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He was insane.
“Are you insane?” Thea asked him.
If it was any other day, and we didn’t have the history we had, I would have laughed.
“You guys hear what they’re saying in the news, right?” he whispered, taking a seat on his bed. “Hector was my best friend. We played little league together, and he always let me win because he knew my dad hated it when I lost. He was an honor roll student, he was the star basketball player, what do you think would happen, if we say that my black, best friend, told me where to get the drugs from?”
“That’s why you never said anything?” Thea whispered.
“I’m not an idiot, Hector was a good person, and I don’t want people to remember him as some drug pimp… and I don’t want his family to hate me anymore than they already do. So please, don’t use that angle.”
“Is everything alright?” Mrs. Archibald came up behind us, and Richard’s eyes went wide.
“We were just going over some details. But we’re done now, thank you,” I said turning, making sure that Thea followed as well.
“Am I fired?” she asked, when got to the end of the hall.
“You don’t work for me, you're my student.”
“Then, am I being kicked out of your class?”
She was too close to me.
“No.”
“We were able to get in touch with Mr. Archibald, he’ll be here in a few hours,” Atticus informed me, bursting with pride.
“Raymond, take our eager young friend to go pick up Mr. Archibald, and babysit him at all times. If he so much as goes near an airport, tackle him.”
I saw the small grin Atticus shot Thea, and the glare in her eyes as he left. They were already in full out war, which only made things better for me.
“The rest of you, pack up and go home. I expect to see you all in the morning, looking less zombified, if possible,” I told them.
They all sighed in relief, packing up their discarded coats and jackets, shoes, books, and papers. The press had gone home for the evening, so our exit was significantly easier than our entry had been.
I watched as Thea waited at the curb for a taxi, even though my car was already here.
“Get in,” I called to her, holding the door open.
“That’s not a good idea.”
“It’s about the case, now get in,” I said firmly.
She looked me over like she didn’t believe me, and rightly so. I only partially believed it myself.
“Is your car at the office?”
“I took a cab,” she replied.
Nodding, I turned to my driver and gave him her address. She reluctantly walked over and climbed into the back seat, sitting as far away as she could from me, as though I had some sort of contagious disease.
“You shouldn’t have spoken to him.”
She sighed. “I know, I’m sorry, I just saw him sitting there playing video games, and I lost my cool.”
“It’s fine,” I said, “but only because you got something I can use out of it. If you hadn’t, no apology would have been able to help you.”
Her head whipped back to me so quickly I was surprised that she didn’t hurt herself.
