Final Assignment: A Promise Falls Novella by Linwood Barclay Read Free Book Online

I rang the bell. ‘The police just got here,’ she said breathlessly. ‘A detective. He’s talking to Chandler now. Malcolm’s with them. I have to go back.’
    We followed her. Duckworth was in the living room sitting across from Chandler and his father. When he saw Lucy and me, he smiled and stood.
    ‘Cal,’ he said. I introduced him to Lucy.
    Malcolm said, ‘I’ve called my lawyer. They’re going to send someone over. I’ve told Chandler he doesn’t have to answer any questions.’
    ‘But I didn’t do anything,’ the boy protested. ‘So what’s the big deal?’
    ‘Tell me again about the story you wrote,’ Duckworth said.
    So, the principal had talked.
    ‘I didn’t write it,’ he said. ‘Joel Blakelock wrote it. I’m not very good at writing stories so he gave me one to hand in, which was pretty nice of him considering.’
    ‘Considering what?’ Duckworth asked.
    Evidently Barry wasn’t up to speed on everything.
    ‘I don’t see any point in getting into this,’ Malcolm said. ‘We’re not answering any more questions without a lawyer present. You’re trying to turn this into something it’s not. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’
    Duckworth sighed and got to his feet. ‘I’ll be in touch,’ he said, and made his way past Lucy and Greta and me. Greta closed the door behind him and turned the deadbolt, as though she thought Duckworth might be back with a battering ram.
    ‘This is terrible,’ she said.
    ‘It’s going to be okay,’ Malcolm said. ‘Other than that stupid story, they don’t have anything on Chandler. Absolutely nothing.’
    ‘We need to talk,’ I said.
    Chandler and his parents turned their heads toward me.
    ‘We spoke to Joel,’ I said.
    Chandler nodded with what looked like innocent confidence, as though waiting for his side of the story to be confirmed.
    ‘Chandler,’ Lucy said, ‘Joel says he did not write that story for you.’
    ‘What?’ he said. ‘But he did. I mean, you said yourself I’m not smart enough to have written it.’
    Lucy frowned. ‘That’s not exactly what I said. What I did say was that your record for completing and handing in assignments gave me reason to doubt that you’d done that story on your own.’
    Educational doublespeak. I thought Chandler’d nailed it when he said he just wasn’t smart enough.
    ‘Why would he lie?’ the boy asked.
    I weighed in. ‘Not only did Joel say he hadn’t written that story for you, he said he hasn’t even spoken to you since you and Mike splashed his picture all over the Internet.’
    Chandler nodded. ‘Yeah, well, that’s true.’
    That stopped me for a second. ‘You haven’t spoken to him at all?’
    He shook his head. ‘I mean, I get that. What Mike and I did, it was pretty shitty, and he’d probably feel funny talking to me directly, which was why I guess he used a whaddya call it, an intermediary.’
    Lucy said, ‘He had someone else approach you with his offer of a story?’
    Chandler’s head went up and down this time. ‘That’s right. It was Franny.’
    ‘His sister?’ I said.
    ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I could hardly believe it.’

Ten
    ‘Let’s go through this from the beginning,’ I said.
    ‘Okay,’ Chandler said. ‘So, like, a week ago, I’m in the cafeteria, and Franny Blakelock comes in and sits down across from me. And I’m like, oh boy, she’s going to dump a Coke on me or hit me or something, and I’m getting ready to defend myself, and she says, chill out, it’s okay.’
    He ran his fingers through his hair, scratched his scalp. ‘So I’m like, okay, what’s up? And she says her brother Joel wants to put all that stuff we did to him into the past, what me and Mike did, and as a kind of show of good faith or whatever, he wants to do me a favor. I’m still thinking maybe it’s a trick, that I’m being set up for a joke, like maybe she’s going to give me something and when I go to put it in my locker, they’ve booby-trapped it, you