"Are... are they okay?" she gasped.
"They are, but a 10th grader, Kendrick Green, he got shot, and he's not doing so well. He's in surgery now," I informed her.
"Oh no... Kendrick is in my English class! He's such a nice boy! Is he... he's not going to... will he?"
"He's not going to die. He'll be okay, eventually, but it's going to take a while to recover."
Tears were forming in her eyes now. "D-did Leon sh-shoot him?"
"No, he didn't – but he knows who did. He and William know the guy, and they've both run off somewhere. Now we need your help. Do you think you can help us? All we want to do is find out from William and Leon who the shooter is. That's all. We're not going to do anything bad to them. Do you think you can help us with that?"
She nodded, biting her lower lip as she fought back the tears. "But, h-how can I help?" she asked.
"All I need for you to do is call Leon and ask him if he wants to come over here to hang out. If he does, great, we'll talk to him here. I suspect that he won't, though. So, just casually find out where he is, but don't ask too many questions about it, alright? We don't want to put any pressure on things between the two of you by letting him know you helped us, because he and William, they, uh, they might not be too happy about answering our questions."
"Alright... alright, I'll call him now."
"Thank you so much, Megan. You're doing a good thing here," I assured her.
She got out her phone and dialed Leon. Ben and I waited with bated breath, and then we both grinned as he answered, and he and Megan started talking. But before I could listen in on their conversation, my phone rang. It was Vivienne, so I walked out of earshot and answered.
"Hi, Vivienne," I said as I answered. "Is everything alright?"
"The hospital just called," she said. "It's about Jane. She's finally awake. She's asking for you."
Chapter Nineteen
Vivienne
"Alright... Um, damn, how am I gonna do this?" Everett asked. "I have to see Jane, obviously. She's my little angel, and I've been worried sick about her the whole time she's been in the hospital. We were just about to get info on where the two kids are hiding out – the ones we need to question about the identity of the shooter."
"Well, the hospital said that Jane wants to see you now," I replied.
" Alright. I'm going to take two minutes and see what info we can get right now, and then I'll call you back," he said.
"Sure thing."
I cut off the call and waited for Everett to call me back. After around a minute, the phone rang.
"The kids have skipped town. They're apparently hiding out in LA."
"So, what are you going to do?" I asked.
"Well, right now I'm going to go over and see Jane…"
"Can I come with you?"
"Of course. I'll pick you up on the way."
"Alright, see you soon."
I hung up the call and turned to Jimmy.
"Everett is on his way over," I said. "Do you want to stick around and say hi to him? He and I are going to the hospital right away, so there won't be much time to relax and talk."
"I need to have a few beers with him and have a good chat," replied Jimmy. "But I guess that will have to be another time. Still, I'll wait here until he gets back, and then I'll say a quick hi and bye, and after that, I'll head on home."
"Alright."