Spot Conlon: To the Top [1]

Chapter Four: 'E's me brodda

"This ain't good idea." Spot whispered in Race's ear so that Tiger couldn't hear her. Reptile was standing in the middle of the road in the middle of the night. He was carrying a can if gasoline in his hand and a box of matches in his other hand. He was pretending to be about to burn the next newspaper station and they were hoping that the culprit would come out with the police so that they would at least know who really did it. They would figure out how to prove who it was later. Right now, everyone else was hiding in an alley behind crates. 

"Ya bet it ain't. Several things could go wrong, like 'ow'll the culprit know that wese here, 'ow'll he know to bring de police, an' what if Reptile is de one who gets captaed by de bulls?" Reptile whispered back, though much quietly that he had earlier in the day, remembering what Tiger had done to him when he had last insulted her.

Jack nodded his head, but Spot could see that he had his cowboy hat on again.

The group waited for what seemed like hours, but Spot knew that it had only been about ten minutes. Reptile had started walking up and down the street with the matches pretending each time he passed an alleyway that he was going to light a match or open the bottle, but nothing happened. He finally came back and sighed. 

"It ain't any use. De real culprit ain't comin'. Nice try, Tiger. Thanks." He sighed and sat down behind the crates. 

Suddenly, a loud call came from around the corner. Before any of them could investigate, police were surrounding their alley, a teenage boy standing on the middle of the semi-circle. 

Reptile gasped, Tiger screeched and hid behind Spot, and Jack and Race tried to pull everyone else up to run. 

"Oh, don't try to run, Gabriel." The boy said. Reptile froze.

"Reptile, c'mon. We gotta go." Spot said. He grabbed the boy's arm and tugged, but Reptile didn't move.

"Don't move, kids, or the boy's gone."  A policeman said. He held Tunes' arms behind his back and had him on his knees. Tunes' eyes were wide with fear.

"Tunes!" Tiger screamed. She lunged forward, but was immediately caught by two police. 

"These are the culprits: I promise. I saw dis boi wid mine own eyes." The teenager said, pointing to Reptile.

Spot allowed himself to be thrown into the back of the wagon followed by the others. 

"Well now wese 'ave a pretty good guess on who done it." Jack said. He nodded to the boy who was no walking away as if he had only come out for a late night stroll.

"Did any o' ya get a good look on who de real culprit was?" Spot asked, leaning forward, his hands cuffed behind his back. 

"Na. What 'bout ya, Rep?" Race asked. Reptile stayed silent and continued staring at Tiger. 

"Rep, what's wrong?" Spot demanded. Reptile didn't answer, just stared at her, a confused look mixed with anger and betrayal locked onto his face. 

The wagon lurched to a start, but no one cared. They had been caught. They would have to find out a way to escape and then how to prove that that boy was the real culprit. Tiger would probably end up in the girls orphanage run by Mr. Snyder's wife again, and the boys would be moved to the refuge. Jack was the only one who knew his way around the refuge and could help them escape, but helping Tiger might be a different story. If she was in a girl version of the refuge where no boy was ever allowed, they would have a hard time navigating it. Unless...

"Hey, Ise got a plan." He said. "Well, de foist half. Wese gonna be split up; us bois ta de refuge, Tiga ta de goils orphanage. Wese boids got Jack who knows his way around de refuge and can 'elp us bois escape de place, but Tiga here ain't go nobody. She's gotta wait fer us to break her otta dair, but wese ain't gonna know were she is. So when wese bois escape, one of us makes a noise. Dats when Tiga stats (starts) singin'. Wese know which room she's in, and wese break her out, den run fer it. Got it?"