Hiro sat on the edge of her bed with all the lights off except the desk light with the green glass shade. She set her phone in its circle of light, and checked just to make sure she hadn’t missed a text.
Did the police take Coop and Gordy in for questioning? She shouldn’t have left them there. There were a lot of things she shouldn’t have done. Like agree to the Code in the first place. And deliberately deceive her mom.
When Coop rode off angry the night before, she’d felt so incredibly lonely afterwards. He didn’t come back. She’d dosed him with his own medicine tonight. And somehow she’d poisoned herself at the same time.
Hiro stood and walked silently to the closet, opened the door, and reached for her dad’s Chicago Police jacket. Sliding it off the hanger, she buried her face in it, drawing in the smell of the leather.
She slipped it on and stood for a moment, feeling its weight. Its strength. The sleeves hung below her hands, and she pushed up the cuffs.
“I messed up, Dad,” she whispered. “And I don’t know what to do.”
She sat on the floor next to her bed and hugged herself. “If you were here I wouldn’t have done this. We’d have worked this out together.”
She opened the jacket and studied the star hanging from her neck. Dad’s star. The circular seal of the city of Chicago sat in its center. The words Chicago Police wrapped around it. SGT. KENJI YAKIMOTO was engraved in a banner that wrapped around the top of the star. Surrounding the seal on the bottom were a series of letters and numbers. EOW 2–22–2009. EOW. End of watch. The day he died in the line of duty.
“I still need you, Dad. Your watch wasn’t over with me.” She hugged herself again. “I’m in trouble here.”
Her mind played back events over the last five days. All they’d wanted to do is keep the horror of what they’d seen a secret. Locked up tight so it couldn’t escape. Now the secret had them. And no plan of escape seemed to come without a high risk. A price.
Break the Code, and I’ll lose a friend. If there was anything left of their friendship to lose. But if she didn’t break the Code, she might lose him to the robbers.
Could Dad see her now? Could he hear her? She wanted to think so. But she knew her Heavenly Father saw. He heard. And He cared.
“Help me know what to do,” she whispered. “I want to stop the lies.” She wiped her eyes with her dad’s sleeves. Like he might have done if he were there. The feel of leather against her cheek made her heart ache even more. “Protect us, Father. Bring Coop back.
And Frank.”
She reached for her phone and checked for missed calls, even though she knew better. No call from Coop. She could be waiting for one all night. As she stared at her phone, an idea formed.
She should call Coop. She really wanted to. But he wasn’t ready for what she had to say. She dialed Gordy instead. He picked up on the second ring.
“Hiro!” he said. “I’m glad you called. We delivered the second letter—but to Frank’s this time because we were afraid the cops might have the library staked out and Coop used the key at Frank’s but the alarm rang and we had to hightail out of there and we almost got caught because the cops were waiting by the library and swept the park with searchlights.” Gordy paused for a breath.
“Gordy,” she said and sat down on her bed. “Slow down. I want to hear everything.”
Hiro rocked herself. He filled her in on the night’s events.
She listened silently, her idea taking shape. “Gordy,” she said when he stopped talking. “I’ve been thinking about what you told me earlier. About what Miss Ferrand said to the class today. I need you to give me her phone number.”