Luke moved forward, crouching down in front of me. “Time for another ride,” he said.
I climbed onto his back. He wrapped his hands around my thighs, holding tight, and started off.
I wanted to see where we were going, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I couldn’t pick out a path. I held on around his shoulders, trying to be careful about how tightly I was hanging on.
Luke dashed toward a wooded area behind the house. Soon we were engulfed by trees.
At a certain point, the path opened up, and I could see the stars and the moon through an opening in the trees. Luke stopped, turned left, right, then tilted his head.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“I’m not sure which way.”
“You haven’t been here before?”
“No.”
I whispered, “Where are we supposed to be going?”
“It’s about two hundred feet east and five hundred feet south. I thought I was heading east, but there’s two paths here and that wasn’t mentioned. It was supposed to just bend south. And now I’m kind of turned around.”