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“Mrs. Kingsley,” he said, shaking Odelia’s hand. “I’m a big fan of your articles.”

“Thanks, Mr. Beblo,” she said, taking the offered seat.

“Adolpho, please. So you’re here to talk about Danny?”

“That’s right. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but his stepfather Dave James was murdered two nights ago, and I’m helping the police figure out what happened.”

“And you think that Danny might be involved?” asked the principal with a look of concern.

“Not necessarily. We’re simply trying to get a general picture of Dave James, and Danny certainly was part of the picture.”

“Well, I don’t know if his mother told you this, but there was no love lost between Danny and his stepfather.”

“Yes, we’ve ascertained as much.”

“Danny can be a handful, so it doesn’t surprise me if Dave thought he was a little hard to handle.”

“Hard to handle?”

“Danny has a reputation as something of a bully. In fact only last week a boy was sitting where you are sitting now, and telling me the story of how Danny took his lunch money, and he said he’s not the only one. Other kids are too afraid to come forward.”

“That’s not good,” said Odelia.

“No, like I said: Danny is a handful.”

“Do you think it would be possible for me to talk to Danny? We talked to him briefly yesterday, but I have more questions.”

The principal glanced at his watch.“I’m sure that can be arranged. They’re on a break now, so you can have ten minutes with him if you like.”

“That would be great.”

“If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’ll see if I can find him. You can use my office.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary.”

“No, it’s fine. It will give you the authority you need to get him to open up—hopefully,” the principal added with a smile, then left to go in search of Danny.

“He sounds like a tough egg,” said Dooley.

“He does indeed,” said Odelia, as she did as the principal had suggested, and took a seat behind the man’s desk. On the desk, plenty of paraphernalia had been placed, and she studied them for a moment, while we waited for Danny to arrive.

“Maybe you should search Danny’s locker,” I now suggested. “If he killed Dave, it’s possible that he put the murder weapon in there.”

“Or Tollie the Turtle,” said Dooley.

“I don’t think Tollie would fit in a locker,” said Odelia, “but great thinking, Max. I’ll ask the principal to open it for me so we can take a look.”

“If he hasn’t disposed of the murder weapon by now,” I said. “Most killers don’t like to hang on to them.”

“No, but if Danny did kill his stepfather, he probably did it in a fit of rage, and in that case he wasn’t thinking and might have had to act fast to hide the weapon. So his locker is a good place to start.”

A knock sounded on the door, and Principal Beblo walked in, accompanied by Danny, who still looked the way he had when we first met him at the house: a bored-looking youngster with blond hair and a handsome face. The only thing that detracted slightly from being a candidate for a boy band was the scar that sliced through his eyebrow and the sneering expression that traveled up his face when he caught sight of Odelia and of Dooley and me.

“Well, look who we have here,” he said. “It’s the cat lady.”

Chapter 21

The principal left, and now it was just us and the kid. For a moment, Odelia and Danny sized each other up like in that scene inThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and I had the impression any moment either of them might get out their gun and start blasting away.

Luckily this was Hampton Cove and not the Wild West, and so after a few tense moments, Danny said,“You’re probably here about Dave, huh?”

“Yes, Danny. We’re trying to find out what happened to him.”

“He had his head bashed in, didn’t he? And now you probably think I did it?”

“No, of course not. I just want to know what you think, and if you have any idea who could have done this to your stepfather.”

Danny glanced around, a cocky look on his face. He was practically lying in his chair, legs apart, and looked right at home.“Look, I’m not going to sit here and tell you what a great guy I thought Dave was, cause I didn’t. I didn’t like it that he married my mom, and he didn’t like it that the woman he married already had a kid, and so we kinda tolerated each other but that’s as far as it went.”

“Did you live with Dave and your mom?”

“Most of the time, and then every two weeks I get to spend a weekend with my real dad, who’s a lot nicer than Dave, let me tell you.”

“Why did you mom and your dad split up?”

He shrugged.“I guess Mom wanted to live in the lap of luxury—always did. Nagging my dad that he wasn’t making more money, wasn’t more ambitious, that kind of stuff.”

“What does your dad do for a living?”

“He works for Parks& Recreation as a gardener. Maybe not the most glamorous job, but he makes a decent living, and I never had any complaints about money growing up.”

“Except your mom had higher aspirations.”