Chapter Eleven
Part 3
That evening I followed Jon from the post office
to the guys’ dorm once again. His backpack was bulging from the
weight of something he had concealed inside. He was making another
delivery to Marshall. I could feel it.
I hid in the stairwell and watched the transaction take place. This
time the box Jon extended to
Marshall was much bigger than the last one, which made perfect sense.
Clearly Marshall was stocking up for the party that weekend. I was
sure he did a lot more business at the monthly event. He had to
be prepared.
As far as I was concerned, at that moment, the matter was
decided. Marshall
was the drug dealer and he was going to be peddling his butt off
on Friday night. I wasn’t going to
dither about
this anymore. I had to call my mother and tip her off so that we
could forestall the event.
I waited for Jon to return to his floor and then hustled back
to my room. Danielle was sitting at her computer, emailing yet again, and
she looked up when I ran in and grabbed my cell phone.
“What’s up?” she asked, breaking her silence for the first
time in days. She appeared concerned, and I realized I must have
looked like I was in a panic, my hair wild and my face flushed from
running outside.
“Nothing. Just need to make a private call,” I told her, flashing my
cell phone.
She shrugged and I headed to the
defunct phone
booths. My mother picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, Mom,” I said. “I think I have your dealer.”
“You have compelling evidence
against one of our suspects?” she asked. I could tell she was practically
salivating to resolve this case.
“Yep. Marshall Cone has been getting secret deliveries from
the post office,” I explained. “They’re always wrapped in plain
brown paper, and he’s very careful about hiding them. The whole
thing makes him totally nervous.”
“What else?” my mother asked.
“Well, he hosts this secret party once a month in the school
gym, and it’s going to happen this Friday night,” I explained. “And
he just got this box that’s at least twice the size of all the others.
I saw it with my own eyes.”
“So he could be getting ready for big sales at this party,”
my mother said.
“Exactly,” I said, my skin sizzling with excitement. “Look,
I know it’s not concrete,
but I think you guys should stake out the campus on Friday. That
way if I see anything go down, I can call you in. We need to
maximize our
chances of catching the guy.”
“I concur,” my mother
said. “Here’s what we’re going to do . . . .”