“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble after all this time. I mean, you have to let go, right?”
“They’re not going to get in trouble, with us, for what they did back then. But we need the information.”
“Okay, well … Some of the kids liked to pick on the ones who were at TAG on scholarships. Best thing was to try to stay out of their way. It didn’t always work. Some who got picked on did what they had to do. Wrote papers, did homework or projects, um, let somebody copy their work, or even … Okay, so they had somebody they bullied into hacking into some of the teacher networks for exams, even for changing grades. Everybody knew it.”
“Including Headmaster Grange?”
“She knew. I can’t prove it, and I don’t want to. But everybody knew she knew. I got some pressure, got pushed around some. I was pretty puny. Some of the teachers—like Mr. Duran, Mr. Rosalind—they tried to look out for me, for the ones like me. But they can’t be everywhere, you know?”
“Did they ambush you, Miguel?”
He looked at Eve. “I wasn’t going to cheat. I don’t cheat. I said I’d help them prep, help them study, but that wasn’t good enough. They beat the crap out of me one day. Jesus, I was scared. But I wouldn’t cheat, I wouldn’t dishonor myself, my family that way. When they finished, they said if I told who did it, nobody would believe me. And if I didn’t do what they wanted, they’d go after my brother, my sister. I was the oldest.”
“You can tell us now. Nobody’s going to hurt your family.”
“Stephen Whitt and Marshall Cosner. They jumped me. I was stupid, okay? Just stupid. They said okay, help us prep for this lab work that was coming up, and to come to Stephen’s house that night. So I did because I was stupid. They jumped me outside. I guess his parents weren’t home because nobody came out when I yelled. They beat me pretty bad—I don’t remember a lot of it after the first couple minutes. Then they dragged me into a car. I thought they were going to take me somewhere and kill me, because Marshall said how they could, maybe should. Stephen said if I knew what was good for me, I’d copy my work, send it to him, and how my brother and sister would get worse if I said anything. Then they dumped me out way downtown, near the piers. I passed out, I think. I tried to walk home, but I passed out. I woke up in the ambulance.”
“Just the two of them?” Eve asked.
“That time, yeah. In school, there were more of them who’d shove you or trip you, or threaten you, whatever. But it was just those two who beat on me that night.”
“You told your parents, the police.”
“I was afraid for my brother and sister, my family. So I wouldn’t say who did it. Not then. So the police couldn’t do anything. My parents went to Headmaster Grange because they kept on me until I said it was some kids from school. But she wouldn’t do anything. They wanted to take me out of TAG, but I begged them not to. It was my chance to get into MIT, my chance to do what I wanted, to get a good education, work in the career I wanted, for a good company. It was my chance.”
“That was brave,” Peabody said.
“I nearly wet my pants the first day back. I’m all banged up, kids are staring, pointing. And I knew they’d come after me because I wasn’t going to cheat.”
He took a deep gulp of his fizzy. “Man, I was scared. But this guy? Big guy, a year behind us? He wasn’t a nerd, and he wasn’t with them. A jock guy. Quint Yanger. He decided to look out for me. We barely knew each other, and he just decided he wasn’t going to let them hassle me anymore. Word had gotten around with the kids—Marshall could never keep his mouth shut, and he got high and bragged about it. Quint went right up to Stephen, because he knew he ran things, and he told Stephen if I got hit, he’d get hit twice and harder. If I got shoved, he’d shove him out the nearest window. Like that?”
For the first time Miguel grinned. “They left me alone. Then Grange left, Rufty came on, and everything changed. Well, except Quint and I are still friends. Best friend I ever had. Anyway, things changed, and I got through high school just fine after that.”
“Quint Yanger, defensive tackle? First draft choice a couple years back for the Giants?”
“Yeah, that’s Quint. Big guy. Big heart. I like to think of it this way. If it hadn’t happened, if they hadn’t come after me, Quint and I probably wouldn’t have become friends. Not like we are anyway. And I healed up okay.”
“You’re an interesting man, Miguel,” Eve decided.
“Ah, thanks, I guess. I want to say, when Dr. Rufty took over, he called me in, talked to me about that night. I felt, maybe because of Quint, and because, well, they were already gone, I could say who. I guess it felt better to say who.”
“Did any of this help?”
“It did.”
He nodded, looked away. “You probably can’t tell me if you think Stephen or Marshall are involved in the murders.” He paused, then blew out a breath when neither Eve nor Peabody spoke. “I’ve got this far, so I’m going to go all the way. I’m going to say, I don’t know them anymore, and people change. I haven’t seen them since they left TAG right after the winter break. But … I thought they’d kill me that night. It wasn’t just because I was hurt and scared. It was also … they wanted to. I could see it, hear it, feel it. They wanted to, and maybe if they’
d been sure they could get away with it, like they did all the other stuff they did, they would have.”
He pushed what was left of the fizzy away. “But people change, and I don’t know who they are now.”
“All right, Miguel. We appreciate you coming in like this. We’ll have you taken back to work.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I’ll take the subway. The big boss said I didn’t have to come back after, but I’m into something I want to finish.”
“The big boss is lucky to have you.”
Eve leaned back when Miguel walked out. “Sometimes people change. But mostly they don’t.” She glanced at her wrist unit. “We’re wanted in Whitney’s office.”