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“I’ll say he was resisting arrest.”
    “How can he be resisting arrest when he’s already in prison?” Snape demanded.
    Boyle had no answer to that. He went off to sulk in the corner.
    “What was that you were saying about violent and homicidal?” I asked.
    Snape glanced at his deputy then turned back to me. “You have to get the name out of Powers while he can still talk,” he said. “One name. That’s all we want.”
    “And what if I refuse?”
    He shrugged. “Then you’re here for another seventeen months and thirty days.”
    “Wait a minute . . . !”
    “No. You wait a minute, laddie.” Snape leaned across the table. “Only two people in the world know that you didn’t really steal the Woburn Carbuncle. Boyle and me.”
    “What about the security guards?”
    “You’ll never find them. We got you in here. Only we can get you out. But if you refuse to cooperate . . .” He left the sentence hanging in the air. Right then I’d have liked to have seen him hanging in the air beside it.
    I stood up.
    “The Fence,” I said.
    “Get close to Powers . . .”
    “Close?” I cried. “If I got any closer we’d be sharing the same bed.” I took a deep breath. Snape had beaten me and he knew it. “All right,” I said. “You win. I’ll find out what you want to know. But if you don’t get me out of here . . .”
    “Relax.” Suddenly Snape was all smiles again. He dug a hand into his pocket and pulled something out. He threw it down on the table. “Have a bar of chocolate on us, laddie,” he said. “Boyle bought it for you. Thick and nutty.”
    “Yeah.” I gazed at the two of them and sighed. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”
     
     
    Powers was waiting for me when I got back to the cell. He was rolling a cigarette. A chocolate one.
    “So who was it?” he asked.
    “The police,” I said. I’d been practicing my answer on the way. “They just wanted to ask me more questions.”
    It was the first time I’d lied to Johnny Powers and he almost seemed to sense it like a dog scenting blood. He looked at me curiously, the skin under his eyes tightening. But he didn’t say anything. Not yet. Sometime later the lights went out. There were no good-nights. Nobody came to tuck me in. The darkness just cut in without argument. And that was all.
    My first night in Strangeday Hall. I undressed and climbed onto the top bunk, pulling the rough blankets and even rougher sheet over me. The pillow was as soft as cardboard. There was a full moon that night, spilling in through the window. A perfect square of light perched on the wall, cut into sections by the black shadows of the bars. In the distance, a plane screamed through the sky.
    I lay there for an hour. I couldn’t sleep. There was only one way out of this mess, and the sooner it started, the better. Cursing Snape, I opened my eyes.
    “Powers?” I said.
    “Yeah?” He sounded wide-awake, too.
    “I just want you to know . . . I really admire you. I read about you in all the papers. I always hoped I could join up with you.”
    “Is that so?” I couldn’t tell if he believed me. His voice was cold, empty.
    I swallowed and went on. “When I stole that jewel . . . I had a slingshot in my pocket. Like your gang—the Slingshot Kids.”
    “We never had no slingshots.”
    “Sure, Powers. But I couldn’t afford a shotgun. That’s why I was stealing the jewel.” There was no answer. “I’d have gotten away if you’d been there. And then we could have sold the jewel. It was worth thousands. The only thing is, I didn’t know who to sell it to. What would you have done, Powers?”
    There was a long silence. I didn’t even hear him get out of bed. But a second later he was standing up with his head close to mine, the moon dancing in his eyes.
    “Listen, Diamond,” he said. “I don’t know ya and what I don’t know I don’t trust. Maybe you’re on the level. If not, ya’ll end buried underneath it. Know what I mean?”
    He