Confirmed Suspicions
Ned comes up to me after first period the next day, hugging his laptop.
“Can you hang out tonight?” he says, and I can tell he’s faking casual by the way his hands twitch and his foot taps.
“Uh, sure,” I say, closing my locker. “What for?”
He looks at me and says. “Come on, Peter. The stuff you asked me to look for? The…aviation work?”
I open and close my mouth, then nod. “Right. Thanks, man.”
“Sure,” he says and walks the other direction, fast as he can.
“What was that about?” MJ says behind me, and I jump, turning to stare at her.
“Do you have to sneak up on me like that?” I hiss.
She smirks, and a part of me goes to heaven. I love that smirk more than life itself. “Yes. It’s fun.”
I roll my eyes and put on a smile of my own. “Of course.”
“So what was that about?” she says, nodding at Ned’s retreating form. Quickly I whisper in her ear what I’m looking into. When I pull back, she has a focused expression on her face. “Then I’m coming to your place too,” she says. “Can’t keep me out of this.”
My smile grows. “Thanks, MJ.”
“See you then.”
-----
The rest of the day is agony, waiting until I can see Ned and find out what he knows. I even get a chemistry question wrong when I’m called on in class. That hasn’t happened since…ever. Lunch is even worse, with every word Ned and MJ say going in one ear and out the other. I just want tonight to come.
Finally, the school day ends, and I rush home, banging the door open and startling May.
“Sorry,” I say. “Just got some stuff to do tonight.”
She smiles and says, “Okay. Just be careful.”
“Oh, we’ll be here. Ned and MJ are coming over. That okay?”
“Sure,” she says with a nod. “They’re welcome anytime.”
With my own nod of thanks, I run to my room and turn to my wall. Since the day I posted the pictures up there, I’ve added even more papers. Articles on my parents, or Norman Osborn, or Dr. Curtis Connors. Mr. Osborn and Dr. Connors have been a great help, but there’s nothing like a little personal sleuthing. From my own research I’ve figured out that Mr. Osborn and my parents were also college friends, and once had a dream of all starting a company together. That dream died though, as my parents delved more into research and decided to work for Mr. Osborn instead. Dr. Connors worked with them through it all, helping them along. From what I can tell, he is just as much of a genius as they were.
A part of me wonders if I’m that smart. But whatever, right?
Nothing from their history gives me any cause for concern, which is a huge relief. Still, I haven’t stopped searching for any leads that might help. But I know this wasn’t a murder. It couldn’t have been. Because then, all my worst fears would be realized. And who knows, if someone killed my parents…what if I’m next?
I shake my head, pushing the thought from my mind. A knock at the front door makes me leave my room, and I open it to see Ned and MJ, looking nervous.
“What’s up you guys?” I ask. “Everything okay?”
Ned moves to speak, but MJ beats him to it.
“Yeah,” she says. “We just wanted to talk to you about some stuff. Ned filled me in about what he’s found.”
“Great. Then let’s go.” With that, I lead them to my room, where we all convene on the floor.
“Nice wall,” MJ says with a raised eyebrow, gesturing to my articles and pictures.
I shrug and say, “I mean, I wanted to keep track of stuff. And it’s not really a mystery unless you pin stuff to a wall, you know?”
“Nice,” Ned says, coming back to his usual, lighthearted self for a moment. After a second though, he looks down, and grips his computer tight in his hands. “So I looked into what you wanted me to…”
“Awesome,” I say, resting my arms on my knees. “So what’d you find?”
“That’s just it, Peter. You might um…not like it?”
A seed of nervousness plants in my stomach. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” Ned opens his computer, and begins typing. “So um, you asked me to look for the plane records on your parents’ flight. So I looked for all flights leaving the New York airport that day, but I couldn’t find anything. That’s when I figured, they might be using a smaller airport.”
“Right,” I say with a nod.
“So I looked for all the smaller airports, and at first I couldn’t find anything. Your parents weren’t listed on any outgoing flights. But then I looked into personal planes, and it turns out they were on a small personal jet owned by Norman Osborn. And then I looked at the status of the plane.” He gulps at this.
“What’s wrong?”
MJ looks from Ned to me, and says, “That’s the thing, Pete. There wasn’t anything wrong with the plane. There was no reason for it to have crashed. No leaks, no faulty equipment, nothing.”
My breath catches. “What?” I say, my voice small. “You can’t be serious.”
“But look,” Ned says, turning his screen to me. On it is a diagram of a jet. The jet my parents were on. Something about this feels invasive, like I’m looking at something I shouldn’t. But I have to find out what happened to my parents. So I look.
And Ned and MJ are right. The diagram is perfect, and the pilot notes listed on another file say that the plane had nothing wrong with it.
“So this means…somebody caused the plane to go down. On purpose,” I say. My voice breaks, and I cover my mouth with a hand.
MJ crawls over and puts her arms around me. “I’m so sorry Peter,” she whispers into my ear. She kisses my cheek as I begin to cry, tracing circle on my back with a hand. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she repeats, like it’s somehow her fault.
Ned moves in on the hug, murmuring a few apologies of his own. After a few moments, I pull back and say,
“Okay, stop that.”
“What?” Ned says.
“Stop apologizing. This isn’t your fault.” My voice comes out sharper than I meant.
“We’re just trying to help you,” MJ says. “What’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with you helping me. I’m just pissed off, and scared, because apparently somebody got in their head that it’d be a good idea if my parents died, and murdered them!”
My voice has risen to a shout before I even realize it. MJ and Ned stare at me, eyes wide. I look down and mutter, “Sorry. I’m just so angry.” My voice dissolves into a sob, and before I know it I’m crying again. “Who would do something like that?”
Before Ned and MJ can respond, May’s voice comes from above.
“Peter?” she says in a soft voice. I look up, and she’s standing at the door. She looks so ordinary, with her tank top and sweatpants, that just the sight of her calms me. “Peter, what’s going on?”
MJ stands and says, “Ms. Parker, we’re…trying to find out what happened to Peter’s parents.”
“And you think they were killed?” The fear in May’s voice cuts deep into my heart.
“Yes.”
“Oh…oh, okay.” May’s voice breaks, and a tear traces down her cheek. “It’s not like that’s a surprise. I suspected, sometimes, back after it happened.” She pads into the room in her fuzzy socks, and kneels down at my side. “Peter, baby, it’s going to be okay.”
I nod and lean into her shoulder. “Thanks, May.”
She pats my hair and shushes my tears away until they stop. May has always had that kind of power, the power to make the sadness fade. She sits back after several moments and says,
“So what are you going to do?”
“Hm?”
“Please, Peter, I’ve known you long enough to know that you’re going to want to do something about this.”
I smile shakily, and say, “Yeah. I wanna find out who did this.” My smile fades into a hardened frown.
She gives a nod, and says, “Good, me too.”
“What?” I sit up straighter. “You’re not…gonna stop me?”
She shakes her head. “Peter, this mystery has haunted me too, ever since they died. I mean, they were my brother and sister in law. I want to know who did this.”
“Good. Cause we’re going to find out.”