“Boyd created a fake statue for me, identical to the first but hollow inside. The whole thing barely weighs thirty pounds.”
I hate not giving Malone credit for all her hard work in replicating the original statue, but something tells me she’ll be getting lots of recognition for her art in her lifetime.
“So where’s the real statue?” Mayor Hite asks.
Ellie’s standing near the window and taps the glass.
“It’s being installed right now,” she says.
Everyone crowds the window where, outside, hundreds of people are cheering Boyd and Mr. Jessup as they transfer Zippy to his rightful perch. The revelation that the actual Zippy statue isn’t halfway to Mars lightens the air in the room considerably, which is nice because I haven’t started lying yet.
“We installed a camera in the eagle’s eye, which directly transferred the video to my phone,” I say.
That’s Lie #1.
Because, yes, there was a camera in the statue, but Ellie turned it on when she entered the curtains and Wheeler removed the camera once Becca and Benz were gone. At least that was the original plan. I still have no idea what exactly happened after things fell apart last night.
“Then I added the footage of Jeff and Becca to the end of my movie,” Ellie says.
“And today I used a remote to turn the projector back on,” I say.
That’s Lie #2.
“A remote?” Stranko says skeptically.
“Well, if you want to be technical, a remote app.”
Which is Lie #3.
Here’s a quick tip: If you’re ever talking to an adult and need a fast explanation for something unexplainable, say you did it with an app. Adults are awesomely ignorant when it comes to technology.
“Really, we didn’t do anything special,” I say. “We set up a camera, filmed the Chaos Club, and showed it today. Simple.”
This Lie #4.
“That’s not true,” Benz says. “They were there at the school last night. We saw them.”
“Just a moment, Jeffrey. You’ll get a chance to speak,” Mrs. B says, then turns to me. “If what you’re saying is true, Max, why wouldn’t you come to us instead of going through with this elaborate display?”
Great question.
Time for my ace in the hole.
“I tried,” I say. “I went to Mr. Stranko’s office to tell him I was worried the Chaos Club was going to do something at the celebration, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Mrs. B looks up at a stunned Stranko.
“Is this true?”
“Well…” Stranko says stalling. “He did come by, but I thought he was setting me up somehow.”
“Setting you up how?” Dad says.
Stranko’s getting whiter by the second.
“I thought he was trying to trick me,” he says. “Don’t forget that someone did lock me in the loading dock. And on the water tower. If they didn’t do it, then who did?”
“Our son came to you with this concern beforehand and you ignored him?” Mom says.
“He screamed at me to get out,” I say. “I couldn’t get him to believe me, so I had to do something.”
Stranko’s on the ropes, but Mrs. B saves him.
“We’re getting off track,” she says. “What I was getting at before is this: Why would you have a fake statue installed and then launch it like that? Why not film the Chaos Club some other way that doesn’t involve breaking a dozen FAA laws?”
“We talked about that, Mrs. B,” Ellie says, “but we really didn’t know what the Chaos Club was going to do to the statue. You’ve seen their pranks. We were afraid they would do permanent damage, and we didn’t want that to happen.”
By the way Stranko’s grinding his teeth, it’s clear he’s not believing any of this, but he has no ammo. Any suspicion he has can be explained away by Chaos Club involvement. He knows it, and I know it.
Mrs. B asks a few other detaily questions that I answer mostly with lies to protect the others. Eventually, she says to Becca and Benz, “So now it’s your turn. What would you like to add to this?”
For the last ten minutes, Benz’s been squirming hard in his seat, his body twitching as he fought to keep quiet. Now that he’s allowed to tell his side, he vomits it all out in a shout while jabbing a finger at me.
“They’re both lying! We saw them last night! They trapped Hale in his car! And Stranko on the tower!”
“And there were others too,” Becca says, not as crazed but still as pointed. “It wasn’t just them. I don’t know who else, but I one hundred percent saw Ellie and Max there.”
“That’s not true, Mrs. B,” Ellie says.
“Which part?”
“Every part. None of it’s true. Max and I were nowhere near the school last night.”
“Didn’t you say you were going to a movie?” Ellie’s mom says.
“Yes,” Ellie says, her voice trembling a bit, “but that’s not what we did.”
“What do you mean?”
Ellie stares at her hands.
“Ellie?”
When she looks up, her eyes are wet, and she’s blushing. A baseball-sized knot forms in my throat. Ellie’s gone completely off script.