Double Jeopardy

24

7:45 A.M.

TRAVIS WAITED FOR STACI at the corner where he knew she met the bus every weekday morning. As soon as she appeared, he stepped out from behind a cluster of elm trees and whistled.

“Travis!” Staci ran to him. “Omigosh! What happened to you?”

Travis hadn’t even considered his appearance. After his beating in the men’s room, his pummeling on the back of Moroconi’s pickup, and being up all night, he realized he must look awful. “Nothing serious, honey.”

“Travis, your clothes are torn, your face—”

“It’s nothing. Really.” A yellow school bus pulled up to the corner. “Look, I need your help.”

“Oh boy! Are we going to work on your big case?”

“Well, in a way. I was wondering … do you know where your two friends from the basketball court are?”

“Doc and Jameel? They’re on the bus.”

Travis scanned the windows. He recognized them—they were sitting together in the back row. “Staci, I don’t have time to mince words, so I’m just going to ask this directly. Do they have much experience at … well, housebreaking?”

“Travis, they’re my friends—”

“You told me they’d been picked up on B and E’s. I don’t want to arrest them. On the contrary, I want to hire them.”

“Hire them?”

“Yeah. I need someone with … expertise in this field.”

“Way cool. I’ll talk to them. If they can’t do it, I’m sure they know someone who can. But only if I get to come along.”

“That’s out of the question.”

“Why? I can be quiet. I can be real sneaky.”

“Trust me, Staci. I feel bad enough about this as it is. I’ll probably get hauled up on child-endangerment charges. I’m not going to compound matters by getting you involved. Besides, you could be recognized and traced back to me. I need people I don’t know.”

Staci’s lower lip protruded. “You never let me do anything fun anymore.”

“We’ll do something fun when this is all over. I promise. Now get your friends before the bus takes off, okay? I shouldn’t be standing out in the open like this.”

Staci sulked but nonetheless climbed into the bus. A few moments later she descended with her two tall friends.

“It’s okay,” she said to the bus driver, who was eyeing Travis suspiciously. “He’ll take us to school. He’s one of the family.” The driver tipped his hat and drove away. “Practically,” she added, after the bus was gone.

Travis extended his hand to the two boys. Smirking, they took his hand and shook.

“Staci says you got a job for us,” Jameel said.

“That’s right,” Travis replied. “I want you to break into an apartment.”

“Hoo-ee!” Doc exclaimed. “Boy, when you cops turn, you turn bad.”

“It’s nothing like that,” Travis said. “This job isn’t even illegal.”

The boys’ faces fell, crestfallen.

“It is, however, dangerous,” Travis added.

They perked up. “What we looking for? TVs, VCRs?”

“You can take whatever you want for yourself,” Travis said. “I need some clothes, and a wallet—with the cash intact—and a briefcase.”

Doc and Jameel poked one another in the ribs. “No problemo,” Doc said. “Whose place we gonna hit?”

Travis scrawled an address on a scrap of paper. “Mine.”