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Silas and I jogged toward the estate, going through the open back door. The lights were mostly off. I’d heard there were tours available early on to those going to the homecoming dance, but they were cut off once the dance started to keep everyone in one spot. The only part left was the bathrooms, which were on the side of the house and lit up, along with a couple of Academy people watching it.
My feet met with the hardwood floor. In the dimmer lights, the place gave off the illusion of being a real home, feeling less like a museum.
Silas reached for my hand. “No matter what happens,” Silas said, “no letting go.”
I agreed. I squeezed his hand in return. Silas was here with us. He might actually be staying. I wanted to hang on and make sure I wasn’t leading him into something worse.
We walked quietly, listening now to figure out why we were here. Volto had called it a favor.
As we moved through the rooms, I eventually heard a voice. I squeezed Silas’s hand again, pointing in the direction it was coming from.
We crouched, keeping to the deeper shadows. The spaces were lit up by normal lamps, so there were spots that were a bit dark.
As we approached, I started to recognize Mr. Hendricks’s voice.
“...realize what you’ve done?” There was a distinct stamp of a hard sole against the hardwood. “You’ve got the police making inquiries. They’ll...”
“They’re not going to let you off the hook, this time,” a voice grumbled.
But I knew that voice too well, and hearing it made me stop in my tracks, not wanting to go any further.
Silas tugged me forward, until we were peeking around a door.
Mr. McCoy stood in the front entrance, his hands on his hips, wearing dark slacks and a suit coat. His mustache was thinner now, like he’d shaved it and now was re-growing it. His focus was sharp. I could only see Mr. Hendricks’s back.
“I thought we were getting rid of the little shits that got too nosy,” Mr. Hendricks said. “The plan was to do it slowly. Not all damn week.”
“It would have given them more time to catch on,” Mr. McCoy said. “You said to work tactically. I did. Did you see them scatter? Those Academy punks didn’t know what to do with themselves. He won’t dare bring in any more Academy kids.”
He thought there were more? Mr. Hendricks thought I’d been in the Academy before. Somehow he’s associated Arthur and others with being involved, too. I didn’t think that was true. Mr. Blackbourne would have said something.
Silas had his phone out. I thought he was going to make a call, maybe let the others know what was going on, but instead, he pushed a record button. I could see the timer ticking off seconds as it recorded.
Silas was brilliant. I didn’t have a phone at the moment to be able to do anything.
“The police are too close,” Mr. Hendricks said.
Suddenly we had our answer: Mr. McCoy must have been behind the bomb threats. He knew the protocol. He knew how to get away with it. Somehow he was able to get to the students, and trick them or threaten them to call them in all week.
He’d been so close, and we never knew.
“So? Let them. They’ll be investigating those guys. Point a few fingers. Put kiddie porn on their laptops or something. Whatever it is, get the police to find it.”
Mr. Hendricks grumbled.
“Hey,” Mr. McCoy snapped. He took a step toward the principal. “Whatever you’re up to? I don’t even want to know. I’m doing this to get those Academy people out of our school, and get my job back.”
“We won’t have jobs at this rate,” Mr. Hendricks said, his voice altered slightly, though distinctly. “Next year, I’ll be lucky if I have any decent students left. It’ll be a prison, not a school.”
It struck me that the change in his voice was like when my sister would lie. When she did, she lowered her voice. While Mr. Hendricks didn’t do that, his voice did alter. I didn’t pick it up before, because I wasn’t sure exactly what might be a lie. But now, I knew Mr. Hendricks talking about being around next year was a lie, because of his plan with the superintendent and the other partner, they weren’t planning on coming back after the year was over. One more year. That’s what Mr. Hendricks had muttered under his breath.
I’d figured out how to distinguish when Mr. Hendricks was lying.
“Was the fog machine ploy really necessary?” Mr. Hendricks asked.
“Wasn’t me,” Mr. McCoy said. “That was someone else. Maybe you can blame that on those little shits. I just did the display board. That’s why I had you call in the security team. Distract them so they weren’t looking at the board. I was about to call in the bomb threat when all that fog rolled in.”
“What do you need now?” Mr. Hendricks asked. “I’ve got to get back to this thing. I told you we shouldn’t mess with Middleton.”
“I’m not here to mess with it,” Mr. McCoy said. “I scoped out Mr. Blackbourne and he’s where he said he’d be. He’s been tapping at his phone, and talking into a mic. I scoped out the area, and he’s got more of his gang there. I identified some of them and I’ll be able to start following them. Maybe we’ll find out where this Academy is after all. It was just like you thought: Someone would be around watching his back.”
“Good,” Mr. Hendricks said. “We’ve got them. Just a matter of time.”
There was a sudden crash behind us. The back door opened. Footsteps echoed.
My heart raced into a panic, and I pulled back, tugging Silas along, not wanting to get caught.
Silas didn’t move. He kept watching them. I leaned into him, to look again out at the foyer.
Mr. McCoy was already walking away. Mr. Hendricks was turned, staring down a different hallway than the one we were in. He started off in that direction, walking toward the noise.
Mr. McCoy went through the front door.
Silas immediately, backed up, stepping into the corner. He sent a message, texting furiously into his phone. I saw it before he sent. He was having Academy members follow Mr. McCoy.
When Mr. Hendricks yelled at students who had stumbled into the house to check it out, Silas and I made our escape out the front door after Mr. McCoy.
Out on the front steps, Silas’s phone lit up. “They’ve got him,” Silas said when he glanced at it. “They’re not capturing him, but they’re going to follow him to see where he’s staying. We’ve got him. If he’s not hurting anyone, we’ll be watching him to figure out what their next move might be. We want to catch Mr. Hendricks, too.”
“How did we not catch him before? And who did do the fog...”
“Oh that was me,” Volto said into my earpiece. “And you’re welcome, by the way. He was going to pin the scoreboard on your friend Karen, you know. She was next on his list.”
A chill ripped down my spine. Karen! She could have gotten expelled or arrested.
“Thank me later. Oh and by the way, thanks for your phone. I’ll hang on to it. Nice pictures, by the way.” Again there was the sound of him hanging up.
I ripped my mask off, breathing in the cold night. I was fuming, a mix of terror after seeing Mr. McCoy and that Karen had been threatened.
“What?” Silas asked. “Did he say something?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We should find the others.”
“Parking lot,” he said. “They’re still there. I think they found something.”
This time Silas scooped me up and we hurried. Mr. McCoy was being followed by the Academy. We’d found out who was doing the bomb threats. Maybe we were in trouble, but we’d done it!
Volto helped, in his own way. I did owe him. I’d have to sort it out later. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as we thought.
Silas had me on his back as he jogged to the parking lot. I scouted, and then pointed when I spotted different the colored masks across the lot.
