Thread of Hope

EIGHT

The one that had been following me looked at his friend, then back to me. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“What’s your deal, mister?” the shorter one said, his face screwing up with agitation.

“My deal is your pal was following me.”

“Get out of our way,” the shorter one said.

I stood there. They stood there.

“Here’s the way it’s gonna go, guys.” I stepped in closer, looking at the taller one because he seemed less sure of their position. “All three of us know you were following me. I have no problem with that. As long as you tell me why. If you wanna act like nothing happened, that’s fine too. We can keep walking until we find a nice quiet spot and then I’ll make you tell me.

“We weren’t following you,” the tall one said, unconvincingly.

“I saw you with a beer in your hand in the bar,” I said. “That’s illegal.”

The tall one’s face pinched together, looking at me like I was crazy.

“Bullshit,” the short one said. “He didn’t drink anything.”

“See? I can lie too.”

Their faces reddened and I tried to seize the moment. “Right now. One of you starts talking or I’m gonna kick both your asses. Right now.”

The taller one took a step back, clearly the weaker of the two. “Okay, okay.”

“Jesus, Matt,” the other one said.

“Hey, this was your idea, Derek,” Matt fired back at his friend.

“Now I got names,” I said. “Derek and Matt. We’re off to a good start.” I looked at Matt. “You were following me. Why?”

“We saw you outside the gates at Meredith’s house,” Matt said.

Derek winced, shaking his head.

I knew my way around San Diego. It wasn’t like going to a city I was unfamiliar with. I didn’t have to think about where I was going. Apparently, I’d been too comfortable navigating the streets of the city to pay attention to the rearview mirror.

“We wanted to see where you were going,” Matt said, then pointed at Derek. “He wanted to see.”

Derek scowled again, then looked at me. “You’re friends with him, right?”

“With who?”

“With that asshole that fucked Meredith,” he spat. “He fucked her and then he fucked her up so she wouldn’t tell.”

His words were like a kick to my shins. Chuck slept with Meredith? No way in hell did I believe that. Derek’s anger was real, though, and his statement bothered me.

“Yeah, he’s my friend,” I said. “I’m an investigator.”

“Yeah, I know,” Derek said. “We heard that when you were talking with Mr. Jordan’s security chick. And you’re working for Coach Winslow.”

I blinked my eyes a couple of times, clearing my head, making sure I’d heard him right. “Coach Winslow?”

His face tightened again, irritated. “Yeah. He never should’ve come to our school.”

I pointed at Derek’s T-shirt. “He coaches at Coronado?”

Matt nodded, just wanting the interrogation to end. But Derek cocked his head at me, unsure of me now. “I thought you were friends with him?”

“I am.”

He nodded, a sly grin creeping onto his face. “Well, for a friend, you don’t seem to know shit.”

Couldn’t argue with that.

Derek lifted his chin at Matt. “Come on.”

Matt stood still, not sure what to do.

“He’s not gonna do anything,” Derek said, turning back to me. “You’re not gonna do a thing.”

“Sure about that?”

He nodded, confident. “Yeah, I am. Go ahead. Start kicking our asses, like you said. Let’s see what happens.” His eyes swept the area. “Lotta people around here right now.”

He was right. I wasn’t going to start smacking around a couple of high school kids in the middle of a crowd, particularly when they hadn’t done anything really wrong.

“Why were you following me?” I asked again, bringing the conversation full circle.

Derek grabbed Matt by the arm and pulled him past me. Matt looked down at the ground, refusing to meet my eyes. Derek, on the other hand, was happy to sneer at me as they went past me. I did nothing.