groovygamers.com

Sooner or later, things are worked out and people go home.

Jack arrives at his home to find Alicia sitting on the front porch. She's still wearing her mall rat outfit, but doesn't seem to mind the evening chill.

As soon as he sees her, Alicia holds up an empty soda can, with an incriminating dent and stain on it.

"Dropped your soda, thought I'd bring it back," she says levelly.

"I hope you didn't open it too soon.  It got shook up."  he says, opening the door to let them into the house.  "All is well that ends well."  he says heading to the kitchen, "Now that you mention it, I am thirsty."  he gets a soda from the fridge, one in a bottle, and then takes something from his pocket to pop the top.  Alicia sees it's got a bottle opener and what looks to be a shielded back curved blade, perfect for opening letters or cutting through seat belts.  He offers her a soda as well.  "So, how was your day?"

"I learned a lot," Alicia says, eyeing him. "What I'm trying to figure out is when did you set it all up. Did you head off right after we talked to you?"

"I gave Elrod's keys to Mitzi, made some phone calls, talked to the principal, collected some stuff, caught a cab, then did a little breaking and entering, called in a bomb scare, caught a cab, called Strange, and arranged to meet him, and the rest will be in police reports."  He turns to the cabinet, "You want some popcorn?"

Alicia is standing there, arms crossed, not sure whether to be angry or impressed. "So, it didn't matter what we did, you were already taking care of things."

"No.  I was making sure Strange didn't get away.  You guys were on the kids that he'd messed with."  he pulls some microwave popcorn from the cabinet and begins the read the directions, "My friend finally got back to me about Strange.  Bad person.  I thought I'd lend a hand.  And, make sure someone I know didn't have a chance to do him serious bodily harm."  he looks at her and smiles, "They make this stuff in all kinds of flavors.  It's popcorn for cripes sake.  It's supposed to be popcorn flavored."

Alicia pointedly looks away, her arms still crossed. She finally grumbles, "He deserved it. If you hadn't called the cops so quickly..."

She stops herself, unwilling to reveal any more of her musings. She comments casually to cover her gaffe, "Real nice, framing him for Hamilton's suicide. It won't wash in court, though. They didn't any traces of explosives in the science lab. Hamilton blew himself up using the gas pipes."

"Yes, which you need a special wrench to open.  A wrench they will find in his apartment, that has a property ID tag from the school."  Jack sits down.  "And, I'm told, that when you look at the arson report and the coroner's report you learn that Hamilton set the explosion off with a lighter.  He didn't smoke.  Strange does though, a pipe.  According to the principal Strange had a lighter, but has recently been lighting his pipe with matches.  The lighter was a Zippo with his school crest on it."  Alicia remembers the lighter in Hamilton's hand, and the sound of it opening.  She can see the symbol, but didn't recognize it.  Jack lays a printed out page on the counter between them, in one corner is a logo.  It's the same logo as from the lighter.  "When you guys were talking about Strange laying traps in the kids, it made sense that he might have done it to Hamilton, especially after my friend said they were connected through some previous business dealings."

Alicia's face drains of life. Her eyes glitter cold. "So you're saying Strange did kill Hamilton. The same way he tried to kill those kids."

"And you let him live, why?"

"Death is pretty final.  Dead people don't generally suffer.  Geeky people that go to prison and essentially hypnotized little kids to get there, they don't die in prison.  They wish they did, but they don't.  Their lives take on a special kind of suffering that you just can't get outside the penal system.  So, popcorn?"

Alicia stares at Jack intently for a few seconds more, then her face clears. "Popcorn sounds good," she says brightly.

Later, Alicia pauses from shoveling popcorn into her mouth long enough to ask, "Do prisons have security cameras that you can watch the prisoners with?"

OOC: I'm not expecting Jack to answer the question. I just thought it was a good way to end the thread. ;D

"Now that might make for an interesting reality show."