There were two sheriff’s department cars and several uniformed officers standing in a knot, speaking with the principal, Mr. Sternholtz, and the school’s elderly security guard, whose name Dana didn’t know but who all the students called Tex.
“I heard they were going to assign a bunch of narcs to FSK,” said Eileen.
“Right,” said Dave, “because clearly we’ve become a wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
“This is about Maisie,” countered Eileen, “and those other teens. Maybe there really is a problem.”
“Maybe,” said Dana quietly. “But I don’t think it’s drugs.”
CHAPTER 31
Francis Scott Key Regional High School Parking Lot 7:21 A.M.
Gerlach’s driver drummed his fingers on the curved top of the steering wheel.
“She saw you, you know,” he said.
Agent Gerlach popped the glove box and rooted around for a fresh pack of gum. There were a dozen packs in there, most of them empty. He never threw his trash out the window. Fingerprints. He found the last unopened pack behind the spare magazines for the automatic pistol he wore.
“I know,” he said.
“Is that going to be a problem?”
Gerlach unwrapped a stick and bent it to test its freshness. It snapped. Brittle and stale. He sighed and put it in his mouth anyway.
“I don’t have a particularly memorable face,” he said.
“You sure?” asked the driver. “I read her profile. She’s a sharp kid. Young, but sharp.”
Gerlach chewed the gum and did not reply.
The last of the students vanished through the big doors, and the neighborhood fell into a false quiet, as if there were no one around.
As if everything were calm and peaceful.
As if.
CHAPTER 32
Francis Scott Key Regional High School
7:28 A.M.
Dana was at her locker sorting through her textbooks when Ethan seemed to materialize out of nowhere.
“Hey,” he said, and she jumped about a foot in the air.
“Don’t do that,” she said, shoving him back.
“Sorry,” he said in exactly the way someone says it when they’re not. “Are you still coming to science club today?”
“Sure,” said Dana. “But then we’ll go look at your uncle’s files. Right?”
He searched her eyes. “If you’re sure you want to.”
Before she could answer, the special notice bell rang very loudly, and they automatically glanced at the speakers mounted high on the wall. There was a tap-tap sound of someone testing the mic, and then Mr. Sternholtz’s voice spoke in a slow, heavy tone.
“All students are required to go to the auditorium for a special assembly that will be held in place of homeroom. Please make your way there now. The assembly will begin in fifteen minutes.”
Then silence.
“What’s that all about?” wondered Ethan. “No, wait, I get it.… The narcs. Did you see them all outside? We’re going to have them up our butts from now on.”
Dana nodded, though there was a tone to Sternholtz’s announcement that bothered her.
Even so, she cut a sidelong look at Ethan. “You want to sit together?”
He grinned. “Sure.”
They headed off, and almost immediately Ethan collided with a young man who came out of a doorway. Ethan bounced off the other guy and nearly fell, but the second boy whipped out a hand and caught him. It was an incredibly fast move, and it carried with it enough strength to stop Ethan’s fall.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going,” growled Ethan as he pulled his arm away.
The other boy was Angelo, from Corinda’s shop. “You walked into me, ese.”
Angelo’s blue work shirt was half-unbuttoned to reveal a white Henley beneath. His arms and face were a medium brown except for some old pink scars. Signs of an interesting life, Dana thought.
“You came out of nowhere and crashed right into me,” protested Ethan. He was flushed, clearly embarrassed for getting both knocked over and saved in the same moment.
“I came out of there,” said Angelo, pointing to a door clearly marked JANITORIAL. “If you’d been paying a little attention to where you were going instead of hound-dogging with your girlfriend here, you might have seen me.”
“I wasn’t hound-dogging; I was going to the assembly.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Dana said quickly.
Both boys looked at her. Angelo smiled; Ethan did not.
“If you were going to the assembly,” said Angelo mildly, “then I guess you better scurry along.” Before Ethan could organize a reply, Angelo turned to Dana and gave a little lift of his chin. “?Qué pasa, mai?”
Dana didn’t know very much Spanish but knew that phrase from growing up in Southern California. What’s up, girl?
She didn’t reply. Ethan stood there, awkward and uncertain, apparently not knowing what he should say or do. Angelo seemed amused.
“See you around, amigo,” he said, and walked off. When he was a few feet away, he turned and gave Dana the same kind of inexplicable look he’d given her at Beyond Beyond.
“Freak,” muttered Ethan under his breath.