Trial by Fire (19 page)

I don’t know where Charlie went after he left the café, but it wasn’t home. I learned
that by camping out on his front steps for nearly an hour. He didn’t answer my texts
or calls. Finally, I decided to go looking for him. It only took forty-five minutes.
Moorebridge isn’t that big. I found him kicking around a soccer ball by himself in
the park.

“Charlie?”

He spun around to face me.

“I really am sorry. If I could take it back, I would. Don’t be mad at me.”

He gave the soccer ball a halfhearted kick and watched it roll, slow down and finally
settle a few yards away. He looked at it and then turned and looked at me.

“I’m mad at me, not you. I should have made them accept the donation. I should have
said something when the money disappeared. But I didn’t. I didn’t do
anything—except
act like Mr. Goran was poison after that.”

“I still shouldn’t have said anything in front of Ashleigh,” I said. “I promised
not to.”

Charlie shrugged as if he no longer cared. He started to fetch the ball. I followed—until
something else caught my attention.

It was Mike. He was with Taylor, and they were walking toward the park’s equipment
shed. This was my chance. By the time I caught up with them, they were going into
the staff locker room. The door was propped open with a bright-yellow trestle that
sported the sign
Caution: Wet Floor
. I peeked inside. They were in front of Madison’s
locker.

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea, Mike,”Taylor was saying. I ducked back
so I could listen without being seen.

“Come on, Taylor. Just do it, please. I’ve asked her a million times already.”

“She says you gave it to her.”

“She was whining about being cold. She asked me if she could borrow it.
Borrow
, Tay.
I didn’t give it to her. Think about it. Would I give my football jacket to
her
,
of all people?”

I heard a sigh. “I guess not,” Taylor said.

“She told me she had it at work. So go ahead. Open it.”

“I don’t know, Mike. I could get into big trouble if I get caught.”

“Then you should get a move on.”

Another sigh.

Footsteps.

I spun around.

It was Madison. She frowned when she saw me listening at the door and opened her
mouth to say something—until she looked into the locker room to see what I was so
interested in. She froze. Her mouth gaped.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she shouted.

Her locker was open, and Mike was reaching inside.

Madison flew at him and slammed the door shut.

“Hey!” Mike howled.

“That’s private property. You have no right going in there.” Madison glowered at
Taylor. “You opened it, didn’t you? You’re the only person who has my combination—because
you’re
supposed
to be my friend.”

“Mike asked me to get his jacket for him. He said you said it was okay.” She turned
to Mike as if daring him to deny it.

“I’ve asked you a million times, Maddy,” Mike said. He didn’t seem to care that Taylor’s
lie let her off the hook. “I want my jacket.”

Madison stared at him in disbelief. Her lower lip trembled. “You gave it to me.”

Mike shook his head impatiently. He elbowed Madison aside and opened the locker door.

From outside the clubhouse, Charlie’s voice rang out. “Riley? Riley, are you in there?”

That’s when Mike and Taylor turned and saw me for the first time. Mike looked like
he wanted to spit on me. “What do
you
want?”

Since he was asking, I said, “You heard what happened, right, Mike?” They arrested
someone for beating up your dad, and it wasn’t Aram Goran. It was someone else. He
confessed.”

Mike said nothing.

“But the fire?” I said. “They still haven’t arrested the person who did that.”

“Yeah, but they know who it was. It was the old man.” Mike was all snarl and sneer.

“But he didn’t do it, did he, Mike?”

“Then who did?” Mike crossed his arms over his chest to wait for my answer.

“It was you,” I said.

Mike laughed.

“You’re crazy,” Taylor said. “Why would Mike burn down his grandpa’s barn?”

I ignored her.

“What’s your alibi for that night, Mike?”

“Who do you think you are? The cops?” He started to turn back to Maddy.

“You told me you were with friends. Then Madison said you were with her. Which is
it, Mike? Were you with Madison or with someone else?”

Mike spun around, his face beginning to flush, his eyes and nose squinched as if
he were smelling something bad. “Look, I told you—I had nothing to do with that
fire! Like Tay said, why would I burn down a barn my grandfather built?”

“Because you hated Mr. Goran. And because you wanted back what you thought he took
from you.”

“Those brasses are mine. He had no right to keep them.”

“Funny thing about the brasses, Mike. They’ve disappeared.”

“That old man probably took them out of the barn when he realized how valuable they
are.” He spit out the words like pieces of rancid meat. I had to hand it to him,
he could really act. “What did he do? Sell them on eBay or something?”

“He didn’t sell them.
You
took them, Mike. You took the brasses, and you started
that fire. Maybe you even locked Mr. Goran in the barn.”

“I didn’t do anything!” He slammed the sole of his sneaker into the locker in front
of him. The sound of impact reverberated in the metal-lined room.

“Those brasses were hanging in the barn the afternoon of the fire. I saw them myself,”
I said. “And now they’re gone.”

“
What
?” Mike’s face drained of color. “What do you mean,
gone
?”

“Did they melt?” Taylor asked. She laid a hand on Mike’s arm. “That’s what probably
happened. If they were in the barn during the fire, they would have melted.”

“Did that stupid Paki let my brasses get burned up?” Mike balled his hands into fists.
I thought he was
going to punch out a locker, but he didn’t, although he looked as
though he might at any time.

His attitude perplexed me. Was he really that good an actor?

“They didn’t melt,” I said. “The fire wasn’t hot enough. I checked with the fire
marshal.”

“So where are they? Who took them? What happened to them?”Again he seemed genuinely
upset. Too genuine. Too upset. Did he think I was going to buy that?

“Drop the act, Mike,” I said. “You were the one who wanted the brasses. You were
the one who broke into the barn. You’re the one who trashed the table at the market.
You’re the one who tried to turn your team at school against Mr. Goran’s donation,
and when that didn’t work, you made the money disappear. It was all you, Mike.”

“I had nothing to do with that,” Mike said.

“Right. You’re totally and completely innocent.”

“I mean, about the money thing. I heard about it—everyone heard about it—but that
wasn’t my team. I don’t know where you’re getting your information from, but you
got it wrong.”

“He’s right,” said a voice behind me. Charlie’s voice. “You’ve got it wrong. Mike
wasn’t on my team.”

“But you said—”

“I didn’t say who it was.”

I suddenly pictured myself as Aunt Ginny. For sure, I felt like steam was coming
out of my ears. “So who then?”

“Maddy. It was Maddy.”

“Great. You see? Your information sucks!” Mike swung around to Madison. “Give me
my jacket.” Without waiting for her to answer, he wrenched open her locker door and
grabbed it.

“No!” She got hold of one arm of the jacket and pulled. Mike yanked hard, and I heard
something rip. Mike went flying backward into the locker behind him, dropping his
part of the jacket. He stared at it in disbelief. Something fell out of the pocket,
bounced and landed at my feet. I bent down and picked it up.

It was a brass with a horse in the middle of it and bells around the edges.

“Hey!” Mike grabbed it from my hand and examined it. “Where did you get this?”

“It fell out of your jacket.”

“No way! No way! The last time I saw this, it was in the barn.”

“Until you took it that night,” I said.

“I didn’t take anything, I wasn’t there!” He spun around and stared at Maddy, who
was holding the other part of the jacket.

You know how, in cartoons, when a character has a great idea or an inspiration, you
see a lightbulb flash over their head? Well, that actually happened to me, and almost
blinded me.

“I think the real question is, where did Madison get it?” I said. “She’s the only
other person who’s been wearing your jacket.”

We all turned to look at her.

Mike held up the brass. “Where did you get this, Maddy?”

Madison cowered. “Don’t be mad at me, Mike. I was just trying to help you.”

“By doing what?” Mike wasn’t even trying to be nice. “Where did you get this brass?”

“I know how much you like them, Mike.” Madison’s eyes filled with tears. “I was just
trying to help you.”

Mike, Taylor and Charlie were silent.

“You were there the night of the fire, weren’t you, Maddy?” I asked.

“No.”

“The fire marshal said there were two flashlights as well as a kerosene lantern near
the source of the fire. They’ve already fingerprinted them. Mr. Goran’s fingerprints
were on both of the flashlights but not on the lantern. There are other fingerprints
on one of the flashlights, but they’re guessing they’re from a family member or maybe
even Mike’s grandfather. But I think all they have to do is fingerprint you to find
out whose prints those are.”

There was something else. “When you offered to alibi Mike, I thought you were trying
to protect him. But you weren’t. You were trying to protect yourself—because you
knew you’d left your flashlight in there, and you didn’t have an alibi.”

“No. You’re wrong.”

“Where are the brasses, Madison?” I asked.

“Yeah, Maddy, where are they?” Mike stepped in closer to her. “Tell me.”

“I was just helping you. That’s all.”

Taylor had reached into her pocket and was taking out her phone. My guess? She was
about to call her dad. Let her.

“Where are the brasses, Maddy?” Mike’s tone was gentler this time, coaxing.

Maddy opened her locker slowly. She bent down and lifted out a heavy burlap sack,
which she handed to Mike. It jangled when Mike set it down on the concrete floor
to open it.

It was full of brasses.

Horse brasses.

Mike looked up at Madison.

Tears dribbled down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”

“What happened, Maddy?” I asked.

She cried silently.

“I know you took them the day of the fire,” I said. “And I bet your fingerprints
are all over the second flashlight in the barn. What happened? Did you set the fire
on purpose?”

“No!” She looked horrified. “It was an accident. I swear. I snuck in through some
loose boards.”

I’d seen those boards. Mr. Goran had been planning to fix them before an unwanted
animal got in. Madison had wriggled in instead. Mike never would have been able to
manage.

“My flashlight conked out on me, but there was a lantern, so I lit it. I—” Her lip
trembled again. “I finished collecting the brasses and I was getting down when I
knocked over the lantern. It was an accident. Everything happened so fast after that.
I looked for something to put out the fire with, but there wasn’t anything. And it
spread fast. So I ran. I just ran.”

“What about Mr. Goran?”

“I didn’t see him. I didn’t know he was in the barn.” She looked imploringly at Mike.
“I know how important these are to you. I just wanted to help you.”

Mike stood up. His face was impassive.

“You’re going to have to tell the police what happened, Maddy,” I said.

She shook her head. “It was an accident.”

“You still have to tell them.”

She was still shaking her head. “I did it for you, Mike.”

Mike looked down at the brasses. Then, slowly, he turned and walked out of the locker
room.

“Mike! Mike!” Maddy cried.

I glanced at Taylor.

“My dad’s on his way,” she said.

A car turned in to our driveway a week later. It was Aram. He walked around the side
of our house to the kitchen door at the back.

“Anyone home?” he called through the screen, one arm behind his back.

“You’re back!” I was so glad to see him.

“Back to stay,” he said when I opened the door for him. “It’s going to take a while
for my things to get here from Afghanistan. But it looks like this is going to be
my home until my father is able to make some decisions.”

Mr. Goran had regained consciousness, but he was still in the hospital. He was going
to need several operations once he was well enough. The burns were the worst on
his arms, but his doctor was optimistic that given time, and barring infection, he
would recover enough to be able to go home. Aram had resigned his position with the
international aid agency. He was going to run the farm as best he could while his
father recovered. After that, well, “we’ll see when we see,” he said. “How is that
girl? Madison?”