Drop of Doubt (2 page)

“Sang,” Luke tugged at my sleeve. “What do you want?”

“Princess, why are you sitting on the ground?” Victor approached. The breeze picked up, tossing around his brown wavy hair. He removed his blazer, dropping it along with his book bag. He sat on top of it. He motioned to me with his fingers. “Come here.”

“I just told Luke I’d get into trouble—”

“It was Mr. McCoy that gave you detention and he’s not here.” Victor curled his fingers at me again. “Get off the grass.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to sit in his lap, but I was worried about getting another detention with a teacher or even Mr. Hendricks. He was probably right, though. I got up and let him tug me down again until I was parked in his lap sideways, facing Luke.

Luke inched closer on the grass so he could collect one of my sandal-clad feet and put it in his lap. “We need to figure out what to get her for her birthday.”

“Yeah,” Victor said. He wrapped his arms around my waist. His fire eyes sparked at me. “Why didn’t you text me back?”

“You sent a text to me during class. Gabriel saw me checking and Kota took my phone. You started them on this crazy frenzy. You shouldn’t text during class unless it is an emergency.”

“It was an emergency. I just realized it was October. I’m glad we didn’t miss it.”

“And now there’s fire trucks here. And you guys are more worried about my birthday, which I’d forgotten about, too.”

Luke laughed. “Someone pulled the fire alarm. It’s no big deal.”

“It was a big deal last time it happened,” I said. “And they don’t take dogs into the school if there is a fire, do they?”

They blinked at me, twisting around to look over. Luke stood, putting a hand over his eyes to block the sun, and gazed over toward the building. “She’s right. There’s a pack of dogs.”

“We haven’t been called in.” Victor turned around again. His palm found my back. Fingers traced between a couple of my ribs. “Our concern is student safety, not building safety. The students are out here and well out of range for a fire or anything else that might be wrong. Mr. Blackbourne hasn’t sent word, so it’s probably some standard school inspection. Maybe checking for drugs or something.”

Luke’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not sure.”

With the way I was sitting, it was difficult to twist around and check. Part of me sensed Mr. McCoy just beyond where I could see. The boys assured me he wasn’t here, but I still couldn’t help wonder where he was. I sensed other eyes watching us. Most students were engrossed in their cell phones or talking, not really concerned with the school except to hope we’d be out of class longer. I scanned the group, trying to figure out why I felt so uncomfortable.

“Hey,” North’s voice bellowed at us.

Students cleared out of the way as North, Gabriel and Kota returned. They were tailed by Silas and Nathan.

“Baby,” North said, ”Get out of his lap. You’ll end up with detention.”

Victor squeezed his arms a little tighter around my hips. “McCoy’s not here. The other teachers don’t care.”

“There might be one who does. We don’t want to end up staying after school today if we’re going to figure out what to do for her birthday. Besides, she’s supposed to be dating Silas.”

“No one is paying attention,” Victor said.

“Are we going to skip football practice on her birthday?” Silas asked.

“Are we skipping school on her birthday?” Gabriel asked. “We should.”

They continued their debate. I refocused on what was going on across the parking lot. Luke remained standing at his post, keeping watch. I glanced back at him on occasion, questioning with my eyes if he was seeing something more than I was seeing.

Nathan followed my gaze out toward the dogs and the police. There was something being set up by the policemen. They’d removed a box of equipment from the back of one of the police cars. Firemen were standing by.

“Sang,” Victor squeezed me again. “You still haven’t told anyone—”

“Kota,” Nathan said over him, his tone serious. He nodded toward the school. “What is this?”

I crawled out of Victor’s lap to stand up between Nathan and Luke. I sensed Victor following, standing behind me. Everyone else turned toward the school.

My heart leapt, pleased that Nathan and Luke were taking this seriously. I understood the boys not wanting to worry too much about things we couldn’t control, but my instincts were driving me crazy that something was terribly wrong. My old school never went through anything like this just for a fire drill.

The police surrounded one man, who was putting on what looked like plastic body armor.

I shot a look at Kota. “What’s going on?” I asked in a quiet voice. This wasn’t a fire alarm or a check for drugs.

Kota frowned. “Hazardous waste cleanup perhaps? Maybe someone spilled something in the chemistry lab?” He fished his phone out of his pocket. The phone must have been on vibrate because I didn’t hear it ring. He punched the button with his thumb to answer it. “Dr. Green? Are you inside still?”

I glanced back over at the man in the safety suit. He marched slowly toward the school, a blue and white device in his hand that looked like a hand-held metal detector. He circled the fire trucks, heading toward the doors.

Kota dropped the phone to his chest to hold it there. “Our team,” he said in a quiet tone, but the command rang through every syllable. “Get your stuff. Let’s go.”

The boys moved at once. Silas and North, the ones closest to our book bags, grabbed them. Nathan tugged at my hand, moving behind Kota.

We weaved our way through the throng of students, heading further down into the grass yard and toward the baseball field away from the rest of the students.

“Where are we going?” I asked in a quiet voice, suddenly scared.

“Away from other students,” Kota said. “And the cars.”

We traveled a good distance from the parking lot. We got some looks from other teachers, but none seemed to care much that we’d moved away from the other students. We were still within sight and on school grounds.

Kota halted a few feet from the baseball field’s benches. He eyed them suspiciously. “Everyone stay here,” he said.

He moved forward alone, everyone else hanging back. The boys encircled me. I had to stand
en pointe
to peek over Victor’s shoulder.

Kota checked out the underside of the seats, inspecting every corner. When he seemed satisfied, he waved his hand at us to come sit. I slid in; Nathan sat on one side of me and Victor took his position on my other side. Always protecting.

“What is it, Kota?” Nathan asked. His blue eyes darkening.

“This is the bomb squad,” he said. “There was a bomb threat made on the school by phone. There’s an unmarked box on the main floor.”

“Why are we so far out here away from the others?” I asked.

Kota tilted his head toward me. “We’re to keep out of reach of potential threats, which means possibly rigged vehicles or students. The caller wasn’t specific. The package is only a guess by a teacher. We’re to stay out of range of everyone until Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne says it’s safe to return.”

“What about the other students?” I asked. “What about Marie? And Derrick?”

Kota frowned. “It’s most likely this is just a student pulling a prank or wanting to get out of class. This is just overkill precaution. We’re more of a target than they are. If we come under fire, we want to be out of range so no one else is hurt. We also want to see anyone coming if they’re trying to target us.”

“But we were in the middle of class,” I said. “If they wanted out of class, would they call a bomb threat while still inside class? It would have been obvious. And if they were outside of class trying to cut out their next one... well if they’d already skipped class, why would they try to mess up the next one?”

“Baby,” North said. He was sitting in front of me, but turned, dropping a hand on my knee. “The police are here. We’ve got our orders. Stop worrying so much. This isn’t our job.”

“She’s right, though,” Nathan said. He rubbed his palm over the top of his reddish-brown hair. “It’s an odd time to suddenly call in a bomb threat.”

“There’s nothing we can do right now,” Kota said, “We don’t have enough information.”

I twisted around, studying the other kids to see if I could pick out my sister. I would feel better if I could actually see her. She wasn’t the most friendly person, but I didn’t want her to get hurt.

Through the crowd, an all-too-familiar goatee on an angular chin distracted me. I sucked in a breath, holding it, staring in disbelief .

Greg was back. His beady eyes were a distance away, but he was looking at us from the edge of the cluster of other students.

“When did he get back?” Silas muttered under his breath.

Everyone turned their attention to Greg. He jerked his chin in our direction, turned around and disappeared back into the crowd.

I kept my eyes on the students. Greg. He hadn’t been in homeroom this morning. Did he switch classes?

The last time I saw him, he was clutching his throat trying to breathe.

After I’d punched him.

I turned on the bench, climbing up the bleachers until I was sitting at the very top, and dangled my feet down over the edge. Now that I’d spotted him, I didn’t want to turn my back on him.

The others joined me.

––––––––

I
t was two hours before the emergency services team finally pulled back. Teachers signaled to the students to go back inside.

No explosions. No arrests.

We got word from Dr. Green that it was okay for us to enter the school. The boys and I followed the mass of students trying to get reoriented as to where we were supposed to go next. We were getting ready to split up to head in different directions when the loud speakers crackled overhead.

“Sang Sorenson, report the principal’s office immediately. Sang Sorenson, report to the principal’s office.”

My heart dropped to the floor. My fingers danced over the dip on my throat. I glanced up at the speakers, as if doing so would provide more information. Why me? What happened?

“I’ll go with her,” North said, squaring off his shoulders. His eyes darkened. “This better not be—”

“No,” Kota said. “She’s still under orders to go alone.”

North turned on him. “Don’t you see what he’s done? He’s just told the entire school Sang was probably involved in this. She’s more a target than ever. I’m not letting her walk alone over there.”

“If they think she’s involved, the students are going to want to stay away from her.” Kota’s eyebrows furrowed and lines formed at the creases of his mouth as he frowned. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but if we don’t go to class, we’re going to look like suspects if they don’t have one already. We have to let her go. We have to go to class and be counted with everyone else.”

North’s clenched fists smashed into his thighs. “This is bullshit. What about that other kid?”

“I just saw Greg walking up the stairs. He’s out of range. Now that we know he’s back, too, we need to get started. We’ll need a wire.” Kota turned to me. “Let Mr. Blackbourne know where you’re going,” he said.

I brushed back a lock of hair from my eyes, but it kept falling back into my face. “Should I say anything? What do I do?”

“Be honest.” His hand drifted up, brushing the lock of hair from my cheek and hooking it behind my ear. It stayed, as if unwilling to defy Kota. “But if you get uncomfortable, or if they try to ask you questions about this bomb threat, refuse to answer and refer questions to Mr. Blackbourne. Say you don’t know anything. He might just be trying to figure out if we’re behind it. You’ll be able to tell him we aren’t.”

I nodded, scratching absently at a spot on my arm. I had to remind myself that this was Mr. Hendricks, not McCoy. Mr. McCoy wasn’t here. I had to trust that they wouldn’t send me in with Mr. Hendricks if it wasn’t okay to do so.

I sucked in a breath, trying to look nonchalant. I waved to the others as I headed off alone to the front offices.

The hallways were overcrowded with students. Everyone was taking their time to get to class. I couldn’t imagine anyone paying attention to school work now.

I weaved my way through the crowd. I watched for Greg, trying to avoid him if he was around. I trusted that Kota was right, but I still wanted to be aware, just in case he headed back.

And I still watched out for McCoy. I didn’t want to say so to the others, but without knowing where he was for sure, I couldn’t totally let go of the idea that he might be around the next corner. The guys had insisted I shouldn’t worry about it, but I couldn’t erase the thought of his bristled moustache and his beady eyes. My skin prickled uncomfortably as if I were being watched all the time.

A hand encircled my elbow. I paused, half expecting one of the guys. My eyes widened to find Karen touching me. She released me, shoving her fingers through her pixie haircut. Her usual happy smile was a little off and her brown eyes dimmed.

“Karen?” I asked her. “Is something wrong?” She usually didn’t talk to me outside of gym class.

“I was going to ask about you,” she said. “I heard your name on the overhead. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out.”

“Are you in trouble?” she asked. “It sounded serious.”

I shook my head. “I haven’t done anything. I can’t imagine what they want.”

She pursed her lips for a moment. “You know, they never caught whoever was stealing stuff out of our lockers at gym. Don’t let them pin that on you.”

“I won’t,” I said, although the comment caught me off guard and felt out of place, considering the bomb threat just now. “But nothing else has been taken, right?”

“Not from our class,” she said. “Although I heard a rumor that some of the other gym classes got robbed. I think they’re starting to lock the hallway down now. They need better security.”

I agreed. Whoever was getting into the girls’ lockers was pretty good. Either he, or she, knew all the combinations or could pick the locks, and could do it in a short amount of time without being seen. Didn’t Mr. Hendricks mention there was a thief breaking into the upstairs lockers, too? I didn’t know if it was still happening. I made a mental note to talk to Mr. Blackbourne. “I should go,” I said, not trying to be unfriendly, but I didn’t want to make trouble by being too late. “See you in class?”