First Drop

weekend.

Trey livened up enough to chat to them over a meal of burger and fries but I could see the effort it was costing him to act normal. When he thought nobody was looking his eyes had begun to carry a haunted, hunted edge. He’d picked at a hangnail on the side of his thumb until he’d peeled strip after strip of skin away, making it bleed. He was worrying at it now, I noticed, as unconscious an action as a nervous twitch.

He couldn’t, I realised, go on like this much longer. He may be an irritating brat with the usual modern teenager’s blase attitude to danger, but faced with its constant reality he was starting to suffer. What had begun as a live-action version of one of his computer games had turned into a nightmare he couldn’t just pull the plug on when things got tough.

Whatever I was going to do about the situation, I needed to do it fast. Before he came apart at the seams.

Sixteen

It was just as we were leaving the barbecue joint that Trey’s mobile rang. He dragged the phone out of his pocket and looked at the display almost fearfully.

“It’s Xander,” he said, not making any moves to pick up the call.

I let it go two more rings, then sighed, lifting the phone out of his hands and hitting the receive button.

“Hi Xander,” I said, careful to keep my tone neutral.

“Oh, hi Charlie,” he said, sounding just as cautious, just as low-key.

“How’s Scott?”

He hesitated and for a second I feared the worst, but when he spoke I realised he’d just wanted to make me sweat. “He’s outta surgery. His mom and dad are with him,” he said grudgingly. “The doctors still aren’t sure if he’ll, like, be able to walk real good, but at least he’s gonna make it.”

Trey, not having wanted to take the call, was hovering at my shoulder, trying to listen in but the passing traffic made it hard for him to hear. Instead, he plucked at the sleeve of my shirt and mouthed, “How is he?” at me.

I gave him a tentative thumbs up and pushed him away. “That’s good news,” I said to Xander, stalling. There was a tightness in my chest as I worked myself up to asking him about Henry’s hard drive, knowing how crass it would make me sound. In the end, I didn’t have to.

“Anyways, Aimee said you needed to know what was on that hard drive so’s you could nail the bastards who shot him,” Xander went on.

“That’s right,” I said, surprised enough to push my luck. “When do you think you might have the chance to have a look at it?”

“Already done, man. I looked at it soon as I got home from the hospital. Soon as my mom and dad were done chewing me out, anyways. You want the whole thing or just the highlights?”

“Whichever,” I said faintly. “Can you tell who he contacted?”

“He sent the first one just to the security department at the company Trey’s dad works for. It was kinda mysterious, y’know? Henry just kinda asked them if they’d lost something and what kinda reward was on offer for the person who, like, found it.”

Some “negotiation on our behalf”, Henry, I thought bitterly. “Did you manage to find the replies?”

“‘Course,” he said, a little disdainful. “It wasn’t encrypted or nothing. I just had to hook the drive up and go look in the In and Outboxes. You don’t even need a password. It was a real cinch.”

“So what did they say back to him?”

“Well, there was some messing about backwards and forwards while they goes, ‘What have you found?’ And Henry goes, ‘What have you lost?’ In the end it was Henry who goes, like, ‘You wanna do a deal or not?’ and that’s when they cut the crap.”

“I’ll bet they did,” I muttered. “I don’t suppose they did anything stupid like signed a name, did they?”

“Didn’t have to,” he said. “Henry’s original mail mighta gone just to security@, but the reply came from jwhitmarsh@.”

I nodded. No surprises there, then. “So what did Whitmarsh say?”

“He wanted some kinda proof that Henry had gotten hold of Trey for real, so Henry spills it about you and Trey changing your hair colour and stuff.”

Bastard. I remembered the lack of any real surprise on Whitmarsh’s face when we’d come out of the house and he’d seen our changed appearance. Now I understood why.

“What then?” I asked, keeping my teeth together with the effort of not breaking into a fit of cursing at Henry’s obvious duplicity. He’d died terrified and I pitied him for that, but the fact that he’d never had any intention of helping us took the edge off my sympathy.

“Whitmarsh, he goes, ‘OK, I’ll go check with my superiors about what we can offer you.’ And then, like a coupla hours later he comes back on line and goes, ‘I’m authorised to go to five grand.’”

“Five thousand dollars?” I echoed. Not even thirty pieces of silver plus inflation? It seemed such a measly bounty to pay on somebody’s life. Two people’s lives, when I thought about it. In fact, it was actually quite insulting to have so low a value placed on me. Two for the price of one. It made me feel like a supermarket special offer. “How did Henry react to that?”

“He went kinda nuts, man,” Xander said, “really lost it. He accuses Whitmarsh of taking him for some kinda fool who don’t know what’s at stake. How he knows that without Trey they got zip and how they should be talking about five hundred grand.”

“I bet that went down well,” I said, unable to keep the irony out of my tone.

“You’re kidding me!” Xander said, missing it entirely. “So Whitmarsh comes back with, ‘You’re bluffing. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ And Henry goes, ‘Oh yeah?’ and he launches into a load of bullshit about how Trey’s been teaching some intelligent software all about how to figure out Wall Street. Is that right, man?” he finished uncertainly.

I glanced at Trey, who’d given up unsuccessfully trying to eavesdrop. He was now sitting on the railing near the door into the diner and blowing bubbles with his gum. He got too adventurous with the last one and it burst all over his face. He tried to peel the exploded goo off his nose and cheek but only ended up sticking his fingers together and increasing the mess. As computer geniuses went he seemed pretty unlikely, I had to admit.

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s right.”

“No shit,” Xander said in wonder, and I could almost hear him shaking his head.

“Did they ask Henry for his address?”

“No, but it wouldn’t have been hard to find out. He was mailing out from his own website – y’know, the conspiracy theory one we told you about? It was kinda dumb of him if Whitmarsh’s got pals in the cops. They’d be able to trace him easy.”

“Was there anything else?”

“No, that was it. D’you reckon this guy Whitmarsh is the one killed Henry?”

“Could be,” I said, even though I knew it wasn’t quite as straightforward as that. “I’m still trying to work it out.”

There was a pause, then Xander said, “Look, man, tell Trey I’m kinda sorry I blew up at you guys at the hospital. I was just kinda worried about Scott, y’know?”

“We all were.”

“Yeah, well, I know that,” he muttered. “Anyway, I gotta go. I’m not really supposed to be on the phone. My folks have gone kinda ape-shit at what’s happened. It’s really freaked them out. I am so grounded.”

“Thank you for doing this, Xander,” I said, meaning it. “It helps a lot.”

“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” he said, embarrassed. “Oh, one more thing, you guys. Don’t go back to Scott’s place. It’s not just that his folks are back, but the cops are all over it.”

“OK,” I said. “Thanks for the warning.”

“No sweat,” he said. “You could come stay here but, like I say, I think I’m grounded ‘til I’m, like,