Code of Silence: Living a Lie Comes With a Price (17 page)

Biking back seemed shorter. They cut over to the post office to drop the other police letter in the mail box, then biked through the park like three ghosts. The wind felt cool and clean against Cooper’s face. The wind rushing in his ears soothed him in its own way. Adrenalin still pumping, he felt like he could ride all night, but he knew he’d better get back before his parents started asking questions.

“Great night, Coop.” Gordy rode up alongside him. “I gotta get back.” Gordy gave a quick wave and peeled off toward his house.

He was right. It felt good to fight back, even if it was in a small way.

Cooper rode alongside Hiro to her house and coasted to a stop. He put a foot down and looked at Hiro. “Are you okay with me?”

“Getting there.” She smiled.

“
Getting
there?” Cooper had expected something more. Like a
little more gratitude. He took a risk for all of them. The letter may not have been a huge thing, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

Her smile changed. A sad smile. “I hope this works. I really do. But even if they catch those scumbags, I don’t think I can be truly happy until we come clean. To actually go, like in person, to the police, or our parents, or
somebody
.”

The good feeling he’d enjoyed melted away. “Look. I’m doing what I can. I want those guys caught too. But I’m not going to risk you or Gordy or my family to do it.”

“Or you. You left yourself out of it,” Hiro said. “A lot of this has to do with protecting you.”

“Okay. Yeah. But
I’m
the one they saw. It’s
my
house key they have.”

Hiro nodded—like she agreed but not totally. “If you’re wrong about police being involved—what then?”

“You seem to have all the answers. Why don’t you tell me?”

Hiro paused. “You’re risking all of us to protect you.”

“What?” He felt his face heat up instantly. “That’s crazy. I’m trying to protect all of us.”

“But you can’t. Don’t you see that? We need police protection. We need our parents involved. You may think you’re some kind of protector here, but you’re putting all of us in danger—and that’s the truth.”

“The
truth
?”

“Yeah,” Hiro said. “There was a time that meant something to you.”

He didn’t want to hear any more of this. Not another word. Cooper pushed off and started pedaling. “G’nite, Hiro.” After the effort he’d just made, he didn’t want to be told that it wasn’t enough—or that it was all about protecting him.

“Coop!”

He didn’t turn around.

“C’mon. Don’t be mad. Friends are supposed to be able to talk.”

Friends. Right.
He pedaled harder. He wanted to get away from her. From everyone. But the faster he went the more miserable he felt. Riding off like this had to hurt her. Something he never wanted to do. He turned the corner and slowed his pace. Her words echoed in his head. He couldn’t stand the thought of being around her right now. Couldn’t stand the way she looked at him—like he wasn’t doing enough. But the thought of not being with her was worse.

The adrenaline high he’d gotten from delivering the letter was long gone. He felt drained. Empty. He pedaled and coasted. Pedaled and coasted. The darkness surrounded him. Went through him. Suddenly, in his world of lies, the truth came to him. It wasn’t Hiro he’d wanted to get away from. It was himself.

C
ooper woke with a heavy sense of dread in his stomach. He lay in bed and checked the clock. The alarm was due to ring in just a few minutes. Normally he’d roll over and wait for the alarm to ring. And hit the snooze button when it did. Instead, he turned off the alarm and stared at the ceiling.

Fudge sat up and laid a groggy head on the edge of his bed. He worked his hand under her collar and gave her a good scratch. Why hadn’t he just turned around when Hiro called him? Maybe he wanted to punish her. Make her feel really bad. But he ended up doing a number on himself at the same time.
Stupid.

The first chance he could, he was going to make it right. He’d see her at the bus stop and say he was sorry the moment he saw her. Cooper imagined the scene in his mind. It made him feel a little better, but the dread still hunkered down in his stomach.

He knew the incident with Hiro was only part of the problem.

It was the lies. The deception. Enough to fill a backpack. And when he woke up every morning he put the pack on and carried it until he drifted off in sleep. The pack felt heavier today.

He forced himself to think of the letters to the police and the newspaper. It was a good move. Even Hiro admitted that. It was
also a step toward detection. He reached under his pillow and pulled out the phone Hiro and Gordy had picked up.

Would the police or the newspaper actually call today? He hoped not. The letter should be enough for the police to go on. The newspaper too. The details about the robbery should be enough to prove he was actually there. But what if they called to try to get more information? Could they put a trace on a cell phone? Would they try to keep him on the phone long enough so they could track him down?

“Hello. Hullo.” Cooper tested his phone voice. What if Hammer recognized him?

Cooper sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. One thing was certain. He would keep the phone off until after he was out of school. Until 3:30, just like he put in the note. He stepped over to his desk and slipped the phone in his jeans pocket. And he’d be sure to be in Kimball Hill Park before he turned it on. Someplace far enough from the house in case the police
were
able to trace the call.

He’d need some way to disguise his voice. Cooper shuffled into the bathroom. The toilet paper roll was nearly empty. He changed out the roll and stuffed a wad of toilet paper in the tube.

Fudge stood by his bedroom door and looked at him.

He put the tube to his mouth like a bullhorn. “Want to go out, girl?” The words sounded muffled and echoed through the tube.

She cocked her head and wagged her tail.

“Wish I could stay here with you today,” he whispered, pocketing the tube. “Or maybe just hide out in
The Getaway
all day.”

Only Gordy met him at the bus stop. Hiro still hadn’t showed up when the bus lumbered around the corner. She’d never missed the bus as long as Cooper knew her. Maybe she was sick. Sick of him. He hated the thought that he couldn’t straighten things out with her. That he couldn’t apologize for getting mad at her the night
before. But she’d asked for it, hadn’t she? Why did she have to keep pushing him to break the Code?

Hiro didn’t show for class either. Maybe she really
was
sick. Cooper’s stomach wasn’t feeling so hot either—but he knew it had nothing to do with a bug. Now he’d have to wait until after school to make it right with Hiro.

He felt the phone in his pocket. He’d hoped Gordy and Hiro would both be with him if a call came after school. Now it might be just Gordy.

Cooper tried to function with a mind that stayed divided all morning. Even while in class, he kept checking the clock. The library opened at 9:00 a.m. By 9:30 he figured the police had his letter. They’d be checking out the details.

And waiting to call him.

No. He pushed the thinking out of his mind. Not waiting for anything. The police would start looking for Elvis and the clown and Mr. Lucky. Why would they waste their time trying to talk to him?

By the time he made his way to English, the idea of a call from the police consumed him.

He walked alongside Gordy and spoke quietly, the noisy halls providing a place to talk without being overheard. “What if they record my voice and analyze it somehow?”

“Count on it,” Gordy said.

“Great.”

“Just disguise your voice.”

“I’m already on that. I’m just not sure if I should speak in a high or a low voice.”

Gordy shook his head. “Not good enough. If they record you, and they will, they’ll be able to play it back at different speeds to nail your normal voice.”

“I plan to muffle it too.”

“Yeah. Talk with your mouth full. I do it all the time.”

Cooper smiled.

The smile slid off his face when he entered the classroom. A copy of the Daily Herald sat on Miss Ferrand’s desk. There, on the front page, was a picture of Frank ‘n Stein’s and a headline that read, “Witness Letter Raises More Questions.”

Gordy must have seen it too. He nearly came to a complete stop.

“How did it get in the paper already?”

Exactly Cooper’s thoughts. The paper gets delivered early. Before the library opens.

The bell interrupted his thoughts, and Miss Ferrand wasted no time getting down to business. She shut the door and walked back to her desk. She picked up the paper and held it up so everyone could see it. The class quieted down almost immediately.

“According to today’s Daily Herald, last night somebody slipped a letter addressed to the police and another one addressed to the paper in the library night drop.” She sat on the edge of her desk. “Someone in the library emptied the drop box before they went home for the night and found them.”

That answered the timing question.

“I’m going to read parts of the article to you.” She looked around the room. Slowly. Stopping to get eye contact with each of the boys.

Hiro’s empty desk in front of him made him feel way more exposed than normal.

“The police believe that the person who wrote the letter is in one of my eighth grade classes.”

The room erupted in excited chatter. Girls leaned across the aisles talking to each other and shooting the boys suspicious looks.

Cooper reached in his backpack and put his English book on his desk. Actually, Jake Mickel’s book.

Kelsey Seals turned around and looked at Cooper’s desk, then at Jake’s behind her. “Where’s your English book today, Jake?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Somebody must have swiped it.”

She cocked her head to the side just a bit—her distrust obvious. Eliza Miller stared at Jake, eyes wide.

Jake turned to Cooper. “Honest. I had it in my locker.”

“It’ll turn up,” Cooper said.
But not until this is all over.

Miss Ferrand stood and slowly walked between the rows of desks. She kept talking and focusing on the boys, but Cooper wasn’t following. He tried to figure out what he was going to do when she looked at Gordy. Or at him.

When she came to Gordy, Cooper watched him as intently as Miss Ferrand did. He looked guilty as sin. Cooper knocked his book on the floor.

“Sorry,” he said.

“You’re a klutz, MacKinnon,” Jake Mickel said.

Riley Steiner and his pack laughed, but it was just enough to do the job. She locked her eyes on him as if she knew the book had been a diversion. He forced himself to look right into her eyes. Any wavering and he’d be giving himself away.

She looked at him longer than anyone else in the room so far. Her eyes were light blue. Gray, really. Weak looking eyes. Cooper had to stay strong. He tried to look right through her eyes into her head. Finally she turned away to look at the next suspect.

She continued through the room, but never went back to Gordy. After her little staring game was over, she made some notes on a legal pad on her desk, then folded the newspaper so she could hold it with one hand without it flopping over.

“Dear Daily Herald,”
she read, then paused and looked up as if to make sure everyone in class was listening.

The entire class sat stone still. Apparently satisfied, she sat on the corner of her desk again and focused on the newspaper.

“The police are looking for a boy in junior high in connection with the robbery at Frank ‘n Stein’s last Thursday night. I was there. The way they’re pushing, sometimes I wonder if they think I’m the one who robbed Frank Mustacci. That isn’t true. I didn’t rob the diner or hurt Mr. Mustacci. Frank let me stay while he cleaned up. When I was ready to leave, the front door was locked. I called for Frank because I figured he had the keys. I think he was taking a load of garbage to the dumpster.

I was at the front counter when the back door burst open—and somebody pushed Frank inside. I hid behind the counter and two men beat Frank and forced him to give the money from the cash register. Then they said they knew about his safe and made him give the combination. Frank went for a knife, and the two of them beat him again.

While they were opening the safe, I escaped using Frank’s keys. He was lying on his back behind the counter, with his head toward the dining area. I thought he was dead. Honest.”

A collective gasp escaped from the room. Ferrand paused and nodded, obviously pleased by the reaction. She scanned the room. Maybe she hoped to see one of the boys unmoved by it all, or nervous. Cooper let his jaw go slack, his mouth hang open as if in total disbelief of what he was hearing. Her eyes caught his for a moment and then moved on.

She went back to reading the paper.

“The men heard me escaping and started after me. I barely made it out the front door and turned the lock in time. I didn’t get a good look at them. They were wearing masks. One wore a clown mask. One wore an Elvis one. The clown had a hoarse-sounding voice. Elvis sounded like a DJ. They both had cop pants on. They talked to a third guy, but I never heard or got a good look at him. He was the driver, I think. He came in after they beat up Frank. They called him “Mr. Lucky.”

That’s why I’m not going to the police in person. I don’t know who I can trust. I can’t identify these guys anyway, so the police can stop looking for me. They need to find out who did this and stop wasting their time chasing after me.

The one guy got a pretty good look at me. And he threatened me. So don’t even try to get me to say anything more. I have nothing more to say. He pulled the surveillance camera hard drive, which I grabbed on my way out. It won’t help anybody to have it, but it may hurt me. I was in plain sight of the camera. The hard drive will prove I didn’t do anything wrong, but it will also identify me. So it stays with me. That’s everything I know about the robbery.