Tina just looked at me, waiting for me to continue.
“So I bought a gun from a sleazy guy in a van, and I went over to try to get him to confess. Not confess at gunpoint—I wanted to have the gun in my backpack just in case.”
“Did he confess?”
“Yes. But it was at gunpoint.”
“Oh.”
“It basically got all messed up, and first I had the upper hand and then he had the upper hand and it pretty much ended with both of us agreeing not to say anything. Except he said that if anything happened to him, if he got arrested, his friend who I guess is a hit man would make it so me, my mom, and my dad all had to eat out of feeding tubes.”
“Oh.”
“I guess yesterday the state troopers took him away. I don’t know if he’s in jail or not. So I can’t be seen with you in public, because it would put you in danger. That’s why I cancelled our date. That’s what I meant when I said that it was about you but in a good way.”
“All right.” Tina scratched her forehead. “You don’t seem like you’re lying to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Then I need you to tell me again, but with a lot more detail.”
I told her everything that had happened, from the night Todd and I had our fight until the moment I heard that Mr. Martin had been taken away. She now knew that I was the kind of person who would steal money out of his dad’s safe, but it was for a good cause, right? Tina asked a lot of questions as I told my story, and she apparently had no ability whatsoever to maintain a poker face. Her eyes widened at appropriate moments, she put her hand over her mouth when I was in danger, she giggled occasionally, and there was more than one gasp.
“Your summer was way more eventful than mine,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Well, we should—”
The bell rang.
Tina immediately stood up. “I can’t be late. Let’s talk after school. Anyway, this will give me time to think of some good advice.”
She picked up her book and the sandwich she never finished and hurried into the building, not waiting for me. I didn’t feel as if all of my troubles had disappeared—my troubles were still lurking, big-time—but it had been a huge relief to get to tell the complete warts-and-all version of what I’d been going through. I no longer had to suffer alone.
I spent the afternoon paying more attention in class than I had in the morning.
After school, Tina walked up to my locker. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“You’re right, we shouldn’t be seen outside of school together. I’m not worried about him coming after me, but we have a strategic advantage if he doesn’t know that we’re friends. I can walk by his house and he won’t suspect anything.”
“I don’t want you to walk by his house,” I said.
“I didn’t say that I was going to knock on his door. But there may be a situation where you need me to keep an eye on him from a distance. The first thing we have to do is find out if he actually got arrested. If he did, then your job is to tell the police everything you know. Every single detail.”
“And what if he didn’t?”
“Then I think you need to talk to him.”
“What?”
“I think you need to have a conversation with him and assure him that whatever happened wasn’t your fault. Make sure he knows that you can still be trusted.”
“Are you trying—”
“I’m not trying to get you killed,” Tina promised. “You’d have the talk outside. He’s not going to murder you right there in his front yard, is he?”
“I…guess not…”
“You need to get rid of the uncertainty. Make sure you and Mr. Martin are back on the same page before we take him down.”
“Whoa, hold on,” I said. “I never asked you to help me take him down.”
“I know you didn’t. So our first step is to find out what happened. My dad’s friend works for the newspaper—he works in the classified ads section, but he’d be able to talk to somebody else at the Daily News Miner and find out if Gerald Martin was arrested. So you just need to wait for me to call you. And maybe get another gun.”
“I can’t get another gun,” I said. “I still have to replace the money for the first one.”
“What you do is you call the guy who sold you the other gun and tell him you want to buy another one. Tell him you’ll pay twenty percent more. Let him negotiate you up to twenty-five. Then when he opens up the door to his van, take a picture of him and tell him that if he doesn’t give you the gun for free, you’ll turn him in for selling an illegal gun to a kid.”
“That would be a pretty crappy thing to do.”
“You’d be crossing a moral line, yeah,” she admitted. “I think Todd would want you to do that.”
Tina seemed energized by this whole thing. There did not appear to be any notes written on her hand. I really liked her but I was also a bit scared of her.
“I’m not going to go over there with a gun,” I said. “But you’re right. He’s not going to attack me in his front yard in broad daylight.”
“Then just wait for my call and build up your courage.”
I honestly didn’t know which outcome I was rooting for. Mr. Martin going to prison would be nice, and I was really starting to doubt that he was
