Running the Risk by Lesley Choyce Page B

a guy not much older than me. And I now understood that I wasn’t in this alone after all.
    â€œI think I know who held the gun that night. I think I can identify him.”
    My father had his back to me and he seemed to freeze. Then he turned around slowly.
    â€œI could be wrong,” I said, “but I don’t think so. I met a guy on the street. I’ve seen him twice in fact. I was already pretty sure it was him but I didn’t want to get involved. But now this.” I pushed the newspaper toward him. He looked down at it and saw the photo of the victim.
    â€œWhat are you going to do?” he asked.
    â€œI don’t think I have a choice,” I said.
    â€œYou always have a choice. You could do nothing. The police are going to get serious now that someone’s been killed. This guy can’t keep getting away with this.”
    â€œDetective Solway told me they don’t have much to go on.”
    â€œThat may have changed. Now they have this picture from the security cam.”
    I looked at the fuzzy image again. “It’s not much to go on.”
    â€œNo, it isn’t,” he admitted.
    â€œWill you drive me down to the police station?”
    The toast popped up just then. My father looked frightened.
    â€œPart of me wants to talk you out of this,” he said.
    â€œI know. I thought about what it might mean,” I said. “It could be a rough ride.”
    â€œI don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
    â€œI know that too,” I said. “But if I go down there now, this guy with the gun could be off the street today. I’m fairly sure of that. If I let it go until tomorrow or the next day or wait for the cops to figure it out on their own...”
    I didn’t finish the sentence. I just let it hang there.

Chapter Sixteen
    My father called Detective Solway and told him we were coming. He drove me to the police station in the Mustang. It somehow felt right.
    Solway asked him to sit in a waiting room and led me into the same room where he had questioned me before. I could tell he was upset about something.
    I told Solway what I thought. He was skeptical. “He had a ski mask on and you only saw his eyes?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œBut you believe you’ve met him on the street, and you can describe what he looks like?”
    â€œHis name is J.L. I don’t know what it stands for and I don’t know his last name, but it shouldn’t be that hard to find out.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you come in before?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWhere did you see him?”
    â€œDowntown. South Main.”
    â€œYou might have saved a life if you’d come to us sooner,” he said after a long pause. “You know how hard it is these days to get anyone to come forward? Young men in gangs get knifed or beat up and they refuse to say a word about who did it. Even little kids don’t want to point the finger at the bully. No one wants to be the snitch.” He rubbed his forehead and looked at me. “But you’re different, right?”
    He was silent for a minute. “Look, it’s just that sometimes someone starts out offering information and then they crap out on me. They don’t follow through. This happens. A lot. Are you going to be able to follow through?”
    â€œYeah,” I said, “I’ll follow through.” I remembered that moment again, staring at the gun, looking in those insane eyes.
    â€œIf your guy is smart, he’s long gone from here by now. He’s done too much damage. But my guess is he isn’t smart. Just lucky. But I think his luck just ran out. I’m going to get Jack Kacer in here and you’re going to give him features to work with.”
    Solway went away. He came back with a heavyset guy who looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He sat down at a computer in the corner and nodded.
    â€œEyes first,