Read Online The Fourth Stall Part III by Chris Rylander - Free Book Online Page B

“All right, I’m just wondering what you’ve heard about Jimmy Two-Tone’s business? You know, how are things going? Are kids mostly satisfied? Is he delivering on his promises? Solving problems in a timely fashion? That kind of stuff.”
    Ears nodded slowly. “Yeah, things have been good mostly. I haven’t heard too many complaints. I mean, word is that a couple of whiners have been complaining that his hired help can be a little mean sometimes, but what do you expect from guys like Justin and Mitch and Lloyd, right?”
    â€œHe hired those guys on a permanent basis?” I said, suddenly worried that I’d handed my business over to Staples Junior.
    â€œNo, no, I mean, they’re jerks all right, but word is they’ve been pretty well behaved, actually. For them, I mean. From what I hear Jimmy runs a pretty tight ship. He’s fast. And good. Like, he always seems to be prepared no matter what. I’ve actually been thinking maybe he’s a little too good, a little too prepared, if you know what I mean.”
    â€œWell, no, I don’t, actually,” I said.
    Ears grimaced like I was asking him to run a mile instead of explain himself.
    â€œWell, remember last week when eleven bikes had their tires slashed?”
    I nodded.
    â€œYeah, our friend Fred was one of the owners,” Vince said.
    â€œWell, several kids whose parents wouldn’t or couldn’t buy them new tires came to Jimmy for help, and he just happened to have a bunch of extra bike tires on hand.”
    Vince and I glanced at each other. That was pretty odd, no doubt.
    â€œMaybe he anticipated he’d need them after the first few slashings,” I suggested.
    â€œYeah, maybe ,” Ears said. “But still, you have to admit it was a little convenient.”
    â€œWhat else?” I asked.
    â€œThen there’s our team’s last football game . . .”
    â€œYeah,” Vince said. “What about it?”
    â€œWell, not many people heard about this, since it never became an issue, but fans of the other team stole our team’s shoelaces right before game time. The reason no one heard about it wasn’t because the school had emergency laces on hand. What I heard is that Jimmy just happened to have twenty-five sets of brand-new shoelaces with him. The equipment manager bought them off him right then and there. Either he’s psychic, or something fishy’s going on.”
    I started to respond but then stopped. What was there to say? Assuming all of that was true, it certainly didn’t look good. Was it possible Jimmy was creating all the problems himself to drum up extra business? That was about as crooked as it gets.
    Vince must have been thinking the same thing. “Any rumor out there that Mitch or Justin or Lloyd or maybe even Jimmy himself was involved in the bike slashing or the stolen shoelaces?” he asked.
    â€œYeah, some kids actually thought that might be the case, but my most trusted sources tell me that the four of them pretty much all have alibis for most of these things. That’s what makes it so weird how prepared he is. Anyway, you guys have your five bucks’ worth.”
    Ears walked toward the monkey bars and his snarky popular girlfriends.
    Vince and I looked at each other.
    â€œThis is getting complicated,” I said.
    Vince could only nod in response.

L ater that day at afternoon recess we did something we thought we’d never do again: we went to the East Wing boys’ bathroom.
    We got there as quickly as we could, but there was already a line of customers. Mitch and Lloyd stood outside the door doing the job that Joe had done for me during the past few years.
    Vince and I didn’t want to risk waiting in line. We’d already had to pay this bully Little Paul to cause a scene out in the playground to distract Dickerson so we could get down there undetected. But that would only keep the principal