Dr. Daddy's Virgin

Ben nodded grimly. “We'll have to watch our backs, Ev. We really will.”

I turned back to William to continue the questioning. “So, since you seem to know Mr. Mask at least a little, considering that he trusts you enough to ask you to deal for him, can you tell us why he started dealing on school premises on Saturdays?”

“He knows that someone is on to him,” William replied. “He and the other guy used to deal from the park at certain times, but then I guess the cops or someone found out about that. So now he's trying to find a way to get into the school by having students deal instead because it's a real big market for his Rocket.”

“That makes sense. Tell me the rest of what happened when Kendrick came across you two buying the drugs from Mr. Mask on Saturday,” I urged.

William sighed and shook his head. “Okay, so we were doing the deal, and then we hear someone shout, 'smile, you're on camera, suckers!' We look up the hallway and see this Kendrick kid filming us. So anyway, Leon just charged for him straight away – he knew how much trouble we were going to be in if that footage got out. And Mr. Mask joined in the chase, too. Leon was on the track team before, so he's a real fast sprinter. Kendrick didn't get too far before Leon caught him.”

“And then what happened?” Ben asked.

“Leon tackled him, they fought on the ground for a while. Leon was trying to get Kendrick's phone away from him. That Kendrick kid is pretty skinny, but he put up one hell of a fight. He actually managed to get out of Leon's grasp, and that's when Mr. Mask stepped in.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

“Man, he just pulled a piece out and shot Kendrick. Just like that. Me and Leon, we were shocked as hell. I mean, it's one thing kicking a guy's ass, but it's another thing you know, freakin' shooting a kid with a gun.”

“So, what happened after that?” I questioned.

“Mr. Mask was real calm about the whole thing. He just reached down, took Kendrick's phone, and put it in his pocket. It was like, for him, shooting this kid meant like, nothing, like nothing at all.”

“And what did you and Leon do?” Ben inserted.

“We freaked the hell out, man! I've seen some crazy stuff before, but I'd never seen anyone get shot, and man, it happened just a few feet away from me! There was so much blood. I... I thought Kendrick was dead. We both just ran like crazy. And that was it; I don't know what happened after that, we only stopped running when we ran out of breath. And after that we made plans to skip town, to get to LA where we have some friends to stay with.”

“I see,” I said. “Well, I guess you'll be relieved to know that Kendrick had surgery and that he's gonna make it.”

A look of relief came over William's face. “I'm uh... I'm happy to hear that. Neither of us wanted that kid to get shot, you gotta believe me. We were just gonna rough him up a bit and make him delete the video off his phone. That's all, man, seriously. We didn't wanna hurt him bad or anything.”

“I believe you, and I'll take that into account when figuring out your punishment,” I said to him. “I do have one more question for you, though.”

“Sure, go ahead,” he said.

“Was Mr. Mask wearing his mask that day?”

William shook his head. “No, he wasn't. He wouldn't have been able to get into the school if he'd been dressed like he usually dresses.”

“So, what was he wearing? What did he look like?”

“He was dressed like a janitor. I guess he figured like that, nobody would have given him a second glance when he was walking around school grounds.”

“Good disguise, appropriate,” I grudgingly admitted. “But what about his face? What can you tell me about what he actually looks like?”

“He's uh, I guess he's maybe your age?” he said. “And he's actually a pretty good-looking guy. I'm saying that as a straight guy, yo, I'm not gay or nothing, but yeah, he's got that pretty boy look. Blond hair, he's real neat and clean and stuff. Pretty big, strong dude as well, I guess he pumps iron regularly, coz he's pretty jacked. I wouldn't want to get in a tangle with the dude; he looks like he could kick some ass if he needed to. But yeah, he looks way more like a respectable businessman or something than a, uh, a drug dealer.”

“Okay. Would you be able to pick him out of a police lineup?” I asked.

“I would, yeah.”

“And you would be willing to identify him in front of a judge, and testify under oath that he was both selling drugs and that he shot Kendrick Green?”

“And if I agree, you'll let me and Leon off?” William said.

“You won't get off completely, no,” I said. “But I'll make sure you're treated leniently. And you will have to go to rehab to get off the substances you're hooked on. There's no getting around that, I'm afraid.”

He bit his lip as he thought deeply about it.

“And you're sure that, like, Mr. Mask couldn't, you know... get us... if we testified in court against him?”