"Oh, sure." He snickered. "Between agonizing analysis of Malcolm X and Catcher in the Rye there isn't much time left for ancient texts. No, I've been known to read on my own. Even when I should be studying for the SAT."

I said, "You like the Old Testament."

"Old, New, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita. The truth is, all religions promote kindness as well as incredible brutality."

I said, "So T and Q's clique had pinned Ms. Freeman on Martin. Think they believed it?"

"Who knows? Are they even capable of belief?"

"They talked about it openly?"

"No way," he said. "But one time I was being my usual asocial loser self and walking near the back of the campus--right at the back, there's a dense, kind of foresty area where no one goes, which is precisely why I do, I need peace and quiet so I can read what I want to, cut myself off from all the--anyway, I was back there. Reading Job, actually, and for the first time I heard someone else. It was T, smoking weed. Then Q joined him and he lit up. I said, Great, there goes my last refuge. I thought of leaving but didn't want them to see my--I just didn't want to deal with them. So I stayed, I was behind some thick bushes, it's a place I always go, just me and the beetles, once in a while there's a squirrel. They had no idea. I had no interest whatsoever in anything they had to say but they were close by and talking loud enough for me to hear. Then some of their clique joined them and they all started talking about it."

"Ms. Freeman."

"Yes. No one was exactly grieving. Mostly because they're superficial. But in T's case and Q's, there was anger. 'Ding dong the bitch is dead,' that kind of thing. Then T started going off on Marty, blaming him for it, saying he was going to call in an anonymous tip to the police and name Marty. Everyone thought that was a great idea. Then everyone lit up and the air started stinking of weed and I wanted out of there but I waited until they were gone, then took out my cell and texted Garret and he called his grandfather and he called the Mendozas. They decided they needed to keep Marty safe until it became clear if those threats were real. Mrs. Mendoza packed up a suitcase and drove Marty to Garret's."

"You texted Garret first because you and he are friends."