Above All Else (7 page)

chapter fifteen

Mine was the only goal scored that game. The rest of the match fell to cheap shots and players yelling at one another. It was a contentious and dirty game, and I spent the remainder of the time on the bench with Romano.

We were lucky it didn't turn into an all-out brawl.

I honestly hate these kinds of games. When a bunch of people are angry with one another, skill takes a back seat.

In the end, it could have been anyone out there. All the players were doing was hoofing the ball back and forth, running at one another, slide tackling when the ball was already long gone and generally trying to cause injury.

“That was awful,” Riley said when the game was over.

“We won,” Jared said. “That's what matters. Above all else, brother.” Riley gave him a fist bump. Jared bent down and helped Romano to his feet. Then he handed Oz Romano's crutches. “Carry these, man. I'll help Rom off the field.” The other team's players were lingering between the stands. Their coach was out near the street, waiting for them to follow him.

“Go home,” Jared said. “It's done here.”

Some of the players started off toward the street. “You guys play dirty,” the keeper yelled. “If you win, it's a dirty win. Does it mean that much to you?”

“Yeah,” Riley yelled. “It does.”

The keeper shook his head and walked away.

I waited for a few moments. There was something I didn't like about the whole situation. But my overall feeling was that I was soaking wet and filthy and just wanted to get changed.

When I got to the street, Elsa was there in her minivan. She waved me over.

“Come on, get in,” she said.

I looked down at myself. I was a filthy mess. “Maybe a shower and stuff first?”

“We don't have time,” she said. “We have to do something before it gets dark.”

“I need to change though.”

She opened the side door of the van and looked inside. “Here, I have a towel and a pair of shorts, and there's a shirt in here somewhere. We need to go.”

“Where? What's going on?”

Riley was behind me. “Hey, Elsa,” he said.

“Hey,” she replied coldly.

“You coming, Del?” Riley said.

I looked at Elsa. She was staring at Riley. “No, um, Elsa and I have something to do,” I said.

“Oh,” Riley said. “Okay. Maybe catch you at the restaurant later?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. Elsa held the side door farther open and I hopped in. She got
in the driver's seat and pulled away before I'd sat down. “I'm not changed yet or anything.”

Elsa glanced in the rearview mirror. “We need to get out of here,” she said.

“What's going on?” I put the towel around my waist and pulled off my soaking shorts. I dried myself off as best I could before pulling on Elsa's shorts. They were tight, but they fit.

“First off, you're wearing girls' shorts.”

“Hey,” I said.

“Just wanted to point it out.”

“Like I have a choice.” I pulled my shirt off and put hers on. It was pretty gender-neutral. Just a black shirt with white stripes on the sleeves. “What's going on?”

“How well do you know your friend Riley?”

“Pretty well,” I said as I squeezed between the front seats. “Why?”

“What does his dad do?”

“He's a carpenter. Why?”

She was nodding to herself, watching me in the rearview. “My brother found this bar in the bushes near Romano's restaurant. It's used for prying nails out of things and pulling up plywood.”

“A pry bar?”

“Yeah, sure, I guess.”

“Okay. And your brother found it near the restaurant? What was he doing there?”

“After Doug was suspected, he went there to see if he could find anything.”

“You mean like clues?”

“Exactly.”

“And he just happened to find this pry bar?”

“Yeah. You sound like you don't believe me.”

I didn't know what to believe. “Why didn't he just give it to the police?”

“Because he wanted Riley to admit to what he'd done first. He figured that would be a better way to do it. He's never touched it with bare hands. He was always wearing gloves.”

I remembered how Evan had been wearing gloves the night we saw him at the mall. “Wait a minute. Did your brother know we were going to show up at the mall that night?”

“Yeah, apparently.”

“How?”

“He told Kira where he was going to be. He knew she'd tell Riley. Kira's a drama queen. She likes to be, I don't know, the impetus for conflict.”

“So of course she would tell Riley.”

“Of course.” We'd been set up. That much was evident. They'd wanted to talk to us as much as we'd wanted to talk to them.

“Wait a minute. So you think Riley took Romano out?”

Elsa glanced over at me. We'd hit the highway by this time and were heading west. “I notice you have a new player,” she said.

“Yeah, Jean.”

She nodded. “How did he get on your team?”

“We didn't have any subs, so the league allowed us to bring in a new player,” I said.

“Sure, sure. But why him? How did anyone even know he could play?”

“I don't know,” I said.

“Really?”

“No, I never asked anyone. Why? What do you know?” I said.

“A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dan was playing with Jean downtown when a couple of guys from your school showed up. They watched him play, Del. Dan heard them asking him if he'd be willing to play for their team.”

“That doesn't mean anything,” I said. “Who says it was Riley?”

“It could have been,” she said. “It would add up.”

“So what are we doing? Where are we going?”

“To get the pry bar and take it to the police.”

“Where is it?”

“At the mall,” she said. “Evan dropped it the other night when he got chased.”

I did not want to go back into that mall. Once had been enough. “I'm not going back in there,” I said. “That was brutal. There are all kinds of people in there. It's probably not even legal.”

Elsa laughed. “Toughen up, soldier. We'll be in and out in fifteen minutes. Well before it gets dark. Don't worry your pretty little head.”

chapter sixteen

The mall was only slightly less creepy in daylight. There was enough light coming through the skylights to do without flashlights, but it would soon be getting dark.

“Where did you guys run into my brother and his friends?” Elsa said.

“Just up here,” I said. We were whispering to one another. The rain was pounding loudly on the roof and skylights.

“Evan said he dropped it when he ran. It caught on something and he just let it go.”
We walked toward where we'd run into Evan and his friends. There was broken glass on the floor. It crunched beneath our feet, sounding like ice breaking on a frozen sidewalk.

Elsa grabbed my hand. “You were right—this is creepy,” she said.

“I know,” I whispered back. “People
live
in here.”

“What? Where?”

I shouldn't have said anything. “Nowhere. Let's just get the pry bar.” I directed her back to the spot where we'd had our confrontation. “What's this going to prove anyway?”

“The police will do fingerprinting on it.”

“Okay.”

“Evan said there was blood on it as well. They can match it with Romano's.”

“Why are you so hell-bent on figuring out who did this?”

Elsa had been crouched down looking at the floor, but she glanced up at me then. “Why aren't you?”

“Romano's going to be okay,” I said.

“But everyone thinks Doug had something to do with an assault. And he just wouldn't. It's not fair that he's unjustly accused.”

“If he's such a nice guy, what was he doing with his best friend's girlfriend?” I said.

“That's beside the point,” Elsa said. She wasn't looking at me anymore.

“Isn't it kind of exactly the point?” I said.

“How?”

“Well, if he lied about where he was and lied to his best friend about who he was with, what's keeping him from lying now?”

“Remember the pictures?”

“Like I said before, those could have been doctored.”

Elsa came over to me. “Let's forget about all of this for now and just find this thing, okay? I want to get out of here.” She leaned into me and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Where could it be?”

I remembered how we'd all taken off in roughly the same direction, away from the three guys who had arrived.

“We all went this way,” I said. We walked deeper into the mall. “Someone might already have taken it. A pry bar can be useful.”

“We need to find it,” Elsa said. “It has to be here somewhere.” She was making a lot of noise, kicking things around and stomping on glass. We'd only been inside for ten minutes or so, but it was already getting dark. Soon we'd need flashlights. We hadn't even bothered to bring them inside.

“Didn't he tell you where he dropped it?” I said.

“He didn't tell me anything. No one knows I'm here.”

“What?”

“Just find the stupid bar, Del.”

“Let's just go,” I said. I wanted to prove that Riley had nothing to do with any of this, but the mall was freaking me out. Plus, I wasn't even sure that finding the bar would make a difference.

“No,” Elsa said. “It has to be here somewhere.”

“We can tell the police,” I said. “Let them know it's in here.”

“The police aren't ever going to know that it was in here. We are going to bring it to them and tell them we found it in the bushes.”

“What?” I said. “Why would we do that?”

“If they know it's been here, they'll just say it wasn't the weapon used in the attack. Don't you see?”

“No, Elsa, I don't see. What is really going on here?”

“I don't trust Riley. I don't trust him with Kira. I think he did this, and if he did, that's just creepy. He has to be held accountable. And Kira has to see what kind of a person he is.”

“He's not a bad guy,” I said.

“Well,” she said, “I guess we'll find out.”

“This is starting to feel like a witch hunt,” I said. “I think we should just go.”

She quickly dropped my hands. “Fine, go. Wait by the van. I'll be out as soon as I find the bar.”

“I'm not leaving you in here alone,” I said.

“Then help me find this stupid thing. It has to be here somewhere.”

I was totally confused. But I didn't have much time to linger in indecision, because as we separated and began looking around, we heard the sound of breaking glass.

chapter seventeen

I took Elsa's hand and led her into the comic-book store I'd gone through last time. We crouched behind an overturned shelving unit.

“Who is that?”

“Probably the same guys who were here before,” I said.

A face appeared at the accordion door. I didn't recognize the guy. He was wearing a torn T-shirt and looked like he'd just dragged himself out of a ditch somewhere. It was dark enough inside, I hoped, that without a flashlight he wouldn't see us.

“I thought I saw something move in here,” the guy said. He pulled on the doors, trying to separate them. He pushed a leg and part of his torso through before one of the other guys ran by and smacked him on the head.

“Get out of there, dillweed. There's no one here.”

“Hey,” the guy in the door said. “What's this?” He bent down and picked up a pry bar. “Hey guys!” he yelled before running toward his friends. “Guys, look what I found. We can smash stuff with this.”

“Shit,” Elsa whispered. “We have to get that.” She stood up.

I pulled her back down. “Are you crazy? What, do you think they'll just give it to you?”

“We have to get it, Del. Let's at least follow them and see if they throw it down somewhere.” She was through the accordion doors before I could stop her.

So I followed.

The guys had turned the next corner. It was dark in the mall now, and just as creepy as it had been the time before. I caught up with Elsa and reached for her arm.

“These are the same guys that were here last time,” I said.

“So?”

“The guys who beat your brother up. The guys who think this is their clubhouse.”

“We need that bar.” We'd slipped in behind an overturned bench. I could see down the next corridor. It looked like there were five guys. They were smashing whatever they could and spray painting big, looping letters on every flat surface.

“Elsa,” I said. “They are not going to drop that thing.”

“Wait,” she said. “They won't take it out with them.” I heard a sound behind us and froze. There was a guy urinating on the wall. I had no idea why we hadn't seen him.

“Hey,” he yelled. “What are you two doing in here?”

“Run,” I said, grabbing Elsa's hand.

“Hey, guys, guys, over here. A couple of girls.” The guy was fighting with his zipper.

I jumped over a planter and skidded on some broken glass. Elsa yanked me forward.

“Guys! Guys!”

“Head back to the comic-book store,” I said.

“Why not the way we came in?” Elsa said.

“Trust me,” I said. We got to the front of the comic-book store and slid between the accordion doors. As we were crashing through the store, two of the guys arrived at the doors.

“Ladies, where are you going? We're nice guys. Come on, stick around.” One of the guys put the flashlight to his face, I guess trying to freak us out. I pulled Elsa through the store and hammered the back door with my forearm. It didn't pop open. I looked back. The first of the guys was pushing his way through the accordion doors. I hit the door again. The accordion doors were shivering as he and the others squirmed through.

“Hurry, Del. Hurry,” Elsa said. I took a step back and kicked the security bar as hard as I could. The door popped open. Something crashed to the ground on the other side. We squeezed through the slim space and were out on the loading dock. Someone had piled a bunch of boxes and what looked like roofing tiles against the door.

“Which way?” Elsa said.

“To the van. Come on.” We ran through the trees toward the road. The door slammed open behind us.

“Ladies!” one of the guys yelled. “Come back. We need you!” They were laughing like this was the funniest thing ever said. A moment later I heard their feet hit the ground, and they were chasing us.

We'd parked in much the same spot as Jared had before—a quiet, calm residential street. We got to the van, and Elsa fumbled with her keys. She dropped them and went down on her knees to get them. Six guys came crashing through the trees.

“Hurry,” I said.

“I'm trying, Del,” Elsa replied. The horn beeped and the locks disengaged. We got in and slammed the doors shut. Elsa put the key in the ignition.

“Lock the doors!” I said. She fumbled around the armrest. There was a thump on the back of the van. I looked over my shoulder and saw that one of the guys was pretending to be plastered to the rear window. He was laughing, his eyes wild.

Elsa managed to lock the doors just as another of the guys got to the side door and started pulling on the handle.

“Hey, come on. We need a ride.”

“Go,” I said.

“I'm trying, Del.” She was crying as she turned the key in the ignition. The guys were banging on the van like wild apes.

“Let us in! Let us in!” The van started up and Elsa dropped it into drive, stomping on the gas. We tore away just as one of the guys took a swing at the rear taillight with the pry bar. I looked back as we swerved up the street. One of the guys was hopping around on one foot, clasping the other in his free hand.

“I think you ran over that guy's foot,” I said.

“Dammit,” Elsa replied.

“It's all right,” I said. “He kind of had it coming.”

“Not that,” she said. “We didn't get the bar.” She shot through a stop sign and a minute later we were on the highway, heading home.