Deadly Gamble

Chapter 12 (Part 2)

It was a little after two by the time I reached the intersection of Academy and Wyoming. I remembered that I'd promised Josh Detweiller to meet him after school one day. My timing might be just about right if I headed across town right now.

At the next red light, I pulled my phone book from the back seat. Video Madness, Josh had called their hangout. It was listed on Coal, I guessed about two or three blocks from the school. I hit San Mateo southbound. The weather was beautiful and it seemed to put people in an aggressive mood. I got the one-finger wave from a guy after he abruptly changed lanes in front of me. After nearly taking off my front bumper, he sped ahead and I watched him pull the same maneuver on someone else.

Video Madness was just that, I discovered, when I finally found the place twenty minutes later. The small parking area overflowed with cars of the same vintage as Josh's primer-coated muscle car. A few newer ones dotted the area but not many. For the most part, these kids were from families like Josh's, hard working, many with single parents. Most of the parents didn't drive new cars, much less their teens. Opposite of the neighborhood I'd just come from.

I could hear the dinging, whizzing, boinging of electronic video games even before I opened the door. The windows had been painted over with black paint. I stepped in, my eyes adjusting slowly to the dimness. The jangling cacophony would drive me crazy in about fifteen minutes. A middle-aged man manned the counter, dispensing quarters, soft drinks, and slices of pizza, which were kept warm under two red light bulbs in a glass case. Clumps of teens gathered around two small booths, Formica tables with Formica benches running along each side. Apparently food was the first priority after school, although the games were getting a fair amount of attention, too.

I spotted Josh alone at one of the games. His eyes darted around the screen following some dreaded aliens. Both hands were busy at the controls, shooting the monsters with deadly precision. His concentration was total. There might not have been another person within miles as far as Josh was concerned.

I circled, trying to stay out of his line of sight, allowing him to finish his game without distraction. It probably didn't matter—a bomb explosion probably wouldn't have distracted him. I parked myself behind and to his left, watching the game, waiting for a break when I might speak to him. It took about fifteen minutes before one of the aliens got him.

"You're pretty good at this," I commented.

His head snapped toward me. "Oh! I didn't even see you there."

"You were pretty intent all right. You must play a lot."

"Yeah, I guess so. Every day." When he smiled, his face became angelic. "Wanna play a game?"

"Well, I've never really tried these much," I admitted. My eye-hand coordination skills are pretty much limited to the computer keyboard and sometimes even that is iffy.

"Come on," he coaxed. He was already dropping quarters into the slot. "Okay, get over here. You've got the red controls."

My mouth opened to protest but he had scooped me toward him by my shoulder.

"Now, I'm player number one, so you just watch what I do." His eyes were again intent on the screen. I tried to watch his hand moves but, truthfully, I hadn't much idea of what he was doing. His turn took about five minutes, then he was finally shot down.

"Okay, you go."

I felt like a spotlight had just been turned toward me. Surely everyone in the room was about to witness me making a fool of myself. I braced my feet the way Josh had done. Suddenly, red bursting lights were screaming toward my man. I grabbed the controls. I fired. I dodged. I got shot down within a minute.

"That's okay. You're just racking up points right now. You'll get two more turns."

Goody.

Josh was back at it—firing, dodging, ducking. His body emulated the moves his video icon made. Maybe that was the secret—really putting your whole self into it. When I finally got a turn again, five minutes later, I tried the same thing. This time my turn lasted a good two minutes. We each had another turn before the game quit. Josh's score was more than triple mine but he was gracious about it.

"C'mon," I said, "loser buys the Cokes."

The tables had cleared out now. Stomachs filled, the other kids had turned to the games.

"I hold a record for that game," Josh told me proudly as we carried our Cokes to a table. "Really. It lists the high scores, and my initials are right there at the top. You can check if you want to."

"That's great," I told him. "I believe you."

Peeling the paper off my straw, I tried to figure out the best way to broach the real questions.

"I guess you didn't really come here to play video games with me," Josh said.

"Did you hear that they arrested a woman for your father's murder today?"

His straw stopped in mid-air. The color drained from his lips. "No!" He seemed frozen, like an actor in a stop-action scene. Our eyes caught for a minute, until he moved again. "Who was it?" he asked.

"Her name is Stacy North. You might have heard of her husband, Brad North."

"Uh, I don't think so." He jabbed the straw down through the little X in the lid on his cup. He took a long drag on the straw before he looked back up and smiled at me.

"Then it's over, huh? They caught her."

"I don't think she did it, Josh. I know this woman—she was a friend a long time ago. She did know your father, but very briefly. People don't usually kill someone they hardly know."

"Well, then why'd they arrest her? The police aren't stupid. They know more about it than you do, I bet."

"I'm sure they do, Josh. But they don't know Stacy personally." We were both getting a little hot under the collar, so I steered the conversation another way. Obviously, Josh wanted very badly to believe that the killer had been caught. I let it go.

"Look," I said, "I didn't mean to get you all upset. How's your mom doing?"

He blew out a deep breath, then took a sip of his drink before answering. "She is doing great. She's acting . . . I don't know."

He fixed his mouth around his straw again. I waited.

"She's acting all weird, Charlie." He drummed all ten fingers on the table rapidly. "It's kind of like. . . kind of. . like she's happy." His voice broke slightly on the last word. He got busy with his drink again, keeping his head tilted downward so I couldn't see his eyes.

I glanced around the room, giving him a minute to compose himself. Noise from the video games clanged from every surface. No way anyone else could hear us. The gurgling sound of an empty straw came from across the table.

"Look, I gotta go," Josh said. He was on his feet already. He slapped his hand down gently on the table in front of me. "Thanks for the game and the Coke."

He headed for the door. I watched his slim back as he affected his teenage boy walk across the narrow parking area. Seconds later, he was out of sight. I remained where I was, sipping slowly at my drink. Our conversation and Josh's reactions kept playing through my mind. He'd been shocked when I first told him of Stacy's arrest. Why? It was almost like he expected it to be someone he knew. He'd been visibly relieved when he found out who it was.