Dead Silence

by Norah McClintock

  “There’s seconds if you want,” she said.

  I thanked her. She left Riel and me alone in the kitchen.

  I poked at the lasagna.

  “Are you sure you’re okay, Mike?” Riel said.

  “How come Teddy is still walking around? How come he hasn’t been arrested?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I looked at him. If you didn’t know him, you’d think he was telling the truth. But that would be because if you didn’t know him, you wouldn’t know he’d been a cop for most of his adult life. You wouldn’t know that Dave Jones was his friend. You wouldn’t know that cops talked about things with each other that they didn’t talk about with other people.

  “But he’s a suspect, right?”

  “I don’t know, Mike.”

  “He threatened Sal.”

  “You have to be patient, Mike. If Teddy did it, Dave will find out. He’ll make the case.”

  If Teddy did it.

  “Eat your supper, Mike.”

  I shoved a forkful of lasagna into my mouth. Boy, Susan sure could cook. That one bite made me realize how long it had been since the doughnut that was all I’d eaten for lunch. I took another bite, then another.

  That night, I dreamed about Teddy. I dreamed he was laughing at me. I dreamed he got away with murder.

  Rebecca came to the house first thing the next morning, which surprised me, considering how I had treated her the last time I’d seen her. We went outside where we could talk in private. We faced each other, and at exactly the same time we both said, “I’m sorry.”

  “I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” I said.

  “I should have been more sensitive to your feelings,” she said.

  “But you were right,” I said. “I have been acting like a jerk.”

  “I never said—”

  “You didn’t have to, Rebecca. I’m sorry I made Kim cry. I was just so mad.”

  “I know.”

  “But I’m not sorry I hit Teddy.”

  “I know, Mike.” She looped one arm through mine, and we walked to school together.

  I kept my head down all day. I didn’t want to look at anyone or talk to anyone except Rebecca. After school, I had to go to work.

  I had only been at work for about half an hour when I looked up and saw Staci coming down the aisle where I was shelving a dozen different kinds of pickles. Alex was at the other end of the aisle, restocking instant soups and noodles. Staci had one of those little baskets people use when they’re only buying a few things, not doing a whole week’s shopping, and she was carrying what looked like a shopping list. She stopped in front of the display of cooking sauces—curry sauces and sauces in a jar that you pour over meat while it’s cooking. She stood there for a couple of minutes, studying all the jars. Finally she shook her head, which is how I knew she was having trouble finding what she was looking for.

  “Can I help you?” I said. I saw Alex at the other end of the aisle turn in my direction. He must have thought I was talking to him. Well, why not? He had already messed up a few times this shift—he’d dropped a couple of glass jars of expensive soup and then, when he went to get the mop to clean up the mess he’d made, he had accidentally knocked a couple of cartons of eggs off the shelf. Both times I had helped him. The reason Mr. Geordi had given him instant soups and noodles to restock now was that if you dropped the packages, they didn’t break.

  Staci looked over at me. “I’m supposed to get some tomato sauce, but I don’t see it.”

  “Tomato sauce is in aisle five,” I said, “next to the pasta.”

  “Thanks,” she said. She hesitated. “You and Sal were close, weren’t you?”

  I nodded.

  “He was nice,” she said. “It’s funny. We went to the same school for a couple of years, but I only got to know him this year.”

  I didn’t see what was so funny about that. You don’t get to know guys like Sal when you hang out with guys like Teddy.

  “We tutored together,” she said. “He was really great with the kids he was tutoring. They all liked him.”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  “I wanted to go to the funeral,” she said. “But my parents didn’t think that was a good idea, you know, with all the talk that’s going around. They thought it would upset Sal’s parents if I was there. How are they?”

  “They’re pretty broken up,” I said.

  Her eyes were watery, like she was going to cry. She turned to go.

  “Staci, can I ask you something?” I said. That’s when I noticed that Alex had stopped what he was doing and had come down the aisle toward us. He was standing right behind Staci now. She turned and smiled at him.

  “Hi, Alex.”

  Alex’s face turned all red. He looked at the floor and mumbled hi to her.

  “You better get back to work, Alex, before Mr. Geordi comes by,” I said. Mr. Geordi had chewed Alex out twice today already. If Alex hadn’t been one of the store’s special hires, Mr. Geordi probably would have fired him by now. If Alex kept breaking stuff, he might still get fired.

  Alex hesitated—it was obvious he didn’t want to go back to where he was supposed to be working. Then his eyes went big. I turned and saw why. Mr. Geordi was standing at the end of the aisle. He looked at me.

  “Is there a problem here, Mike?” he said.

  “No, sir,” I said. “I was just telling this customer where she could find the tomato sauce.”

  Mr. Geordi’s eyes moved to Alex, who immediately ducked his head and retreated up the aisle, where he started putting containers of instant noodles on the shelf again. Mr. Geordi watched him for a moment and then moved on.

  “What did you want to ask me?” Staci said.

  “It’s about the day Sal died,” I said. Her eyes got even more watery. “You were with him. You must have seen something.”

  “I told the police everything I know,” she said. “But I don’t know who killed him.”

  “You were right when you said Sal and I were close,” I said. “He was my best friend. That’s why I want to know.” I had to know. “If you could just tell me what happened …”

  “It was so stupid,” she said. “I don’t know why Teddy can’t just get over it. But he can’t. He goes out of his way to hurt me.” She let out a shuddery sigh. “I was going to the mall,” she said. “And I saw Teddy and the rest of them up ahead on the sidewalk. I was going to cross the street. Teddy’s terrible. Some of his friends are even worse. They used to be my friends, too. But when I broke up with Teddy, some of them acted like I’d broken up with them. And Sara D.? She’s the worst. She keeps harassing me. She’s a real bully. I think she’s trying to score points with Teddy.” She looked fiercely at me. “Do you have any idea how many days I wanted to stay home from school just so that they couldn’t hassle me anymore? I almost stayed home from school that day. I was tired of how they were treating me. And, to be honest, I was kind of scared of Sara. She and a bunch of other girls swarmed me the week before.” I wondered if she had seen me watching that time. If she had, she didn’t say so. “Maybe I should have stayed home,” she said. “Then nothing would have happened.”

  I wished she had stayed home, too, just like I wished I hadn’t told Rebecca that I had forgotten her history book. But I didn’t say anything.

  “But I didn’t stay home,” she said. “I went to school. And when I saw Teddy and the rest of them on the sidewalk at lunchtime, I didn’t cross the street like I usually do. For once, I got mad. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe I should have stayed away from them.”

  I thought about those butterflies Vin had mentioned. It seemed like there were a lot of things that people could have done differently that day—little things that would have made a big difference.

  “But I did get mad,” she said. “I thought to myself, No, I’m not going to cross the street. Why should I? I have as much right to be on the sidewalk as they do. I was tired of the way Teddy was treating me. I was tired of all of
them. So I started to walk right past them. Then Teddy started in. At first I ignored him. Then his friend Matt grabbed me. He’s such a loser. He started doing some stupid imitation of some of the special ed kids, and he was grabbing me and Sara D. was saying how I must be in love with them, that’s why I tutored them. Teddy thought that was pretty funny. He said the way I acted, it looked like I was in love with …” She broke off and glanced up the aisle. “I don’t want to repeat exactly what he said,” she said in a low voice. “It was something mean about Alex. He’s one of the kids I tutor. I was so mad when Teddy said that that I slapped him.”

  So Kim had been right about that.

  “Teddy didn’t like that. He doesn’t like to be shown up in front of his friends. He shoved me. And the next thing I know, Sal’s there and he tells Teddy to back off. When that happened, Teddy went nuts. He asked me if I thought my ‘new boyfriend’ was going to be able to protect me. He’s so stupid. Sal and I weren’t going out or anything. You know that—you were close to him. Sal and I were just friends. But I didn’t tell Teddy that. I didn’t think it was any of his business. Besides, he wouldn’t have believed me. And by then I just wanted to get away from there. To be honest, I was kind of scared.” She looked at me. “It’s been bothering me a lot—the fact that I didn’t tell Teddy right out that Sal and I weren’t seeing each other. Maybe I should have said something. Maybe it would have made a difference.”

  Maybe.

  “Then what happened?” I said.

  “Sara D. shoved me. Then Sal grabbed me and put his arm around me. I could see that that made Teddy even angrier. Then Sal started to walk me away from there. Sara D. was yelling things at me. I yelled right back at her. I told her if she ever came near me again, I was going to call the police.”

  “Then?”

  “They were following us, so Sal told me to go across the street, away from them. I asked him, ‘What about you?’ I looked at him. He had a funny look on his face, like he’d seen something. Like he was scared or something.”

  “Scared of Teddy, you mean?”

  “I guess,” she said. “I mean, Teddy was really angry. And he was with a lot of his friends. They all back him up. They always do. I wanted Sal to come with me, but he told me to go ahead. So I did what he said. I was shaking. I crossed the street, and I went back to school. What I really wanted to do was go home. But I can’t keep running away from Teddy. Can I?”

  “What about Sal? Did Sal cross the street with you?”

  “Not that I saw,” she said.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I went into the school, straight to the girls’ bathroom. I was shaking so hard. A little while after that I heard that somebody had been stabbed in an alley and …” She started to cry now. “I shouldn’t have gone to school that day. I should have crossed the street to avoid Teddy. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

  “Do you think Teddy did it, Staci?”

  “I don’t know.” She was sniffling, and tears were dribbling down her cheeks. I wished I had a tissue to give her. “The police asked me that,” she said. “But I don’t know. I went back into the school. I should have made Sal come with me. I should have—”

  “It’s not your fault, Staci,” I said.

  A woman who had been studying pickles, trying to decide which kind to buy, gave me a dirty look, like it was all my fault Staci was crying. When Staci finally said, “I’m sorry,” and ran down the aisle, colliding with a shopping cart that was just turning the corner, the woman said to me, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

  In a way, she was right.

  An hour later, when I was sitting out behind the store, taking my break, Alex came out and said, “You better leave her alone.”

  “What?” I said.

  “I saw what you did. You made her cry. You better leave her alone.”

  “I was just talking to her, Alex,” I said. “She was crying because of the kid who died. Sal. You knew Sal, right?”

  “Leave her alone,” he said again. He was shifting back and forth on his feet, rocking like a boxer who was getting ready to throw a punch. Why was he so mad? I thought about the way he’d acted in the store when Staci had said hi to him.

  Oh.

  “You like her, is that it?” I said. “You like Staci?”

  Boy, did he ever look surprised, which told me I was right.

  “Well, you can relax, Alex,” I said. “I’m not interested in Staci that way. I have a girlfriend. We were just talking, that’s all.”

  He thought about that for a moment. “You have a girlfriend?” he said.

  “Yeah. Her name is Rebecca.”

  He thought about that, too. Then he went back into the store.

  CHAPTER TEN

  By the end of the next day, I felt like I was going to explode again. Teddy wasn’t in any of my classes, but I kept seeing him in the hall and in the cafeteria, and the more I saw him, the more worked up I got. I think I would have punched something if I hadn’t had gym last period. We finished the class by doing laps. When the bell rang, I asked Mr. Zorbas if I could stay and run some more. He let me. It made me feel better. I ran until I couldn’t run any more. Then I showered and went up to my locker to get my stuff.

  I saw Mr. Gianneris halfway down the hall. He was holding a cardboard box, and he was standing in front of a locker. Sal’s locker. The way he looked at me, you would have thought I’d caught him breaking into it.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Mike,” he said. “It will save me calling you to the office tomorrow morning.”

  Calling me to the office? Now what had I done?

  “I phoned Sal’s house to talk to his parents,” he said. “I ended up talking to his aunt. His mother was too upset to come to the phone. I can’t imagine what they must be going through.” He shook his head. “I asked Sal’s aunt what his parents wanted to do about Sal’s locker. The police have already been through it.”

  “Are you going to take his stuff over to her?”

  “I offered to, but she said no. She asked me if I could give his things to you.”

  “She wants me to take Sal’s things over there?” I liked Sal’s mom. I really did. But I was kind of afraid to see her again. What would I say?

  “Sal’s aunt thought maybe you would take the things home, and she’ll get them from you when his parents are ready to deal with it. I said I’d ask you.”

  I didn’t feel the same way about Mr. Gianneris as I did about Sal’s parents. Mostly I didn’t like him. But his voice quivered when he spoke. He couldn’t be all that bad if he felt the way he did about what had happened.

  “Okay,” I said.

  He dug in his pocket for a piece of paper. Sal’s combination.

  “I can do it, if you want,” I said.

  He nodded and didn’t say anything while I spun Sal’s combination, even though it was against the rules for students to tell other students their combinations. Everyone did it. Sal knew my combination. So did Rebecca, but she hardly ever used it. Vin used to go into my locker all the time when he was at this school. He used to borrow my textbooks whenever he lost his or forgot them at home. Sometimes he used to copy my homework without asking me. A couple of times he took some stuff from my lunch.

  I took the lock off and reached out, but I couldn’t do it. I stepped aside and let Mr. Gianneris actually open the locker door.

  The first thing I saw—and it surprised me because I hadn’t seen them before—were two pictures hanging inside the locker door. One was of Imogen. It looked recent. The other one was older—maybe five or six years old. It was a picture Vin’s mom had taken one summer. It showed Sal and Vin and me out in Vin’s backyard. We were wearing shorts but no T-shirts, and we were all tanned, but neither Vin or I was as dark as Sal. I was in the middle, and we all had our arms over each other’s shoulders. We were all grinning at the camera. Mr. Gianneris glanced at me. He took down both pictures and handed them to me to put in the cardboard box. There was also
a mirror on the inside of the locker door, I guess so Sal could check out how he looked, maybe so he’d look good for Imogen. Mr. Gianneris took that out, too, and handed it to me. I put it in the box. He took out all of Sal’s textbooks, which he started to pile on the floor because they belonged to the school, not to Sal. He took out Sal’s binders and notebooks, which went into the box. The only other thing in the locker that belonged to Sal instead of the school was a sweater. Mr. Gianneris folded it up, and I put it on top of the stuff in the box. Then he took the lock, which I had looped through the little hole in the locker door, and handed it to me to put in the box, too. He closed the locker quietly and bent down to pick up the stack of textbooks.

  “Thanks, Mike,” he said.

  After he’d gone, I went to my locker to get my backpack and the stuff I needed for my homework. That’s when I noticed Sal’s biology binder on the top shelf. I had borrowed it to copy some notes, and I still had it. I added it to the box that Mr. Gianneris had given me.

  I carried the box downstairs. It wasn’t heavy. I had just stepped out onto the sidewalk when someone bumped into me, hard, and the box went flying. I heard someone laugh. It was Sara D. She was leaning against a utility pole, grinning and enjoying the stupid surprised look on my face. Then someone else—the man who had bumped into me—said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  He bent down at the exact same time as I did to pick up the box.

  “It’s okay,” I said. Jeez. “I’ve got it.”

  Well, I had most of it. Some of the notebooks and a bunch of loose papers, plus Sal’s sweater, had fallen out. The man bent down to start picking stuff up and looking at it. I grabbed the things out of his hand. Sal’s stuff was none of his business. Then I saw the pink envelope from his biology binder on the ground—a stupid love letter from Imogen. The man bent down to pick that up, too, but I got to it before he did and jammed it into the box. He must have realized I was mad because his face got all red.

  “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I was on my way to the school office before—” He stopped and took a good look at me. “You’re Michael McGill, aren’t you?”