Harper Madigan: Junior High Private Eye (10 page)

Instead of calling my mom to pick me up right away, I walk down to Maximum Shakery. Except I don’t walk so much as trudge. I’ve got no evidence, no case, no agency, and… no partner. Not that I need one. Partners leave, one way or another. They get hurt or they betray you, and then you’re on your own anyway.

When I open the door to Maximum Shakery, the chimes ring, but they sound off, like they’re not all in one piece anymore. The smell of garlic and Parmesan hits me as soon as I step inside. It smells like a pizza parlor, not an ice cream shop. The walls were white and sky blue last time I was in here, but now they’re bright red and olive green. There are
Mills for Mayor
posters tacked up all over and a giant picture on one wall of what looks like spaghetti ice cream. It’s red with tomato chunks, hamburger, and wet noodles swirled through it. That, combined with the smell, kind of makes my stomach churn. I can’t tell whether I’m disgusted or hungry for Italian.

Then I get a good look at one of the campaign posters, promising “higher moral standards” and a return to “family values” and I definitely feel disgusted. I know what Mrs. Mills’ and the PTA’s idea of family values and higher moral standards are. They’re the same values that created a monster like Connor, who put a good kid in a wheelchair and never blinked an eye. They’re the same standards that changed school policy and doubled Danigail’s rap sheet. Hers and anyone else’s who’s ever screwed up at this school, anyone else who’s not their idea of perfect. The PTA’s idea of higher standards are the kind that get you expelled and sent to a school for dangerous delinquents the moment you make a mistake. They’re the kind that make it so only a certain kind of person gets treated fairly. And if Mrs. Mills gets her way and wins the election, they’ll be the same standards that control this entire town.

She’ll promise picket fences and sunshine and rainbows, and most people will believe it. Not everyone in Bright Oaks is like my mom. There are a few people who see past the PTA’s fake smiles and their “we’ve got everyone’s best interest in mind” act—people like my mom, who know better. The only best interests the PTA’s got in mind are their own. But most people are willing to walk around blind, not noticing. Or, worse, they do notice—they just don’t do anything about it, because they’re hoping to actually get on the PTA someday. They think they’ll be the exception. They don’t realize that that never happens.

Whatever their reasons, the majority of this town will vote for Mrs. Mills in a heartbeat, and they won’t even realize what they’ve bought into until it’s too late. The PTA will run this town like they do the school. Pretty soon there’ll be rules about how long everyone’s hair is allowed to be, and about which clothes are okay to wear. Maybe they won’t be official laws, but they’ll be enforced—the PTA will make sure of that. If your lawn isn’t kept trimmed to exactly two inches and isn’t watered to a certain shade of green, then it’ll only be a matter of time before you can’t get anyone to help you reach the top shelf at the grocery store. If you don’t have the right car or attend the right events, pretty soon you’ll be getting cold stares on the street, and if you own your own business, well, don’t expect any customers to show up.

And those are just the unofficial laws. The real ones will be much worse. A seven o’clock curfew for anyone under eighteen, even during summer. Except I bet the cops will look the other way when an untouchable walks down the street at night. And with that kind of power, the PTA could make things even worse for the school. Maybe it’ll suddenly become illegal to get less than a C average. Maybe chewing gum in class will become an actual crime and earn a one way ticket to Juvenile Hall.

With the PTA in charge, the people on top will stay on top, and the people in the middle will sink to the bottom. The PTA get their kicks by calling all the shots. The school’s already an example of their own personal power trips, and with so much of Bright Oaks employed at Clear Plastics, the local plant, it’s not like people can just pick up and leave. They’ll be at the mercy of the PTA, and they won’t even realize it until there’s no going back.

I shake my head, forcing myself to look away from the poster and put the campaign out of my mind. I’ve got enough problems as it is.

Henry’s at the counter, and I catch him in the middle of taking off his blue striped apron.

“End of your shift?” I ask.

As an answer, he crumples up his paper hat and tosses it into the garbage. “If you mean permanently, then yeah. But, hey, you don’t look like you’re having such a good day yourself. You want to order something? I’ll make it before I go.”

I glance down at the new ice cream flavors. Somehow Fettuccine Chicken-Chunk and Vanilla Garlic Crunch just don’t sound appetizing. “Maybe just a glass of water, hold the sprinkles.”

“How about the usual? We’ve still got some chocolate in the back.” He goes to get the ice cream before I can answer.

“What happened here?” I ask as he comes back with a shake cup full of chocolate ice cream and starts blending it with the machine.

“What do you
think
?” He sprays some whipped cream on the shake and spoons on extra sprinkles, then slides it in front of me.

It’s the usual, all right, but somehow, surrounded by all the red and green, the spaghetti ice cream picture, and the smell of garlic, it’s just not the same.

“The PTA, you know, ’asked’ Max to do them a favor and put in all this weird ice cream. Mrs. Galverston’s nephew makes it. Don’t ask me
why
, but he does. And when Max didn’t do it…” He shakes his head. “Well, they came in and made some changes. And me, I’m…” He squeezes his eyes shut, as if whatever he’s about to say is physically painful.

I keep my voice low, though I don’t know why, because no one else is around to hear. “Max
fired
you?”

“It’s not like that. Maybe he should, considering how few customers we get now. It’s only been two days, and already business has plummeted. Nobody wants this stuff—you can’t even give it away. I know he can’t afford to keep me if things go on like this, and he’s too nice to ever tell me to get lost. But… The PTA made me an offer, so now he doesn’t have to.”

I think of Austin and his offer, and my stomach twists. I push the shake in front of me away. “You took it.”

He shrugs. “They’ve got scholarship connections. All I have to do is pass out a few flyers for the election, make a few blog posts talking up this horrible ice cream…”

“And quit the shop?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t have time for two jobs with all my homework. And going with them means
scholarships
. I’ve only got two more months here, like I told you, and…” He swallows. “If I said no, I don’t know
what
they would have done to me. But all I have to do is push a few advertisements, and then I can go anywhere I want. Somewhere far away from here and from them.”

“You’re abandoning Max? Just like that?”

“I said I wasn’t proud of myself, okay? And he doesn’t need me here now—I’m doing him a favor.”

But the way he says it, I know it’s not what he believes.

“He’s going to be out of business soon anyway at this rate, and… You going to drink that?” he asks, pointing to my shake.

“I lost my appetite.”

“Yeah, me too. I don’t think I’m going to be eating ice cream anymore.” He wraps his arms around himself, his face pale and guilty. “Listen, Harper, don’t ever get involved with the PTA, okay?”

It’s a little late for that. “Don’t follow your example, you mean?”

Henry winces. “Just don’t get involved with them if you can help it. And if you do… if they ever come after you… You stand up to them, all right? You stand in their way and you don’t back down.”

I wrinkle my eyebrows at him. That wasn’t what I expected him to say, considering all the other stuff he just told me. “You didn’t. You gave in. Why should you expect me to do any different?” First Austin, and now Henry. And everyone wants me to be the hero.

“Because somebody has to. I stared the enemy in the face and I didn’t have the guts to say no. But you… You could be different. You could do the right thing. They’ve got all of Bright Oaks under their thumb, and they’re going to
own
this town when Clara Mills wins the election. I just want to know that there’s at least one person out there who won’t give in. So promise me, okay? Promise me so I can sleep at night.”

I don’t know how I can make a promise like that, not when the PTA holds all the cards and I’m out of options. Danigail’s getting expelled for crimes she didn’t commit, and there’s nothing I can do but stand aside and let it happen.

“Harper,” Henry says. “
Promise
me you’ll stand up to them. Promise me you won’t give up.”

“Yeah, okay,” I tell him, swallowing down a lump of guilt in my throat. “I promise.”

It’s Thursday morning and I’m not supposed to be at school, but I show up anyway. Not to go to class—I’m sure all my teachers know I’m suspended, and if they caught sight of me, they’d send me straight to the principal’s office, and she’d send me home. I’m the only person in the world who still believes Danigail’s innocent, and I promised Henry I wouldn’t give up. Even if saving her and standing up to the PTA at this point is impossible. At three o’clock this afternoon, the school paper goes to press and Danigail’s picture’s going to be plastered all over the front page. Everyone’s going to see it tomorrow morning when they show up for school. There’s nothing I can do about it—not now that I’m off the case and have lost my only lead, and, well, everything. But at the least I thought I could
be here
. Danigail couldn’t—she’s not only suspended but grounded, and her mom’s not even letting her out of her sight until she’s shipped off to boarding school—but this way at least someone’s around who actually cares.

Even if that someone avoids seeing anyone and just sneaks up to the school roof. I’ve spent my time at Bright Oaks navigating the seedy underbelly—now I thought I’d get a look from above, get a little perspective. The crisp morning air burns in my chest, and I can see everything from up here. The golden-yellow buses as they pull in, all the kids pouring out of them and flooding the building. Life goes on for everyone, except for the one person I tried to save. The one person who really needed me, and I couldn’t help her. I only made things worse. If I’d just let the school suspend her the first time, instead of dragging this out and making myself an enemy of the PTA, then maybe she’d just be expelled instead of being sent away from home to live at some school for delinquents.

And Eugene wouldn’t be failing History. If I’d just told Danigail no and left it at that, I wouldn’t have talked to Oliver, and I wouldn’t have lost control when I caught Connor with Eugene’s lucky pencil. I would have gotten it back for him, plain and simple, and I wouldn’t have these broken pencil halves in my pocket or all the guilt eating away at my stomach lining.

I’d still have my office. And my agency. Dodge wouldn’t have shut me down and thrown me off the case—he wouldn’t have had to. His job wouldn’t be on the line, and Austin wouldn’t have betrayed me. Maybe it’s better to know what kind of person he is sooner instead of later, and it’s not like I wanted him around, but…

The door to the roof clicks open. I’m standing near the edge and I don’t turn around because whoever it is is someone I don’t want to see. I don’t want to see anybody right now. Plus it’s probably someone from the school come to tell me I’m not supposed to be up here. Like I didn’t know that.

“Harper!” Austin’s voice carries across the empty roof, sharp and panicked.

Great. He’s the last person I want showing up here. And if he knows I’m where I’m not supposed to be—which, right now, is anywhere on school grounds, never mind that the roof is off limits—he’s probably already reported me to Dodge and Principal Vickers and probably even the PTA.

“Don’t do it!”

“Don’t do what?” I turn my head and raise an eyebrow at him.

Austin inches his way towards me, like he’s approaching a wild animal. “Don’t jump, Harper.”

“What?! I’m not going to—”

“I know I made a mistake! Just hear me out before you do anything you’ll regret. I shouldn’t have taken that position at the paper. I
didn’t
. I mean, I did, but… I didn’t feel right about it. I tossed and turned all night, and I drank three glasses of warm milk, and all it made me do was have to go to the bathroom. My point is, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror, knowing the choice I’d made and how I’d betrayed my partner. So this morning I told them I couldn’t accept the position.”

“You said that to the
PTA
?” My opinion of the guy just jumped up a couple notches.

“No. I told the paper.”

Strike that.

“Even if it means getting on the PTA’s bad side, I had to do it. When I get on the paper, I want to earn it. I don’t want to betray a friend to do it. And I want to keep working on the case. If you’ll let me. So, please, don’t jump.”

I sigh and take a step away from the edge. “
Phelps
. Get a grip. I’m
not
jumping off the roof. I might be mad at you for betraying me, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything stupid.”

He puts a hand over his chest and breathes a sigh of relief. “Oh, right. I knew that.”

“I hate to tell you this, but you’re too late. Dodge kicked me off the case and shut down the agency. You wouldn’t just be defying the PTA. You’d be breaking some serious rules, and I think we both know how you feel about that. Plus…”

I shrug.

“Even if he hadn’t shut me down, there is no case. Connor trashed my office. He got the evidence bag, so even if I wanted to take another look and try and figure this out, I can’t. Danigail’s mom’s sending her to some boarding school for messed up kids. If she had any hope of pulling out of this academic slump she’s in… it’s gone now. And I know what you think, I know you think she did it, but I don’t care if I’m the only person in the world who believes her—I’m sticking to what I know. She
didn’t
do it.” I turn away from Austin and shout off the edge of the roof at the top of my lungs, “
She didn’t do it!
”

“Harper,” Austin says. “I believe you. I did some thinking last night, and I don’t know Danigail and I don’t know what happened, but the PTA wouldn’t be bribing me to leave the case if Danigail was guilty. They wouldn’t be trying so hard to get you to give up. I still think Danigail Bates is trouble with a capital T, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a case.”

“Except,” I say, “there
isn’t
.”

“And I know if I come back, we’re both going to be breaking the rules and risking getting in some serious trouble, both from Dodge
and
from the PTA.” He shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath, steeling himself. “But I’m willing to take that risk. The rules are there for a reason, but sometimes you have to break them, because justice comes first. And because a good detective doesn’t leave his partner hanging.”

“So you’re a detective now?” I shoot him a skeptical look and shake my head. “It’s a noble speech, I’ll give you that, but
there’s no case
.”

“But if there was, you’d let me help you, right? You’d forgive me?”

I put a hand to my forehead and massage my temples. “It’s going to take a lot more than a hypothetical situation for me to forgive you. Noble speech or not, you still betrayed me.”

“But you’d give me that chance, right? To earn my redemption? If there was still a case?”

I hesitate, not wanting to give him the satisfaction, because I’m still mad. Maybe I’m getting soft or losing my edge, but the truth is having someone on my side for once wouldn’t be the end of the world, so I nod. “Yeah, Phelps,
if
we still had a case, I guess I’d give you that chance.”

He smiles and pulls something out of his coat pocket. It crinkles like plastic, and then I see it’s a Ziploc baggie with a slider top. And it has Connor’s note in it. “Connor might have trashed your office,” he says, “but I got there first.”

“You
what
?”

“I took it for my final report to Dodge. I thought he’d want to see how you solved the case. But then the PTA made me their offer before I got to his office, and…” He shrugs. “You know the rest.”

“You stole from me. You not only betrayed me, but you
stole evidence
from me, for my most important case?” I take a few steps toward him, and Austin swallows and takes a step back.

“I was just trying to follow the rules!”

“And for once, it actually worked in our favor. I don’t know whether to hug you or punch you. Luckily, we don’t have time for either. Thanks to you, we have a case to solve.”

Austin and I relocate to the first floor boys’ bathroom—back in the underbelly of Bright Oaks Junior High. I had a glimpse of what the world looks like from above instead of below, and I could have walked away from all this, but here I am, cleaning up the messes. Figuratively, of course.

We’re hiding out in the bathroom because I’m not supposed to be on school grounds and because Austin’s missing class and he doesn’t have a pass. We’re running out of time and neither of us can afford to get caught.

I take Connor’s note out of the Ziploc bag and stare at it, as if it’s one of those 3D Magic Eye pictures that only make sense when you focus your eyes just right.

“The facts,” Austin says, pacing back and forth in front of the sinks. “We’ve got a list of names. All kids who go to this school.”

“Come on, Phelps—tell me something we didn’t already know.”

“Each name has a bunch of symbols by it. Any clue what they mean?”

There are triangles, dots, and squiggly lines that make no sense to me. Some kind of code, maybe, but Connor didn’t include a key. “Only the dollar signs. Everyone on this list has one and a number. Where money’s involved, there’s motive. You can be sure of that.”

He stops pacing and bites his bottom lip, squeezing his eyes shut in deep thought.

I’d figured before that the money by Alexis’ name meant she’d paid off Connor to do some dirty work. Maybe this isn’t how much she paid, but how much she owed. Maybe Connor came to collect and she couldn’t pay up, and that’s how she “fell” from the bleachers. But… $500 is a lot for a job like that, and it’s too much for Connor not to have taken payment upfront. I might hate the guy, and he might be at the top of the Bright Oaks criminal underground, but he didn’t get there by being stupid. And Danigail said Alexis was innocent, that she wouldn’t hurt anyone. I don’t know Alexis, but maybe Danigail’s right, because my previous line of thinking, that Alexis was in on this somehow, only got everyone in more trouble.

I glance at the list again. We need a new angle. Alexis’ name is on top, along with $500 and some symbols. Then there’s Hayley Thompson, $350. Sarah Zalinski, $345. Myra Powers, $220. Sienna Cortese, $178.

The door creaks open and a ninth grader tries to come in. We both glare at him so hard he stops in his tracks. “This one’s out of order,” I growl through clenched teeth, and even though he’s bigger than both of us, he blinks a couple times and then turns around and leaves.

Austin checks his watch. He scowls and opens his mouth, but I cut him off.

“Don’t tell me what time it is. It’s not helping.”

“It’s almost ten thirty, and we’ve got
nothing
.”

“What part of
don’t tell me
don’t you understand?”

“I just wanted you to have all the facts.”

“Yeah, well, the only facts I’m interested in are the ones in this case.”

He stops pacing and taps his chin. “Maybe we’re going about this in the wrong way.”

“
You think
?”

“Harper, your sarcasm isn’t helping. We have to figure out what Veronica and Alexis have in common.”

“The other kids on this list, they’re not involved with the play, if that’s what you mean.”

“They’re both blond. Maybe Connor’s going after blonds?” He stares at himself in the mirror, his eyes going wide. He runs a hand over his short blond hair and gulps. “I could be next.”

“I doubt it.” After all, I’m not that lucky. “But…” Something clicks in my brain. I remember the first time we met Alexis, how we thought she was Veronica from behind. And didn’t Veronica say Alexis was trying to look like her? Maybe Veronica was wrong, but the fact remains that the two of them look pretty similar. Especially from the back. “Phelps,” I say, my voice trembling, “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m going to need to see that notebook of yours.”

“Yeah?” His eyes light up and he’s already grabbing his backpack off the hook on the wall and sliding out his notebook. “I got the impression you thought all my note taking was…” He clears his throat. “…stupid.”

“I did, but that was before I needed to go over everything Alexis said in our interview. Especially what she said about her track practice last Friday being unscheduled, and how she was supposed to be working on the play. And about how she has a track meet coming up.”

“Does that mean what I think it means?”

I take in a deep breath. “It means that everyone on this list is on the girls’ track team.” Sports and money never mix well, especially when a criminal like Connor Mills is involved. “It means if I’m right, I’ve not only solved the case for real this time, but I’ve got so much dirt on Connor he’s going to be going away for a long, long time.” A weight I didn’t even realize I was carrying lifts from my shoulders. Everything’s going to be okay for once. Finally. It feels like the first time since Oliver’s accident. An accident that was meant for me, just like Veronica’s was meant for Alexis, the star of the track team. “This time, he’s going to finally get what he has coming to him.”