Харлан Кобен - Found

Brandon stopped and looked at me. “Did you?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Did you?”

“Of course not. Seriously, even if I wanted to, how would I?”

Brandon shrugged. “You have access to the school.”

“What are you talking about?”

“People know you’re friends with the janitor’s weird kid.”

He meant Spoon. I was about to defend Spoon, to snap back that Spoon wasn’t weird, but then I remembered something: Spoon was weird. Wonderfully so. But he was weird.

“He’s got keys, right? He could sneak you into places.”

“To alter drug tests?” I said. “That’s insane.”

“Is it? Heck, you guys were in here with drug dealers last week. The janitor’s kid got shot, right?”

“Right, but—”

“There’s been a lot of crazy stuff happening in this town since you moved in,” Brandon said, “and somehow, Mickey, you seem to always be in the middle of it.”

We were in a dark corridor now. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like any of this.

“Where are we going, Brandon?”

“Almost there.”

When we reached the end of the corridor, I heard a familiar voice say, “Hello, Mickey. Thanks for coming.”

I turned.

It was Troy.

I took two steps back and debated how to play this.

I could make a run for it. I could stand and fight. I wasn’t afraid. I was pretty good with my fists, but then again it was two against one, at the very least. There might be more of them somewhere nearby. I could also go after one, make a quick strike, and sprint down the corridor.

But neither Troy nor Brandon moved toward me. They just stood there, both looking at each other nervously, then back at me.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We need to talk,” Brandon said. “That’s all. Just talk.”

“Are you going to start up again with that nonsense about me setting up Troy?”

It was Troy who replied. “No. I didn’t believe it for a second.”

I looked at him. For the first time since we’d met, Troy Taylor wasn’t looking at me with naked hostility. He wasn’t telling me I was a dead man. He wasn’t mooing at Ema. He looked like a real, live human being.

“I need your help, Mickey.”

“Me?”

Brandon stepped forward. “All that stuff I said before. About how you could break into the school. About all that stuff you’ve been involved with.”

“What about it?”

Troy and Brandon exchanged another look. “You’re good at stuff like that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on, Mickey,” Troy said. “My dad is the chief of police here, remember?”

Boy, did I know. Chief Taylor probably hated me more than his son did.

“He told me how you were doing your own investigation when that girl Ashley disappeared. He told me that you drove a car and broke into a nightclub down in Newark. I know you helped Rachel figure out who shot her and her mom. You were actually here, in this school, when those bad guys shot up the place, and you came out on the winning end.”

Winning end, I thought. Spoon lay partially paralyzed in the hospital and Rachel was devastated. Some winning end.

“I still don’t see your point,” I said.

Troy looked at Brandon. Brandon nodded at him to continue.

“You’re like some kind of kid detective,” Troy said. “I don’t know. But I need your help.”

“Help with what?”

“I need you to help me prove that I didn’t take steroids.”

“Me?” I glanced at Brandon and then back at Troy. “You’re kidding, right?”

Brandon said, “Just hear him out.”

“I didn’t do it, Mickey. I swear.”

I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “First off, Troy, I don’t believe you. But even if I did, you’ve been nothing but a bully to me since I arrived. You pick on my friends. You tried to hurt me at practice.”

“I know that. And I’m sorry.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“Mickey?”

“What?”

Troy spread his arms. “We’re teammates, right?”

I said nothing.

“This is what teammates do. We help each other. Like family. And, yeah, Mickey, maybe you’ll be the star this year. Maybe you’ll even score more points than me. I don’t know. But you know the team will have a better chance of winning the state championship if I’m on it.”

I shuffled my feet. “This isn’t my business,” I said.

“Mickey, look at me for a second. Okay? Just look at me.”

I did.

“I’m sorry,” Troy said again. “I was getting on your case because you’re new to the school and you’re only a sophomore and, okay, maybe I was jealous. I mean, you just came to this school and you’re this hotshot basketball star and, well, already my girl is spending more time with you than me.”

I was about to comment on that, but Brandon just shook his head at me, signaling for me to let it go.

“So here I am,” Troy said, “asking for your help.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond. I took a step back. “As you pointed out, your father is the chief of police,” I said. “Let him help you.”

“He can’t do this.”

“Sure he can.”

“I need someone with your skills. I need someone who gets it, who’s part of the team.”

I almost bought into it right then — the idea of team. But then I remembered it all. Troy’s threats, the way he bullied Spoon and grabbed Ema’s laptop, how he had set me up and almost got me thrown off the team, the way he yelled “moooo” and cackled whenever Ema walked by him in the cafeteria.

“I’m sorry,” Troy repeated. He stuck out his hand. “Can’t we start again?”

“I have to go,” I said.

Brandon said, “Mickey...”

“This isn’t my battle, Brandon. You kept saying how I get in the middle of these things. This time I’m staying out of it.”

I turned and started down the corridor.

Brandon caught up to me when I reached the door. “Cold,” he said.

“It’s like sixty degrees out,” I said.

“Ha, ha. I meant the way you just dissed Troy.”

“You’re joking, right? You were there when he whipped the ball at my face. How long ago was that? Oh, that’s right. Last practice.”

“He was jealous. He explained that to you. Don’t you get that at all? You’ve spent your life traveling around. You don’t know what it’s like when you’re in a town like this. Things are just expected of you. And for Troy, well, he’s been the best basketball player in town. His dad’s the chief of police. He had this great girlfriend — and yeah, yeah, I know, you didn’t take her away — but suddenly someone comes in and threatens everything he’s worked for. Don’t you have any compassion at all?”

I thought about that. “He was mean to my friends.”

“Because they’re an extension of you.”

Again with the justifying. “And seriously, Brandon, what can I do anyway? His dad should help him.”

“Troy’s dad can’t help.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” Brandon said, “his dad doesn’t believe him.”

That surprised me. “What?”

“That’s right. Even his own father has abandoned him on this. He thinks his son cheated. Chief Taylor wants to see if Troy can get back on the team in other ways, you know, come clean, say it’s a first offense. But Troy doesn’t want that. He wants his name cleared. He wants the truth to come out.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“There’s something else you should consider too,” Brandon said.

“What?”

“Your teammates, like it or not, think you had something to do with Troy’s suspension.”

“But even Troy said he knew I had nothing to do with it.”