got a warrant and broke into Morgan’s house. Deputies confiscated his computer and placed Morgan—who is only 15 years old—under arrest.”
“Arrest? For what?” Olivia sounded alarmed.
“For slandering the townspeople. It got so out-of-hand the deputies decided Morgan had to leave town and stay in detention in Jackson Hole. That’s no place for a kid like Morgan, Olivia. They’ll eat him alive in there! If he leaves with you, I buy time to fight this thing.”
His voice grim, Steven said, ““Detention can be pretty rough.”
“Exactly. It should be the very last resort.” For a moment, Ms. Lopez seemed to look past them, as though she were picturing a space totally different from the one she was in, a place where windows were barred and doors were locked. “You know, in my job, I see a lot of hardened souls,” she said softly. “But that’s not Morgan. No matter how wrong he was, he never threatened anyone. Being obnoxious should not be a crime.”
Steven nodded, while Olivia looked less certain. Jack knew his mother, knew how she demanded that everyone in the Landon family show respect for others. Morgan did sound as though he had a first-class attitude, and yet Jack couldn’t help being intrigued by a kid who would unapologetically break rules, going so far as to use his own Web site for an in-your-face payback. Ever since he could remember, Jack had always colored between life’s lines, pretty much doing what his parents told him to do while racking up rows of straight A’s next to a rainbow of merit badges. How would it be to have real enemies? How would it be to do exactly what you wanted, no matter what?
Morgan scowled deeply. “I just hope those idiot bozos in the crime lab don’t start messing with my computer and screw it up.”
This time there was no mistaking Olivia Landon’s reaction. She sat back in her chair stiffly, asking, “Crime lab? Why would they take your computer to a crime lab?”
“I’ve been charged with criminal libel. They took my computer as evidence. Aren’t you tracking this?”
For a moment it looked as though Olivia were going to reply, but then she thought better of it. Ashley whispered into Jack’s ear, “What a jerk!”
After a quick glance at her watch, Ms. Lopez rose to her feet, telling Morgan to come with her as she made her way to the front door. “So now you know the situation,” she said, shrugging her coat back onto her shoulders. “I realize it’s a lot to throw at you all at once, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll take Morgan back to my car while the four of you talk. Olivia, I don’t want you to feel pressured. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll understand. Just open the door when you have your answer, and we’ll take it from there.”
Morgan shoved his hands into his pockets and followed her through the front door, which shut behind them. The four Landons sat staring at one another, unsure, it seemed, as to what to do next. Olivia was the first to speak.
“I feel bad about his situation, but I don’t see how we can possibly take him with us. First of all, there’s the problem of an airline ticket and his clothing….”
“Don’t worry about the details. We can make it all work,” Steven replied.
Nodding slowly, Olivia paused before going on. “I guess I’m uncomfortable accepting someone who’s been involved in a crime. I don’t like his attitude. He doesn’t even seem sorry for what he did.”
“Wait a minute. Are you serious?” Steven jerked his fingers through his hair, which caused it to stand up in blonde tufts. “OK, OK, Morgan wrote a couple nasty comments on his own computer. Slap him on the wrist, and tell him he’s a bad boy. But mouthing off on a computer is not a real crime.”
“Steven, libel is a crime.”
“Not in this case. And not when you’re 15! You don’t know what detention is like,” he said, his voice heating up. “Remember—I was bounced from one foster home to another when I was a boy. One time they ran out of places to put me, so I had to stay in detention. Trust me, that kid does not belong there. If we can help him, we should.”
“I think he’s mean,” Ashley declared.
“Nobody asked what you think,” Jack shot back. “Dad’s right. We ought to do what we can to help.”
Olivia leaned forward, gently smoothing the top of Ashley’s tangled head. Then she looked into Jack’s eyes, hers brown, his gray-blue. “Why don’t you and Ashley head back to bed, OK?”
It wasn’t what she said, but the way she said it that let Jack know there was no use arguing. Reluctantly pulling himself to his feet, he shuffled as slowly as possible to his room, straining to hear as his parents’ voices rose and fell, his mother’s calm, his father’s urgent.
“Jack, wait a second,” Ashley whispered.
Sighing, he leaned against his door frame and looked down at his sister. “What?”
“You know how I sometimes get feelings about things, and then they come true? Well, I have a feeling about Morgan. It’s a really, really bad feeling, Jack.”
It was cold in the hallway, especially with just a T-shirt on for a top. “I don’t have time for this,” Jack groaned. “It’s probably the burritos you had for dinner.”
“I mean it, Jack.”
“So do I. Eat a Tums or something. Good night.”
He left her standing there. Wrapping himself into his plaid comforter, he watched as the red, boxy numbers on his alarm clock blinked away the minutes. Determined to wait for the verdict, Jack willed himself to stay awake, until a buzzing startled him. His eyes flew open to morning light shining though his window blinds and a small figure hovering in his doorway.
“Morgan—is he here?” Jack mumbled.
Ashley nodded, then walked away.
CHAPTER TWO
During the first part of their flight from Jackson Hole, Morgan told Jack a little about his school, complaining that Dry Creek was populated by redneck kids with low-octane brains. In the small town of 700, there was nothing to do but ride horses, which Morgan adamantly refused to do, and nothing to see except scrawny cows and scrawnier chickens. Every other comment he made was punctuated by his request to use Olivia’s laptop, which Olivia declined to hand over. Morgan kept talking, but when the seat-belt light blinked off, Ashley quickly escaped toward the rest room. Jack followed.
“I don’t think I can take another two hours listening to him,” she complained the minute they were out of Morgan’s hearing. “He is driving me absolutely crazy.”
They bumped their way down the narrow aisle until they reached the back of the plane. A man with a bald, round head and a much rounder paunch stood ahead of them, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for the tiny “Occupied” sign to slide to “Vacant.” For a moment, Jack wondered how the man would fit into a bathroom as small as a metal coffin, but when the door open, the man managed to turn sideways and squeeze inside.
“I mean, all he does is talk about himself,” Ashley continued. “Have you noticed that everyone else is stupid, and he’s brilliant, and blah, blah, blah. When Mom told him about going to the Grand Canyon because the condors
