I didn’t doubt it. I was living with one of those cops.
“What happened, anyway?” he said. “I heard some kids were giving Sal a hard time. My mom said she heard it was probably one of them who did it. It sounded like it was over something dumb.”
“You remember Teddy Carlin?”
“Yeah,” Vin said. “The guy’s a jerk. I ran into him one time after what happened to Robbie.” He meant Robbie Ducharme. “You wouldn’t believe the stuff he said to me, like he was all of a sudden Robbie’s friend, even though I saw him giving Robbie a hard time more than once.”
“Teddy likes to give people a hard time,” I said.
“He likes to get under people’s skin. He sure likes to get under my skin,” Vin said.
“You remember that girl he used to go with—Staci?”
“Sure.” Vin flashed another grin. Staci was the kind of girl he would notice. She was pretty.
“Well, she dumped Teddy, and he’s been on her case about it ever since school started. He and those idiots he hangs around with were giving her a hard time. Teddy was mad at Sal, too, because he thought Staci liked Sal. A couple of days ago, I heard him warn Sal to stay away from Staci or else.”
“You think Teddy did it?”
“I know there was a lot of shoving going on. And that when he started giving Staci a hard time that day, Sal went to help her. The next thing you know, Sal was—” I couldn’t make myself say the word. “He was gone,” I said instead. “Can you believe it?”
Vin sighed and leaned back in the booth. “Yeah, well, stuff happens,” he said. “I should know.”
We looked at each other. I don’t know what Vin saw in my eyes, but what I saw in his was that he seemed a lot older than I remembered.
“The cops asked me if he had a weapon,” I said.
Vin put down his hamburger, wiped his fingers on a paper napkin, and reached for his milkshake. “What kind of weapon?”
“I don’t know. The cop who asked me wouldn’t tell me. But he must think that Sal had one, or at least suspect it or have heard something about it, otherwise why would he ask?”
“I can’t see Sal with a weapon,” Vin said. “Sal is a smart guy, and weapons are stupid.”
I couldn’t help it. I stared at him.
“You have a knife,” I said. “At least, that’s what you told me. You said you carried it around sometimes when you were with A. J.”
“Well, those days are over. If I get caught with a weapon, you can’t believe the trouble I’ll be in. Besides, my mom confiscated that knife—not that she had to. I would have handed it over if she’d asked for it.”
Boy, he had really changed.
“I don’t see Sal with a weapon,” he said again.
“So he didn’t say anything to you about it?”
“No,” Vin said, surprised by the question. “Why would he? We talked a couple of times, Mike. But it had been a long time, and a lot of stuff had happened between us.”
“I can’t even figure out why he called you up all of a sudden, after everything that happened.”
Vin shrugged. “You know Sal,” he said. “Maybe he wanted to give me another chance. We used to be tight. Maybe he thought that should mean something. That’s the way I feel. Real friends can go through a lot of garbage together, right, Mike?”
Sal had gone to see Vin. Despite everything, he had gone to see Vin, more than once. So, yeah, he must have thought that it should mean something. And I did know Sal. So why was I surprised that maybe, just maybe, Sal had looked at everything Vin had done, and somewhere in that mess he had still managed to see the Vin we had grown up with? Boy, if that was true, then it looked like friendship meant more to Sal than it did to me.
“When he came to see me and we were talking, it made me think about all the stuff we did together and how much fun we had. The three of us hanging out, those were the best times I ever had.” He shook his head. “I’ve been wishing lately that I’d done a lot of things differently. Or even just one thing. It’s like what they say about butterflies—you know, a butterfly flaps its wings in China and it causes a tornado in America, or something like that. Maybe if I’d done even one thing differently, even something small, it could have changed everything. You know what I mean, Mike?”
I knew exactly what he meant. I stared down at my Coke.
“Hey, Mike?” Vin said. “The number-one thing I found out in the past year—cops aren’t as dumb as I always thought they were. Those guys really know what they’re doing, especially the Homicide guys. They don’t let go. They’re going to find out what happened to Sal, you can bet on it.”
It was funny to hear those words come out of Vin’s mouth after everything he had been through.
Rebecca was standing outside the church the next day when I got there with Riel and Susan. She came over to us, even though being around Riel usually made her nervous. He had been her history teacher last year, and Rebecca had had trouble separating that from the fact that he was the person I lived with. She still hadn’t got over it. She smiled shyly at him, said hello to Susan (who didn’t make her nervous at all), and said, “Can I talk to you for a minute, Mike?” Riel and Susan went inside.
“I’ve been thinking,” Rebecca said. “Maybe I shouldn’t go on the exchange trip. Maybe I should stay here with you.”
Rebecca had been in French immersion all the way from kindergarten to the end of junior high. She was in advanced French now, and her class was going to Quebec City for a week, where they were going to stay with French families. She was supposed to leave Saturday morning. Later in the year, a class of kids from Quebec City was going to come here and stay with the families of the kids in Rebecca’s French class.
“You’ve been looking forward to going,” I said, even though I couldn’t understand why she would. I would rather have all my teeth drilled than spend a whole week listening to people speak a language I didn’t understand very well. “I’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “What if something happens?”
I couldn’t tell whether she meant what if the cops found out anything or what if I got into more trouble at school.
“If anything happens, I’ll let you know,” I said. “You should go, Rebecca. Sal would want you to.” Sal always wanted good things to happen to people.
Rebecca smiled at me and kissed me on the cheek. Then she looped an arm through mine, and we went into the church together. I spotted Vin up front. He was sitting right behind Sal’s parents. In the same pew with him were a couple of other guys, all of them young, but not as young as Vin and me. I guessed that they were Sal’s cousins. Riel had told me that they were going to be pallbearers too, and that we should all sit together. So I slid in beside Vin. Rebecca hesitated. She finally sat down next to me.
“You remember Vincent, right, Rebecca?” I said in a quiet voice.
Vin looked appreciatively at Rebecca. She smiled stiffly back at him. Vin leaned close to me so that he could whisper in my ear. “She still doesn’t like me, huh?” he said.
“She doesn’t really know you,” I said.
Rebecca shoved an elbow into my ribs. I decided to stay quiet after that.
The service was really sad, mostly because Sal’s mother cried all the way through it. She was sitting right in front of me. Sal’s aunt was on one side of her. Sal’s dad was on the other side. He stared straight ahead the whole time. If he shed even one tear, I didn’t see it. Imogen was in the same pew as Sal’s parents. She sniffled all the way through the service. At one time or another, a lot of people were crying. Even me.
At first I thought maybe I shouldn’t be crying. After all, it wasn’t my first funeral. I’d been to my mother’s and then to Billy’s. Then I decided that that was exactly what made me cry. It was what made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. I knew how bad it felt to lose someone you really cared about. I knew you never got used to them being gone. And I knew it took a long time—a really long time—before the hurt turn
ed into a kind of dull pain, like when you were just starting to get a headache. Until it turned into something you could maybe live with.
I glanced at Vin as I rubbed away a tear with the back of my hand. His eyes were dry, but he gave me a sympathetic look. He didn’t know anyone close who had died. He didn’t feel the same way I did about Sal. And he was different from me. He felt things differently.
When the service was over, the funeral director nodded to Vin and me and the other pallbearers, and we all went up front to walk the casket down the aisle and out of the church. Sal’s parents and his aunt and some relatives who had flown in from different countries followed us. I was surprised, as I walked back down the center aisle, to see that Teddy was there. So were Bailey and some of the others. Teddy’s eyes met mine as I walked past him, escorting the casket out to a hearse.
When we stepped out of the church, I saw that there were a whole lot of reporters there. Some cameras were following the coffin. Others were taking pictures for the newspaper. After Sal’s coffin was loaded into the hearse (I felt sick just looking at it and thinking about it; Sal was in there, and I was never going to see him again), a woman came up to me. She was a reporter. She said, “Excuse me, but I understand you were Salvatore San Miguel’s best friend.”
“Yeah,” I said. I glanced at Vin.
“How do you feel about what happened to your friend?” the reporter said. Some of the other reporters saw her talking to me and crowded in.
“How do I feel?” I said. What kind of stupid question was that? “Someone killed him,” I said. “How do you think I feel?”
“There’s been a lot of teen violence in the city recently,” the woman reporter said. “What do you think is causing that?”
I glanced at Vin again. He just shrugged.
“Look,” I said. “All I know is that someone killed Sal, probably someone who goes to my school, and I hope that whoever did it gets what they deserve.”
“Someone from your school?” the woman reporter said. “Do you know for sure that it was someone from your school?”
Someone grabbed my elbow. Riel.
“That’s enough,” he said to the reporter. “He isn’t answering any more questions.” He pulled me away from the woman, who chased after me and asked again, “Do you know for sure that it was someone from your school?”
Riel pulled me into the church. “Don’t talk to them, Mike,” he said.
“I was just—”
“I know,” he said. “But they’re vultures. They ask you questions they have no business asking, and then they print whatever you say. It’s better to stay away from them altogether.”
I nodded. I hadn’t really wanted to talk to that reporter in the first place.
“Now what?” I said.
“There are refreshments in the church hall. We go there.”
So that’s what we did. As soon as we got to the hall, Rebecca said she was going to help with the food. A moment later a girl came up to me. Her name was Tulla. She worked at McDonald’s with Sal. Sometimes, when I went there to grab a pop and see what Sal was up to, I’d find him and Tulla clowning around, joking with each other. I remember Sal telling me that she had a pretty smile, which was why he liked to talk to her. He said she had an even prettier laugh, which was why he liked to joke with her. But she wasn’t laughing or smiling now. There were tears in her eyes.
“Hey, Mike,” she said. “It’s hard to believe, huh?”
Yeah.
“He was such a good guy. He was always helping people. He really went the distance, you know?”
I told her I sure did.
“I can’t believe anyone would kill him,” she said.
But someone had.
“The store manager came.” She pointed him out to me. He was talking to Sal’s parents. When I said that it was nice of him to show up, she said, “It would be even nicer if he called Sal by his right name. He was always calling him Sam. Sal corrected him for a while, then I think he just gave up. I hope he doesn’t call him Sam when he’s talking to Sal’s parents.”
“Well, it’s still nice that he came,” I said. I couldn’t imagine Mr. Geordi showing up for my funeral.
“Maybe. But the guy’s a dork,” Tulla said. “Sal told me that when Mr. Torrence took over, working conditions got bad fast. Almost everyone who worked there was gone within two months. Sal was the only person working there who had been there before the summer. Everyone else is brand new. And you still wouldn’t believe the turnover. I only stayed because Sal was so much fun. He was the best shift manager ever.”
Vin came over to me a few minutes later, nudged me, and nodded across the room to where Rebecca was walking around with a plate of little sandwiches.
“She’s really your girlfriend, huh?” he said. “Way to go, Mike.”
But I didn’t say anything because just then Teddy and Bailey and the rest of them came into the hall and headed for the food. I couldn’t believe it. All of the people in the hall—except Teddy and his gang—were friends of Sal’s or friends of his family’s. Or they were kids who went to my school who liked Sal. Or teachers who had known Sal and who respected him. Or people who had worked with him.
Teddy and his friends were the ones who had given Sal a hard time because he’d tried to help Staci. But there they were, standing all together now, holding little plates of sandwiches and talking to each other. At least they were quiet for a change. Sara D. was pressed up against Teddy. A girl named Annie was holding Bailey’s hand. The rest of the guys—Steven and Matt and them—all stuck together.
While I was looking at them, Miranda walked over to Teddy. She said something to him. I couldn’t believe it. She must have heard what had happened by now. Why was she even going near him? Why did she smile at him like that?
Teddy looked across the room, right at me. He gave me a little nod. That did it. I started toward him.
“Whoa,” Vin said. He grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?”
“Let me go,” I said.
But Vin held tight. He looked from me to Teddy and back to me again. Teddy gave him a little nod, too. What was that all about? What was he doing here? Why did he even think he had a right to be here after what he had done?
“I know how you feel,” Vin said quietly. “Like I said, the guy’s a jerk. But take a look around, Mike. You don’t want to do anything stupid in front of Sal’s parents, do you?”
Teddy took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and headed for the closest exit. Sara D., the girl who was trying hard to be Staci’s replacement, went with him. The rest of them stayed behind.
I headed for the same door Teddy had just gone through.
“Hey,” Vin said. He caught up to me and followed me outside.
We found Teddy and Sara D. out in the parking lot behind the church. Teddy was lighting a cigarette. I headed straight over to him.
“You have no right being here,” I said.
Teddy looked at me and opened his mouth to say something. But then Vin stepped up and said, “Is this how you get your kicks these days, Teddy? You crash funerals?”
Teddy took a puff of his cigarette and smiled at Vin. “I heard they let you out,” he said. “I also heard they won’t let you come back to our school. Guess they don’t want any more kids to be kicked to death, huh?”
Vin was right about Teddy. He liked to get under people’s skin. He was doing it now.
Vin’s eyes hardened. Even though he’d been there when Robbie was kicked, he had always denied he was involved. But he’d been arrested anyway and was convicted of aggravated assault and had even done some time in a juvenile facility. He stepped in closer to Teddy. Sara D. stuck close to Teddy, maybe to show him that she didn’t scare easily. Maybe she thought he’d respect her for that, but, if you ask me, Teddy didn’t even notice. He was watching Vin. He didn’t want any nasty surprises.
“Sal was a friend of mine,” Vin said.
Teddy laughed when he heard that. “Yeah,” h
e said. “He was such a good friend that he turned you in to the cops. I bet you’re real sorry about what happened to him.”
Everything happened fast after that.
Vin’s foot flew out and caught Teddy right in the stomach. Teddy hurtled backward and then down and landed on the pavement with a loud oomph! Vin started toward him. I tried to catch him, but I was too slow. Sara D. ran back into the church. For sure that was going to mean trouble.
“We’d better go back inside,” I said to Vin.
I couldn’t tell if he heard me. He reached down and grabbed Teddy by the lapels of his jacket and jerked him to his feet. That’s when I noticed for the first time just how much Vin had changed. He’d gotten taller, sure, but he’d also gotten a whole lot stronger. He was shaking Teddy like he was a rag doll. Teddy grabbed both of Vin’s arms and tried to pull free. Right then, Vin released him, and Teddy landed butt-first on the pavement again.
“Come on,” Vin said to him. “You want more?”
Teddy sat on the ground, looking up at Vin for a moment. Then—I’d never seen anyone move so fast—he sprang up and launched himself headfirst at Vin, tackling him and taking him down for a hard landing on the pavement. I heard something crack. I sure hoped it wasn’t Vin’s head. Teddy got on top of Vin and started to hammer at him with both fists—at least, that’s what he was trying to do. Vin was fighting back as best he could. Teddy pinned one of Vin’s arms under his knee and started to work on pinning down the other one.
I grabbed Teddy from behind and started to drag him off Vin. That gave Vin the opening he needed to buck free of Teddy. I had both of Teddy’s arms wrenched around behind his back, and Vin was getting ready to swing at him, when a hand landed on my shoulder. I figured it must be one of Teddy’s friends, so I whirled around with my fists up.
It was Riel. He did not look pleased.
He pushed me away from Teddy and then turned on Vin, who was smart enough to back away without being told. Riel examined Teddy.
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