I should probably answer it.

Shouldn’t I?

Finally, after about eight rings, I brought the phone to my ear. “Yeah,” I said in a voice a few tones lower than normal.

A couple of seconds passed in silence. “Is this the guy who’s been returning all the stolen stuff?”

I’d have known her voice anywhere. Sera. I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t say anything.

“Don’t hang up,” she said, and that tiny inflection, the touch of desperation in her voice, made me obey.

“I know this is you and . . . I’m calling to ask for your help on Khail’s behalf.”

Khail’s behalf?

“He got caught.”

I felt my throat convulse, making it hard to breathe.

“He doesn’t know it, but he did. Hennigan pulled me into his office last Monday and told me that when you guys broke into the school, Khail apparently was trying to turn off the alarm and he lifted his mask and got caught on camera.”

“There’s not a camera in Hennigan’s office,” I said, hoping Hennigan had just been bluffing.

“Not an official one. After the theft ring last year Hennigan decided he needed his own security and put in his own camera. Trust me,” she said before I could argue, “I’ve seen the video. It’s obviously Khail.”

Dammit! “So why didn’t he just nab Khail?” I asked, still in the weird, low voice.

“Hennigan knew it wasn’t just one person. He wanted to catch the whole ring. Thought he’d put pressure on him later. But then he figured out Khail couldn’t be the ringleader.”

“Why not?”

“He went back and checked the schedule. Khail was gone for a three-day wrestling meet the week stuff first started showing up. So Hennigan knew he couldn’t have gotten involved until later.”

I tried to play it cool. “So what? Khail’s not going to squeal. Why do you need my help?”

“You’re right. Khail will take his punishment for you and never say a word. I know it. Hennigan knows it. So he leaned on me instead.”

“What’s he got on you?” I bluffed.

“It’s not about me. Hennigan just . . . knows that I won’t let anything happen to my brother. The damage from the chemicals and sprinklers in the lab will cost the school almost ten thousand dollars. Hennigan is talking about pressing criminal charges for breaking and entering.”

Ten thousand dollars? Criminal charges? I knew there was some damage but I hadn’t imagined it was so substantial.

“At first Hennigan said if I could give him the ringleader he’d just give Khail two days’ suspension. But he called me into his office again this week.” She paused and I could hear her sniffing in the background. “He’s so pissed. He’s given up on the idea of catching the whole ring. He just wants someone. A scapegoat. And if he doesn’t have one by Monday morning—” Her voice caught and her muffled sobs made my chest ache. “He’s going to expel Khail. He won’t graduate, he’ll lose his scholarships . . . I can’t let that happen.”

And everything came crashing down around me.

I had failed.

Failed so completely and so miserably that there was no way to pick up the pieces.

For a few weeks there, I really thought I was a hero. I was like Robin Hood, or Edmund Dantès, or Percy Blakeney. A daring vigilante.

And now I was just a punk kid who was about to get his friend expelled.

“What can I do?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

“Turn yourself in.”

Three simple words that struck a fear into my heart so deep I wasn’t sure I trusted myself to speak.

“I know it’s not fair. None of it is,” Sera continued. “But it’s even more unfair to let Khail take the fall for this. I don’t know why he’s involved at all, but I guarantee he’s not doing it for himself. He . . .” She stopped and had to get control of her emotions again. “He’s the most unselfish person I know. Whatever the hell he was doing with you, I promise it was to help someone else. Do not let him take the fall.” A few seconds passed in silence before she added, “Please?” in a voice so fragile and frail I knew there was no way I could refuse. “He’s not just my brother; he’s my best friend. I would take his expulsion for him, but I can’t. I tried.”

“You tried?” In my surprise I almost spoke in my regular voice.

“I owe my brother everything. Of course I tried. But Hennigan knew I was lying. I had no proof, no nothing, and it was a crap story. I’m a terrible liar. You’re the only one who can help him now.”

It took two tries to get the words to come out of my mouth, but finally I managed to say, “Okay.”

“Thank you,” she said in that same vulnerable voice. It was almost a question, as if she wasn’t completely sure I’d actually said it—or, more likely, that I’d actually meant it.

“But I want you to turn me in,” I blurted, before thinking through the consequences of that statement. “I want to make sure you’re off the hook.”

She sniffled again. “Please don’t make me do that,” she said.

I almost couldn’t believe my ears. “I thought you wanted the Red Rose Returner to get caught.”

“I just wanted you to go away. You reminded me of a horrible time in my life, and I hated being slapped with it day after day.”