Dark Days at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

  * * *

  Tucker looked forward to the next class, Home Economics. Although he wouldn’t be doing any cooking today, there was always hope they might learn something related to food. At the same time, he wanted classes to end for the day, because he really wanted to catch up with Ash and Hew before they left the grounds because he was itching to show them what he had in his bag.

  He patted it as he took his chair at his allotted desk. It irked him greatly when a junior arrived with a message to the teacher that there was to be an emergency assembly in ten minutes.

  ‘Ubb it!’ Tucker grumbled as he made his way to the hall. ‘I’m sick of ruddy assemblies. One after the other.’ His eyes lit up when he met up with Ash and Hew coming from another direction. Now was the perfect opportunity to show them what he had in his bag. ‘Hey guys, I’ve got something I want to show you. Let’s go in there.’ He pointed to the E block entrance.’

  ‘What about assembly?’ Hew asked.

  ‘We’ll skip it. This is more important.’

  Hew exchanged a questioning glance with Ash who shrugged. Tucker took that as the go-ahead so led them into the building and then into the boys toilets. He checked the cubicles first to ensure no stragglers were around and then unzipped the side pocket of his bag. ‘Take a look, dudes.’

  Ash took one look inside the bag and gasped. ‘What the hell is all that?’

  Tucker beamed as he surveyed the loose notes, coinage and cheques nestled inside. ‘Money.’

  ‘I can see that! Where did you get it?’

  ‘From Mr Crummer.’

  ‘There are cheques in here,’ Hew gasped.

  ‘There must be hundreds of dollars in here!’ Ash shook his head.

  ‘Camp fees.’ Tucker beamed.

  ‘Are you crazy?’ Hew’s eyes widened. ‘You stole this money from Crummer? You great thumping pillock! What if you get found out?’

  ‘That’s not gonna happen.’

  ‘And what makes you so sure of that, man?’ growled Ash. ‘What if someone saw you take it?’

  ‘Everyone was outside watching that scrap I told you about.’

  Hew slapped his head and rolled his eyes. ‘You absolute moron! The assembly! This must be what it’s about. They’ve called an assembly because this money has been stolen.’

  ‘Tucker, you egg,’ Ash snarled. ‘If they find out we’re not there, they’ll know that we have the money.’

  The world seemed to slow down before Tucker’s eyes and he could have sworn he heard a record playing in the background, which came to a scratching halt.

  ‘You better get rid of that money, bro. I don’t want to have anything to do with this, man.’

  ‘You’re not the only one,’ Hew added. ‘What the hell were you going to do with that money anyway? Buy a new pushbike? That would be really smart, that would be. Everybody would be wondering where you got the money to buy it.’

  ‘I wasn’t going to spend it.’

  ‘Well what were you going to do with it then?’

  ‘I was... I was….’ Tucker flinched. ‘I was going to put it in Rex Cassidy’s locker.’

  ‘What?’ his two pals said in unison.

  ‘Don’t you get it? This is my plan for revenge. I take the money, I put it in his locker, tell the teachers that he has it and he gets in trouble! Ingenious eh?’

  ‘You have got to be joking!’ Hew stared.

  ‘You are a total egg, man!’

  ‘It’s a fool proof plan!’ Tucker couldn’t believe his friends were being so critical.

  ‘Yeah, you’re a fool all right, bro.’

  ‘You can’t do that,’ Hew said. ‘Sure, you might hate the guy, but you can’t set him up like that. That’s not fair.’

  ‘It’s not fair that I have to put up with ubbheads like him.’

  ‘Well I’m not having anything to do with it.’

  ‘Me neither, bro,’ said Ash.

  ‘You are definitely going to go without redundancy pay,’ Hew said. ‘You’re going too far, Tucker.’

  ‘Well fine, but I’m still going to do it. Cassidy’s locker is just out there. I’m going to put all the cash into these envelopes that came with it into his locker.’

  ‘Well you’re on your own.’

  ‘Huh! Some friends you are.’

  ‘Just get on with it,’ Ash said. ‘I don’t wanna see that money again. I don’t want no teacher walking in here and finding it on us either.’

  Tucker smirked and swaggered to the toilet door. He peeked out into the corridor and slipped out. The cost was clear and he could see no signs of anybody, not even a teacher, but he knew he had to work fast. He knew where Rex’s locker was, he had seen him use it many times. It was three away from his and best of all it had no lock on it.

  On reaching the locker, he opened it only to find it empty, except for a few folded up bits of paper and a plastic bag containing PE gear. No textbooks, no folders nor notepads. It was typical of Cassidy. He never bothered studying or taking notes in class. Tucker quickly placed the envelopes of cash and cheques into the locker, being careful not to leave fingerprints on them. He was about to move away, but he curiously eyed the folded up sheets of paper. He couldn’t help but take a peek at the top one.

  It was a love note. He should have known. He often saw girls dropping notes into his locker. He couldn’t help but laugh at this one. It was from a year ten-girl named Tania Lidford. It was a really soppy love poem. One of the lines read:

  You are the hunkiest guy at TAC. You make me go all icy.

  It took Tucker a huge effort to stop from laughing out loud. He had to put it back though, because he could hear footsteps approaching. He closed the locker just as a girl appeared at the entrance to the corridor. It was Jacqui. Tucker breathed a sigh of relief.

  She walked down the corridor. More girls appeared from further behind her.

  ‘Hey you,’ Jacqui said. ‘You were on detention today, weren’t you?’

  Tucker hesitated.

  ‘You’re supposed to be in the hall you idiot. You’d better get over there now.’

  Tucker wasted no time in leaving E block. Crowds were still leaving the hall, so Tucker was able to slip in without anyone giving him a second glance. A group of students were at the front with Mr Luxton and Mr Crummer. Pete and Wal were there too.

  ‘Tucker. There you are,’ Mr Crummer said. ‘Come and sit down.’

  Once Tucker sat, Mr Luxton took over. ‘Now all of you were in A7 at the time the money was stolen.’

  Pete spoke up. ‘We were outside Mr Luxton.’

  ‘But you were near A7 at the time. You all had the opportunity to take that money. Now in no way are we accusing any of you but you have to understand that you’re all suspects. We’re also hoping that one or more of you might be able to shed some light on this incident. Did anyone see anyone else go near Mr Crummer’s desk while he was out of the classroom?’

  Nobody said anything.

  ‘Is there anyone who saw anything at all? Maybe somebody slipped into the classroom while the fight was going on?’

  There were blank looks all around. Tucker’s mind ticked over and he realised that this was the ultimate opportunity to move onto step two of his scheme. ‘Ah Mr Luxton...’

  ‘Yes Tucker?’

  ‘Why don’t you do a locker search?’

  ‘It’s unlikely that the offender would be keeping the money in his or her locker,’ Mr Luxton replied. ‘And we can’t just go around breaking into lockers. Now come on people, this is a really serious situation. This issue is not just going to go away. We need to know more. Did anyone remain in the room at all during the fight?’

  Tucker was the only one that had remained, but he certainly wasn’t going to admit that.

  ‘Did anyone look back into the room?’

  No one said a thing.

  Mr Luxton sighed deeply. ‘This is getting us nowhere. You might as well all go to class now. If you remember anything
or if you think that there’s something we should know, then come and see us.’

  They all made their way to the nearest exit, but Tucker lagged behind, still thinking about step two of his scheme. Once everyone else had gone, he turned back to where Mr Luxton and Mr Crummer stood.

  ‘Yes Tucker?’ Mr Crummer asked.

  ‘I did see someone go into the classroom during the fight.’

  ‘Really? Who?’

  ‘Rex Cassidy.’

  Both men stared at him.

  ‘Rex?’ Luxton stared. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes. Well I’m pretty sure it was him. I thought he must have just gone in there to find Pete.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us that before?’

  ‘I didn’t want to in front of the others. Some of them are his friends.’

  ‘Fair enough.’

  ‘Later on in the locker blocks, I noticed him putting some envelopes in his locker. Do you suppose that there was money in those envelopes?’

  ‘Envelopes? You saw him put envelopes in his locker?’ Luxton asked.

  ‘Yes. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Just before afternoon class.’

  ‘Well, if that’s the case, it’s likely that it’s still there.’

  ‘But Rex Cassidy?’ Mr Crummer said. ‘Why would he want to steal money? He’s never short of cash and isn’t he suffering from amnesia? Would he even know where his locker is?’

  ‘Well it’s likely someone would have showed him,’ Mr Luxton said. ‘He would have needed his equipment. I admit, it does seem strange though, but I definitely think we should look into it. There’s no knowing what the knock on the head may have done to him. Tucker, can you show us where Rex’s locker is?’

  ‘Sure.’

  He led the two men to E block and to the locker in question. He pointed it out. Mr Luxton opened up the locker, revealing the contents for them all to see. Everything was there as Tucker remembered it.

  Everything except for the money. It was gone.

  Tucker had to quickly disguise any surprise he may have exhibited. He wanted to scream as he was so sure the money would still be there, after all it had only been about ten minutes ago he put it there.

  ‘Nothing here,’ Mr Luxton said.

  ‘He must have removed it after assembly,’ Tucker suggested, seeing it as the only possibility.

  ‘Perhaps,’ Mr Crummer said. ‘If it was the money you saw him put in the locker, he definitely would have wanted to remove it quickly after, but I still can’t believe that Rex is the offender. It doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘We can’t know for sure that what he put in his locker was the stolen money,’ Mr Luxton said. ‘But still, I think it warrants further investigation. Thank you Tucker for telling us what you saw. You’d better get along to class now.’

  ‘Yes Mr Luxton.’