Officer Parsons. Now that was interesting.
“You’re sure that officer was in the van?”
“He was wearing different clothes and he was driving.”
My anger must have bled through into my expression, because Michael curled up to hide again, tucking his head back under my chin. “You’re not in trouble,” I said. “I’m just . . . upset.”
Michael didn’t move for a while, and I let him be still. I probably couldn’t have said much of anything to Michael right then anyway. My mind was too busy trying to connect the dots between what had already happened and what it could all mean. If our father was planning something and having my brothers followed, I had to find out what it was before they went back to school.
“What happened at the school?” I asked.
Michael’s head dropped down.
“What is it? You can tell me.”
He shook his head so that his hair tickled my chin.
“I should probably know, don’t you think?”
I felt his body sag a little, and then, in his quietest voice, Michael said, “Freddie said we shouldn’t have the taxi take us all the way to school or everyone would stare at us. So we got out a block away and walked, but these older kids from our neighborhood were waiting for us at the school gates.”
“And then what?”
Michael covered his face with his hands, muffling his voice further. “They called you a killer. Said Dad was going to prison in your place, which wasn’t right.”
“And so Seanie got mad?” I smiled a little, thinking about my youngest brother attacking the group of older boys to protect me. It would be like him.
“He said some things, but that’s not why the fight started.”
“Was it Freddie, then?”
Michael dropped his hands and leaned back to look up at me. “It wasn’t them.”
I waited while Michael looked from the floor and back to me several times. Then, with the softest glint of mischief in his eyes, he said, “I slapped Toby Parker.”
I immediately laughed, though I knew I shouldn’t. “Did you? For my honor?”
Michael was trying not to laugh with me but failed. “Then I told him to watch his trash mouth, and then he slapped me back and Freddie punched him in the eye. By then all the boys joined in and Freddie had to fight them off so we could run away.”
“Well,” I said, through a few more eruptions of laughter that I couldn’t control. “I feel properly avenged.”
Michael blushed and covered his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You ready to go downstairs?” I asked him.
He stood slowly, but stopped after taking only the first step down and looked back at me.
“Aren’t you coming?”
I nodded. “Let me make a quick call first.”
I pulled out my phone and wandered into my room as Michael went down, searching through my call history for the number.
“Junior,” DS Day said once the call connected.
I felt my lip curl. “Set it up.”
“What now?”
“Set it up. I’ll meet him.”
It was silent on the other end of the call, which wasn’t what I’d expected, and then DS Day asked, “What’s the catch?”
I sighed. “Set it up or don’t. But make it soon, before I change my mind.”
“Right.”
“And you’ll need to find a way to get? me out of here unseen. There are cameras everywhere thanks to his little stunt.”
“His what?”
I growled internally, wondering just how my father put up with a lackey who was dense as concrete. “Just call me when you have a time. Better yet—send me a text. I don’t want to hear your voice.”
I ended the call and dropped my phone on the bed, trying to convince myself that this was the right move. I was giving my father what he thought he wanted. But Michael said he saw Officer Parsons following them home from school in a van, and I believed him. I also knew without a doubt that Parsons was one of my father’s men, which meant Dad had a plan. I just needed to figure out how to make him tell me those plans so I could stop him.
I changed out of my uniform and washed my face, and on my way down the stairs, I heard Alice shout, “I arranged a whole week off for you three!” A cheer erupted from the kitchen.??Alice was standing in the doorway. She slid her mobile into the back pocket of her jeans. “Your makeup homework packets will be here in the afternoon tomorrow!” she cried just as enthusiastically. There was no cheer for that.