Read Online DEAD BY WEDNESDAY by Beverly Long - Free Book Online Page B

Raoul said.
    “Oooh,” Beau said, pretending to be frightened. “Like we care what you tell us to do.” He grabbed Raoul’s trombone case and threw it, sending it end-over-end down the hallway. It banged against the metal lockers. “Go get it.”
    He took a step, trying to walk around Beau. JJ stepped away from the lockers, reached out, put his hand on Raoul’s shoulder and pushed down.
    “Crawl.”
    Beau laughed. “Yeah, on your hands and knees. Like a dog. A scrawny pup from the pound.”
    Raoul thought about running in the other direction. But what would he tell Carmen about his trombone? She wasn’t going to believe that he’d forgotten it somewhere. And if she knew these kids were hassling him, she’d be in the office, demanding that something be done.
    Then it would get worse.
    Raoul dropped to his knees. Then like a stupid baby, he started crawling. His backpack felt heavy and awkward and the floor hurt his knees. He could hear Beau and JJ laughing. He didn’t look back until he reached his case. When he did, they were gone.
    He couldn’t breathe. He freakin’ couldn’t breathe.
    He tried to stand up but he couldn’t. With his back against the lockers, he slid down to the floor.
    And then he started to cry.
    And he hated more than he’d ever hated before.
    He finally picked himself up off the floor and left the school. He got on his regular bus, rode for thirty minutes, and got off at his stop, which was three blocks from his house. He hadn’t walked more than fifteen feet when the man claiming to be Hector’s friend approached from behind and started walking next to him. “You’re late today,” the man said. It was so cold that his words came out in a puff of steam.
    Raoul didn’t answer. He didn’t feel like talking to anybody. He walked faster.
    The man kept pace. “I’ve got something of Hector’s that he wanted you to have,” he said.
    That got Raoul’s attention. There was nothing of Hector’s at their apartment, except for a couple of pictures that had Hector in them. “What?”
    “I don’t want to ruin the surprise,” the man said. “Give me your number and I’ll text you later and let you know where you can meet me.”
    Raoul considered the suggestion. It wouldn’t hurt to give the man his number. If he decided he didn’t want to go, he’d just ignore it. He rattled it off and the man entered it into his own cell phone.
    “I still don’t know your name,” Raoul said.
    “Apollo,” he said. “Just call me Apollo. I’ll be in touch.”
    * * *
    A T TEN MINUTES after six, Robert pulled up in front of his mom’s pale yellow house. It was a nice two-bedroom, two-bath Cape Cod in a neighborhood that had been predominantly Polish at one time.
    She wasn’t Polish. But she’d fallen in love with the house four years ago after her fifth marriage ended and she’d needed a place to live. Robert had bought it for her.
    At least this time she wouldn’t have to move. Norman had moved in with her.
    His mom greeted him with a kiss on his cheek and pulled him into the house. It smelled like vanilla and he could see candles burning on the mantel of the fake fireplace.
    “How’s it going?” he asked.
    “Normie has a girlfriend, someone he met at last year’s Flower and Garden Show. They’re moving to Florida. I’m being dumped for a longer growing season,” she added.
    He smiled, knowing that’s what she expected. Wanted. Humor, even at her own expense, had always been his mother’s fallback position.
    “You going to be okay?” he asked.
    “Oh, sure,” she said, wiping a tear from her cheek. At sixty-seven, her face was showing the signs of age.
    “What are your plans for tonight?” he asked. He hated the idea of canceling on Carmen, but he couldn’t leave his mom crying at her kitchen table.
    “Bingo at the church,” she said. “I’m going with my friend Margie.”
    “You don’t play bingo,” he said.
    She sucked in a big breath. “I do now. Margie says