Code of Silence: Living a Lie Comes With a Price (11 page)

Cooper’s mom wiped back tears. “This is going to hit Hiro’s mom hard.”

“Hiro thinks Lunk might be wrapped up in it somehow,” Gordy said. “He works there part time now, you know.”

“Neil Lunquist.” Mom stood and started toward the kitchen. “I still have a hard time trusting that boy.”

“Which is why that doesn’t make sense,” Cooper said. “I mean, how obvious would that be? I’m sure the police would check out every employee’s story.”

Stopping, she turned to look at Cooper. “Those sirens we heard last night. That must have been what it was all about. I told you something terrible must have happened.”

Mom didn’t know the half of it. Cooper pushed the images out of his mind. “They gave us a form for you to sign.” Volunteering this information hadn’t been part of his plan. He’d hoped to stall the whole thing off. But not mentioning it now might only make them suspicious when they did find out.

“What kind of form?” Dad looked right into his eyes.

Cooper kept his gaze steady. “Some kind of permission form so they can set up interviews with the kids.”

“I’d better take a look at it,” Dad said.

Cooper needed to breathe. All he wanted to do was get out of the room. “I’ll get it right now.” Hurrying into the kitchen and down the hall toward the front door, he pulled open the closet and knelt down beside his backpack. The form wasn’t hard to find, and when he turned around his dad and Gordy were headed his way.

“Did the police say why they felt the witness is a Plum Grove student?”

“Uh-huh.” Cooper pulled the English book from his backpack that he’d “borrowed” from Jake Mickel. “This. Someone left a book in the dining area.”

“And that led them right to Plum Grove.” Dad nodded.

And by showing the book, Cooper hoped he’d effectively lead his dad from shifting any suspicion his way.

Mom came around the corner from the kitchen. “I’m just glad you rode bikes in the park.” Shuddering, she stepped over and hugged Cooper. “If you had gone to Frank ‘n Stein’s like you’d planned to, you might have been there when they got robbed.” She squeezed him tighter. “I probably shouldn’t have said that, because now you might get bad dreams.”

Might
get bad dreams? Cooper squirmed just a bit. Last night his dreams would have terrified a horror film fan.

“You were going to Frank ‘n Stein’s last night?” Dad raked his fingers through his hair. “Thank God you didn’t go. What made you change your mind?”

Cooper hesitated. “Well, uh, we started heading that way, but, um—”

“I wasn’t hungry,” Gordy interrupted.

Mom laughed. “You not hungry?”

“And so we rode around a bit until I did get hungry.”

Cooper had to stop him. If Gordy kept on going, he’d blow everything.

Dad looked confused. “So then you did go to Frank ‘n Stein’s when you got hungry?”

“No.” Gordy’s eyes darted to Cooper. “I sort of had an accident and fell into the creek. So we couldn’t go to Frank ‘n Stein’s. I got all wet and muddy. Real muddy. My shoes were loaded with it.”

Dad glanced at Gordy’s feet. “Shoes sure cleaned up nice.”

“I
wish
,” Gordy said. “These are my old ones.”

“Did either of you boys see anything that might help the police?”

Cooper shrugged. “It was dark.” He needed to get the focus off last night.
The permission slip.
“Here, Dad.” He held out the bright yellow form.

Cooper’s dad took the form and frowned as he read it. Mom stood behind him and read over his shoulder.

“They may ask for DNA testing?” Cooper’s mom said. “Isn’t that a bit extreme?”

Cooper’s dad kept reading the form. “They intend to find out who the witness is, whether he wants to offer the information or not.”

“Do we sign it?” Cooper’s mom look concerned.

Carson MacKinnon nodded. “I don’t see why not. One of us will be there. We need to do everything we can to help. We’ve got nothing to hide.”

Maybe you don’t.
Cooper watched his dad sign the form.
But I sure do.

H
ow Cooper fell asleep, he had no idea. Long after everyone went to bed he lay there thinking about the man wearing the clown mask. He slipped down the stairs and double-checked the dead bolts on the front and back doors. He even left the hall light on and jammed his desk chair under his bedroom doorknob. Fudge curled up next to the bed. His baseball bat went under the covers with him. Flat on his back and eyes wide open, he watched the fish in his tank and listened to the house creak and snap in the cold night air. That was the last thing he could remember.

Saturday morning Cooper dug out the hard drive and climbed onto the faded teak deck of
The Getaway
to meet Gordy and Hiro. He didn’t have to wait long. By the time he flipped open his dad’s laptop Gordy walked through the opening in the fence with Hiro at his side. Gordy grinned and waved, then trotted to the ladder propped against the stern of the boat. Hiro looked like she’d had a rough night, too.

Gordy swung a leg over the railing with Hiro right behind him. “I caught Hiro up to speed with what happened here last night.”

Cooper hoped she’d be impressed. He held to the Code. “I guess my dad’s baloney detector was out of commission.”

“Because he
trusts
you,” Hiro said.

The words burned a hole in Cooper’s gut. He ducked inside the cabin, set the laptop on the table, and slid onto one of the benches.

“I can’t believe you didn’t just tell him.”

Cooper stared at her in disbelief. “We agreed to the Code, remember?”

“We agreed to keep quiet.”

“That’s what we’re doing.”

Hiro shifted. “We’re lying.”

Cooper instantly felt his face heat up. He didn’t like being dishonest with anyone, especially his parents. He liked being reminded of it even less. Lying was wrong. He knew that. But this situation made it different. It had to be done.

Her eyes bored into him. “Doesn’t that make you feel just a little bit guilty?”

“No,” Cooper lied. “I’m doing him a favor. I’m doing all of us a favor.”

She tossed her braid over one shoulder. “How do you figure?”

“I’m protecting them.” Cooper pulled the hard drive from the pocket of his cargo shorts and connected it. “Look. I thought we were going to do some detective work together.” He tapped the hard drive.

She nodded, her mouth formed one tight line. She didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t argue either.

He’d take what he could get. “Let’s get on with it.”

Hiro didn’t speak for a moment. “You’re not going to bring this to the bell tower Sunday night, are you?”

“Not unless I bust it in pieces first.”

She seemed satisfied with that.

Cooper focused on the laptop screen. The computer recognized the external drive immediately. Thankfully the fall didn’t damage it. A part of him dreaded the images he might see.

“Uh-oh.”

Gordy leaned in closer to see the screen. “Uh-oh,
what
?”

“I can’t open the file.”

“Click on it again.”

Cooper gave it another shot. A window popped up for Silent Sentry Surveillance Systems with a $1500 introductory offer for the program.
Dead end.

Hiro groaned. “We need the program. We’re never going to get these files open without it.” She slumped back in the booth. “Now what?”

It didn’t exactly sound like a question. More like a test question.

Cooper unhooked the hard drive and tucked it back in the pocket of his cargo shorts. “I’ll bury this again. And for now, we stick to the Code.”

“And do
nothing
?”

“Sticking to the Code is something.”

Hiro stood, threw her arms in the air and slapped them down at her sides. “The police are closing in. Maybe those scumbags are too. We have to
do
something. Get help. Tell somebody.”

“So you think we should just lock arms and skip into the police station and tell them what we’ve seen?”

“Maybe we should.” She raised her chin and gave a slight nod.

“And what if Elvis
is
Hammer—or one of the other Rolling Meadows cops?”

“That makes no sense. Why would a police detective rob Frank ‘n Stein’s?”

“I have no idea.”

Hiro stood. “And I say Lunk is part of this. Or his dad.”

Cooper shook his head. “That theory has just as many holes. I say we wait this out.”

Hiro put her hands on her hips. “We need protection. We have to go to the police.”

“Listen,” Cooper said. “They have my house key. Fact. Said they’d find me if I talked. Fact. It’s not just me I’m worried about. I lay in bed at night thinking about some guy in a clown mask hauling off and hitting my mom. Or Mattie.”

Hiro folded her arms across her chest and sat back down. “I know. I get it.” Her voice softened. “But we have to do something.”

“I just can’t go to the police. When Hammer used those same words—
I gotcha boy
, I just got chills, you know?”

“You think it really could be him?” Gordy spoke nearly in a whisper.

“It’s possible. And when he talked about having some other piece of evidence—something that could
open the door
to finding the person at the crime scene, also known as me—what do you think popped into my mind?”

“The key,” Gordy said.

Cooper shrugged. “Exactly. I felt like he was sending me a message.” Cooper pictured Detective Hammer’s face in his mind. It would be a perfect cover, wouldn’t it? Who would question a detective? And who would be able to steer the investigation away from himself any better than the guy who gave the orders? He turned to Hiro. “Until we can be sure the police aren’t involved, I think we need to stick to the Code. Let’s give this a little more time. Okay?”

Hiro held out one hand. “Let’s think. On the one hand we hide the truth, but we stay safe.” She held out her other hand. “On the other hand, we come clean and may get killed as a result.” She shrugged. “We lie or we die. I just can’t make up my mind.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Cooper said.

She nodded. “But for how long? The truth always comes out—and when it does we may be in a lot more trouble.” She looked from Cooper to Gordy. “This is too big for us. You know we won’t make it through the police questioning Monday, right?” She looked directly at Gordy.

Cooper didn’t answer. She had a point. A good one. But if they could just keep this whole thing quiet a little longer, buy some time, maybe they could find some other way. Why say anything until they were absolutely sure they couldn’t keep it a secret any longer?

“Okay,” Cooper said. “If we don’t figure out a way out of this by
the time they start the interviews, we’ll dissolve the Code and we’ll spill to the police. Agreed?”

“You mean that?”

Cooper nodded and saw the flicker of relief in her eyes. He wished it made him feel that good. But the whole idea of breaking the Code started something ugly churning in his stomach. There had to be another way.

The Code of Silence was their ticket to safety. Their
Getaway.
A boat that would bring all of them over the rough waters of the mess they were in. They just had to keep it afloat until the storm passed by.

C
ooper pulled the hood of his old pullover sweatshirt up while the three of them biked through downtown Rolling Meadows. His zippered hoodie was probably still in the crime lab somewhere. Cooper missed riding his newer bike, too, but he wasn’t going to take that out of the shed until everything cooled down. Like maybe next spring.

They rode single-file along the edge of the road, giving Cooper time to think. He’d lied to his parents. He told himself it was all about keeping them from getting too suspicious. And it was really the courageous thing to do. A way to keep them safe. But still … he deliberately deceived them. That didn’t exactly sound heroic.

When Frank ‘n Stein’s came into view he slowed a bit. Cars filled the parking lot. True to his word, Mr. Stein was open for business. Not that Cooper had any intention of going there.

“I guess we won’t be going back there for awhile,” Gordy said, almost as if he’d been reading Cooper’s thoughts.

Hiro pulled up alongside Cooper. “And how would that look?”

“What?”

“We go to Frank ‘n Stein’s two or three times a week,” Hiro said. “Now suddenly we don’t show up. Wouldn’t that look a little suspicious?”

“You think too much.” Gordy waved her off with one hand. “Nobody will even notice.”

Cooper stopped pedaling and coasted along the sidewalk. “Hiro has a point.”

“
Hiro
has a point?” Gordy said. “What about me?”

Hiro shrugged. “All I’m saying is that if we do go, it shows we have nothing to hide.”

Cooper slowed to a stop. The Code wasn’t just about keeping quiet. It was also about not looking guilty. About keeping suspicion away from them. “Actually, that makes sense.”

“That’s crazy.”

“And I’m not crazy about going,” Cooper said.

“So don’t.” Gordy wheeled his bike around and pointed it up the street. “I say we go back to Taco Bell, order some of those cinnamon twisty things, and drain the pop machine with our free refills.”

“Hey,” Hiro said. “We’re all a little spooked.”

“Spooked? Me? I just feel like Taco Bell right now, that’s all.”

Sometimes the easy way wasn’t the best way. Cooper knew that. He also knew the longer he waited, the harder this was going to be. “I’m going to Frank ‘n Stein’s.” He hoped by saying it out loud he’d feel as confident as he sounded. Not this time.

“I’ll go too,” Hiro said. “Maybe we can find out how Frank is doing.”

“Have a great time.” Gordy circled around them once. “Count me out.”

“Sure you don’t want to come with us?” Cooper pulled a quarter out of his pocket. “I’ll show you those moves.”

“I’m going to Taco Bell.” Gordy didn’t smile. “If you’re smart you’ll come with me.” He jerked his bike toward the fast food restaurant and stood on the pedals.

Cooper watched for a minute, hoping he’d turn around. Gordy never even looked back.