“And you haven’t been harassing Destiny? You didn’t use one of these torches to burn that figure of her on the soccer field?”
“No! I mean, some of the guys pulled some pranks on her early on, but I knew Dr. Darity was already angry at GTT, so I made them stop. Besides, she probably did that herself—I mean, look what happened after she and Mill broke up.”
I paused. This was the second time someone had blamed Destiny herself for the incidents. Suddenly, a number of signs were pointing back at Destiny. I was beginning to get suspicious.
“What are you talking about?”
“After she and Mill broke up! She faked all of these e-mails from him, and sent them around campus making it look like he had been harassing her. When people found out they were fake, she tried to pretend it was a joke, but everyone knows she’s a total mental case! She blamed Mill for slashing her tires too, and there was never any proof of that either. If someone went after Mill, I’d look at her!”
Something clicked in my brain. Who could be close enough to Destiny to mess with the stuff in her bag? Destiny herself.
Who was in the theater all day helping set up, giving them a chance to saw through the boards? Destiny.
Who smelled of smoke the day of the fire? Destiny.
Who would know about the private blood supply? Destiny.
Who had said she was going to “get back” at Mill herself? Destiny.
Who hasn’t been concerned about her safety this whole time? Destiny.
All this time, our main victim should really have been our main suspect!
FRANK
14
Secrets Revealed
With Spencer leading the way, we headed out of the tunnels. Joe and I were silent the entire way, stunned. All this time, Destiny had had us fooled. I wondered if she’d been responsible for all the things Ellery hadn’t done—tampering with Lee’s grades, the graffiti at Dr. Montgomery’s house, the injured swim coach.
How far would she go for attention? What would she do next?
In my head, it didn’t all add up. Sure, I could see why she’d harass herself for some attention, but what about the rest of it? Then again, she may just have been crazy, and lashing out at all the people she thought had been to blame for the hard time she’d been having at the Firth Academy. She seemed to have enough anger to pull something like that.
Finally we found a set of steps that led up into the hut out in the woods. Mr. Marks’ bodyguard must have been surprised to see Joe and me accompanying Spencer out of the hut, but he didn’t say anything.
“Can I go home?” Spencer asked once we were outside. “I have a test next week, and I really need to study.” I’d almost forgotten, amid all this, that he was just a student. A kid, not used to dealing with this stuff like Frank and me.
“You can go,” I told him. “But we’ll want a full list of the people who were down in that room with you.”
For a second, Spencer looked liked he was going to protest. Then he thought better of it.
“Ellery said something about you guys being spies, but I just thought he was making it up. He was telling the truth though, wasn’t he?”
Neither Joe nor I said anything. After a moment Spencer left us and walked off toward the dorm.
“Well,” I said, “there goes yet another person who knows we work for ATAC. Maybe we should take out an ad in the school paper?”
“No need. We can just announce it over the loudspeaker during the game tomorrow.”
That was right—the game was tomorrow. We needed to talk to Dr. Darity, and get Destiny taken somewhere safe. Who knows what sort of disaster she had planned for the game.
The Darity house was on the other side of campus from the shack in the woods. We headed there as quickly as we could. The campus was dead quiet. Everyone must have gone to bed early after the “accident.” But as we walked across the main quad, I noticed the light was still on in Dr. Darity’s office. Looked like he was working late. Somehow I wasn’t surprised.
We went up to his office. I knocked on the door.
“Come in,” said Dr. Darity, his voice both tired and surprised. He groaned when he saw us. “Let me guess—more bad news?”
Joe and I stared at each other. This wasn’t going to be easy. It was obvious how much Dr. Darity loved Destiny. Starting with what Spencer had told us, we laid out the case for Destiny being the mastermind behind the incidents.
At first Dr. Darity didn’t believe us. “All you have is the word of a bunch of kids,” he said. “That’s not proof.”
I pulled the scrunchie from my pocket. “We also found this beneath the stage, right by the saw that was used to cut through the floorboards. It’s Destiny’s. We have ATAC running the blood spot through their system. Once we have a match, it’ll be too late for Destiny to come clean about everything. If she admits to it now, we might be able to get her some help.”
It was pretty clear to me that Destiny had some mental issues. She didn’t need jail—she needed to be looked after.
“She’s a good girl,” said Dr. Darity, mostly to himself. “It’s just . . . these past few years have been so hard. She’s been acting out ever since her mother died. But I never thought she would do something like this. . . . Millhouse could have died. The doctors said a few inches to the left, and one of those boards would have punctured his arteries.”
Dr. Darity stood up and rubbed his eyes. He looked sad, but determined. “If we confront her now, is it ok if I keep her on campus until the end of the weekend? I’d like to avoid embarrassing her in front of her old school, as well as her new one. I promise I’ll keep her under lock and key.”
“So long as you can make sure she doesn’t cause any more trouble, I think that will be okay,” said Joe. He still had a soft spot for Destiny.
We assured him that ATAC would him find a place where she could go for treatment, somewhere quiet.
“All right boys. Let’s do this now.”
With Dr. Darity leading the way, and Killer pulling up the rear, we headed over to the Darity house. The light was on in Destiny’s room when we got there.
Dr. Darity approached the front door of the house, then paused. “Frank—perhaps you should wait out here. Destiny has a history of climbing out her window when she doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“I’ll intercept her if she does.” I positioned myself on the ground, near the tree that was outside her window. If she came this way, she wasn’t getting past me.
Dr. Darity and Joe headed inside. Sure enough, two seconds after the front door closed, Destiny’s window flew open. First one leg made it through, then a second. Then a person dropped to the tree branch below and began climbing down to the ground.
But it wasn’t Destiny. Not unless she’d cut her hair short, dyed it blond, and become a guy. It was Lee!
He made it all the way to the ground, and I grabbed his arm before he could take off running. He yelled in surprise when I touched him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Me! What are you doing here? Look, man, I’ve got to get out of here before Dr. Darity catches me.”
There was yelling coming from upstairs, but I couldn’t make out what Destiny was saying.
“Oh man. I hope Dr. D. didn’t see me. I’m going to be in so much trouble.”
“More than you think,” I muttered under my breath. I didn’t know what he was doing here, or if he was involved with any of this, but I wasn’t letting him out of my sight until we had some answers. It seemed like Destiny wasn’t going anywhere, so I decided to head inside.
“Come on,” I said, and pulled Lee toward the front door of the house. He protested for a moment longer, but then Destiny started yelling again. He stared up at her window with a worried expression. Then he sighed and started walking along with me.
When we got into the room, everyone stopped talking for a second. Dr. Darity cut off mid-sentence when he saw Lee.
“I know about the lies you’ve been telling and—Lee
! What are you doing here?” Everyone in the room turned to look at Lee and me. Destiny turned bright red.
“Is this what you’re talking about?” Destiny said. “Fine! Yes, I’ve been lying to you. I didn’t want you to know Lee and I were dating. There! Are you happy now?”
“What?” Dr. Darity stared at Lee.
Now it was Lee’s turn to go red. “I’m sorry Dr. Darity! I wanted to tell you sooner, but Destiny said not to!”
“But why wouldn’t you tell me?” Dr. Darity turned to Destiny.
“Because he’s just so perfect, and I didn’t want you getting all excited to have me dating your ‘Golden Boy.’”
“Hey,” Joe broke in on them. “I’m happy for both of you, really—but that’s not why we’re here.”
Everyone turned to look at him. For the first time, I noticed that Joe was pretty red in the face too. I was also pretty sure I hadn’t imagined the edge to his voice as he said “I’m happy for both of you.” Destiny had been flirting with Joe since we’d arrived on campus . . .
“What are you doing here, anyway?” asked Destiny. “This is the second time you’ve burst into my room for no reason.”
“We know you’ve been the one behind all of the pranks that have been happening, Destiny. We know you sawed through the floorboards on the stage, and set fire to that dummy of you. What we want to know is, why?”
Destiny laughed out loud. “What are you talking about?”
“Destiny . . . you can tell us the truth,” Dr. Darity chimed in.
“Dad—you believe this stuff?”
Together, Dr. Darity, Joe, and I laid out the case against her.
At first, Destiny laughed—but then she realized we were serious.
“Look I faked those e-mails, sure. I was mad at Mill! And I didn’t want to make my relationship with Lee public knowledge so I had to find some way to make him jealous.” Destiny shot Joe a brief, apologetic smile before her expression turned serious again. “But I haven’t done any of the rest of this stuff, I swear.”
“You’ve lied before Destiny,” said Joe, still clearly irritated by the fake flirtation. “How can we trust you now?”
“Because she’s telling the truth,” Lee piped up from the corner. “She couldn’t have done that stuff with the blood, or set fire to that mannequin.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because I was with her that night. I met up with her at the bonfire. We hung out talking all night. And I was here when you guys burst in and thought she was dead.”
Destiny nodded. “He was hiding under the bed. He didn’t have time to get out the window, so he jumped under there when you guys came in the front door. That’s why I was lying on the floor—I was trying to make it so you couldn’t see him.”
“She’s innocent, I swear,” said Lee. He walked over and put his arm around her shoulders. She smiled at him.
Now I didn’t know what to think. All the evidence seemed to point toward Destiny. But if she had an alibi . . . could she be responsible for some of the pranks, but not all of them? Even with what Lee had said, she still could have dosed the papers in her bag with capsicum and booby trapped the stage.
Suddenly a beeping noise came from my pocket. JuDGE was finished analyzing the blood sample from the scrunchie! Now we’d know for sure.
I pulled JuDGE out of my pocket. “This should let us know who’s telling the truth,” I said. “We had headquarters analyze the blood on the scrunchie we found. Since they’ve been able to match your blood to your medical records before, Destiny, this will tell us if you’ve been lying. You sure you’ve told us the whole truth?”
“Yes!” said Destiny.
I flipped open JuDGE’s screen. SAMPLE UNIDENTIFIABLE.
“Wow. I guess you were telling the truth.” Joe let out a low whistle. Someone had been trying to set Destiny up!
Destiny smiled. “Ha! See, I told you so. Now why don’t you go and catch the real creeps who’ve been doing this and leave me alone.”
If Destiny wasn’t the culprit, that meant she was still in danger. And since most of the threats had to do with soccer, it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that her attacker was going to try again—probably at or before the big game tomorrow. If we were going to stop them, we’d need Destiny on our side.
“I’m sorry we accused you Destiny. But if we’re going to catch them, we need your help.”
“What do you need me for?” said Destiny. She was still angry—but I could tell she was also flattered that we needed her.
“These pranks have been escalating. And the threats in your bag said they wanted you out of the big game. Which means they’re probably going to try again.”
Joe broke in. “So our best bet of keeping you safe—and catching this creep—is to let you go about the day as normal, but with Frank, Killer, and I keeping a close eye on you for when he or she makes their move.”
“Absolutely not,” said Dr. Darity. “A student nearly died tonight! I’m not letting this maniac have another shot at my daughter. Destiny, you’re going to have to sit out the game.”
“No way! I am playing in that game tomorrow. Joe—I’m in. Tell me what we need to do.”
“Dr. Darity,” I said. “Chances are whoever is doing this is going to keep after Destiny, even if you pull her out of the game. The only way to make her safe is to catch this guy and put him behind bars.”
“I promise I’ll keep an eye on her during the game too,” said Lee. Destiny squeezed his shoulder in thanks.
Dr. Darity didn’t like it, but eventually the four of us were able to convince him that it was the only way to make Destiny—and the Willis Firth Academy—safe in the long run.
“Okay,” I said. “Then here is the plan . . .”
JOE
15
Big Game
We spent half the night devising our plan for the next day. We even woke up Spencer to get some more information about the tunnels. Then we took turns watching over the Darity house, to make sure nothing happened in the night. I took the first shift. By the time I finally returned to my cabin, Killer in tow, I felt like I was going to collapse. It was hard to believe it was all the same day: the dinner, the awards, Mill’s injury, the tunnels . . .
It felt like I had barely closed my eyes before the sun was rising again, and it was time to get up and take Killer out. Then it was off to the soccer field.
Frank was already waiting for me when I got there. The sun was just above the horizon, burning the dew off of the field. No one else was around. Together the three of us took a long walk around the soccer field, checking to make sure nothing had been tampered with, that there were no more mysterious trucks that could come flying down at a moment’s notice, no sawed-through posts on the goal. So far everything looked normal.
The plan was pretty simple. Frank’s map had indicated that one of the secret tunnels led to the building that Destiny was currently using as her locker room. We got Spencer to show us where the tunnel opened up in the house, and how to get to it. Because the house was so far away from the rest of the soccer field, we figured if anyone was going to come for Destiny, they would do it when she was in there, alone.
Frank was going to stake out the tunnel underground, to prevent anyone from getting in that way. We’d already shown Destiny how to get into the tunnel from inside the house, so if she needed it for a quick escape, she’d know where to go. Killer and I were going to hide among the bushes and stake out the house from the outside. Frank and I would use walkie-talkies to keep in constant contact. No one was going to get past us.
Once we were certain that everything was in order, I went back to the Darity house to escort Destiny to the field. Frank made his way to one of the underground tunnels, so he could guard the entrance in case one of the Brothers of Erebus was behind the attacks on Destiny. By this point, people were up and awake all around campus. We could already hear people cheering over by the soccer field, as one by one the various players s
howed up and began to stretch and warm up.
“Gee, thanks,” said Destiny, as I held the door open for her.
“Hi Destiny.” I scanned the sides of the house briefly, just to make sure no one was hiding there.
“You could act a little less like you’re escorting me to my funeral, you know? This is, like, the biggest game of my life!”
“I’m sorry. Congratulations. I mean, good luck? Break a leg?”
She laughed and punched me on the shoulder. With Killer leading the way we headed over toward the field. Once Destiny had unlocked the door and was safely in the house that served as her changing room, I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d still been slightly worried that Destiny might have run off in the middle of the night, or that she would disappear at the last moment. I took up a position off the path, hidden among the trees, with Killer at my feet.
“Everything okay down there? Over.” I spoke quietly into the walkie-talkie.
“Yup,” said Frank. “Quiet as a grave down here. Over.”
Now it was just a waiting game. I felt certain that our culprit was going to stage an attack on Destiny right here, right now. They had no other chance if they wanted to stop her from playing in the game.
For a few minutes nothing happened. Maybe we’d been wrong. Maybe the person had gotten scared off when they’d nearly killed Mill.
The sound of Killer whining broke in on my thoughts.
“What is it boy?” I looked around, but could see nothing that might upset him. Then I smelled it. Smoke!
I looked over, and the house looked the same. At least the outside did. But a thin trickle of smoke was coming from one of the front windows, and I knew that somewhere inside, a fire had been started. From the position of the smoke, it seemed like the fire had been started right in front of the main door! I ran to try to open it, but the doorknob was too hot to touch. How had someone gotten inside without us noticing? I broke one of the windows, and flames leaped out at me. This was the only real exit to the house—if Destiny hadn’t known about the secret tunnel, she would have been trapped!
Private Killer Page 9
