The Fight for Kidsboro (8 page)

“Help him?”

“No.”

“Well … you see, I don't understand something. P-Pardon me for intruding, but …” Scott began, walking over to a roll of electrical wire that was lying on a stump, “we found this same type of wire in Nelson's house.”

“You can get that wire anywhere. He probably just bought it in a store.” This was a perfectly good answer, but it looked as if Nick was beginning to come unglued. For the first time, Nick stopped hammering and started paying attention to Scott. Scott must have sensed he was getting to him, because confidence entered his eyes.

“You know, you should've seen how well this alarm was placed in a hole in the wall. It looked like a professional did it. With professional tools,” Scott said, holding up a staple gun. “Kind of …well, kind of like this one.” I wanted to applaud.

Nick brushed a drop of sweat from his forehead. “Lots of people have staple guns.”

“Wow, look at this,” Scott said, holding up a screw. “We found these very same screws in Nelson's house.”

“Ha! That's a lie!” Nick shouted. “His walls are too thick for that screw.”

“But I thought you said you've never been in Nelson's house.”

Bravo! Scott looked at Nick, who was breathing hard and appeared to be thinking harder.

“Well, maybe I did go in there once. I don't remember.”

“So, you're saying you remember what type of wood he has for his walls, but you don't remember if you actually stepped foot in his house?”

“Okay, I've been in his house a couple of times. He's invited me in.”

“So, you're friends?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“But I thought you said a couple of minutes ago that you didn't care anything about Nelson.”

My chin had dropped to the ground about two minutes before, but now the rest of my body was about to join it. Scott was amazing. Maybe endless hours of watching tough-guy detective shows had finally paid off for him. Scott grilled him for a while longer until Nick finally got sick of getting caught in lies and confessed to breaking into Nelson's and Marcy's houses. He also confessed to setting up Roberto. I told him that he would probably be kicked out of town for this. He acted like he didn't care.

Scott and I walked away. I felt so proud of him. Scott seemed unaware that he had just done something incredible. He casually told me that he needed to go home for dinner. But as he walked away, I spotted him putting his hat back on.

Something still bothered me, though. I couldn't understand why Nick would do it. Scott had tried to ask him about this too, but by that time Nick had had enough and wasn't about to answer any more questions. What possible reason could he have for breaking into two houses and not taking anything?

This, of course, led me back to Valerie. Did she hire him? I could understand the first break-in. She was trying to frame Roberto to make me look bad so that she could take over as mayor. But the second house made absolutely no sense. She
had
to have done it, though. Who else would have anything to gain by breaking into two houses?

Suddenly, like a message from above, I got my answer. As I was walking back to my office, I noticed Max Darby surrounded by a crowd of people. He was selling insurance. I was pretty sure this didn't happen in real life—an insurance salesman having to fight people off.

Of course! Max was getting rich because people were scared of being robbed or vandalized!
Max
had something to gain! Max must have paid Nick to break into the houses! This would explain how Nick got the money and the wood to build a huge addition to his house. That was it! It was an insurance scam!

After the crowd around Max dwindled, I approached him. “Selling a lot of policies?”

“Fourteen total,” he said. “Seems to be the hot item. Change your mind about it?”

“No thanks. I'm sure glad someone is benefiting from this rash of crime.”

“Oh, I'd never want to benefit from something like that.”

“I'm sure you wouldn't,” I said, knowing full well he would love to benefit from something like that. “I just found out who did it.”

“Well, partner, I think you're a little late. Everybody else in town has known for days. It was that Roberto kid you brought in.”

“No, It wasn't.” I paused for effect here. I wanted to be able to read guilt in his eyes, so I watched closely as I laid the bomb on him. “Nick did it.”

He didn't flinch, blink, or blush. “Really? Never would a suspected him. Good guy, that Nick. Quiet, shy type. That's always a good type of person to sell insurance to.”

I could suddenly picture Scott and his merciless grilling of Nick, and I decided to go in for the kill. “You paid him to do it.”

Max smiled and chuckled a little, as if the thought had never occurred to him. I expected him to deny it, but instead he offered a much more interesting idea. “Prove it,” he said.

He had me there. I could accuse him all I wanted to, but unless Nick admitted Max's involvement to me point-blank in front of witnesses, I had no case.

Max took another unexpected turn. “Now, I know you didn't mean that. You're just fishin', I know. But let's pretend for a second that I
did
commit this tragic crime. What exactly can you do about it? Kick me out of town? I know how politics work, and banishing your most valuable citizen doesn't look too good come election time.”

“You think you're our most valuable citizen?”

“Where else you gonna get wood, buddy? You banish me, and you've got no future. You can't build anything. And it's not like you paid for this wood with real money. It's pretend. Which means I can take it back. I can rip apart these houses faster than they went up. And you know, it's real cute to see you acting like this is some kind of great democracy you're runnin' here, but when it comes down to it, this town is just a bunch of clubhouses in the woods. You lose me, you got nothing.” He smiled again and turned away. I watched him walk quickly over to a clubhouse and knock on the door. He had insurance to sell.

6

FRIENDS AND FOES

I
WENT BACK TO
N
ICK'S
house. He was packing up his things, figuring that he was going to be kicked out of town. We talked for a while, but he would never admit to being hired by anyone. He never denied it either. He had learned his lesson from our last interview and wouldn't answer any of my questions with anything more than a “yes” or “no.” I told him I would ask the council not to banish him if he would tell me who had hired him, but he wouldn't budge. He said he wasn't a rat. This was, of course, evidence to me that there was someone he could be ratting
on
.

But I still had no real proof.

We held a city council meeting after school the next day. Jill, Nelson, Alice, and Scott filed in. Everyone knew why we were there—to discuss Nick's punishment. A trial wasn't necessary since he had confessed in front of two of us. After a short discussion, we voted unanimously that Nick had to be banished and Roberto would be cleared of all charges. Alice felt quite embarrassed by the whole thing, since this meant she had put an innocent man in jail. But she didn't protest. She'd made a mistake and was ready to move on. I think she was still mad at me, though.

Before everyone got to their feet after the meeting, I made an announcement. I wanted to vote on the punishment of Max Darby.

“What?” Jill asked, speaking for the whole group.

I cleared my throat to show them I was serious, then said, “I have reason to believe Max hired Nick to break into the houses so that he could sell insurance policies.”

They stared at me in disbelief. Finally, Jill was able to speak. “Do you have proof?”

“Well … no. But I'm pretty sure about it.”

“Did he confess?”

“No.”

“Well, we can't banish him just because you
think
he did it.”

I was losing them. “I'm asking you to trust me.”

Alice shook her head as if I were crazy. “Sorry, Ryan. No can do. Not without a trial.”

That's what I wanted them to say. “What if I get him to trial? Let me tell you why I think he's guilty, and then you tell me if you think he'll lose in court.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Jill interrupted. “I don't wanna hear this.”

“Why not?”

“I don't want you bringing him to trial. What if he's found guilty?”

I was confused by the question. “Well … then justice would be served.”

“Would we banish him?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“Then where would we get our wood?” she said. Alice and Nelson nodded in agreement.

My heart sank. I never expected anyone on my city council to place more value in wood than in justice.

“Wood?” I asked weakly.

Jill continued, “I mean, I'm for justice being served and all that, but if we banish Max, we're in deep trouble. We can't build anything. We can't add to the population. We have to think about the future of the town.”

“The future of the town?” I asked, my voice raising. “What kind of future are we going to have if people like Max know they can get away with stuff like this? What happened to our laws? Who cares about the quality of our houses? What about the quality of our people?” This was a great line, and if I hadn't been trying to make a point, I would've written it down and saved it for the debate.

Jill thought for a minute, but then shook her head. “Maybe we should let this one pass. Sorry, but like it or not, we
need
Max.”

“She's right,” Alice said. “I hate crime, but we gotta have wood.”

Nelson nodded along with her. Scott had been completely uncommitted from the moment I started talking. My mouth hung open in shock. I had nothing else to say. I turned around and left, defeated.

I talked to Roberto the next day at school and told him he was welcome to come back to town. He was hesitant, saying that he didn't feel comfortable coming back right now. I could tell it still hurt him that people had jumped to the conclusion that he was a criminal. I understood and said that I'd be back to ask him again soon.