Just Another Hero Page 17

“Yes, but not nearly enough. Not one camera has captured a theft,” Officer Hammler replied.

  “School-board-affordable technology?” asked Osrick.

  “If you mean the cheapest stuff available, of course!” Mrs. Sherman answered with a laugh.

  “Everybody knows where they are—they’re pretty obvious,” Osrick said.

  “Plus, we’ve got teachers watching the classrooms and the gym locker rooms.”

  “And I’m doing all I can—talking to kids about leads, checking lockers, and patrolling the hallways from dawn to dusk,” the police officer said. “But we’ve come up with nothing. Zip.”

  Mrs. Sherman nodded. “I have to admit—I’m stumped.”

  Osrick spoke up again, sounding more sure of himself than he ever did in class. “What we need to do is set a trap. The thief takes money and cool electronic gadgets. We put some of this stuff on some money or a cell phone, leave it out as a temptation, and see whose hands turn blue.”

  “That’s smart thinking, Osrick,” the principal said. “But the directions say here that you need one of the UV/black lights for the blue gel to show up on the thief’s hands.”

  Osrick dug down into his bag once more and pulled out a small UV light. “Runs on batteries,” he explained. Officer Hammler grinned.

  Boy, people sure have underestimated Osrick, Arielle thought as she listened to his plan. She agreed to let them put a fifty-dollar bill—to make it a greater temptation—and an electronic gadget in her purse. The purse would be placed in the girls’ locker room, where many of the thefts seemed to have occurred. The rest would be up to the thief.

  “If we hurry, we can plant my bag down in the gym right now,” Arielle said. “That’s what class I’m supposed to be in.”

  “This better work,” said Mrs. Sherman as she took a fifty-dollar bill out of the petty-cash box in her office. “These babies don’t grow on trees, you know.” Then she pulled an iPod out of a box by her desk.

  “Is that an iPod?” Arielle asked. “It looks like a brick! I’ve never seen one so huge.” She and Osrick both laughed at the ancient-looking device. “No kid will steal that thing—it’s a dinosaur!”

  Mrs. Sherman said, “I have to agree, but it’s all we have to use as bait. I don’t think it even works—it was in that box of lost items when I got here.”

  Officer Hammler put on a latex glove from the first-aid kit, scooped some of the powder out of the jar, and rubbed it all over the money and the iPod. Neither item looked any different when he’d finished.

  “Let’s check it,” Arielle suggested, “just to make sure it works.”

  Osrick turned on the black light. Both the money and the device glowed an odd, iridescent blue. “Awesome,” he said.

  “You’re pretty cool, you know that, Osrick?” Arielle said with a slow nod.

  “I know,” he said, blushing.

  Officer Hammler carefully placed both articles in Arielle’s purse, right on top.

  “Hurry, now,” Mrs. Sherman told Arielle. “Let’s see if we can catch this thief.”

  “Can I get a pass to class and a note that says I don’t have to dress for gym today?” Arielle asked.

  Mrs. Sherman smiled. “Just for today,” she said. “Now, go! And where are you headed, Osrick?”

  “I have computer class last bell,” he explained. “I’m not missing anything. In fact, I could probably teach the class!” he joked.

  “I believe you,” Mrs. Sherman replied. “Do you want to wait here to see if anyone takes our bait?”

  Osrick nodded eagerly.

  As Arielle dashed out of the office, Rosa leaned her chair back, clearly trying to figure out what was going on, but Mrs. Sherman firmly shut the door.

  Arielle rushed down to the gym, wondering if the trap would work. Officer Hammler followed Arielle at a distance, acting as if he wasn’t paying attention to her. The plan was for him to observe the few students with passes who were in the hall and near the gym so they could be questioned later.

  The locker room was deserted. Arielle breathed a sigh of relief and carefully set her purse on a bench near a wall of lockers. She lifted the top flap so the money was in plain view. The iPod lay right beneath the cash. Then she checked her watch, realized she had about fifteen minutes of class left, so she grabbed the note and headed into the hot, smelly gym. She did not look back at the purse.

  November was already seated on one of the bleachers, watching a volleyball game.

  “Looking at gym class is so much better than doing it,” Arielle said as she slid onto a bench next to November. Her heart was beating fast, but she tried to act relaxed.

  “I feel ya,” November agreed. “They scheduled me for two gym classes. How dumb is that? But they wouldn’t change my schedule. What a waste of time. I could be out of here and with my baby. How’d you get an excuse to miss class?”

  “I told them I was sick,” Arielle told her.

  “Actually, you don’t look so good. You feelin’ okay?” November asked. “You’re not pregnant, are you?” she said jokingly.

  “Not hardly!” Arielle laughed. “I got enough problems!” She didn’t want to talk about herself, so she changed the subject. “What’s Eddie’s excuse to sit out?” she asked, pointing toward the other side of the bleachers.

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care. That dude makes me itch!” November replied.

  “Dana’s really spooked by him,” said Arielle. “Her mother’s looking into getting a restraining order against him.”

  “Yeah, I heard. But that’s gotta be almost impossible to enforce inside a school.”

  “True that.”

  “At least she’s got Kofi and Jericho as her unofficial security guards. They’ve worked it out so that one of them or the other is with her between every class.”

  “That’s cool.”

  “There goes Pringle out to run around the track,” November said as the skinny teacher jogged through the gym toward the outside exit. She waved at the girls as she headed out—earphones on her head, keys jingling around her neck, a bottle of water strapped to her waist, and a determined look on her face.

  “Every day like clockwork, just before the bell rings at the end of the day. The woman must run on batteries. Did you ever see her do the dance of the chemical elements?”

  “No, I missed that while I was out,” November replied with a chuckle. “Lucky me.”

  Arielle watched Olivia swat the volleyball across the net. She was sweaty and looked like she was having fun. “You know, I really underestimated Olivia,” she said.

  “Yeah, you did.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Tell her, not me,” November said.

  “I will.”

  “She’s a bigger person than you are, Arielle, and I’m not talking about her weight.”

  “I know,” Arielle whispered. “I know.”

  The gym teacher finally blew the whistle. November sighed with relief, told Arielle good-bye, and left to go pick up her baby. Eddie, Arielle noticed, had disappeared. Good riddance, she thought.

  Arielle waited so a few girls got to the locker room before she did. Then, slowly, she turned the corner toward the row of pale green, rusty lockers. Her purse was sitting on the bench exactly where she’d left it, with the flap up and the insides clearly visible. But the fifty-dollar bill and the ancient iPod were gone.

  ARIELLE

  CHAPTER 27

  THURSDAY, MARCH 10

  ARIELLE SHIVERED IN THE CHILLY CLASSROOM—partly from the cold and even more from nervousness. She and Osrick, who sat up tall without his hoodie, sat in the front row and waited quietly. She had no classes in this room; it felt odd to be in someone else’s space. The faded posters of American heroes and the vocabulary words on the board in an unfamiliar handwriting all added to the tension of the morning. Officer Hammler stood in uniform by the front door, his face stern.

  It was the first bell of the day, the time when students got books from lockers, teach
ers ran off tests on the copy machine, all school attendance was taken, and announcements were made. Home Base, the time was called, and it really did serve as a relaxed launching point for most school days. But not today.

  Arielle usually used this as her own personal quiet time—to scribble out some lines to a poem, finish up her chemistry homework for that next class, or grab a doughnut and some juice from the free breakfast line. But today was different. When the morning announcements came on, she jumped, startled by the sudden noise on the TV monitor.

  The student camera operators had chosen to use a close-up lens this morning, so Mrs. Sherman’s large face and body filled up the whole viewing area. She was dressed all in black and looked every bit as stern as Officer Hammler. “The following students should please report to room 123 for a special meeting. Repeat. If you hear your name called, please bring your books to room 123 for a special meeting IMMEDIATELY.

  Eddie Mahoney

  Olivia Thigpen

  Arielle Gresham

  November Nelson

  Jack Krasinski

  Jericho Prescott

  Kofi Freeman

  Dana Wolfe

  Roscoe Robinson

  Rosa Gonzalez

  Luis Morales

  Osrick Wardley

  Rudy Amadour

  Cleveland Wilson

  Jesse Smith

  Burton Johnson

  Carlos Burke

  Susan Richards

  Paula Ingram

  Wendy Bartles

  Brandon Merriweather.”

  In addition to those who’d had items stolen, or who had been impacted by the thefts, she had also read off the names of all the students who were enrolled in that last-bell gym class. “Additionally,” Mrs. Sherman continued, “I’m requesting all teachers who are not assigned to a class the last bell of the day or the first bell of the day, to come to room 123 to assist with this very important meeting as well. It should take only a few minutes of your time. I appreciate your swift response.”

  Arielle could imagine the whispers that would be flying around the school as students whose names were called packed up their gear and headed to room 123.

  “What’s up with this?”

  “Anybody know what the meeting is for?”

  “Is it time to announce who got into National Honor Society?”

  “Not with Eddie Mahoney on the list!”

  “Somebody’s in trouble, that’s for sure.”

  “Weird Osrick? What could he do bad?”

  “Maybe he sneezed on somebody.”

  “Maybe it’s a bunch of people who treated the little dude bad.”

  “That would be a much longer list, man!”

  “Maybe they’re prize winners.”

  “Scholarship announcements, you think?”

  “Naw, some of the kids whose names she called are not the tallest trees in the jungle. You know what I’m sayin’?”

  “Well, maybe they’re checkin’ for drugs. I saw Officer Hammler down by Room 123 early this morning.”

  “He got the drug-sniffing dog with him?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see the dog.”

  “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  The teachers who walked into the room looked annoyed, because they’d probably been preparing for their morning classes.

  “What’s this all about, Thelma?” Mrs. Witherspoon asked Mrs. Sherman. “I’m trying to calibrate my computers for the day, and I really need this time.”

  “Give me five minutes, Maggie, and I’ll explain it all. I promise,” Mrs. Sherman assured her.

  Miss Pringle came in next, carrying her ever-present mug of coffee, then Mr. Tambori, the music teacher, and Ms. Hathaway, another English teacher.

  Eddie was the first student to arrive. He sat in the back of the room and folded his arms across his chest. Then came Jericho and Olivia, along with Kofi and Dana, all dressed alike in red and white school sweatshirts.

  Arielle smiled at them as they sat down next to her. “Did you guys plan that?” she asked.

  Kofi rolled his eyes. “When you let your girls be your fashion planners, there’s no telling what they might make you do!” Dana just punched his arm.

  “You know why they called this meeting?” Dana whispered.

  Arielle shook her head, feeling bad that she’d had to keep all this a secret from her friends.

  November slipped into the next row of seats, along with Roscoe and Luis and Cleveland. “Maybe we all won scholarships!” she whispered.

  “Not likely,” Kofi replied.

  “Maybe they’re sending us all to Disney World!” suggested Luis.

  “You trippin’, man. You know how cheap the school board is. They wouldn’t send us to the corner drugstore!” Cleveland told them.

  “For sure.”

  When Brandon walked in, wearing tailored slacks and a cashmere sweater instead of the jeans and sweats that most of the kids wore, he winked at Arielle. She could swear she caught a whiff of that cologne he wore. He looks out of place here—as if he should be in some private boarding school instead of raggedy old Douglass. I can’t believe he’s making my gut do flip-flops! she thought.

  Mrs. Sherman checked off each student’s name on her clipboard list as they arrived. Susan Richards, still wearing her dance clothes from morning rehearsal, slipped in quietly. The last student to arrive was Jack Krasinski. His hair was uncombed, and he looked as if he’d slept in his clothes—they were wrinkled and slightly sour smelling. But then, sleeping in one’s clothes is sometimes necessary, Arielle thought ruefully. Who am I to talk about somebody else?

  “Crazy Jack is here and the party can begin!” he announced, loudly crashing his ever-present cymbals, startling everyone. “Who brought the chips and dip?” He laughed loudly at his own joke, but nobody else seemed to think it was very funny.

  “Put those things away, Jack,” the principal said sternly. “Now!”

  Arielle and the other students turned to see what he would do.

  He cocked his head, stared hard at Mrs. Sherman with red-rimmed eyes, then dropped the cymbals to the cement floor with a loud clattering commotion. She chose not to challenge him further.

  “That’s crazy, even for Jack,” Kofi whispered to Arielle.

  Mrs. Sherman closed the door to the classroom and began the meeting. “All of us here at Douglass High School have been concerned with the recent thefts of money and property.”

  “You find my stuff?” Cleveland called out, interrupting.

  “Please let me finish,” the principal said tersely. “We have called you here this morning to do a routine check. No one is under suspicion, and no one is being accused.”

  Officer Hammler spoke next in his gruff, no-nonsense voice. “Please understand that this is strictly voluntary, although we are fully within our rights to conduct this search. We are not looking in your personal property—just checking your hands. All we are asking is that you pass your hands under this black light. If nothing appears, you are free to go back to class.”

  “What’s supposed to show up?” asked Jericho.

  “Dirt if it’s your hands!” Roscoe said jokingly.

  Officer Hammler did not answer. “Let’s begin,” he said.

  “Please walk to the front, pass both hands under the light, then get your gear and head back to your classrooms,” Mrs. Sherman instructed. “Would anyone like to volunteer to go first?”

  The room was silent for a moment, then Eddie stood up and slung his backpack over his left shoulder. He walked slowly and deliberately to the front, everyone seeming to squeeze tighter into themselves as he passed. “I know everybody thinks I’m a thief and criminal, so I’m goin’ first to show you how wrong you are!” He dropped his book bag on the floor and passed both hands under the UV light. Nothing showed except for the line markings on his palms. Eddie then turned to face the class. He stared directly at Dana and said, “I’m outta here. Later, losers.” The door slammed as he left. />
  “Why am I in here?” Paula Ingram asked. “I got my stuff stolen! I’m not the thief.” She put her hands under the light and left angrily.

  When Kofi walked to the front, Arielle remembered what Dana had told her about Kofi’s receiving the Freedom Achievers Scholarship. He deserved it, she thought with pride. She’d known him since seventh grade—he was no thief. His hands tested clear as well.

  One by one each student passed their hands under the strange blue light. Roscoe. Jericho. Cleveland. Dana. November. Olivia. Brandon. All were clean.

  Dana waved at Arielle as she left. “See you in chem,” she said.

  Luis Morales, Wendy Bartles, and Rudy Amadour were next. Clean. Susan Richards’s hands also came out clean. Arielle noticed that Osrick bit his fingernails as that group hurried out of the room. No one who had that last-bell gym class, and no student aides who had been in the hall that bell, had shown any signs of the antitheft powder on their hands.

  Most of the teachers were checked. Mrs. Witherspoon hurried out to finish setting her computers, Mr. Tambori left for the band room, and Ms. Hathaway said she had to finish grading a set of tests.

  Just four students remained—Rosa Gonzalez, Arielle, Osrick, and Jack, who stomped up next. “I hope you find something on my hands,” he shouted, much louder than necessary for the small room, Arielle thought. “It’s just first bell and already I’ve had a really bad day!”

  Here it is! Arielle just knew Jack would prove to be the thief.

  Jack placed his hands under the ultraviolet light, screamed as if he were in extreme pain, and pulled them away violently. “Eeeeeeh!” he yelled. “What did you put in that blue stuff? It burns! It burns!”

  Mrs. Sherman, her eyes wide, reached out to touch Jack on the shoulder, but he jerked away from her. “Jack,” she said calmly, “it’s just light. It can’t hurt you.” She put her own hand under the light to show him. “See? It’s okay.”

  He looked at her warily, then let her guide his hands under the glow. Jack’s hands tested as clear as the others, but Arielle continued to watch him. His reaction to the light was way weird in her book. He looked like he hadn’t slept for days. But he seemed to have calmed down, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets.