I was puzzled.
“His favorite dance club,” Batra explained.
“Do you dance, Dr. Cross?” Rawlins said.
Before I could reply, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, saw the number.
“My son’s school,” I said. “I have to take this.”
CHAPTER
35
ALI CROSS BELIEVED he was smarter than the average kid at Washington Latin but not brilliant, not a genius. The kids he considered supersmart were also the shyest and the most awkward. He decided within a month of starting at the charter school that brilliance was overrated. He’d take very bright, very hardworking, and very curious any day of the week.
Ali was the youngest kid in fifth grade at Latin by at least a year. With his attitude and sense of humor, he fit in with most of his older classmates. But, as his father always said, there were jerks in every crowd.
Ali met two of them shortly after the school bell rang to announce the end of classes. He had fifteen minutes before debate practice and decided to go sit outside. It was a nice sunny afternoon, not too cold.
Ali stopped on the front steps and looked toward the plaza, remembering the hooded men who’d grabbed Gretchen Lindel and shot Ms. Petracek. Rather than dwell on those violent events, he sat up on the wall at the top of the stairs and started playing a game on his phone.
He was aware of knots of kids walking past him, and he caught snatches of their conversation. Suddenly, someone grabbed him by the collar, right below his chin, and pushed as if to shove him backward off the wall. Then whoever it was yanked him forward again.
Shocked, surprised, Ali felt his stomach go sick with adrenaline and fear before he’d fully realized what had happened. George Putnam, a burly sixth-grader, still held Ali so tight by the collar, he was having trouble getting his breath. The older boy laughed at his reaction.
“Saved your life,” Putnam said. “You little turd, Cross.”
“Let go!” Ali said. “You’re choking me!”
Putnam’s buddy Coulter Tate was taller and already fighting acne. Tate leaned over, got right in Ali’s face, and gave him a crazed, zitty look.
“How’s it feel to be a killer’s son, Cross?” Tate said. “How’s it feel to have murder in the genes?”
Putnam tightened his hold, making Ali’s eyes feel like they were swelling. There was no thought, no consideration on Ali’s part after that. He just pulled back his head and then slammed it forward. His forehead connected with Tate’s nose, and he heard a distinct crunching noise.
Tate screamed and stumbled back, holding his hand to his nose, which was gushing blood.
“He broke it!” He sobbed in disbelief. “He broke my nose!”
Putnam was still holding on, looking shocked as he stared at his bleeding buddy, and Ali punched him in the throat. Putnam let go of Ali’s collar and went down on the stairs, bug-eyed and coughing, his hands to his neck.
Ali was still in a fighting stance and trembling head to toe when Mrs. Dalton, the headmistress at Washington Latin, came running out of the school.
“My God, what’s happening?” she cried.
Ali didn’t reply or move. He kept his attention on the two sixth-graders, as if daring them to get up.
“He broke my nose, Mrs. D.!” Tate said, the blood dripping between his fingers. “And the little frickin’ insane-o hit George in the throat!”
“Ali?” Mrs. Dalton said. “Why did you—”
“I’m not talking until my dad’s here,” Ali said, trying to stay calm.
“You will tell me now, young man,” she said, sounding angry and full of authority. “Right now.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Dalton,” Ali said, feeling weak as he dropped his fists and turned to face her. “Please get my dad here, or a lawyer, and then I’ll tell you exactly what happened.”
CHAPTER