“We would make sure that you two were completely safe. I guarantee it,” I assured him.
He nodded. “Yeah. In that case, yeah. I'll testify.”
I looked at Ben and saw the same triumph that was now glowing inside me reflected in his eyes. We were just one step away from putting this piece of crap behind bars for a very, very long time. We had a key witness who would testify against him and that, coupled with Kendrick's testimony, would be enough to put the man away for a very, very long time, and hopefully end the scourge of the drug problem that was plaguing my school. Now, we would just have to catch him, and that would be no simple feat.
“Excellent. Alright, William, thank you for your cooperation. You'd better stay at home from now on. And call your friend Leon – I assume you know where he is – and tell him about what we've just talked about, and let him know that he should come back here as well and stay home. Can you do that?”
He nodded.
“Good, thank you, William, and thank you, Mr. Stevens,” I added.
“Don't mention it,” he growled. “I'll do whatever it takes to keep this punk out of prison. I hope he's learned his damn lesson.”
“I believe he has,” I smiled reassuringly at William who nodded back at me. It seemed we had an understanding. He was going to keep his nose clean. “Alright, Ben, you ready to go?” I asked.
“Sure am. Thanks again, William, and thank you, too, Mr. Stevens,” he said, and then we turned around and headed toward our cars.
We started talking as soon as we reached Ben’s car.
“This is big, Ben, this is real big!” I said excitedly. “We've almost got this scumbag! Almost!”
“I know, I know. Now, we just have to catch him. There's more than enough evidence to put him away for a long time. But here's the big problem: this guy is elusive, man, like Jason Bourne elusive. How are we going to actually catch him?”
I grinned. A plan had already started to formulate in my mind. “We set up a sting.”
“How, Everett? We're not cops; we're not the FBI, we don't have the means to do that.”
“You've forgotten something, Ben.”
“What have I forgotten?”
“We have someone on the inside.”
His eyes lit up.“Panetti!”
“That's right. And he's perfectly positioned to set Mr. Mask up since we just found out from the Stevens kid that this Mask guy wants more dealers who are high school kids. He already worked with Panetti before; he trusts him. We just need to get Panetti to make contact, say he's interested in dealing again, and set up a meeting – we're waiting there with a hidden camera... And we get him. Bam!”
“I don't know, man,” Ben replied uneasily. “I mean, this guy is a killer, Ev. We should really be getting the cops in on this.”
“Remember, there's a good chance the cops around here have already been bought by Mr. Mask. I’m afraid we need to do this another way. I have a friend with the State Bureau of Investigation. I’ll see what kind of help he can offer. I totally understand tha
t you're nervous about the fact that this guy is a killer, and that's a totally legitimate concern. Worst case scenario, I can ask a buddy of mine to help – someone who has been shot at plenty of times, someone who has also done a lot of shooting himself.”
“You know people like that?” Ben questioned me.
“My friend, he used to be a Navy SEAL.”
“Oh man, yeah, if he could help, that's just the sort of person we need.”
“If I know him, he'll be down to help.”
“Alright, alright... This sounds promising. I guess we need to meet with Panetti then and figure it out,” Ben stated.
“I’ll get in touch with my friends tonight. We'll call Panetti into the office at school tomorrow,” I said. “We don't want to arouse suspicions by visiting him at his house – you never know who might be watching.”
“Yeah, good idea. Okay, well I guess we're done for the day then. I'll see you at school tomorrow,” Ben said.
“Sure. See you then, Ben, bye.”