The Quick Fix (16 page)

“Uh-huh. Isn't that going be a little tough, in light of the events from a couple of weeks ago?” I asked.

“You mean the fact that I popped Nikki Fingers?”

“And then gave her sister, Jenny, a black eye and a fat lip. Yup. That'd be what I meant.”

She smiled a little, as if she knew she shouldn't enjoy
the memory of messing up Jenny's face but just couldn't help herself. “They don't know about it.”

“Excuse me?”

“The administration. Katie never told them. It was her last gift to me.”

I sat down. I was having a hard time following the conversation and standing at the same time.

“Katie cooked the books,” she continued. “Made it look like Jenny got in with the wrong crowd and picked a fight with the nearest hall monitor.”

“You.”

“Me.”

“So you didn't get suspension?”

She shook her head. “Sick days. That's what's on record. Katie spread the word that I was suspended. Nobody knows.”

“And now nobody cares … I didn't think she had it in her.”

“Neither did I.”

“And you were okay with it?”

“Did I have a choice?” she said. “Katie just did it. Maybe she wanted to keep me from tarnishing the Kondo name. Or maybe she just felt an obligation to me … I've been looking through her books. She broke a lot of ‘laws'
as chief, just to give some kids a second chance, sometimes a third.”

My mind immediately went to Pete Kuhn, but I wasn't sure if it was my place to talk about him. “Doesn't seem possible,” I said.

“But she didn't like you.”

“That sounds more like her. So, what are you going to do?”

She sighed. “I don't know.”

“Do you want the job?”

“I'm not sure,” she said. “Gerry Tinsdale is pretty excited about it.”

“Tinsdale? Oh boy …”

“You don't think he's up for it?”

“I think he thinks he's up for it. I also think he thinks he's doing a good job now. Gerry needs to be introduced to the concept of reality.”

She smiled again, as if she were glad to hear confirmation of what she already suspected.

“I see now what she was trying to do,” she said. “I see why this was so important to her. I know what her plans were, why she lived the way she did, made the decisions that she made. She was unsure of herself, unsure of her beliefs, but only in private. In public, she was always
decisive, always sure. I don't know if I could be that.” She paused. “I'm not sure I'm up to it.”

Her words hung there. I wasn't an expert on Melanie Kondo, so there was no way for me to tell her what tasks she was or wasn't up to. All I knew was that in one little conversation, my opinion of her had done a complete one-eighty.

Just then the door opened, and Gerry Tinsdale walked in. He was sixty-five pounds of sneering petulance, and, by my estimate, twenty of those pounds were his badge and clothes.

“Matt Stevens,” he said, as if my name tasted like cough syrup. “What are you doing dirtying up one of my chairs?”

“From what I understand,” I said, “they're not your chairs yet.”

His ears started to turn a nice shade of crimson, like a ripe pomegranate. “This is the hall monitors' office. In here, if I say it's my chair, then you damn well—”

“He's here because I asked him to be,” Melanie said, interrupting him.

“Great,” he said, trying to recover. “Now he can leave because I asked him to leave.”

“I'm not finished with him,” Melanie said.

“Tell me why that's even a factor in this discussion,” he said, a fat smile planted on his skinny face. “Maybe you should take a
sick day
—you know, to think it over.”

Melanie's jaw tightened, and her eyes narrowed in a way that looked instantly familiar to me. Normally, her resemblance to Katie was hard to see, but it appeared as if Gerry had just found the recipe for bringing the Katie out of her. He must have seen it, too, because he took a step back.

“So, you think you have what it takes to take over my sister's job?” she growled.

“Well—”

“I've been looking at your records, Tinsdale. Want to know how I got access to them?” She took a step toward him. “Easy. The school
gave
them to me. They seemed to feel that
I
was a better fit for this position, so they gave
me
the records of all the monitors who would be in
my
command. They thought that
I
should review them to see who
I'd
like to cut.
Your
records were on top. They said that
I
should take a look at you first. Now, why do you think that is?”

“I—”

By now she was right up in his face. “Maybe they
think you're doing such a bang-up job that they want me to promote you. You think that's what it is?”

“I—”

“Or maybe they think you're incompetent, and the only reason you signed on to this job was so that you could hide your puny self behind that big badge of yours,” she continued.

“That's not—”

“You know the funny thing, Tinsdale? A little while ago, I wasn't sure I was up for the job.”

“It's true,” I said. “You should have heard her.”

Melanie shot me a small smirk. “But then you barged in here with your ridiculous swagger, and I thought to myself, if I don't take it, I'll be taking orders from this guy.”

“You see? All you had to do was keep your mouth shut,” I said.

“So, what are you saying?” he squeaked.

“I'm saying that I'm taking the job that was offered to
me
,” she replied. “I guess I'm also saying that I'm your new boss—unless you feel like turning in that badge of yours.”

Gerry's mouth puckered as he considered his options, none of which seemed all that appealing.

“Go ahead, Gerry,” I said. “I'm sure everyone will respect you just as much without a badge.”

He shot me a look, then he turned, mumbled something that sounded like “Back on patrol,” and headed out the door.

“Well,” I said to Melanie, “congratulations, Chief.”

“Yeah. Who knew?”

“I'll be honest … I didn't.”

“Yeah? Well, then, let's stop talking about things you don't know,” she said, “and start talking about things you do. What happened to my sister?”

“I was hired by Vinny Biggs to do a drop.”

“Of what?”

“Nothing illegal, or I wouldn't have done it. He's being blackmailed.”

“By who?” she asked. “The Thompsons?”

“No, I don't think so. They came in like bandits, not blackmailers. Plus, the blackmailer was careful not to give any hint of his or her identity.”

“So why toss that aside on the very first drop?”

“Right,” I said. “Seems more likely that whoever tipped off your sister also tipped off the Thompsons. Tim and Tina had been tipped off about Melissa,
and they had gotten what they'd wanted. Maybe they thought they'd find the gold at the end of the rainbow again.”

“So what was your role in this?” Melanie asked.

“Vinny wanted someone who wouldn't be tempted to run off with the bag … someone who would just make the drop and get out of there as soon as possible.”

“So, whoever's blackmailing Vinny wanted to take my sister off the board.”

“Possibly. Maybe they wanted to take us both out, and I just got lucky.”

“If the whole point of this was getting the bag, why lose it by hitting you two?” she asked.

“Good question. I don't know. Maybe they thought taking us out of the equation was more valuable.”

Melanie turned her back to me. She sighed. “I don't know what to do.”

“Most kids wouldn't,” I said.

“Katie would.”

I smiled. “Not necessarily. Your sister liked to haul me in here and yell at me—most of the time, I think, because she didn't know what else to do. I think it made her feel better.”

“She still managed to keep things in order around here.”

“Yeah. Well, except for the whole Vinny thing … and the Nikki hit … and Melissa … and—”

“All right, all right. I get it. She wasn't perfect.” She turned to me and smiled. “Thanks, Matt. Now get the hell out of here.”

“Fine,” I said. “Be that way. See if I'm ever nice to you again.”

“Who said you had a choice?”

left the Kondo family office, wondering if it was possible for some good to come out of Katie's takedown. Having the chief hall monitor as an ally might come in handy. I only wished that it hadn't been at Katie's expense.

While I was thinking about this, I almost walked into Peter Kuhn. He was standing right outside the office. His eyes were bright red from crying, and his body was shaking from the consumption of at least a bag and a half of sugar, straight. He was wearing an expensive pair of jeans and an even more expensive shirt. On him, though, they looked
like a new paint job on a condemned house. He didn't really pay much attention to me; he was focused on the office door that used to belong to Katie.

“You see?” he mumbled.

“Something on your mind, Pete?”

He jumped as if he hadn't noticed that I was there. Then he shook his head.

“She's gone,” he croaked.

“Yeah. Something on your mind?” I asked again, this time with a little more insistence in my voice.

“She sounded like she meant it,” he said, as if he had already forgotten I was standing right next to him. “She was there.”

“Where, Pete? Who was where?”

His head jerked around in a series of sugar spasms. His eyes seemed to take in everything in the hallway, except my face.

“I gotta go,” he mumbled.

“Wait … you can help with this!”

“I gotta go!” he shouted.

He started to walk away, but I grabbed him. It felt like there was an electric current running through him.

“What was in the box?” I asked.

“She's gone!”

“And you can help find who did it!” I was practically shouting. “Just tell me what was in the box!” I gave him a shake, but I don't think he noticed.

“Gone!” he yelled, as if he thought he was answering my question and it was my fault for not understanding what he meant. He twisted out of my grasp and ran away down the hall. I started to chase after him when someone stepped into my path.

“Leave him alone, Matt.”

“Liz?” I was too shocked by her sudden appearance to say anything else.

“He's in bad shape, and I won't have you bullying him.”

“Bullying him? Are you kidding?”

“Do I look like I'm kidding?”

“I don't know,” I said. “We don't spend a lot of quality time together anymore. I've lost track of your looks.”

She glared at me, then turned and started walking away.

“How do you know Pete, and why are you sticking up for him?” I asked.

She stopped but kept her back to me. “In order: I go to school here, Pete is also a student here, and although we're not friends, I know him. I'm sticking up for him because
I don't like to see anyone being bullied, especially when they're not capable of defending themselves. If I remember correctly, you used to be the same way.”

“Don't try to put me on the defensive, sweetheart. You're the one walking into the middle of this play. You've got no idea what's going on, and you're trying to tell me my lines. Why are you even here?”

“I was going to see how Melanie was doing.”

“You still can,” I said, pointing to the door.

“My window just closed.”

“Awfully narrow window.”

“Are you implying something, Matt?” she asked, turning toward me. “I seem to remember you accusing me of taking out Nikki Fingers a couple of weeks ago. How'd that work out for you?”