Private Gold

Chapter 4

“You OK?” the removal-van driver called out from under the shelter of his umbrella, as he saw Joey crossing the road. “Did you catch him?”

“Yes, and yes. I got my bag back,” Joey replied, reaching over his shoulder to pat his rucksack. “Let’s load up and get out of here.”

“Never known crime to be so bad in this neighborhood,” the driver said, shaking his head. “Crazy that you can’t even walk around safely in broad daylight.” He glanced dubiously at the storm clouds, as if unsure whether this awful weather did, in fact, qualify as broad daylight.

Joey gripped the desk again firmly. But as he lifted it, he saw a silvery oval object gleaming on the pavement below.

“Just a sec,” he said, because it looked familiar. He bent and picked it up.

He was correct, and his heart quickened as he examined it.

“You dropped it?” the driver asked.

“No, it must have fallen — from somewhere under the desk, I think.”

It was Khosi’s USB storage device, specially engraved with his name, which Joey had given him as a gift. That had been only three months ago, just before all the trouble started. The device had been attached to a keyring, but Joey saw that the ring had been removed and a piece of double-sided tape attached to it.

Peeling off the tape, he pocketed the USB.

He guessed it had been stuck to the bottom of the desk. If the mugger hadn’t shoved Joey off balance and caused him to drop the desk, dislodging the device, then Joey would never have found it. It was sheer luck it had landed on the sidewalk and not in the gutter, to be washed away by the cascading storm water.

Suddenly, Joey shivered, and not just from the chill of the blowing rain.

He was wondering if this USB might contain Khosi’s suicide note.