Local Heroes Help Police in Record Drug Bust

Heroes
                                24

Every action has its consequences. Of course the boys’ adventure
would have lifelong consequences for many people. Already, the
following morning, the local newspaper, The Ottawa Citizen, had a
large picture of the three students on their front page. The headline
read:
  Local Heroes Help Police in Record Drug Bust
Peter Bonn, a reporter from the paper, had been monitoring police
calls with his own two-way radio. He had arrived quickly enough to
get pictures of Gilles and Jim being taken out of the school.

The police were reluctant to comment on what had happened in the
school, but Mr. Bonn waited around long enough to talk with the
students and their parents as they were leaving.

Mrs. Kent had an emergency discussion with the school board
superintendant Mr. Davies and they agreed that the school should be
closed for 48 hours. They were worried that the Rainville students
would be disturbed by the coming and going of journalists and
policemen searching for information.

All buses were cancelled and those students living close enough to
walk were called and told to stay home.

Despite these precautions, the next day, large groups of curious
students and parents gathered across the street from the school to see
if they could learn more. When the three boys arrived at nine
o’clock, escorted by their parents, it was pandemonium. People
were calling out their names and light bulbs were flashing.
Fortunately, Officer Benton was there to guide them past the
onlookers.

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Number Graffiti – 87

The entire morning was spent first with a group of diligent police
investigators and then with an assortment of probing journalists. By
noon, the three kids had already been interviewed by two more
newspapers, three radio stations and a couple of television stations.

Fellow students watched from home as TV anchor woman Annie
Smith, from The New RO News, asked them to explain in their own
words what had happened.

“It all started with the number graffiti,” said Mike. “We thought
maybe it was a message or something, so we decided to try to
decode it. We used a substitution key, changing the numbers to
letters of the alphabet.”

“I think some people had already tried that in the past,” interjected
Alan, “but Andrew had the idea to read it backwards.”

“Yeah, we came up with a list of words that seemed to suggest that
there might be some drugs hidden in the school basement. We just
wanted to be sure,” Andrew said, joining the conversation.

“So who do you think wrote all those numbers on the walls of the
school,” Miss Smith inquired with great interest.

“We don’t know who did that,” said Alan quickly, winking at his
two friends. Of course, he had a fair idea. He was convinced that the
ghost of Jeff Arguin had been writing the coded messages, but he
didn’t want to say that on TV. “We’re just glad it’s all over,” he
added.

“Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today,”
said the journalist, wrapping up her interview.

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Number Graffiti – 88

Even Mr. Moore and Mrs. Kent were asked to do some interviews.
“We’re very proud of our students,” Mrs. Kent told a reporter.
 “Of course the Ottawa School Board will be taking measures to
assure that something like this never happens again,” she promised.

“These are grim days,” Mr. Moore said. “When common criminals
can infiltrate the sanctity of the scholastic milieu, the very
foundation of our society is threatened. Thank God for the vigilance,
perceptiveness and courage of these fine students,” he added,
moving slightly to his right in order to be included in yet another
newspaper cliché. “I’ve said from the beginning that these young
individuals have tremendous potential and they reconfirmed my
evaluation again last night.”

                             ------

Away from the noisy confusion at the school, the two janitors,
Gilles and Jim, woke up in drab little holding cells at the police
station. Gilles’ arm was bandaged and painful. He couldn’t have felt
more depressed. He was supposed to be leaving for Florida on a
plane that evening, but instead he knew he would be in jail for a
long time. He talked with his lawyer and decided it would be best to
cooperate with the police.

Jim was feeling very despondent as well. From the moment that
Alan had explained to him what the three kids had learned by
decoding the number graffiti, he was scared. He wasn’t worried so
much about the kids, as he was about the idea of a ghost. He knew
whose ghost it would be, because he saw the boy die in the
basement. He had pretended to search the storage room in order to
convince Alan to stop pursuing his investigation, but he had been
unable to stay down there for more than a couple of minutes. At the
end of his shift he

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Number Graffiti – 89

had forced himself to return in order to pick up his coat and lunch
pail, but he was so nervous, he forgot his lunch pail. That error
would prove to be his downfall.

Jim had always enjoyed working at the school. He particularly liked
working around kids. He didn’t really need the money, but the Blue
Daggers had paid him well to keep an eye on Gilles. He was sad to
think he would be going to prison. He was also sorry to have
frightened the kids.

Both men confessed and asked the police to protect them from the
Blue Daggers gang. The police agreed, but insisted that they testify
against Bulldog Banters.

Jim explained to the detectives how the young Arguin boy had died
accidently. He showed them where he had buried his body in the
basement before starting the fire. Mr. and Mrs. Arguin were able to
reclaim their son`s remains and have a proper funeral.

For a time, the three intrepid youths were swept away by a wave of
instant notoriety. In fact, they became so popular, that everyone,
from talk show hosts, to the Prime Minister of Canada, wanted to
speak with them. They were constantly invited to give inspirational
speeches in front of different groups around the city.

The culminating point came when the boys, along with Mike’s little
brother Derrick, were given a medal of bravery from the Governor
General of Canada.

The number graffiti stopped at Rainville School, although some
copycat graffiti started showing up at other schools.

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Number Graffiti – 90

The heating problem in Mr. Moore’s classroom disappeared without
explanation.

Mrs. Kent and the school board officials were embarrassed to have
TV crews filming the students using such old and decrepit furniture.
Only one week after the drugs were discovered, Mr. Moore and his
students were given new desks.

Alan’s mom and dad stopped worrying about him. They could see
he was going to be okay. The boys had learned a great deal about
how to get along with other people during their investigation. In the
eyes of their fellow students, their social status had rocketed from
borderline acceptance to unanimous acclamation (Cool!).

Alan knew that his life had would never be the same. Moving to a
new city and a new school had not been easy, but through his
experiences he had made some great friends and gained new
confidence in himself. High school would be his next adventure, his
next big challenge. He looked forward to that; partly because
Andrew and Mike would be going to the same school with him and
partly also because Sandra Benton would be there. “My dad thinks
you’re really terrific,” she confided to him one afternoon. “I think so
too,” she added blushing. No ceremony or announcements were
necessary, Alan slipped his hand in hers and from that moment on,
the other kids knew that Alan had a girlfriend.

In his valedictorian address at the end of the year, Jay Stone, the
student president, couldn’t help but mention the mystery of the
number graffiti.

“My dad and I talked about what happened at the school this year
and we thought that there was a lesson in it for all of us. We are a
generation of mass media. In our everyday lives, we are constantly
bombarded with messages of all kinds, some of them more subtle

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Number Graffiti – 91

than others. People use music, pictures, words and even numbers to
influence us. They want to communicate their ideas through the
Internet, television, radio, books, magazines, posters, signs or even
graffiti. Each of us, in our own way, has to filter the information we
receive. But it’s not enough to keep our eyes and ears open, we have
to open our hearts and minds as well.

Alan Moody, Andrew Peterson and Mike Schevler solved a mystery
this year, because they refused to accept the number graffiti on face
value. Where we saw numbers without importance, they saw a
message. They didn’t stop at the obvious; they went further to get to
the truth. I want to wish all of you the best of luck with your new
schools next year and I hope that we all have learned from their
example.”

                       ----------------------------

“Mom, I going to go see a friend, I’ll be back later,” called Alan
opening the door of their apartment and putting on his Senators ball
cap.

“It’s getting dark out Alan, don’t be too late,” his mother replied,
returning to her magazine.

It was a beautiful summer evening and everything seemed to be
getting back to normal. People were taking advantage of the warm
weather and had temporarily forgotten about the major drug bust.
Alan passed joggers and skate boarders in Stratford Park as he
marched intently back over to Rainville Elementary School to take
care of some unfinished business. He went past the slides and the

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Number Graffiti – 92

teeter-totters in the deserted playground and stopped in front of the
wall of red bricks where Mike had first shown him the number
graffiti. All the numbers had long since been cleaned off, but Alan
could still picture them in his mind. He remembered too the cold
and haunting feeling that sent a shiver of fear up his spine every
time their ghost friend was near.

Looking in all directions to make sure that no one could see him,
Alan took out a big black felt marker and wrote four series of
numbers on the wall:

                       19-11-14-1-8-20      6-6-5-10

                         5-11-1-20        5-18-1-3

Stepping back, he waved and smiled, like you do when you’re
saying goodbye to someone you won’t see again for a long while.
Then, for a reason he couldn’t explain to himself, he ran all the way
home.

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Number Graffiti - Chapter 24: Heroes
Questions
                                                           Interesting Words
1. Why did Mrs. Kent cancel school for 48 hours?

2. What did the three boys do at school the next
   morning?

3. Why didn’t Alan tell the TV reporter who
   he thought had written the graffiti?
                                                    Doodle

4. What did Mr. Moore have to say about
   the boys?

                                                         Interesting Expressions
5. Who showed the police where the body
   of Jeff Arguin was buried?

6. Give two examples of how life changed for
   the boys.?

   a.

   b.

Number Graffiti - Chapter 23: Drop Your Gun!

                                                             Interesting Words
   Questions

7. Why happened to Mike’s little brother?

8. What does copycat graffiti mean?

9. What happened to Mr. Moore?

                                                     Doodle
10. What did Jay Stone mean when he said,
   “it’s not enough to keep our eyes and ears
    open, we have to open our hearts and
    minds as well”?

                                                         Interesting Expressions
11. Why did Alan write some graffiti on the wall
   at the school?

12. What was the message that Alan wrote?