We've almost finished dinner when Pop's phone rings. He looks at thenumber and picks up immediately, the lines around his mouth deepening."This is Kevin. Yeah. What, tonight? Is that really necessary?" He waits abeat. "All right. We'll see you there." He hangs up and blows out anirritated sigh. "We gotta meet your lawyer at the police station in half anhour. Detective Chang wants to talk to you again." He holds up a handwhen I open my mouth. "I don't know what about."I swallow hard. I haven't been questioned in a while, and I'd been hopingthe whole thing was fading away. I want to text Addy and see if she'sgetting brought in too, but I'm under strict orders not to put anything aboutthe investigation in writing. Calling Addy's not a great idea, either. So Ifinish my dinner in silence and drive to the station with Pop.
My lawyer, Mary, is already talking with Detective Chang when we getinside. He beckons us toward the interrogation room, which is nothing likeyou see on TV. No big pane of glass with a two-way mirror behind it. Just adrab little room with a conference table and a bunch of folding chairs."Hello, Cooper. Mr. Clay. Thanks for coming." I'm about to brush past himthrough the door when he puts a hand on my arm. "You sure you want yourfather here?"
I'm about to ask Why wouldn't I? but before I can speak, Pop startsblustering about how it's his God-given right to be present duringquestioning. He has this speech perfected and once he winds up, he needs tofinish.
"Of course," Detective Chang says politely. "It's mainly a privacy issuefor Cooper."
The way he says that makes me nervous, and I look to Mary for help. "Itshould be fine to start with just me in the room, Kevin," she says. "I'll bringyou in if needed." Mary's okay. She's in her fifties, no-nonsense, and canhandle both the police and my father. So in the end it's me, DetectiveChang, and Mary seating ourselves around the table.
My heart's already pounding when Detective Chang pulls out a laptop."You've always been vocal about Simon's accusation not being true,Cooper. And there's been no drop in your baseball performance. Which isinconsistent with the reputation of Simon's app. It wasn't known for postinglies."
I try to keep my expression neutral, even though I've been thinking thesame thing. I was more relieved than mad when Detective Chang firstshowed me Simon's site, because a lie was better than the truth. But whywould Simon lie about me?
"So we dug a little deeper. Turns out we missed something in our initialanalysis of Simon's files. There was a second entry for you that wasencrypted and replaced with the steroids accusation. It took a while to getthat file figured out, but the original is here." He turns the screen so it'sfacing Mary and me. We lean forward together to read it.
Everybody wants a piece of Bayview southpaw CC and he's finally been tempted. He'sstepping out on the beauteous KS with a hot German underwear model. What guywouldn't, right? Except the new love interest models boxers and briefs, not bras andthongs. Sorry, K, but you can't compete when you play for the wrong team.Every part of me feels frozen except my eyes, which can't stop blinking.This is what I was afraid I'd see weeks ago.
"Cooper." Mary's voice is even. "There's no need to react to this. Do youhave a question, Detective Chang?"
"Yes. Is the rumor Simon planned to print true, Cooper?"Mary speaks before I can. "There's nothing criminal in this accusation.Cooper doesn't need to address it."
"Mary, you know that's not the case. We have an interesting situationhere. Four students with four entries they want to keep quiet. One getsdeleted and replaced with a fake. Do you know what that looks like?""Shoddy rumormongering?" Mary asks.
"Like someone accessed Simon's files to get rid of this particular entry.And made sure Simon wouldn't be around to correct it.""I need a few minutes with my client," Mary says.
I feel sick. I've imagined breaking the news about Kris to my parents indozens of ways, but none as flat-out horrible as this.
"Of course. You should know we'll be requesting a warrant to searchmore of the Clays' home, beyond Cooper's computer and cell phonerecords. Given this new information, he's a more significant person ofinterest than he was previously."
Mary has a hand on my arm. She doesn't want me to talk. She doesn'thave to worry. I couldn't if I tried.
Disclosing information about sexual orientation violates constitutionalrights to privacy. That's what Mary says, and she's threatened to involve theAmerican Civil Liberties Union if the police make Simon's post about mepublic. Which would fall into the category of Too Little, Way Too Late.Detective Chang dances around it. They have no intention of invadingmy privacy. But they have to investigate. It would help if I told themeverything. Our definitions of everything are different. His includes meconfessing that I killed Simon, deleted my About That entry, and replaced itwith a fake one about steroids.
Which makes no sense. Wouldn't I have taken myself out of the equationentirely? Or come up with something less career-threatening? Like cheatingon Keely with another girl. That might've killed two birds with one stone,so to speak.
"This changes nothing," Mary keeps saying. "You have no more proofthan you ever did that Cooper touched Simon's site. Don't you dare disclosesensitive information in the name of your investigation."The thing is, though, it doesn't matter. It's getting out. This case has beenfull of leaks from the beginning. And I can't waltz out of here after beinginterrogated for an hour and tell my father nothing's changed.
When Detective Chang leaves, he makes it clear they'll be digging deepinto my life over the next few days. They want Kris's number. Mary tellsme I don't have to provide it, but Detective Chang reminds her they'llsubpoena my cell phone and get it anyway. They want to talk to Keely, too.Mary keeps threatening the ACLU, and Detective Chang keeps telling her,mild as skim milk, that they need to understand my actions in the weeksleading up to the murder.
But we all know what's really happening. They'll make my life miserableuntil I cave from the pressure.
I sit with Mary in the interrogation room after Detective Chang leaves,thankful there's no two-way mirror as I bury my head in my hands. Life as Iknew it is over, and pretty soon nobody will look at me the same way. I wasgoing to tell eventually, but--in a few years, maybe? When I was a starpitcher and untouchable. Not now. Not like this.
"Cooper." Mary puts a hand on my shoulder. "Your father will bewondering why we're still in here. You need to talk to him.""I can't," I say automatically. Cain't.
"Your father loves you," she says quietly.
I almost laugh. Pop loves Cooperstown. He loves when I strike out theside and get attention from flashy scouts, and when my name scrolls acrossthe bottom of ESPN. But me?
He doesn't even know me.
There's a knock on the door before I can reply. Pop pokes his head in andsnaps his fingers. "We done in here? I wanna get home.""All set," I say.
"The hell was that all about?" he demands of Mary.
"You and Cooper need to talk," she says. Pop's jaw tenses. What the hellare we paying you for? is written all over his face. "We can discuss nextsteps after that."
"Fantastic," Pop mutters. I stand and squeeze myself through the narrowgap between the table and the wall, ducking past Mary and into the hallway.We walk in silence, one in front of the other, until we pass through thedouble glass doors and Mary murmurs a good-bye. "Night," Pop says,tersely leading the way to our car at the far end of the parking lot.Everything in me clenches and twists as I buckle myself next to him inthe Jeep. How do I start? What do I say? Do I tell him now, or wait tillwe're home and I can tell Mom and Nonny and ... Oh God. Lucas?"What was all that about?" Pop asks. "What took so long?""There's new evidence," I say woodenly.
"Yeah? What's that?"
I can't. I can't. Not just the two of us in this car. "Let's wait till we'rehome."
"This serious, Coop?" Pop glances at me as he passes a slow-movingVolkswagen. "You in trouble?"
My palms start sweating. "Let's wait," I repeat.
I need to tell Kris what's happening, but I don't dare text him. I should goto his apartment and explain in person. Another conversation that'll killsome part of me. Kris has been out since junior high. His parents are bothartists and it was never a big deal. They were pretty much like, Yeah, weknew. What took you so long? He's never pressured me, but sneakingaround isn't how he wants to live.
I stare out the window, my fingers tapping on the door handle for the restof the ride home. Pop pulls into the driveway and our house looms in frontof me: solid, familiar, and the last place I want to be right now.We head inside, Pop tossing his keys onto the hallway table and catchingsight of my mother in the living room. She and Nonny are sitting next toeach other on the couch as though they've been waiting for us. "Where'sLucas?" I ask, following Pop into the room.
"Downstairs playing Xbox." Mom mutes the television as Nonny cocksher head to one side and fastens her eyes on me. "Everything okay?""Cooper's being all mysterious." Pop's glance at me is half shrewd, halfdismissive. He doesn't know whether to take my obvious freaking outseriously or not. "You tell us, Cooperstown. What's all the fuss about? Theygot some actual evidence this time?"
"They think they do." I clear my throat and push my hands into mykhakis. "I mean, they do. Have new information."Everybody's quiet, absorbing that, until they notice I'm not in any hurryto continue. "What kind of new information?" Mom prompts.
"There was an entry on Simon's site that was encrypted before the policegot there. I guess it's what he originally meant to post about me. Nothin' todo with steroids." There goes my accent again.
Pop never lost his, and doesn't notice when mine fades in and out. "Iknew it!" he says triumphantly. "They clear you, then?"I'm mute, my mind blank. Nonny leans forward, hands gripping herskull-topped cane. "Cooper, what was Simon going to post about you?""Well." A couple of words is all it'll take to make everything in my lifeBefore and After. The air leaves my lungs. I can't look at my mother, and Isure as hell can't look at my father. So I focus on Nonny. "Simon.Somehow. Found out. That." God. I've run out of filler words. Nonny tapsher cane on the floor like she wants to help me along. "I'm gay."Pop laughs. Actually laughs, a relieved kind of guffaw, and slaps me onthe shoulder. "Jesus, Coop. Had me going there for a minute. Seriously,what's up?"
"Kevin." Nonny grits the word through her teeth. "Cooper is not joking.""Course he is," Pop says, still laughing. I watch his face, because I'mpretty sure it's the last time he'll look at me the way he always has."Right?" His eyes slide over to mine, casual and confident, but when hesees my face his smile dims. There it is. "Right, Coop?""Wrong," I tell him.