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suspended.”
    â€œThat’s it?” Cody blurted. “The guy tries torape Liberty and all that happens is he gets suspended? What kind of justice is that?”
    â€œIf he’s guilty, he’ll probably go to jail,” Mom pointed out. “At the very least he’ll lose his job, and maybe even his license to teach.”
    â€œThat’s
if
he’s guilty,” Dad said with emphasis.
    â€œWhat do you mean ‘if’?” Cody exploded. “There’s no
if
about it! Liberty said he tried to rape her. Don’t you think she would know?”
    Dad put up his hand. “Calm down. I don’t like men who force themselves on women any better than you do. All I’m saying is it’s dangerous to jump to conclusions. Since I didn’t witness what happened — and neither did you — I’m not willing to crucify Dave Henderson just yet. I’m sure there will be a complete police investigation.”
    â€œIt’s already underway,” Mom said. “There were officers at the school all afternoon, interviewing people and checking out the band room. I imagine they were at the Hayes’ house too.” She looked at me and then Cody. “Has either of you spoken to Liberty this afternoon?”
    â€œI tried,” I said. “I phoned after school, but her mother said she was sleeping.”
    Mom nodded. “Of course. Poor thing. Afterall that’s happened, she must be completely wrung out. We shouldn’t bother her. It’s just that your father got me thinking.”
    â€œAbout what?” Dad said.
    â€œAbout witnesses. I was wondering if there’d been any.”
    After supper I called Ryan. I wanted to find out why he’d missed history. I also wanted to see if he knew anything more than I did about what had happened to Liberty. After all, he’d been standing outside the office when I got there. Maybe he’d seen Liberty arrive. Maybe he’d even talked to her.
    â€œI just couldn’t stay awake,” he explained.
    â€œNo kidding,” I replied. “I watched you go to math. You could barely walk.”
    â€œYeah, well, then you won’t be surprised to find out that I never made it to math. I passed an empty classroom on the way and couldn’t resist going in. I figured if I could put my head down for forty minutes I’d be okay.”
    â€œObviously the forty minutes stretched out a bit.”
    â€œYou could say that. By the time I woke up, history class had already started.”
    â€œThat’s like two periods!” I exclaimed. “I can’t believe nobody found you.”
    â€œJust lucky, I guess.”
    â€œOr unlucky — if you consider that you missed the test. What are you going to tell Mrs. Adams?”
    Ryan sighed. “I was kind of hoping the truth would work.”
    I chuckled. “You never know. By the way, how’s Hercules?”
    â€œLots better.”
    â€œThat’s good.”
    â€œYeah. Doc Jensen gave him some medicine. Hopefully we’ll both be able to sleep tonight.”
    â€œI saw you waiting for your dad outside the office. I waved, but I guess you didn’t see me.”
    â€œSorry.”
    â€œThat’s okay. I was just wondering if you’d been there when Liberty showed up. You heard about what happened between her and Mr. Henderson, right?”
    Ryan didn’t say anything.
    â€œRyan? Are you still there?”
    He sighed. “Yup. I’m here.”
    â€œWere you there when Liberty went to the office?”
    â€œNope.”
    â€œYou do know what Mr. Henderson tried to do though, don’t you?”
    Another pause. Another sigh. And then in a brittle voice Ryan said, “I know what Liberty
says
he tried to do.”

Chapter Seven
    I was kind of mad at Ryan. Though he hadn’t come straight out with it, he’d pretty much called Liberty a liar. And that was so not like him. Ryan’s the