Mrs. Serrano half turned at the door and called into the house sharply. “Lacey! You come here this minute. Stop your texting and come here!”
The girl appeared, her cell phone still in hand. She glared with hatred at Ernesto Sandoval. He had gotten her in trouble before, reporting her mocking of Angel Roma and her grandmother. At first, Mrs. Serrano had defended her daughter, but then Lacey’s misbehavior was proven. “What do you want?” the girl asked in a sullen voice.
“This young man claims you are dating a boy from the junior class who was seen striking you,” Mrs. Serrano said in an angry voice. “You know you have no permission to date older boys, and if he is violent, then—”
“It’s a dirty lie,” Lacey snarled. “Ernesto Sandoval is a dirty liar, and he’s always hated me.”
“The guy’s name is Humberto Gomez, and everybody at school sees them together,” Ernesto said.
“Lacey,” Mrs. Serrano said, “I want the truth. This young man claims you are dating the Gomez boy, and that he slapped you in the face!”
Lacey laughed sarcastically. “Oh, what a lie! I don’t even know anybody in the junior class. This guy is crazy, Mom. He makes trouble for everybody. He’s like a little tyrant sticking his nose into everybody’s business. I swear, Mom, I don’t even know who this Gomez guy is,” she said.
Mrs. Serrano turned to Ernesto. “I have to trust my daughter. If she says she’s not dating a boy from the junior class, then I have to believe her,” she said.
Ernesto kept his voice calm and polite. “Mrs. Serrano, Humberto Gomez gave your daughter a very expensive necklace from Osterman’s. He drives her around in his car, and she’s with him every chance she gets. It’s up to you if you want to believe me or not. I have done my duty in telling you, so I’ll be going now.”
Ernesto turned and walked back to his Volvo. Mrs. Serrano closed the front door, but Ernesto heard loud voices from inside the house.
“Lacey Serrano,” her mother was screaming, “you told me you didn’t harass that old crippled woman and her granddaughter before, and it turned out to be a lie. And I had to suffer the humiliation of talking to the principal about the ugly misbehavior of my child! Is this another lie?”
“Mom,” Lacey screamed back, “I never heard of Humberto Gomez. Sandoval is making it all up, Mom!”
Ernesto started the Volvo and drove home. He tried to focus on something good, which was his Friday night date with Naomi. There was a really good mystery/ghost story out. It was in 3D, and it was getting rave reviews. Naomi didn’t like regular horror movies, like the slasher flicks, but she wanted to see this one. “Chain saws just totally gross me out,” Naomi said. “But this movie is supposed to send chills up your spine in a tasteful way. I’m really anxious to see it. It’s fun to be scared, but not to be grossed out.”
Ernesto was hugely in favor of seeing the movie too. Even when he took Naomi to slightly scary movies, she was prone to snuggle up to him. He would obligingly put his arm around her shoulders, and it was pretty cool. He hoped this movie was scary enough to give him more cuddle time in the theater.
And then, if they went somewhere to eat and bought take-out food, maybe Naomi would still be a little scared, and they could snuggle in the car.
Ernesto preferred action movies with wild special effects. He loved the pirate movies and the superhero sagas. The more special effects, the better
The week went by quickly. On Friday night, Ernesto drove to Naomi’s house with high expectations for a romantic night. He had successfully pushed the murder of Griff Slocum from his mind, at least for now.
Ernesto always went to the door of the Martinez house and rang the bell when he was picking up Naomi. He had no use for guys who sat in their cars waiting for the chick to come out and jump in. To Ernesto, this was disrespectful to the girl and her family.
“Hey, Ernie,” Felix Martinez said when he opened the door. “Come on in. Naomi is getting all painted up in there. I don’t know why. You’re going to the movies, and it’ll be dark in there so you won’t see her makeup, but still she has to slather on all the goo.”
“Naomi would look beautiful if she didn’t wear any makeup at all,” Ernesto said.
“Yeah,” Mr. Martinez said, “but try telling that to a female.”
Ernesto smiled as Naomi came down the hall. Her thick dark hair was swirling gently around her oval face, and those violet eyes shone like amethysts.
“Naomi, you look awesome,” Ernesto said.
“You don’t look so bad yourself, babe,” Naomi said. “I like you in that blue pullover.”
When Ernesto and Naomi went out the door, they could still hear the conversation inside.
Linda Martinez said, “I hope they have a nice evening.”
And Felix Martinez said, “Linda, I’m telling you, that Ernie is a great kid. I wish our boys had half the character he has. It makes me feel real good to think he’ll probably be the one looking after our little girl.”
Both Ernesto and Naomi heard her father’s words, and Naomi smiled and edged closer to Ernesto, brushing a soft kiss across his cheek.
They drove to the mall and had to stand in line for twenty minutes. A lot of people had heard the buzz about the movie. During the previous night’s showing, people were texting their friends that this was a “mustsee.” Most of the people in line were young.
After the film, which turned out to be great because Naomi clung to Ernesto the entire time, they headed for a little Mexican restaurant that served excellent shrimp tacos. They made the best shrimp tacos Ernesto ever tasted, and they were open late.
As they pulled out onto the street, a black Jeep Wrangler was behind them, right on their bumper. “Hey, dude, stop tailgating me,” Ernesto said in an annoyed voice. “I’ll be out of your way in a minute.”
Naomi turned and looked back. “There was a black Jeep like that on our street yesterday. He kept driving up and down like he was looking for an address.” The horror movie had made Naomi a little paranoid.
They turned into the parking lot of the taco place, and the Jeep continued on.
“Good riddance,” Ernesto said. Then he remembered seeing a black Jeep Wrangler on his street yesterday too. Ernesto shrugged, and they headed into the restaurant.
Naomi and Ernesto ordered shrimp tacos and coffee, because it was a little chilly. There was a dusting of snow on the mountains in the east.
They found a secluded booth, and Naomi sat so close to Ernesto that her soft body was against his. Ernesto felt so happy. He remembered when he first laid eyes on Naomi Martinez only a little over a year ago. He and his family had just arrived from Los Angeles, and except for Abel Ruiz, Ernesto didn’t have a friend at Cesar Chavez High School. Abel befriended Ernesto right away and rescued him from feeling like a completely lost soul.
Ernesto remembered looking at this beautiful girl in a pink pullover sweater and jeans that fit her like a glove. Ernesto got goose bumps just looking at her. He couldn’t get the girl off his mind. That night, he dreamed about her. And then he found out she was a football player’s girlfriend. Clay Aguirre and Naomi seemed very much in love. Ernesto thought sadly, “It figures.”
Ernesto didn’t think he had a chance with the girl, but he still dreamed about her and looked at her in class. And little by little, as Clay treated her more rudely and eventually hit her, Naomi broke from him. Ernesto moved in fast. Now, in what seemed almost like a miracle, Naomi was Ernesto’s girlfriend, and he felt like the luckiest guy in the world.
When they finished eating and pulled out of the parking lot, Ernesto headed for the nearby on-ramp to the freeway. He didn’t see the Jeep Wrangler that had been parked across from the taco place pull out too.
They were on the freeway when Naomi cried out, “Ernie, he’s behind us! The Jeep—he’s so close!”
Ernesto turned numb. He increased his speed, but the Jeep ramped up his speed too, menacing the Volvo.
Naomi looked back to see if she knew the driver, and she gasped in a trembling voice, “He’s wearing a Halloween mask! Oh, Ernie. He’s gonna hit us!” She grabbed her cell phone and called 911.
“There’s a Jeep Wrangler behind us. He’s driving real aggressively, like he wants to terrorize us … like road rage,” Naomi cried into the phone, giving the location of the cars. They were coming up on the off-ramp to the barrio.
Suddenly, the Jeep Wrangler cut out from behind them and began to pass, but when he was even with Ernesto’s Volvo, he seemed to veer into their lane, forcing Ernesto to cut sharply right. Naomi screamed, thinking the Jeep would smash into them sending the Volvo into a spin, maybe overturning it.
But Ernesto’s evasive action had worked, and the Jeep sped on. Naomi leaned against Ernesto’s shoulder, crying, “Oh my God, oh my God.”
“He didn’t have plates on the car,” Ernesto said.
A police cruiser came up behind them, and Ernesto pulled off to the shoulder of the road. He gave the highway patrolman all the details, as much as he knew, and the officer took off in the direction the Jeep Wrangler had gone. Ernesto doubted they’d catch him. He was going more than a hundred miles an hour.
Ernesto was still shaking as he started the Volvo and headed for Bluebird Street.
“Ernie,” Naomi asked in a wavy voice, “do you think he was just crazy? Or …”
Ernesto looked grim. “You saw a black Jeep on your street, and when you mentioned that, I remembered I saw one on Wren too. He was going slowly up and down the street. I think somebody targeted us—not us, me. I’ve made somebody real mad.”
As Ernesto drove to the next street and home, he thought about what had happened, and he was sure it had something to do with the murder of Griff Slocum. He was sure of something else too. There was a deadly connection between the murder and at least one of those three guys who hassled Griff. Ernesto was digging into the crime and Rod Garcia knew it. He probably talked that over with Humberto and Rick. Whoever was driving that Jeep Wrangler, whoever was hiding behind that ugly mask was sending Ernesto a message. To keep out of this and stop trying to connect the dots.
At school on Monday, Ernesto told Abel Ruiz what had happened on the freeway. Abel’s eyes narrowed. “You’re dealing with bad people, homie. Let it alone. Let the cops do their job. They’ll catch the rat or rats. Don’t you mess with it,” he said.
“You’re right, Abel. I feel so guilty that Naomi was put at risk too. Whoever robbed and killed that poor homeless man was probably driving that Jeep. I don’t scare easily, Abel, but I’m scared now,” Ernesto confessed.
As the two boys talked, Rick Alanzar arrived on campus. Alanzar was a moody loner. He didn’t seem to have any friends except for Humberto. He was usually walking alone, his hands stuck in his pockets, but today he seemed even more down than usual. He normally had bad posture, but now he was so slumped over that he looked deformed.
Alanzar met up with Humberto and they talked. They were too far away to overhear anything that was said, but Humberto seemed to get some cash from Alanzar. Both boys then walked off campus, though school was scheduled to begin in ten minutes. Neither boy came back to Chavez that day.
After school, Penelope Ruiz caught up to Ernesto on her way to Abel’s car. Penelope seemed in rare high spirits. “Ernie, something awesome happened today! I can’t wait to tell Abel. Old Lacey Serrano is in big trouble! You know that necklace she got from Dumberto? Well, she hid it at home, but her mother found it and, oh, wow, is she ever in trouble. Her mother grounded her, and she has to come back and forth to school in her mom’s car. She can’t hang with Dumberto anymore!”
Abel was walking toward his car to take Penelope home. He saw Penelope talking to Ernesto, and he hurried his pace. It looked like something big was going on.
Penelope repeated the news to her brother and said, “Oh, Mrs. Serrano just freaked. I heard Lacey whining and crying to her stupid friend, Candy Tellez, and it just opened a big hornet’s nest. Old Lacey said she texted Dumberto and said it was all your fault, Ernie, ’cause you tipped off her mother about the necklace!”