Muhldinger pulled the door closed, locking the two of us into his office, and his tiny black eyes fixed on me. “Talk to me, captain.”
I glanced at his office door. It had been replaced since he put his fist through it. This version was a darker wood, and it looked expensive. I kept silent.
“You know why you’re here?” he asked.
“No, sir.”
“You turned down my team for a bunch of losers. And then you came to our opening game.”
“It’s the biggest show in town,” I said. “Everyone came. But if you think I had anything to do with what happened on Saturday, I didn’t, so…”
A sharp command: “Sit.”
I sat and he sat down across from me and folded his massive arms. “Of course I know that. If I thought you were at all involved, we wouldn’t be sitting here like this, having a friendly chat. I have my sources.”
“I’m sure you do,” I replied. “But I’m not one of them.”
Muhldinger smiled. “Sometimes you seem nothing at all like your father and your brothers, and other times you remind me of them. It’s that cocky attitude you Logans get when someone pushes you. I can see it in your eyes.”
“I didn’t mean to give you attitude. Can I go now?”
“It made your father a kick-ass football player,” Muhldinger went on, ignoring my request. “He had the speed and size to be very good, but certainly not first round draft pick material. But that Logan quality, ‘If you push me, I’ll knock you flat,’ made him a college star, and I think he would have done fine in the NFL if not for that knee injury.” I couldn’t tell from the way he said it whether he was sad my dad’s career had been cut short, or whether he was actually pleased. He leaned forward: “But, Jack, that cocky attitude cuts two ways. Twenty years later he digs holes on a construction crew. And you’d better watch yourself.”
“My dad’s done just fine—” I started to say.
Muhldinger cut me off. “We’re not here to talk about him. My point is that sometimes to get ahead in life you have to know your place. That goes for all of us.” He sat back in his chair and ran his eyes around his large corner office as if to say, “Look at my place. I’m the king of the world.”
“I didn’t want to play on your football team, but I would never have locked you guys in on Saturday,” I said.
He nodded. “No Logan would do something like that. But I don’t see your place as captaining a bunch of losers, one of whom just took a shot at this school and everything it stands for. I appreciate that you’re loyal to your teammates, but you don’t have to protect a dirtbag.”
“I never wanted to be captain,” I told him, “and I’m not protecting anybody.”
“Good,” he said, leaning forward. “Because a monumental tragedy was barely averted on Saturday. Someone almost destroyed our whole season. And that person will have to pay.”
“It could have just been meant as a bad joke,” I pointed out. “Nobody got hurt.”
“There are lots of ways people can get hurt,” Muhldinger snapped back. For just a moment his mask of self-control slipped, and I saw how furious he was. With an effort, he calmed himself down. “But the key question is who would do such a sneaky, cowardly thing?” he asked softly. “It was kind of like fighting without fighting, letting the terrain do the fighting for you. The way Hannibal did around that stupid lake in Italy, right?”
“It didn’t have to be someone from my soccer team. I’m sure you have the police looking into it.”
“They may not have to look far,” he informed me. “There are security cameras all over this school. I already know who was in the basement on Saturday morning before the game. All of my sources point to your joke of a soccer team.”
“Great,” I told him. “Arrest whoever did it and leave me out of it.”
“Your girlfriend was there,” he said, studying my face carefully.
“Becca was with me in the stands, waiting for your team.”
“She was inside the school before the game was supposed to start,” Muhldinger said. “And I know what she thinks of me and my team. She’s got as much attitude as you do, plus she thinks she’s smarter than everyone else.”
“She is smarter,” I told him. “Becca’s gonna be the valedictorian and she’s never broken a school rule in her life.”
“I know her type and I don’t trust her. Then there’s your pal Sanders.”
“Dylan was at a stage crew meeting with a dozen other people,” I said. “His mother’s on the school board.”
“His mother’s a pain in the ass,” Muhldinger growled, “and he’s a little snot.”
I kept silent.
“And that Chinese girl, Shin.”
“Chloe was doing stats for the pregame,” I pointed out. “And she’s Korean.”
“The scoreboard controls are in the basement. She was fewer than fifty feet from the locker room. And I think she’s got a thing going with that shifty son of a bitch who wears black. He was there, too. Slinky.”
“Shimsky,” I said. “I never saw him.”
“He was skulking around.”
I remembered Shimsky taking me aside after the soccer party, telling me we’d been punched and asking me what I was going to do about it. Had he decided to do something about it himself? And I recalled Becca on the bleachers telling us she wished she could see Muhldinger’s face. She certainly hated him, but she would never risk her whole school career on a stupid prank. I also couldn’t believe that Dylan or Chloe was involved, either. “It sounds like you have a really short list of suspects,” I said a little sarcastically.
“Short enough,” he told me. “Why don’t you save me some time? Be smart and talk to me, captain. Your parents and I go way back. It’s time to be a Logan.”
“Sorry, but I don’t have a clue who did it,” I told him, standing up. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t rat them out to you. But if you want me to tell you something, I will. There are dozens of kids at Fremont who hate being forced to play for a team and who are pissed off at the direction you’re taking our school. Any of them might have done it, just to take a shot at you.”
Muhldinger stood to face me. “Since we’re being frank, I’ll tell you something back. You’re dead wrong about your father. I’ve known him a lot longer than you have and he’s not exactly thrilled with the way things have turned out, spending his life digging holes for people’s bathrooms. Shoulda, coulda, woulda can eat you up inside, no matter who you’re married to or how brave a face you try to put on it. You get too cocky, Jack, and you pay for it.” A dangerous look came into Muhldinger’s eyes that I recognized from the moment when he had put his fist through the door, but this time he controlled himself. “And just so we understand each other, if someone takes a shot at me I come back at them a lot harder. Someone gave me a kick on Saturday, and that person—and everyone who protects them—are gonna feel my size thirteens on their backside.”