Baseball Great (15 page)

JOSH HAD NO IDEA
Jaden was that fast. He trailed her hooded shape out of the loading dock, across the street, and down the sidewalk. Her legs flashed like blades on a hedge clipper. Behind him, Rocky kept shouting for them to stop, but that only sent fresh waves of adrenaline through Josh's veins.

When Jaden reached the corner, Josh saw her shoot a quick glance over her shoulder, then break off to the right and down the side street. Josh leaped from the sidewalk without breaking stride, pounding down the pavement in the middle of the street and under a light, where Rocky would be sure not to miss him.

Josh kept going. He risked a quick look back. He saw Rocky reach the spot where Jaden had split off.

Rocky stopped.

Josh slowed and spun around. Rocky swung his head from side to side, deciding which one he should chase.

In a gravelly voice, Josh yelled, “Hey, mister!”

Rocky looked his way.

“Kiss my butt!”

Josh spanked his own backside. Rocky roared and headed right for him. Josh took off, his body numb from panic. After another block, Josh hit State Street, a main thoroughfare. He broke across the street and toward downtown—the opposite way Jaden had gone. Scattered handfuls of young thugs and an occasional bag person provided an obstacle course on the broken sidewalk for Josh to dodge around.

Before he took a left at the next side street, Josh risked a second glance back. He'd gained some distance from Rocky and as Josh turned the corner, he saw the muscle-bound coach bend over and grab at his side, staggering after Josh now with a hitch in his stride. Josh grinned to himself and kept running, going back up the hill and essentially making a big circle before he dashed across the street on which Jaden had turned off. He then ducked down between two parked cars to watch and wait.

After ten minutes, he saw Rocky limping back up the hill on the far side of the street. Five minutes later, he saw the black Porsche speed off, its gears whining with fury. Josh stood up and took the cell phone from his
pocket. He'd missed two calls from Jaden. He checked his text messages and wondered why she had called instead of sending a text.

He hit
REDIAL
and got her on the first ring.

“Oh my God,” she said, crying hysterically. “Josh, oh my God.”

His heart ached at the sound of her weeping.

“What's wrong?” he said, choking on his words. “Did you get the picture?”

“Yes, come quick,” she said, sobbing. “Josh, meet me at the pavilion in Washington Square Park. I can't say it on the phone.

“You're not going to believe who it is.”

THE NIGHT HAD ADVANCED
far enough to show stars above the whispering treetops and the inky spaghetti strands of the electric wires. Tired as he was, Josh somehow found the energy to jog. On the gloomy side street, he tensed up at the sight of a tall, skinny hooded man bouncing on his toes and heading his way right up the sidewalk. Josh stepped aside at the next driveway, fists ready, but the man passed, sipping on a bottle of whiskey without even looking Josh's way. When he rounded the next corner, Josh scooped his bike up out of the bushes, mounted it, and raced off toward the park. When he saw Jaden slumped on a bench under the shadow of the pavilion, he dumped his bike in the grass and broke into a run.

When he reached her, she threw her arms around
him and clasped him tight, saying his name over and over and crying all the while.

“It's what I deserve,” she said bitterly as she withdrew from his arms. “Me and my investigating. Look.”

Jaden stabbed at him with her phone. Josh took it and studied the screen. He gasped—a sharp, inward hiss through his front teeth. In the white flash of the photo she'd taken, Rocky Valentine stood taking a bag from the hands of a man in a white lab coat, a man with small, round glasses and a shock of straight dark hair.

The man was Dr. Neidermeyer, Jaden's father.

“Jaden,” he said.

“I know,” she said, holding up her hand and dropping her chin to her chest. “I'm the one who wanted to go to the police. I'm so ashamed.”

“But we don't know—”

“Josh, don't,” she said, cutting him off. “We know. You know and I know.”

Josh put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

“It's okay,” he said softly. “You should hear my parents. If they're not in on this, it's only because they don't know about it. It's like everyone is okay with these things. Maybe they're not that dangerous. Your dad's a doctor.”

“You think he'd even be a doctor if people knew about this?” she said angrily, flailing her arms in the
air. “He'd lose his license in a heartbeat. This stuff isn't okay. This stuff is dangerous. I know that. Everyone knows it.”

“People use it, Jaden,” Josh said. “No one on the Titans is dropping dead.”

“Not yet,” Jaden said. “And neither are the people who breathe in a cloud of asbestos. It doesn't kill you instantly. It's not cyanide, but it kills you. You're thirty, forty years old and your liver goes out, or your kidneys, or you have a massive heart attack. Maybe you make it into your fifties or your early sixties, but before it's over, that stuff ends your life sooner than it should.”

Josh held out her phone and waited for her to take it back.

“So, what now?” he asked.

“I don't even want to go home,” she said, tears filling her eyes afresh. “Everything he said, everything he talks about—how do I know if it's true?”

Jaden leaned against him and Josh held her again. They sat down together on the bench. She buried her face in his chest, and Josh tugged her hood off and ran his hands through the wild thicket of hair that sprang from the band at the back of her head.

Jaden rested her cheek on his shoulder, sighed, and softly said, “He told me my mom died when I was born. They lived in Houston. They weren't even married. He said they couldn't afford a good doctor and after that
happened, he decided he'd become one and help people like him and my mom. He said it was for her, what she would have wanted him to do.”

“That's nice,” Josh said.

“Do you know how proud I was of him?” Jaden said, sitting up and staring fiercely into his eyes. “
Was
. I don't even know if that's what happened. For all I know, my mother didn't want me, or he ran off with me. I have no idea. If he'd lie about this, what wouldn't he lie about?”

Josh gripped her shoulders and said, “Sometimes parents aren't what you think they are, but it doesn't mean they don't love you. Parents are just people. They're just like us.”

Jaden shook her head and said, “No, I'm not like that. I'm going to stop him.”

“Not the police?” Josh said. “Jaden, you can't.”

“WE'LL STICK TO OUR
plan,” Josh said. “We have to. Your dad isn't the only one this would ruin. My dad needs this job. We can stop this thing and everyone can go back to their normal life.”

“You think Rocky won't just find another person to get drugs from?” Jaden asked. “You think my father won't sell something else to some other dealer? Maybe it'll be sleeping pills. Maybe painkillers. They're probably safer than that crap.”

“I don't know,” Josh said. “Maybe you can talk to him.”

“I'm not talking to him,” Jaden said. “Some doctor. With all those books and his computer and all those crappy papers he writes. It's all a lie.”

Josh stood up and took her hand, leading her toward his bike.

“Come on,” he said. “I'm going to get you home. It's late. We both need to sleep on this. You ride on the handlebars. I've done it with Benji, so they'll hold you.”

Josh pedaled hard through the streets, dropping Jaden at the corner near her house. He gave her a brief hug, patting her back and telling her it would all work out, then headed for home.

“Are you okay?” his mother asked when she saw his face. She was reading a book on the couch while his dad watched something on TV.

“Fine,” Josh said. “Just tired.”

“Hard work is what wins,” his dad said without looking up from the TV.

“Right,” Josh said, kissing them both on the forehead and climbing the stairs.

When he got into bed, Josh got a text from Jaden: “
IM SO ASHAMED
”

He sent her a text right back that said “
DONT WORRY. IT WILL ALL B OK
”

He jammed the cell phone under his pillow and lay back with his hands behind his head, staring at the slanted ceiling, barely visible in the small amount of light leaking in through the crack at the bottom of his door. The trophy caught his eye, and he studied its foggy shape. He let his mind wander over the situation, thinking about Rocky, the kind of person he was, and what mattered most to him.

It was then that Josh got an idea.

WHEN JOSH WOKE THE
next morning, the idea didn't seem as good as it had in the middle of the night, but he still thought it could work. On the bus, he explained the plan to Jaden.

She looked at him with dull, puffy eyes and said, “Whatever.”

“Why do you say that?” Josh asked.

She shrugged and shook her head, then looked out the window.

They rode for a few minutes before Josh said, “You can't just give up.”

“I know,” she said, her voice flat. “I won't. I'm just tired, Josh. I feel terrible. I can't believe it. My own father.”

“Jaden,” Josh said. “You don't know what happened. Maybe Rocky threatened him or something.”

“With what?” she asked.

“I don't know,” Josh said, knowing it sounded ridiculous but wanting to somehow make her feel better. “But if they stop and don't do it again, you have to put this all behind you, forgive and forget. My mom says that's important.”

“Your mom's nice,” Jaden said, “but I don't know if I can.”

“Will you meet me during third period and try my plan?” Josh asked. Josh had study hall for third period, and Jaden had home economics.

“At the dugout?” she asked.

Josh nodded, and Jaden told him she would. The dugout was the only place they could go on school grounds where no one would see them and where they could also get good cell phone reception.

Josh put his books down on the desk in study hall and took out his math homework. He tried to concentrate and get some of it done but found he could do nothing except watch the clock. Ten minutes into the period, he got up and asked for the bathroom pass. Mrs. Grajko handed him the wooden pass without looking up from her work correcting papers.

Josh scooted down the hall, checking behind him before he strolled past the bathroom, jogged down the back stairs, and slipped through the doorway. When he got to the dugout, he found Jaden already there, lying
on the bench with her head resting on her backpack.

“Did you just get here?” he asked, peering around the corner to make sure no one had seen or followed him.

Jaden didn't answer; she just shook her head and kept staring up at the wooden slats that held up the roof.

“We said ten minutes into the period, right?” Josh asked, confused.

Jaden sighed, sat up, and said, “What's the difference?”

“You're skipping home ec?” Josh asked.

“Yup.”

“You'll get detention,” Josh said.

She shrugged and said, “I'll be here until late anyway to get the paper done.”

Josh stared at her for a moment, then said, “Well, can we do this?”

“Sure,” she said.

Josh took a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. He handed it to her and said, “See? It's not really a script, but I put down the main points during social studies. What do you think?”

Jaden looked at the paper and shrugged.

“Jaden, come on,” Josh said. “Snap out of it. We've got to do this. He'd recognize my voice or I'd do it myself. Here, give me your phone. I got his number, and we
have to block yours.”

Josh punched in
^*
67, then dialed Rocky's cell number and handed her back the phone.

“You want to rehearse?” he asked.

“No, I got it,” she said, hitting the
SEND
button and putting the phone on speaker so Josh could hear.

“You're anonymous,” Josh said. “That's the key, and don't forget the Nike thing. That's huge for him. Big money.”

Jaden nodded. The phone rang. Josh's stomach clenched.

Rocky answered, saying hello, his voice rasping with toughness and low like a tuba's. Jaden's eyes widened, and Josh knew Rocky's voice had startled her.

“Uh,” she said, “is this Rocky Valentine?”

“Who's this?” he asked in a demanding tone.

“I know about”—Jaden swallowed and looked at Josh's paper—“I know about the steroids.”

“Who are
you
?” Rocky asked, nearly shouting the last word.

“I'm the one who took the picture,” Jaden said, her voice reverting to her most southern twang so the word came out “pick-chore. “

“I don't know about no picture,” Rocky said smoothly.

“I saw you,” she said, looking at Josh instead of the paper. “I saw you and my…doctor…you and Dr.
Neidermeyer.”

Josh winced.

“‘My doctor'?” Rocky said. “So, he's your doctor. That's how you know about this, huh? Well, I'll have to talk to the good doctor and find out what's going on.”

“Don't you dare!” Jaden screamed.

Rocky's guttural laughter sounded like the cough of a sick lawn mower starting up. When he stopped, he said, “Tell you what. You just give me that camera and we forget about this whole thing.”

Jaden looked shaken. Josh pointed to his notes on the paper he'd given her and nodded his head.

Jaden looked down and said, “I have the picture on my phone, and it's ready to go. If you don't stop, I'm going to send it to the
New York Times
. What do you think Nike's going to do then?”

Rocky went silent.

“You know about Nike, huh?” Rocky said, almost as if he was pleased and talking to himself. “Okay, I guess you got me. I'll stop and you keep this to yourself, is that it?”

“That's the deal,” Jaden said.

Josh nodded and gave her a thumbs-up, then pointed to his eye and then the phone.

“We'll be watching, though,” Jaden said.

“Yeah, I bet you will,” Rocky said, then hung up.

Josh and Jaden looked at the phone, then at each
other.

“What do you think?” Jaden asked.

“I think you did good,” Josh said.

“You think he'll stop?” she asked.

“I do,” he said.

“Then what's the matter?” she asked. “Why do you look so worried?”

“I don't know,” he said. “It's like he knew I was here. Something in his voice just creeped me out, the way he said that about you knowing about Nike.”

“I'm sure he didn't know you were here,” she said. “How could he?”

“I don't know,” Josh said, shrugging. “You're right. It's just something in his voice, and maybe how well I know him. He's a good coach, but he's scary, too. When he looks at you, it's like he sees right through you. Either way, I'll find out soon enough.”

“When?”

“Today,” Josh said, peering around the edge of the dugout to make sure the coast was clear, “at practice.”