Phelps sat back and looked out the windows. Markson shifted toward Ben as though to help him reconsider what he had said. Ben abruptly felt angry. Why should they make him responsible for telling on Ennis? Why was that his problem? But the freight of it, the value of what he knew; Ben understood distinctly that he needed to hold on to that advantage. The school had already gotten used to the certainty of Ahmed’s swimming pool.

“I’m not convinced, Ben,” Phelps said. “You were close. Even with a hood up, a person’s face is partway visible. Body shape, posture, those things are clear.”

“It was so fast, it was over before you could really—”

“Stop a minute. Do you want to be on the side of this person? To help them do this to Ahmed?”

“I think Ahmed’s okay, though. He gets that these things happen.”

Phelps sighed. “I’m sure Ahmed is putting on a good face. But put yourself in his position. What would it be like if that happened to you? In front of everyone there?”

Ben imagined all of Hawley House there watching him now, willing him to be careful, no matter what they hoped would happen to Ennis.

Ben inhaled. “He did mention that his father is thinking about withdrawing him.”

Phelps turned a vacuum of focus on him. His eyes seemed to come even more to the front of his face, and he went very still. Ben wasn’t ready for Phelps to need it this much.

“That’s what I mean, Ben. This isn’t just a prank.”

Ben tried on what it would be like if he just said, “It was Ennis. His hood was up but you could still see the point of his nose, and everyone knows that’s his sweatshirt, the dark mixed-gray one with the white border. It was the clipper that the wrestling guys use to buzz their hair. Ennis did it because of Ahmed walking out of newb boxing, and sort of because of his ostentation, and also because I kind of said that the upper-formers were letting him get out of line. Ahmed deserved it, in a lot of ways, but regardless, it was Ennis.

“And now I’ve been of service, I’ve made a tangible difference to the financial well-being of the school, because if you kick out Ennis then the sheik won’t withdraw Ahmed, and the school will have the pool, and SJS will keep being the kind of school it wants to be. If I give you this, you will let me stay, and I’ll win squash matches for the school, and I’ll be an asset.”

But how long would that credit last? And how would he negotiate it? Or would he just leave it unspoken, that you can’t kick out the kid who made the swimming pool possible, who kept SJS in the running?