Their combined mass slammed into the door. As strong as I was, I couldn't hold it. I was thrown back and fell hard on the floor, and the door burst open as the security guards charged into the room. But right at that moment, Kendrick's eyes lit up.
"Those two," he said, tapping his finger on the faces of two boys in the yearbook. "It was …those two."
The security guards grabbed Ben and me and started hauling us roughly out.
"Thank you, Kendrick!" I shouted over my shoulder as the guards manhandled me out of the room and frog-marched us down the hallway.
"Alright, you jerks, you can let us go now; we're leaving," said Ben.
"We'll let you idiots go when you're off hospital premises," said the head security guard defiantly.
They forced us into the elevator and held us pinned against the elevator walls as we went downstairs. These guys obviously only had minimal training, and I could easily have broken out of the hold and taken them down, but obviously, I didn't want to unnecessarily escalate the situation. It was better to just play al
ong and cooperate. We had the information we had come for.
As the elevator reached the ground floor, they marched us roughly out to the main entrance, and then when we got to the doors, they shoved us out and stood in the doorway, blocking it.
"I don't wanna see you two clowns back here again," snarled the lead guard. "And if you are dumb enough to come back, we're calling the cops."
"Don't worry, man, we're good; we won't be back," I said. "Come on, Ben, let's go."
We turned around, dusted ourselves off and then walked briskly back to the car. Once we got to it, I turned to Ben.
"Alright, so who are the kids Kendrick identified?"
"They're 11th graders. One is William Stevens; the other is Leon Brownell. Both are troublemakers; they've been spending most Saturdays in detention ever since they started at JFK High."
"Real high-quality students," I remarked sarcastically.
"Yeah. Well, at least we have their names now. Means we can look up their contact info. We have to head straight to their houses and speak to them and their parents."
"Do you think they'll even be there?" I asked. "They know Kendrick got shot, and they must know that this is serious business. If they have even an ounce of sense, they will have gone into hiding."
He nodded. "They probably have, but we have to try. Their parents might be able to tell us where they may have gone. They should at least be able to give us some details of these boys' friends and acquaintances, anyone who might be able to point us in the right direction to finding out about their whereabouts."
"Well, what are we waiting for?”
"Brownell and Stevens, here we go," said Ben as he pulled up their records. "You got a pen there, Ev? Write down these phone numbers and addresses."
He told me the phone numbers and addresses, and I scribbled them down on a piece of scrap paper.
"Great. That's it, that's what we need," I said. "Now what do you think, should we call their parents now, or just skip that and head straight on over to their houses and chat to them in person?"
Ben thought about this for a few moments. "I think let's skip the phone calls. This matter is too serious to chat about over the phone. We need to talk to these boys' parents in person."
"I agree. Well, who first? I don't know this town too well yet, so you'll have to drive."
"No problem." He glanced over the addresses. "William Stevens lives closer to the school than Leon Brownell does, so I guess let's head over to his place first. I can only hope that his parents are there, and that they're cooperative. Sometimes the parents of these problem students are as bad as the kids themselves."
"Believe me, I know all about that," I remarked.
We headed out to the car and climbed in.
"Alright, William Stevens, you little punk, we're coming for you," I muttered.
"Damn right," added Ben. “Look, I just have to say at this stage, thank you, Everett. Seriously. Before you came along, no other teacher here had the, uh, excuse me for saying so, but the balls to do this. You're helping me immensely. I'm glad you're here, helping to turn things around at this school."
"No problem, Ben. I'm glad you're so committed to stamping out the scourge of this drug problem. Really, I am."