“Troy, I’m trying to help here.”

“It stays between us, right?”

“Where did he get them?”

Troy’s eyes opened. He turned toward me and looked me straight in the eye. “His brother.”

I think I gasped out loud. “Randy?”

Troy nodded. “He deals out of his father’s gym. A lot of people know that.”

“But Randy has a huge career ahead of him. Why would he risk that?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“How do you think he got that huge career? Do you know how many athletes do it—pro, college, and yeah, even high school? It’s practically an epidemic. Some get caught, but most of the time they know how to cycle or take some kind of masking agent. Everyone is looking for an edge, Mickey. The other guy is doing it, so they do it. The other guy is going to get that college scholarship, so you do it so you can even the score. After a while, they don’t even see it as cheating. They see it as leveling the playing field.”

I swallowed. “Is that how you felt, Troy?”

“What?” He put his hand against his chest. “No. Look, I’m telling you the reality. Truth is, I don’t need it. I’m a point guard. My game is more finesse. But I get it. Don’t you?”

“No,” I said. “I wouldn’t cheat.”

“Really? I’ve seen how much you love basketball. Suppose everyone else was taking a pill that made them bigger and stronger and you got left behind. You got cut from the team. You weren’t any good. And the only reason is, they were taking this pill and you weren’t. Are you saying you would never, ever take it? That you’d just settle for getting cut and watching others take your spot?”

I shifted in the seat. “That’s not the reality.”

“But that’s how some guys start to see it,” Troy said. “You’re a special talent. You don’t have to worry about that. Or maybe, look, maybe I’m trying to justify what a friend did. I don’t know.”

I tried to let all of this sink in. According to Troy, Randy Schultz dealt steroids. Was that true? How could I check on that?

Uncle Myron might know.

I thought now to the tense scene I’d witnessed a week ago at Schultz’s gym. What was going on between Uncle Myron and Randy? What help did he and his dad want from him that, as a lawyer, Myron couldn’t share with me?

“There’s something else,” Troy said.

I waited.

“I didn’t think much of it before all this happened and even after, I mean, whatever I was saying, Buck is still my best friend. I wouldn’t believe . . .”

“Wouldn’t believe what?”

“Do you know the shed behind the town circle?”