“So the pills weren’t labeled, and the bottles weren’t labeled,” I said that night. I tossed my mini-basketball through the hoop on my bedroom door. “Basically, we know nothing, and it’s already Thursday.”
“Not true,” Frank replied. “We know that Chet has been picking up packages filled with pills from the California Diner at the train station, and we know that he’s been carrying them back to Huang.”
“And I guess we know that Huang has been giving those pills to Billy Lee and making him pay for them,” I said.
“If he’s been giving them to Billy, chances are he’s been giving them to other students, too,” Frank said grimly.
I shot the b-ball again. “What do you think they are?” I asked.
Frank shrugged. “If it was all legal, I doubt Huang would be sending Chet to pick them up for him. Why not just do it himself?”
“Maybe he’s too busy,” I suggested. “There’s no way Chet would be involved in anything illegal.”
But Frank shook his head. “A karate teacher taking money from students for unlabeled pills, and having another student pick them up from some random guy at a diner? It’s pretty weird.”
“Add that to students ending up in the hospital, and Finn obviously bullying Billy Lee, and it looks bad,” I agreed. I hated to think my friend Chet would be willing to help out a lowlife like Huang. But it seemed obvious that he was. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think we have to consider Chet a suspect.”
“You sure this is a good idea?” Frank asked me as we walked up to Billy Lee’s house after school the next day. I’d tracked down his address online.
“Sure,” I said. “First of all, we have to find out what Finn and Huang have been saying to him to get him so upset lately. And we know for a fact that Billy has a bottle of those pills. Maybe he can tell us what they are.”
“Let’s just hope he’s willing to talk,” Frank said.
“He was the first one to talk to us at the Rising Phoenix,” I pointed out. “He’s a nice guy. He’ll talk.” I rang the bell.
A pretty middle-aged woman answered.
“Hi. Mrs. Lee?” Frank asked. “We’re friends of Billy’s.”
She looked surprised. “From school?” she asked.
“Uh, no, from the Rising Phoenix,” I said. “The martial arts center.”
“Oh, of course.” Mrs. Lee held the door open for us to come in. “Billy’s favorite place in the world. He never stops talking about his karate classes.”
“Yeah, it’s a lot of fun,” I agreed. “My brother and I just started last week, but we love it so far.”
“Billy made us feel really welcome,” Frank put in. “He seems to have gotten a lot from his classes there.”
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Lee replied. “He loves Sensei Huang. What a wonderful man—he’s taken such an interest in Billy, giving him private lessons and all.”
While she talked, I looked around the house. It was filled with antiques that looked pretty expensive. It didn’t seem like Billy’s parents would have any problem paying his tuition at the Rising Phoenix. I had a feeling that whatever money Billy and Finn had been fighting about was money that Billy’s mother knew nothing about. Was Billy buying pills from Huang without telling his mom?
“Why don’t you boys go on upstairs?” Mrs. Lee said. “Billy’s in his room doing homework.” She craned her neck and looked at the top of the stairs. “Billy! You have guests!”
“Thanks,” Frank said. He led the way up the steps. We found Billy at his desk. But he wasn’t doing work. He was just sitting there, staring off into space.
“Hi, Billy,” I said. “Hope you don’t mind us just dropping by.”
He jumped, his eyes going wide. “How did you know where I live?” he demanded. He looked pretty freaked out.
“We, uh, looked you up,” Frank admitted. “We wanted to talk to you.”
“Away from the Rising Phoenix,” I added.
“Why?” Billy jumped up and closed his bedroom door. I guess he didn’t want his mother to hear us.
“We noticed you arguing with Finn Campbell last week,” Frank said.
“Did Finn send you?” Billy cried. His breathing was fast and he looked like he wanted to run.
“No,” I said quickly. “You seemed pretty upset. We just wanted to make sure everything is okay.”
“Oh.” Billy frowned. “Does Finn know you’re here?”
“No. Why?” Frank asked. “Would he be mad?”
“I don’t know.” Billy picked up his pencil and began to fidget with it.
“Billy, what’s going on?” I asked. “Are you in some kind of trouble with Finn? Or with Sensei Huang?”
He shook his head, not looking at us.
“You really loved karate lessons when we first started,” Frank said. “You don’t seem too happy now, though.”
“I’m fine,” Billy said. “Look, I have a lot of homework, so . . .”
He wanted us to leave. But he still hadn’t told us a single useful thing! It was time to try another tactic. “Billy, you said the sensei gave you some Chinese herbs, right?”
Billy swallowed hard. “Yeah,” he muttered.
“What are they like?” Frank asked. “Like oregano or wheat germ or something that you sprinkle on your food? Or are they in pill form?”
“Yeah, they’re pills,” Billy said. He pulled a bottle out of his desk drawer—an unmarked bottle filled with unmarked white pills. “I take two a day.”
“Sounds pretty easy,” Frank said. “Do they work?”
“Yeah.” But Billy didn’t sound too happy about it.
“Cool. Do you think I could try one?” I asked.
Billy shoved the bottle back into his desk. “No,” he said. “I mean . . . I don’t think Sensei Huang would like that.”
“Okay,” I replied. “I guess I can just ask him for some myself.”
Billy opened his mouth as if he wanted to protest. Then he closed it again. He shrugged. “I should do my homework,” he said.
“Right. Thanks, Billy. See you at the next class.” Frank opened the door and went out into the hall.
I took one last look at Billy. The kid seemed miserable. “You sure you’re okay?” I asked.
He nodded without turning around.
As soon as we got outside, I turned to my brother. “Whatever Huang is up to, it’s making a good guy like Billy turn into a total sad sack.”
“I know,” Frank said. “And in order to figure this out, we have to get our hands on one of those pills!”