Cody was waiting in the pickup outside the high school when classes let out, careful to park on the city street and not on school property. It wasn’t where Janice would have expected to be picked up, and he hoped that his mother had been able to get the message to her successfully. Hopefully Payne wouldn’t notice the truck, or notice him sitting there, since that could mess up the carefully scheduled sequence of events planned for the afternoon, but if things went according to plan he would be too busy to notice right then, anyway.

He really wasn’t expecting trouble; all he wanted to do was to pick Janice up and get out of there. He’d given some thought to having the P226 in the glove compartment just in case, but decided in the end that it could complicate things more than they already were. Guns often did that, he had learned all too well.

He was worried about Janice – very worried. It was the longest they’d been apart since the day after the shooting nearly nine months before. He wasn’t sure how she would handle it, what the rumors that had to have been going around the school must have been like, or how she would have been treated with him not there to keep an eye on her.

Fortunately, Janice was in the middle of a crowd that came out the front door of the building a couple minutes after the bell rang, so it was clear that she’d gotten the message. He could see the evident relief on her face when she saw the truck and watched her as she almost ran toward him. “Cody,” she yelled as soon as she was within earshot. “Thank God you’re here. I’ve been so worried about you all day I could hardly stand up.”

“I’m all right,” he said as she walked up to the truck and got in the right-hand door. “More than a little pissed off, but I’m all right.”

“Cody, it was horrible,” she said as soon as she slammed the door. “I didn’t know what happened to you when you didn’t come back, and then all day long the stories going around school were that you’d been thrown out for beating those two jerks up the other night. And God, I took more shit from people today than I got all last semester. I was so relieved when Mrs. Wine said you would be picking me up that I almost fainted. My God, Cody, what happened?”

“Long story,” he said. “The short version of it is that the rumors were mostly right for the moment, but it had less to do with those football players than it did with that stuff back last Christmas. But Mom and Dad and I talked to Mr. Schindenwulfe, and then went over to Judge Dieball’s courtroom. Right about five minutes ago Payne should have been served with an injunction barring him from kicking me out of school.”

“Well, that’s better,” she sighed as he started the truck and began to drive away. With any kind of luck he could beat the buses leaving, which always plugged up traffic around town about this time of day. “Maybe tomorrow we won’t have it as bad.”

“Everybody’s guess is that the injunction won’t change things. At least, that’s what we’re hoping, but just keep that between you and me and Mom and Dad.”

“You mean you’re not going back to school after all?”

“Well, the plan is for me to do it in the morning,” Cody said. “I really doubt that I’ll be there all day.”

“God, I don’t know how I can get through another day in that hell hole without you.”

“Then don’t go,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

“But Cody! We have to be in school! We need the grades to get into Southern!”

“Right, we have to be in school for that,” he smiled, “but it doesn’t have to be that school. Right at the moment, the plan is for both of us to just walk out and enroll down at Albany River, where we won’t have to put up with most of the shit that’s gone around about both of us. That could change. Mr. Schindenwulfe said he had another idea that he wanted to try. I don’t know what it is.”

“Oh, God, what a relief! You mean I don’t have to go back and put up with all the dirty talk, and all the rumors about you?”

“That’s the plan,” he said. “Albany River doesn’t start for another week, so we’ve got a few days off. I’m only going tomorrow in hopes that I’ll get thrown out, injunction or no. He said that there are a few hoops we have to jump through.”

“Albany River sounds like a great idea to me,” she said. “There aren’t many people down there who have heard of us. It’ll be almost like going to Southern.”

“I’m not as hot on it as all that,” he shrugged. “Albany River is only twelve miles away, and there’s always going to be kids talking back and forth. But it shouldn’t be quite as bad as it would be here with that asshole of a principal stirring things up.”

“Well, whatever, so long as I don’t have to go back to that place. That’s about the best news I’ve heard in a while. So what’s this other idea Mr. Schindenwulfe has?”

“He didn’t say. Janice, again just between you and me and the folks, he’s trying to set things up to have grounds for a great big lawsuit. Once that comes out you and I wouldn’t want to be there anyway. Besides, it could take years to settle, but things have to be set up just right.”

“We’re so lucky to have him.”

“No fooling,” Cody shook his head. “I feel about him about like you feel about me. He’s helped us with so many damn problems the last nine months it’s almost embarrassing, and most of them have been at no charge. However, if the lawsuit comes off and we win, he’ll make all of it back and a lot more besides.” He let out a long sigh. “Janice, you know that I’ve been having trouble making up my mind between whether I want to be a cop or a lawyer, right?”

“I’ve known that ever since I’ve known you.”

“I’ll tell you what, I was sitting in that courtroom this afternoon waiting for the petition for the injunction to come up, and it happened to hit me. What Payne did was against the law, right, but it wasn’t the kind of thing that you could go to the police over. Police powers only go so far and this kind of thing is beyond them. However, as soon as Dad and Mom found out what happened we went to Mr. Schindenwulfe, and things started to happen. I can’t tell you how things are going to come out, because I don’t know. But I do know that a lawyer can wind up settling this better than a cop ever could. It’s got me thinking, Jan, it really has.”

“You’re saying that you want to be a lawyer now?”

“I never said I’d given up on the idea,” Cody told her. “In fact, it’s very appealing right now, but it’s just that it’s a heck of a lot more work to become a lawyer than it is to become a cop. You know what the financial situation for school is, and it probably didn’t become any better today, at least in the short run. If this lawsuit thing comes through maybe we’ll be able to pay off our student loans and I might be able to afford law school. But there’s no way of telling at this point. Jan, it could easily take ten years or more. I don’t know where we’re going to get the money if it doesn’t happen. All I know is that there’s no point in asking Mom and Dad for it.”

“Cody, you’ll figure something out. I know you will. You always figure things out one way or another. This whole day has been a real pain in the ass, but if it gets me out of there a year early, even if we have to go down to Albany River, it will be worth it.”

“Oh, the hassles aren’t over with yet,” he said, “but I’ll tell you that with this idiot Payne I’m just about as happy to be out of there as you are. I don’t even want to go there tomorrow, but it’s one of those things that needs to be done to make this move, but then that will be that, and I’ll be free of the damn place.”

Cody was happier than he expected to be as he walked up to the front door of the high school a little before classes started the next morning. The plan had originally been for him to go by himself, but carrying a recorder, but just before he left for school Matt Schindenwulfe called. “I changed my mind,” the attorney said. “I want to get a look at this joker, and there’s a couple things that can be done to streamline things. I just don’t want it to look like I’m with you, at least not right at the beginning.”

So it was that Mr. Schindenwulfe drove him over to the school, and was about ten feet behind Cody as he walked in the door.

Not surprisingly, Payne was waiting for him just inside the building. “So you showed up after all, did you?” he said angrily. “Some damn judge may say that I have to let you in the building, but I don’t have to let you be a danger to the rest of the students. Archer, you’re on permanent detention. Get your ass to the detention room, now!”

“No, Cody,” Mr. Schindenwulfe said. “Stay here.”

“And who do you think you are to tell students what to do in this building?” Payne roared.

“Who I happen to be is Mr. Archer’s attorney,” Mr. Schindenwulfe said, throwing off his anonymity. “And it’s just as well that I came along since it allows me to give this to you.” He handed Payne a long legal envelope.

“What’s this shit?” he said, waving off taking it.

“It’s a copy of the lawsuit for damages that Mr. Archer and I will be filing just as soon as we drive over to the courthouse. I sure hope you have good insurance, because if you don’t there’s a good chance you could be working for Mr. Archer the rest of your life.”

“What is this shit?” Payne repeated. “I try to protect the students from a known killer, try to prevent a school shooting or something, and I’m getting sued?”

“Your actions are illegally blocking Mr. Archer from seeking a lawful education. How much education is he going to get when he’s sitting in a detention room all year and unable to attend classes? You’d better be thinking about that one, because you’re going to have to give that answer to a judge. Come on, Cody. That’s about what I expected out of this alleged educator.”

“You’ll never get away with this!”

“Oh, I think I will,” Cody smiled, knowing he shouldn’t say it but unable to help himself. “You were the one who wanted the duel. That means I get to choose the weapons. Just to prove to you that I’m not a stone killer, I chose lawyers.” And on that note, Cody turned and walked out of Spearfish Lake High School, leaving the principal yelling and fuming behind him.

They weren’t far outside the school before Mr. Schindenwulfe broke down laughing. “You know, you really shouldn’t have said that, Cody,” he laughed, “but I can’t help thinking what a duel between the two of you with heavy pistols would be like.”

“I’d win,” Cody laughed. “He’d never figure out how to get the safety off.”

“Too true,” the attorney laughed. “It’s just a damn shame that Harold Hekkinan didn’t decide to hold on one more year before retiring. All this could have been avoided. But he didn’t, so now we have to do things the hard way.”

“Like Mom has told me more than once, when a dog team gets tangled, what you have to do is straighten out the mess and get on with the race.”

“That’s a good attitude to have. Let’s get over to the courthouse and get these petitions filed.”

Half an hour later, the Archers – now including Janice – were sitting in Mr. Schindenwulfe’s office again. “That went about like I expected,” he reported. “Filing the two separate lawsuits against Payne and the school is a smoke screen since they’ll probably get consolidated, but maybe they’ll make people over there sit up and understand that we mean business.”

“I’m just disappointed that it had to end this way,” Candice said. “Shay got a pretty good education there, but this really makes me think that the place has gone to hell.”

“Well, it hasn’t ended,” the attorney told them. “In fact, considering what started all this, I hate to use these allusions, but all we accomplished this morning was to fire a shot across their bows, so to speak. I doubt that they’ll run up the white flag without our running out the guns, and it may yet turn into a real sea battle.”

“Yeah, considering everything, that might not have been the best way to put it,” Cody grinned. “Not that you’re not dead right.”

“OK, strategy session time,” Schindenwulfe said. “I told you yesterday, well, everyone except Janice, that I had another idea about you kids going to school. I mean, besides Albany River.”

“Janice and I talked it over,” Cody reported. “We pretty much agreed that while it’s not the ideal solution, it’s better than here and we ought to make it work.”

“I have little doubt that you could, especially without Payne messing up the works,” Schindenwulfe said. “But I had another idea at the same time that potentially could be more rewarding to you in the short run, as well as serve notice on the schools that we mean business. The reason I didn’t tell you yesterday is that I needed to check out a few side issues, but everything is about like I thought it was.”

“So what’s this idea?” John said.

“Well, the background to it is that if a student can’t receive an adequate education in school, the state requires that an alternative education plan be offered to them. I had a similar situation arise last year in somewhat different circumstances down in the Blair Schools, and everything worked out all right and still is working. Basically, what I’m saying is to not go to Albany River, but to force the school to pay for an alternative home schooling plan.”

“Home schooling?” Candice frowned. “I’ve never been much in favor of that.”

“To tell you the truth, in normal circumstances I’m not either. But I’m talking about a formal, supervised program, not something off the cuff held by religious nuts who don’t want their kids polluted with anything to do with the real world. The one the kid down in Blair has is teacher supervised by Skype and e-mail, with online classes that you can work on at your own pace. Now, you two kids are pretty smart, right?”

“We like to think so,” John beamed, beginning to see the light.

“Well how it was when I was in school, and I suppose it still is today, is that smart kids pick up stuff pretty quickly, and the teacher has to waste a lot of their time in bringing the not-so-smart kids up to speed in each class, right?”

“Absolutely,” Cody said. “It’s part of what makes school so dull.”

“I’m not sorry about it,” Janice said. “Back when I was having all the trouble with my family, that kind of extra effort is the only thing that allowed me to pass classes at all.”

“Right,” Schindenwulfe smiled, “but once you got rid of those problems you got up to speed pretty quickly, didn’t you?”

“Not without a lot of help from Cody, especially in the beginning. But things got easier for me toward the end of the year, once I learned how to overcome all that.”

“You’re getting the picture. Now, what I was thinking is this. Suppose we sign you up for a program like the kid down in Blair has, or maybe something similar. Now, if you’re working at your own pace and the pace is pretty hard, it strikes me that you might be pretty well able to complete all the grade twelve requirements, say, by Christmas.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Cody nodded. “We wasted a lot of time in school as it was. So then what?

“So then, after the holidays, you could head down to Riverside Community College in Camden and pick up a few electives that will save you some time and money when you really go to college next fall. Granted, you’d want to check with SMU to make sure that the credits from the classes you take could transfer, but you’ve got some time to do that.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” John said. “That’d save a few bucks on college expenses. Riverside is a lot cheaper than SMU will be.”

“Much cheaper,” Schindenwulfe grinned. “Especially if you buy off on my idea and I can word the petition with Judge Dieball correctly. What I’m thinking is that when this comes up for the initial hearing, we can file a petition with the court that, pending resolution of this suit, the school would pay for all educational expenses including mileage incurred over the course of the whole school year.”

“So they’d be paying for the time down at Riverside?” John smiled. “You know, I think I like that.”

“It’s not a done deal by any means,” the attorney warned, “although state law says that schools are required to pay for alternative education when the student can’t effectively attend school. We’ve already proved that with Cody. Janice, well, that’s a little more of a problem, but I understand that you’ve been working with Carole Hunt. I’m sure that if she were approached correctly that she’d be willing to certify that Janice can’t effectively attend school without Cody’s presence.”

“Maybe I’m not so sure how bad I want to think about being an attorney,” Cody shook his head. “I don’t think sneaky like that.”

“It’s one of the things they teach you in law school,” Schindenwulfe laughed. “Of course, it doesn’t hurt if you think that way to begin with. Now, I have to point out that this isn’t quite a sure thing. If the whole suit gets thrown out early on, you might be stuck with the expense, but I still think we can file a separate motion to get the school to pay for at least the direct costs of the home school program, and probably the college expenses next spring. However, if Judge Dieball grants the initial petition and the whole thing gets thrown out, then you might be liable for the expenses. Again, though, it could take years to settle the suit, and it could be eight or ten years before you might have to pony up the six or seven thousand dollars involved.”

“Sounds like it’s worth the gamble,” John said. “I guess the question comes down to Cody and Janice: are the two of you willing to work that hard to make everything work?”

“No question about it,” Cody smiled, warm with the possibilities.

“If Cody can help me when I need it, I’m sure I am, too,” Janice smiled.

“All right,” Schindenwulfe grinned, “I take it we have a plan. I’ll get with the family of the kid down in Blair and find out exactly what educational service they’re using. As I recall, it’s not expensive, only about a thousand dollars a year, and if you kids can blow through your courses before the end of the year, it could well be less. I don’t think I need to emphasize to the both of you that this is going to take plenty of self-discipline on both your parts. You’re going to have to work and work hard to manage that schedule.”

“You know,” Cody said, “it strikes me that the sooner we can get through it, the sooner we can tie down the admissions process at SMU. That’ll give us time to get some other arrangements made. We still have the money issue to settle there, but having that lawsuit hanging out there puts a different spin on it.”

“I’d warn you to not count your chickens before they’re hatched on that one,” Schindenwulfe warned. When you get right down to it, getting big money out of this lawsuit is a long shot and it could take years.”

“Well, true,” Cody shrugged. “We’re still probably going to find ourselves paying for college out of student loans, scholarships and other things like that, especially the student loans. If we don’t win the lawsuit, we’d wind up paying the loans back ourselves, but we were pretty much figuring on having to do that anyway, so no loss in that department if we lose.”

“That’s a good attitude to have,” Schindenwulfe agreed. “Now, I think we’d better wind this up for now, since I know I have another appointment waiting, and that one isn’t going to be solved as easily as this one is. At least when you people come to me with problems, they’re problems that can be solved fairly easily.”

A couple minutes later they were walking out the door, on their way back to the office and the store. “You know,” John said, “as much as the man is a pain and a total idiot, I can’t help but think that Payne wound up doing us a big favor.”

“Yeah, and he’d hate to admit it,” Cody agreed. “The only thing that I can think of about him is that he has to be a real rabid anti-gun nut. I can’t imagine what he’s going to say when half the school doesn’t show up on deer opener.”

“It might be interesting to watch,” Janice smiled. “I’m just glad that I won’t have to be around to watch it.”

“This is not exactly how I envisioned your first week of your senior year to go,” Candice shook her head, “but I’m thinking it worked out for the best. But aren’t you sorry that you’re not going to be graduating with your class?”

“In a way, yes,” Cody shrugged, “but the upsides are so much better than the downsides that a little item like that gets washed out. I’ll tell you what, though, I sure am glad that you thought of calling Mr. Schindenwulfe.”

“To tell you the truth, you were the one who thought of that,” John laughed, “back the night of the shooting. I probably would have called Pat Roberts if you’d called me, first, and I don’t think Pat could have handled all this stuff half as well. Not the shooting, not the emancipation, and especially not this.”

“Well, yeah,” Cody nodded. “I’m sure glad I made that mistake, though. Not only has he been a true friend, I’m a lot happier that he’s on our side than on the other side.”

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