Read The Name of the Game is Death for Free Online

loud. He took up too much of the sidewalk when he swaggered by. Things like that.
    He looked me up and down when I stood in front of him. "What d'you know about hubcaps missing from the faculty cars three times a week?" he demanded. He looked hot and uncomfortable, still in his winter uniform.
    "I don't know anything about it," I answered him. And I didn't, except what I'd been hearing in school assemblies for the last month.
    The lower lip in his red face swelled pugnaciously. "Harry says you spend enough time in this parking lot to tell us what's going on," he continued aggressively.
    "I said I see him going through here on his way home from school most days!" Coombs cut in.
    Edwards paid him no attention. "Well?" he said to me.
    "You think whoever's doing it waits for me to come by so I can see them?" I was mad. "Or maybe you think I'm doing it?"
    "I'll ask the questions," he snapped, scowling. "What's your name?" I told him. I was liking him less and less every second. "Now you know you must've seen what's been goin' on out here." He said it almost coaxingly. "Who are you covering up for?"
    I looked at Harry Coombs to see if Edwards was kidding. Coombs looked away uncomfortably. "Look, you can't mean it," I said finally. "I don't—"
    "Answer the question!" he roared.
    I started to walk away. Edwards grabbed me by the arm. I've always hated having people put their hands on me. I jerked my arm out of his hand. He probably outweighed me three to one, but I caught him on the wrong foot. He staggered sideways two or three paces. His red face looked bloated.
    My sweater had fallen from my arm, and I stooped to pick it up. Edwards kicked me, hard. I went over and down, flat, skinning my palms on the parking lot cinders.
    I scrambled up and went after him, the hate of the world in my heart. Harry Coombs clamped me in a smothering bear hug before I could reach Edwards. Coombs kept muttering in my ear, but I was struggling so hard I couldn't hear what he was saying. I kept yelling at Coombs to lei me pi, my head twisted over my shoulder. I never even saw Edwards when he stepped up and slapped me heavily In the lace.
    "Goddammit, Sarge!" Coombs said angrily. His grip on me relaxed, then tightened again when I lunged forward.
    "Shut up, you!" Edwards barked at him. "This is a wise guy. We'll take him down to the station and talk to him."
    "Then take him down yourself," Coombs said. He released me. "I'm on duty on the beat here."
    "You're on duty where I tell you you're on duty, Coombs," Edwards warned. "Get him in the patrol car, an' get in yourself." The sergeant clumped heavily back to the other two officers who had been standing by silently.
    It was only by an effort of will that I kept my hand away from my smarting face. Don't fight it, I told myself. I walked toward the cruiser parked in a corner of the lot. Harry Coombs tramped along beside me, muttering under his breath.
    The five of us rode downtown. I never said a word. Inside the police station a cop who had previously taken no part took my arm and led me to a door opening on two steel cells with cement floors. He motioned me inside.
    Even a couple of years later I'd have known they were just trying to scare me. Nobody goes into a cell without a charge against him. A session in an interrogation room would have been the correct thing. But I didn't know. I took it seriously.
    I looked around inside the cell. There was a steel cot without even a blanket. Nothing else. The policeman didn't close the cell door, but he closed the outside door. I got a good look at his face before he went out.
    I sat down on the cot and tried to get myself organized. I knew they'd be coming in. I didn't feel worried, just mad. Edwards' tactics infuriated me, and I knew I would get that big sonofabitch some day if it was the last thing I ever did. And if I could do it today, so much the better.
    I stood up quickly when the outside door opened. It was Harry Coombs. He closed the door and stood with