The Informant

Sineas arrived at school at one o'clock in the afternoon. The students had already begun to pour into the lunch area. He concealed himself behind The Thinker statue, carefully browsing the students one by one. He waited and waited for at least fifteen minutes. Finally, he saw her. She was sitting alone on a table in the middle. He only saw her back but he could tell it was her with her white turtleneck sweater and the rabbit tail on her head. He decided to wait a little longer until most of the students were seated. Then he made his move.

He carefully and silently began walking towards her, his hands in his bomber jacket pockets and his eyes focused on the back of her head. He stopped behind her, just a few feet away.

She had unloaded onto the table a pickle sandwich, a carrot salad and obviously- an apple from her lunch bag.

Sineas just stood behind her, looking down at her. He did not care if anyone was watching him.

Clarissa stopped eating. She froze still. She turned around. 'Sineas!' she exclaimed. 'Where in the world have you been?!' Her face was gleaming.

He sat down beside her, on her left. He said, 'I was just…taking care of business.'

'Business?'

'Charles,' he answered her, staring at her from the corner of his eye.

'Oh…' she sounded sorrowful. 'Sineas, there's something I have to tell you. Something I should have told you a lot sooner.'

'And what's that?'

'Charles offered me a deal. He said if I was willing to get you to reveal the whereabouts of your mother then he would leave me alone, forever. No more calling me during lessons and no more digging for evidence and this theory that I killed Justin out of bitter vengeance would be discarded instantly.'

Sineas' eyebrows sprung up briefly. 'That sounds like a good deal,' he noted.

'I know,' she said burying her face in her hands. 'I actually thought about it. My parents even urged me to take the deal. They practically forced me to take it.'

He looked intriguingly at her. 'Forced?'

She nodded at the table. She said, 'I've made a lot of bad decisions in my life. And when I say a lot I mean a lot! But taking that deal would have been the worst of them all. I've already lost everything else but I'm not about to lose the best thing I've ever had.'

He said, 'But, Claire- the end of year examinations make up fifty-two percent of your grades. I don't want you not to make it to college.'

'Don't worry about me,' she replied. 'Anyway, what did Charles want with you?'

He shrugged. 'Just the usual: "Where's your mother? Don't lie to us, boy….we-know-you-know-that-we-know-you-know where she is…" '

She laughed. 'That's a lot of questions, Mr. Murphy.'

'Stupid questions too,' he said. 'A bunch of stupid questions.'

She offered him her apple.

He gratefully took it. He had not realized how hungry he was. His fight with Charles and his deputy had drained him. He grinned as he flipped the apple in his hand. 'Apples…apples…apples…' he said.

'Something wrong, Mr. Murphy?' she asked him smiling charily. 'Do you perhaps have something against one of the tastiest and most delicious fruits in the world?'

'One of?'

'Yeah…others include the banana and the mango,' she said.

'So, why is it that you're always eating an apple?' he asked her. 'Does your family own an orchard or two?'

'No, silly! Mom always makes sure she brings home fruits whenever she comes back from the supermarket or her work. She brings all kinds of fruit, but in the earlier stages it was just apples, apples and apples. So I developed a taste for them.'

'I think addiction is the proper term for it,' Sineas said. 'I think you have an apple god stashed away in your room, maybe under your bed or placed above his apple shrine and you pay obeisance to him every morning before you come to school.'

'An apple god? Really?' She snickered.

'So, what lesson do we have after lunch?' he asked her.

'Biology. They got us a new teacher today; a Mrs. Something Shweney…or was it Schwan?'

'A new teacher? Already?' He sounded surprised.

'I'm actually surprised that anyone would take the job especially after what happened to Miss Bale. You know what? Let's not talk about death and sorrow. We only have about ten more minutes of lunch time, Mr. Murphy and I don't want to waste them on who died when, where, how and why.'

He nodded in agreement. 'Let's save the best of our conversation for tonight,' he said.

'You mean our date?' she asked now beginning to play with her hairpin.

'Yes, our…date.'

She looked up into the sky. 'I just hope the rains won't turn our date into a nightmare,' she said.

He also looked up at the sky. The thunder cracked. 'I hope so too.'

In class, as all the students waited for the new Biology teacher, most students were engaged in conversations and laughter. Sineas was glad that Trevor seemed to have forgotten about him. He was sitting in the middle of his squad, next to the left window of the classroom. His hyperactive hand gestures suggested to Sineas that they were discussing sports. Two seats in front of them, Sabrina and Doreen were also having a deep and probably meaningless conversation, Sineas thought. Basically, everyone was minding their own business. Bubblegum girl however, was sitting close to the teacher's desk, her left side turned towards Sineas. Her face was buried in a book on top of her desk. Reading was something Sineas was not used to seeing her do.

Sineas looked to his right, at Clarissa.

She was slowly flipping through the pages of her Biology textbook. She looked extremely focused.

'Can you excuse me for a second? I need to go speak to Viola about some…stuff,' he told her.

She grinned at him. 'Don't you mean, "V"?'

'Don't start with me,' he said grinning back at her.

'Okay, Mr Murphy, what do you want to talk to her about?' she asked him.

He looked around cautiously for a while. He whispered, 'Mom stuff.'

'Oooh…' she nodded, slowly. She understood. 'Well, in that case, go on, Mr. Murphy. You have my permission.'

Sineas got up and made his way towards Bubblegum girl. He grabbed an empty chair behind her and dragged it to her side. He sat down.

She did not look up. She seemed to be lost in the notebook in front of her.

Sineas noticed that the words in the notebook were in good English. The sentences had been perfectly constructed and most of the terms in the book were flawless. He strongly doubted that she was reading her own book. 'Hello…V,' he said it casually.

She turned to another page.

He was beginning to see a little similarity between her and Nurse Flo.

'Wassup, Murph,' she muttered but still staring deep into her book. There was no gum in her mouth. Her tone seemed to have lost its usual boldness.

Sineas said, 'You know…I had a very interesting chat today with two police officers.'

'You did?' she said flipping onto another page.

'I'm sure you know them…friends of yours, I think. Inspector Charles and his deputy, James.'

She closed the book and sat up, looking at him. 'Murph, its my bad, I didn't mean for your moms ta get snatched up by the feds…'