The Fight for Kidsboro (5 page)

I was on my way to ask Alice about the investigation when I saw a crowd of people gathered around Jill. She was holding up a newspaper and everyone around her was waving their money to get one. “Special edition! Five tokens a copy! Read all about the Kidsboro Burglar!”

The normal price for an issue of the paper was three tokens. This was the biggest story ever to hit Kidsboro, so five tokens was probably a bargain. Unfortunately for Jill, there was not a lot of news to report in a town of 30—especially when the crime rate, before now, was basically zero. A donut had been stolen from Sid's Bakery a couple of months earlier and Jill had had a field day with that. It was front-page news for three issues. She did extensive interviews, took photographs of the crime scene, wrote feature stories on the history of the bakery and the history of donuts and the history of stolen donuts—and then Sid remembered that he had eaten the donut. Jill had got a lot of ribbing for that. I was sure that she wanted to save face now with this new story.

I went up to Jill and took five tokens out of my pocket. “How did you do this so fast?”

“Ryan, dear, old news is no news. And this is the biggest story in the history of Kidsboro.”

“Yeah, but how did you get all the information already?”

“You wanna know what made the front page of my last issue? Alice's new police badge that she bought at a carnival,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Let's just say I was inspired.”

I smiled and looked at the story. She had certainly made headway in the last two hours. She had summaries, interviews, pictures of the scene (apparently she'd gone to a one-hour photo place), biographies of all the people involved …Wait a minute!

My face turned hot as I flipped to page two of the story. Jill had made her way down the street and was giving change to someone. I stormed over to her.

“What is this?” I shook the paper.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“You mentioned that Roberto's father is in jail!”

“Yeah.”

“First of all, that's a rumor. Second, how dare you
print
it!”

“It's a fact related to the story.”

“It has nothing to do with the story.”

“Don't you think it's important?”

“No, I don't!” I shouted. “It has nothing to do with whether he broke into Marcy's house!”

“He did it, Ryan. Everybody knows it.”

“
I
don't know it. In fact, I'm beginning to doubt that he had anything to do with it. The point is, he hasn't had a trial yet. He's innocent until proven guilty in court.”

She breathed heavily a few times, then realized she had no comeback.

“Don't tell me how to do my job.” She charged off.

The trial process was a little sketchy, but it was outlined in the city charter. There were three lawyers in town. One was Pete Marvison, whose only qualifications were that he liked the idea of being a lawyer and watched a lot of lawyer television shows. Pete was Roberto's lawyer.

Pete was smart enough, and I didn't doubt that he might actually make a good lawyer. The problem was that his opponent was none other than Valerie Swanson. Valerie could make anyone look dumb, and Pete knew it. He knew he would be no match for her, and everyone could tell he was more than a bit nervous about opposing her.

Pete came into the court room with a huge stack of disorganized papers, and, of course, as soon as he stepped through the door, he dropped all of them. He fell to his knees and scrambled to retrieve them before too many people noticed.

I knew Pete was really in trouble when he shouted, “Objection!” before the trial even started. Amy, the judge, said, “What are you objecting to?” and Pete slid back down in his chair and sheepishly answered, “Never mind.”

Valerie spoke well. She used big words and concepts like “reasonable doubt.” She even threw in some Latin at one point, and I could tell this made an impression on the jury. Her first witness was Officer Alice. Alice obviously thought Roberto did it. Later on, Valerie had the nerve to mention Roberto's father. I glanced at Pete, hoping for an objection, but he was sitting in his chair, trying to get chocolate off of his sleeve.

Pete asked Alice a few questions too, but they were completely beside the point. He asked her if she really thought girls could be police officers. Alice, and pretty much everyone else in the room, was offended by this question. Alice rolled up her sleeves like She was going to deck him, but before she could, Pete quickly said, “No further questions, Your Honor,” and backed away.

The five-person jury went outside to discuss the case, but everyone knew the verdict was already decided. They returned in 30 seconds to declare Roberto guilty. And just as I had figured, the punishment was banishment from the town.

After the trial, I stepped over to the defense table. Roberto had his head in his hands.

“I'm sorry,” was all I could say.

He stood up. He wouldn't look me in the eye.

“Hey,” I said. “We're still friends, okay?”

He thought for a second, chuckled, then said, “Were we friends before?”

“We will be now.”

I don't think he believed me, but he managed a smile anyway. “Yes. I'm sure we will.” I think he assumed that I would never talk to him again.

I was hoping to look further into the crime, but I felt like I had to get on with some may oral duties first. I had several appointments with Kidsboro citizens who I thought might be in the same predicament Scott was in—they were broke.

The first appointment was with a boy named James—a puny little kid who was probably the only person in town who would lose to Scott Sanchez in a fight. He didn't even have to duck his head as he came through the door into my office. He stood in front of me, a nervous look on his face.

“Hi, James,” I said, trying to set him at ease.

“Hi.”

“Sit down.” He sat. “I'm having meetings with a bunch of people today just to get some idea of how everything is going. How you like living here, how you like your job, whatever. I'm always trying to get new ideas for ways to improve things.” He seemed to loosen up a bit and I went on. “So how
is
everything going?”

“Good.”

“You like being a citizen here?”

“Sure.”

“How's your job going?” He looked at me as if I had just asked him why he didn't hand in last night's homework.

“Fine.”

“What is it you do again?”

“I'm a doctor.” This was the scariest thing I think I ever heard.

“Really? And have you … treated anyone?”

“No,” he answered and I breathed a subtle sigh of relief. “You know, I only do first aid anyway. No surgery or anything.”

“Of course.”

“I figured since we're in the woods, somebody might get hurt. So I got this medical kit at the store. It's got bandages, antiseptic, stuff like that. And I took a CPR course, too. I'm pretty good at it.”

“Congratulations.”

“But nobody trusts me. A few people have gotten hurt, but they won't let me put anything on it, not even a Band-Aid. You remember when Max fell out of that tree and hurt his ankle?”

“Right.”

“I went over and tried to help him, but he wouldn't let me. He called me a quack and limped home.”

“So, you've never actually used any of your medical skills?”

“Just on the dummies at school.”

“Then you've never made any money since you've been here.”

“No.”

“No side jobs?”

“No.”

“So, you've never
bought
anything in town?”

“At first, with the money I had left over after I bought my house. But not for a couple of months.”

“Hmm.” I tapped my lips with my pencil. “Okay, James, that's all I need. If you ever have any suggestions for making the town better, just let me know, okay?”

“Sure.” He turned around and left.

I wanted to think that James was not the norm. James was, after all, known for being a pretty lazy person. Surely the others would be vital participants in the town's economy.

I was wrong. All of the interviews were the same. I talked to 10 people, and eight of them had never made any money in two months. I had to do something about this.

I told the city council what was going on, and they agreed we needed to make sure that everyone had a legitimate job. I proposed that we establish a law where every person had to find some way to make at least 10 tokens a week. Those who failed to do so three weeks in a row would lose their houses for a month. I thought this was tough, but fair. I called it the Everybody Works program.

Making 10 tokens a week should be a cakewalk. All these people needed was incentive. I knew that every citizen of Kidsboro had enough creativity and intelligence to come up with ways to make money. But until now, there had never been anything there to push them to do so. This program would force them to think for themselves and become productive members of society.

After some tough discussion, the city council voted four to one that we enforce this law for the good of the people, so that what had happened to Sid wouldn't happen to others. Scott voted against it, undoubtedly because this meant he would have to find a way to make some money himself. Scott needed a kick in the pants more than anyone.

I left the meeting feeling as though I had accomplished something. The Everybody Works program seemed like a good long-term idea, even if it wouldn't win me any popularity contests at first. I was working for the good of the city, so popularity was not my top priority.