Chapter 39 Gotcha!
The house was quiet, but nobody was sleeping. Leo and Elena were sitting at the dining table with a laptop open between them.
Jaxson was pacing the floor, his eyes fixed on the silver thumb drive they had found in his bag.
They knew they only had a few hours left before the Gala started, and right now, they were still losing.
"I don't understand," Elena said, her voice tired. She was looking at the bank records Leo had pulled up. "My father frozen my account, but the hospital said the bill was paid. If the money didn't come from me, and it didn't come from Leo, who would just give away fifty thousand dollars for a stranger's surgery?"
Leo tapped a key on the laptop, bringing up a document he had found in the university’s public financial files. "I started looking at the name of the company that sent the money. It’s called 'Summit Holdings.' It sounds like a normal business, right? But I checked the university’s list of sponsors. Summit Holdings is a shell company. It has no office and no employees."
Jaxson stopped pacing. "What does that mean?"
"It means it’s a fake company used to move money quietly," Leo explained. "And I found the name of the person who signed the papers for Summit Holdings three years ago. It’s Mr. Sterling. The Director of the Board."
The room went completely still. Elena felt a chill run down her spine. "The Director paid for your mom's surgery, Jaxson. But he didn't do it to be nice. He did it so he could call it a bribe. He wanted a paper trail that linked you to 'illegal' money."
"He didn't just want me gone," Jaxson realized, his voice low and angry. "He wanted to destroy the whole team’s reputation. If I’m a thief and a guy who takes bribes, the school looks terrible. They can fire Coach Reed, close the rink, and sell the land to those developers Coach told us about. It was never just about me."
"We have the bank records," Leo said. "But Sterling is the Director. He will just say he didn't know about the payment. We need more. We need Marcus to admit he was the one who helped him. We need to catch Marcus in the act."
Jaxson grabbed his jacket. "He’s at the rink. He told the guys he was going to do an extra late-night session to 'prepare for the Captaincy.' He thinks he’s already won."
"I'm coming with you," Leo said, standing up.
Elena stood up too. "Wait. If you two go in there and start a fight, the guards will kick you out and Jaxson will be arrested. You need someone who can see everything without being seen."
"Chloe," Jaxson said. "She’s working the late shift at the equipment desk tonight."
The university rink was dark and cold when they arrived. The only lights were the small ones glowing over the ice, making the surface look like a sheet of black glass. The sound of skates cutting into the ice echoed through the empty building. Shhh-t. Shhh-t.
Jaxson and Leo slipped through the side door. They didn't go toward the ice. Instead, they moved through the shadows of the bleachers.
They could see Marcus out there. He was skating alone, doing fast laps, looking proud and powerful. He stopped at center ice and shot a puck into the empty net with a loud bang.
"He looks pretty happy for someone who is ruining someone’s life," Leo whispered.
They saw a shadow move in the glass-walled announcer's booth high above the ice. It was Chloe. She gave them a small signal with her phone flashlight. She was ready. She had turned on the high-quality microphones that the school used to record games for the local radio station.
Every word spoken on that ice would be recorded and saved to the school’s main server.
Jaxson took a deep breath. "Stay back, Leo. If he sees you, he’ll get quiet. He needs to think it’s just me."
Jaxson stepped out from the shadows and walked toward the edge of the ice. He didn't have his skates on, but his boots gripped the rubber mats. "Nice shot, Marcus."
Marcus spun around, his eyes widening behind his helmet. Then, he laughed. He skated slowly toward the boards where Jaxson was standing.
"Miller? You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here. You’re a ghost, man. You’re already gone."
"I just wanted to know one thing," Jaxson said. He kept his voice calm, like they were just two friends talking. "Why the thumb drive? You already had the team hating me. Why plant more evidence in my bag tonight?"
Marcus leaned against the boards, looking down at Jaxson. He felt untouchable. In his mind, the game was over. "Because the Director wanted to be sure. He said the logs Leo stole might not be enough to satisfy the whole Board. He wanted 'physical evidence' found in your possession. Cooper was able to drop it off for me with a little persuasion. He’s a good kid, but he likes his admission more than he likes you."
"And the hospital money?" Jaxson asked. "That was a big move, Marcus. Fifty thousand dollars just to frame a guy?"
"It wasn't my money," Marcus said, shrugging. "The Director handles the big stuff. He told me that once you were gone and Reed was fired, I’d be the new face of the Vipers. We’re going to be a pro-level team, Jax. No more scholarship kids from the wrong side of the tracks. Just winners."
"You really think you're going to get away with it?" Jaxson asked.
"I already have," Marcus said. He tapped his stick against the ice. "Tomorrow at the Gala, they’re going to announce your expulsion. Elena will move on to some doctor guy, and you’ll go back to whatever hole you crawled out of. It was easy, Jax. You made it easy by thinking people at this school actually cared about the truth."
"I think you're wrong about that," Jaxson said. He looked up toward the announcer's booth.
Marcus followed his gaze. He saw the red light on the wall speaker blinking. His face went from pale to bright red in a second. He looked back at Jaxson, then at the booth, realizing what had happened.
"You... you recorded that?" Marcus yelled. His voice shook with rage.
"Every word," Jaxson said.
Marcus didn't think. He was a hockey player, and his first instinct was to hit. He swung his heavy hockey stick toward Jaxson’s head, but Jaxson ducked.
The stick hit the top of the boards with a loud crack.