Tagged Read Online Free

front page of a newspaper from Tennessee. Mt. Juliet Encounters Gorilla it read. It was about a town near Nashville where a four-foot high gorilla had been painted onto the wall of an abandoned building. There was a small black-and-white picture of thebuilding. I pulled out my camera and compared the pictures I had taken earlier in the morning to the one in the article. The gorilla was exactly the same as the ones on our school. Exactly. I checked the date of the article.
    â€œTwo days ago,” I murmured. Mt. Juliet was at least a four-hour drive from Cleary, maybe more. Was that where Trent’s relatives lived? If so, it was a bad alibi. And why paint the same picture in both towns? The police would be able to connect him to both places and he’d really be in trouble. If Trent’s relatives did live in Mt. Juliet, it wouldn’t make any sense that Eli would want me to read the article. He would be pointing the finger at his best friend. I was confused.
    Eli came back from the stockroom just as cars began lining up for the after-work rush. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, but fortunately we were so busy making drinks that neither one of us had time to talk. Finally, just before six, we began to close up for the day.
    â€œSo what did you think of the article?” Eli asked.
    â€œWell, it’s obviously the same guy,” I said, handing him my camera. He clicked through the images I’d taken that morning.
    â€œThese are good,” he said. He paused at a shot I’d taken of the crowd. “This one’s really good.”
    I looked over his shoulder. The picture on the screen showed one of my crowd shots. A group of freshmen boys had just moved in front of me, blocking my view of the wall. One of the boys was holding something in his cupped hands, and the others looked down at what he held, smiling. I didn’t get a look at what was in the boy’s hands, and just after I took the picture, they walked away.
    â€œThe gorillas aren’t even in that one,” I pointed out.
    â€œI know, but it’s still a good shot. Very clear. Plus, it’s not staged. There’s something real there.”
    â€œI guess.”
    Eli turned off the camera and handed it back to me. “You should take more pictures like that.”
    â€œI think people would notice if I stood around taking pictures of them.”
    â€œMaybe. Maybe not. You could try to, you know, stay out of the way.”
    Something I tried to do every day, I thought. But taking pictures of unsuspecting students seemed like an odd thing to do if you weren’t on the yearbook staff.
    â€œThink about it,” Eli said.
    â€œUm, okay.”
    I wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to say. Eli and I cleaned up and locked the doors. Brady was waiting for him in the parking lot. He waved at me. “Hey, Kate!”
    I could see Reva in the backseat of Brady’s car. She looked at me, scowled and then smiled wide when Eli opened the door. Eli turned to me just before getting in the car. “You okay with a ride?”
    â€œMy dad’s coming,” I said.
    â€œWe’d better get out of here, then. Brady’s tags are expired.” He smiled so I would know he was joking and got in the backseat next to Reva. I watched them leave, still trying to figure out not only why Eli had shown me the article possibly connecting Trent to two separate acts of vandalism, but why he had seemed so intense about me taking more pictures. Did he think I was actually good at it, or was he just trying to get me off the topic of the gorillas?
    Minutes later, Dad pulled his police cruiser into the parking lot and I got into the front seat.
    â€œHow was your day?” he asked.
    â€œIt was very strange,” I replied.
    Â 
    L AN WAS MORE THAN A LITTLE disappointed that I didn’t have any real news about Trent. “But he’s definitely coming to school tomorrow?” she asked for the tenth