Among the Barons

Somehow Luke couldn’t believe that. It didn’t make sense. He would have been dead if Trey hadn’t saved him. Oscar was just trying to manipulate Luke again, trying to turn a mistake into an obligation.

“And I owe you for sending the guards away,” Oscar said. “Here’s my thanks.”

Luke felt something fall into his pant pocket But it wasn’t until Oscar had released him and walked away that Luke could gather his wits enough to reach in and find out what it was.

His fingers brushed smooth metal, then teeth. It was a key.

Luke knew instantly what the key unlocked.

“Smits, come with me,” Luke said. “Nina, Trey — you, too. And Joel and John — you two are in charge while I’m away”.

He gave them some quick instructions. Joel and John nodded numbly This was a lot more important than leaving them in charge of the nightly games at Hendricks School, and they hadn’t seemed confident enough to handle that. But it couldn’t be helped.

Luke led Smits, They and Nina through a maze of rooms that almost seemed familiar now. In front of the secret room he didn’t even bother to look around to see who might be watching. He just thrust the key in — yes, it was the right key — and let his friends into the dark room. Luke began to fumble with the controls on the wall, but Smits took over, punching the right sequence to turn on the lights and seal the door.

“Lee and I,” he said. “We used to come here sometimes, to hide. To make secret plans. Silly things like dropping water balloons on the cooks. Putting sneezing powder in our beds for the maids when they cleaned our rooms. We had so much fun before — before he died.”

He looked around dazedly as if he’d forgotten that he was speaking aloud.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t know there were servants here. You can’t believe a word I say” he told They and Nina. “I’m crazy Everyone thinks so.”

“No, you’re not,” Luke said. “And it’s okay to tell the truth now. They and Nina are my friends.”

“Oh. Yes. Trey I remember you. What are you doing here?”

“Helping out,” They said. Smits’s stunned expression didn’t change.

“I think he’s in shock,” Nina whispered to Luke. But Smits heard her.

“No,” he said. “I think I was in shock for the past six months. But now I’m — am I free now? Is Oscar gone?”

Luke remembered the way Oscar had hugged him, the way he’d slipped off into the darkness.

“I think so,” Luke said.

Smits eased down into one of the chairs and stared bleakly at the wall.

“I didn’t think he would kill them,” Smits said, almost as if he was talking to himself. “He said he would destroy you. Slowly he raised his head until his empty gaze was fixed on Luke.

“M-me?” Luke stammered.

“He wanted me to help,” Smits said without emotion. “Because you weren’t Lee. Because you’d taken his name. Because you weren’t a Baron. Oscar was a Baron, did you know that? He was just pretending to be a servant. To get revenge.~~

Luke’s jaw dropped. What? Oscar wasn’t a Baron! He hated Barons!”

Smits didn’t seem to hear Luke.

“I wouldn’t help him,” Smits said. “Not when it mattered. I helped you, just to make him mad. Is that… is that why Oscar killed them? Because I wouldn’t do what he said?~

Tears began to flow down his face. He brushed them away leaving smears of blood on his cheeks. His hands must have been bleeding, and none of them had noticed.

“Oscar was trying to kill the president,” Luke said. “Not your parents. He just… missed.”

But Luke wasn’t sure that he believed that How could he believe anything Oscar had told him?

“People try to kill my parents all the time,” Smits said. “Lee and me, we weren’t supposed to know, but — remember when the flaming dessert exploded? That was one time. And there was a bomb once, in my dad’s office…. But Mom and Dad, they always survived. Somehow. Maybe”—his face lit up, and he sat forward—”maybe they aren’t dead now. Maybe they’re just hurt really bad, and if we have the servants take them to the hospital..

Luke thought about the pile of broken glass, of the way that Mr. and Mrs. Grant’s bodies hadn’t even been visible beneath the wreckage.

“No,” he said gently “They’re dead.”

Smits slumped back in his seat, back into stony silence.

“How did Oscar do it?” Nina asked. “How did he get the chandelier to fall when he was standing practically underneath it? If there’d been someone up there cutting the wires, someone Oscar was commanding we would have seen him.”

Luke hadn’t even thought about that. The chandelier’s falling had seemed like a tornado or an earthquake— something so sudden and cataclysmic that it didn’t make sense to look for explanations.

“It was some sort of remote-control hookup,” Trey said. “I bet if we looked, we’d find a release on the wires that went off when Oscar gave a signal. Or maybe he pressed the button himself. Maybe nobody except Oscar knew what was going to happen.”

Luke remembered Oscar’s warning: “Watch out for chandeliers.” Oscar apparently hadn’t given Smits the same warning. Even after Luke had refused to take sides, even after the chandelier had fallen, Oscar still seemed to have held on to some hope that Luke might join his cause. “You’re a good kid, even if you aren’t ready to work with me yet,” Oscar had said. The “yet” kept ringing in Luke’s ears.

Especially now Luke couldn’t imagine ever joining forces with Oscar. Had he made a mistake, letting Oscar slip off into the darkness? Luke buried his face in his hands. His mind raced. How could he ever sort out the truth from Oscar’s lies? Oscar had tried to get both Smits and Luke to help him. But it was Luke he’d given the warning to, Luke he’d hugged, Luke he’d left with the key…. Luke could almost feel certain: Oscar probably had been poor. He probably had blown up mailboxes. He probably did hate Barons — including the Grants.

“Smits?” Luke said gently looking up again. “How did Oscar act around your parents?”

Smits blinked.

“Act?” he repeated, as though he’d misunderstood the question. “Yeah, it was all an act. Everything he did. He’d be all nice to them — all, ‘Yes, Mrs. Grant. No, Mr. Grant.’ But he was — was blackmailing them. The whole time.”

“What?” Luke exploded. “It was Oscar doing that?” He’d never suspected such a thing, but somehow it fit.

Smits didn’t even seem to hear Luke. He kept talking, as if in a trance.

“They didn’t know it was him,” Smits said. “But I found… I found a check in his wallet. From them. Not his bodyguard pay He was writing them letters, saying he knew that Lee was dead and how he had died. And he was going to tell the Government if they didn’t pay up….

“Didn’t you tell your parents what he was doing?” They asked.

“No,” Smits said. His expression twisted with guilt. “I thought. I thought they were getting what they deserved.” He was silent for a minute, then went on angrily “They didn’t even want to tell me that Lee was dead. ‘Oh, he’s too busy to answer your E-mail,’ they said. ‘Oh, he’s just out when you call.’ ‘Oh, he’s having too much fun to come and see his pesky little brother.”’

Luke could understand why Smits had been so upset

“But you did find out about Lee,” Nina said gently.

Smits nodded. “Lee wasn’t like that He didn’t think I was pesky He took care of me. He loved me. So I knew something was wrong. I started spying on Mom and Dad. And I caught Mom in here, crying. And then I made her tell me, and she made me promise to keep everything secret, but… I couldn’t, you know? And I kept thinking, Mom was crying over Lee. And I didn’t think she would cry if I died. But then tonight, when that chandelier started to fall — Mom pushed me out of the way She saved my life. And she didn’t have time to save her own. She— she must have loved me after all. And now — now I don’t have any parents at all…

Smits began crying then, really hard. Awkwardly Luke patted his shoulders. Nina bent down and hugged him. They who clearly wasn’t any good around emotional outbursts, drifted over toward Mr. Grant’s desk He began rifling through the drawers. After a few moments Luke joined him.

“It’d be nice if we could find some papers — some proof,” Trey muttered. “We can’t believe what Smits tells