John Grisham - The Accused

“No. How old are the kids?”

“The boy is twelve, in the seventh grade at the middle school. He has an older sister who’s fifteen. Evidently, both wanted to live with their father. The family has lived here for just a couple of years, which explains why you haven’t heard of them.”

“Is this your top suspect?”

“Oh no, just a possibility. I have a much better prospect-the fighting Finns! The divorce is far from final with a trial set for next month. These people have spent every dime they had trying to prove the other is a bigger creep. Mrs. Finn is pretty crazy and has done time in the nuthouse. Mr. Finn can’t stay sober and tends to gamble too much. All kind of bad habits, on both ends. Three children, but the eighteen-year-old daughter has already left home. The other two are twelve and fourteen, both boys, and they really don’t like their mother, who, of course, is represented by your mother. Tons of bad blood here, Theo, and it’s safe to say that Mr. Finn and the two boys have an intense dislike for your mother and anybody else named Boone. This divorce has been going on for over a year and it’s vicious. These people have driven themselves loony.”

“What are the boys’ names?”

“Jonah Finn, age twelve, seventh grade. Jessie Finn, age fourteen, ninth grade.”

Theo closed his eyes and tried to place the names with faces, but he could not. “Don’t know them.”

“I thought you were a fairly popular kid at school, Theo. Do you know anyone?”

“I’m in the eighth grade, Ike. We don’t mix too much with the seventh grade, nor does the seventh grade mix with the sixth, and so on. We have different classes, different schedules. How much do you know about these guys?”

“The basics, but not much more, at least for the younger one, Jonah. The court has appointed a guardian to look out for their best interests, and both boys have expressed a strong desire to live with their father. Their mother, through her talented lawyer, claims the boys want to live with their father because he lets them do whatever they want, including smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. Can you imagine a seventh grader drinking beer around the house with his dad?”

“No, I cannot. These are probably pretty tough kids, right?”

“They’ve had a rough life, moved around a lot, changed homes and schools. Not much stability. Yes, I’d guess that these two boys are pretty much on their own. Last year Jessie was caught with marijuana and went through Youth Court. He got probation. The boys were sent to a foster home three months ago as sort of a safe house, until the divorce was over, but they kept running away. As of now they’re living with their mother, who works a night shift at the hospital. I doubt if there’s much supervision. It’s a mess, Theo, but these two boys are our prime suspects. Everything fits. A two-man team. A strong dislike for your mother. The motive to take revenge against you. The capacity to engage in vandalism and even burglarize a computer store. We need to find out more about them.”

“I don’t suppose my mother is involved in a divorce for a Mr. and Mrs. Scheer?”

Ike looked at his notes, flipped a page, then said, “No. Why?”

“Just a hunch. A kid I know in Scouts who’s a little different, that’s all.”

“There’s no file on them.”

There was a long pause as Theo and Ike thought about the situation. Ike gulped coffee while Theo stared at the floor. Finally, Theo said, “I need to tell you about my friend Griff.” Theo told the story of Griff’s sister, Amy, and her friend Benny, and his friend Gordy, and the episode in which Gordy was offered a new Linx 0–4 Tablet for fifty dollars by some unknown kid in the high school parking lot. Ike’s red eyes lit up when he heard this.

“This could be huge, Theo,” he said.

“What if it’s Jessie Finn who’s trying to sell the tablet?” Theo asked.

“You gotta make this happen, Theo.”

“But how?”

“If we can get our hands on a stolen tablet, we take it straight to the police who’ll check the registration number. If it came from Big Mac’s, then they’ll get off your back and go after these little Finn thugs.”

From a rear pocket, Ike pulled out his wallet, opened it, and withdrew some cash. He counted out two twenty-dollar bills and a ten. “Here’s fifty bucks. Stick it in your pocket. Go find Griff, tell him to talk to his sister. Make this happen, Theo.”

Theo took the money and stuck it deep in his pocket. He sat down again and said, “But what if it doesn’t work? What if this Gordy guy doesn’t want to handle a stolen tablet, or what if the dude has already sold it to someone else?”

“We won’t know until we try. Do it, Theo. Get it done. And in the meantime, find out all you can about Jonah and Jessie Finn.”

“Thanks, Ike.”

“And don’t worry about the fact that I snooped through your mother’s files. If it is the Finns, and if we solve this little mystery, I’ll talk to Marcella and Woods and take all the blame. Believe me, I’ve done much worse.”

“Thanks, Ike.”

“You’ve already said that. Now get out of here.”

“What about lunch?”

“I’m not hungry. I’m sleepy. See you later.”

The showers had stopped, but the skies were still threatening. Theo raced across town to Levi Park, on a bluff above the Yancey River, on the eastern edge of Strattenburg. As he pedaled furiously he was hoping the rain had not canceled the Farmer’s Market because he was curious about Lucy the llama. Had she attacked Buck Baloney again? Had she attacked his sidekick Frankie? Would he, Theo, be forced to make another appearance in Animal Court to once more save Miss Petunia’s beloved pet?

The market was still open, with many of the vendors huddled under tent roofs as their customers roamed about with shopping bags and umbrellas. The ground was wet and sticky, everyone’s shoes and boots had at least an inch of mud on the soles. Lucy was next to Miss Petunia’s booth, soaking wet but not perturbed at all. She looked harmless as two small children stopped and gawked. Across the way, on the other side of the entrance, a tiny man in a brown uniform was eating popcorn and talking to a lady who sold corn dogs. Theo presumed he was Frankie. Buck was nowhere in sight.

Theo said hello to Miss Petunia, who was delighted to see her lawyer. She squeezed him and thanked him again for his incredible courtroom heroics, and she happily reported that so far that morning Lucy had behaved herself, as had the two security guards. No spitting, no chasing, nothing out of the ordinary. No complaints from anyone.

Next to her booth was one displaying goat cheese, the handiwork of May Finnemore, who was sitting in a folding chair, knitting, while her spider monkey, Frog, hung from a tent pole that supported the roof over the booth. Why a spider monkey was named Frog had never been adequately explained to Theo. He had asked April, and more than once, but her response had been, “It’s just my mother, Theo.” So much of what May Finnemore did made little sense to anyone. Theo avoided the woman when possible, but not today. May stood and gave Theo an awkward hug. She said, “April’s here.”

“Where?” Theo asked, delighted that he would see her. April despised the Farmer’s Market and rarely sat with her mother as she peddled her dreadful cheese. Theo had tasted it a couple of times and felt like vomiting whenever he saw or smelled it.

“She went that way,” Mrs. Finnemore said, pointing at a row of booths.

“Thanks,” Theo said, and disappeared as quickly as possible. Keeping a sharp eye out for Buck Baloney, he walked past dozens of vendors, most of them in the process of repacking their unsold goods and closing shop. April was standing near a tiny booth where an old bearded man was at work sketching in pencil the portrait of a teenage girl who was seated on a small crate in front of him. For only ten dollars “Mr. Picasso” would do your portrait in less than ten minutes. He had half a dozen samples on display-Elvis, John Wayne, and others.