Burnouts

No Sudden Sentiment

Scene 1: Chester High

Matt Jensen

"Right in here, Matthew," the lady in the main office directs me.

I got called to the Principal's office midway through my remedial math class. I thought that was pretty cool...but when the door closed behind me, and I was faced with Principal Chase and a cop, I changed my mind.

"Did I do something wrong?" I ask immediately before I even sit down.

"No, not at all," the principal tries to reassure me, "I want to make that very clear. You are not in any trouble."

"So, I'm here because..." I raise an eyebrow.

"This officer would like to ask you a few questions regarding an— incident the department has received some information about."

"I don't know anything," I shrug.

"Well, how about I ask anyway," the cop suggests, "you may know more than you think."

"Fine," I say unamused. I know all the little cop tricks, he thinks he can trip me up and I'll end up talking.

"First off, I'm officer Mendoza, it's nice to meet you, Matthew. You seem like a good kid."

"How do you figure?" I cross my arms.

"The fact that you're in school right now," he smirked. "I was afraid this visit would be a waste of time, but here we are."

"Mm," I nod unimpressed.

"How about we get this over with so you can get back to class. Does that sound fair?"

"Sure," I agree indifferently.

"Recently, there have been multiple reports of car radio thefts on this side of Manhattan. A couple of days ago, a car was stolen off of Houston Street. A 1991 red Ford Mustang, to be exact."

"So, what?" I shrug and avoid eye contact with either of them.

"We're looking into an...anonymous tip that names Spencer Jensen as our main suspect."

Anonymous, my ass.

What the hell did you do, Leo?

"It wasn't him," I say confidently.

"No?" Mendoza says skeptically, "is it only a coincidence that your other brother, Thomas Jensen...is currently serving a two-year sentence for that exact crime?"

"Coincidence, yeah— that's a good word," I agree.

He sighs at my response, "Matthew, I should tell you...the Mustang was recovered last night. We've collected fingerprints...they'll be processed and searched against local and state fingerprint files. Spencer is in the system, you are not, but if I find that you've lied to me today, that will provide reasonable doubt and a means to collect yours too. There were multiple sets of prints in that car."

"Prints, huh?" I say slyly.

I watched Spence wipe down everything we touched. If there's prints like he said, they will only match his friend in New Jersey.