Fake ID

After an abbreviated tour of the school, Eli leads Nick to the journalism workshop, which is a tiny room with a computer and printer. He would like Nick to join the journalism staff to help put out the Rebel Yell, the student newspaper. Nick is reluctant to join. He glances at Eli’s laptop and sees the heading “Whispertown.” Immediately Eli shuts down the laptop—Whispertown is a top-secret investigation he is working on. After some discussion, Nick says he will consider joining the journalism staff.

As they leave the journalism room, Nick encounters Reya again, but his heart sinks when she makes an obscene gesture. Then he realizes the gesture is a joke meant for Eli—Reya and Eli are brother and sister.

Nick promises Eli he will come to the journalism room the next day. This afternoon he must be home for a conference call.

Nick makes it through his first day. In each classroom, he introduces himself with a fake story given to him by his US Marshal handlers. Nick is in the witness protection program, WITSEC, so his real background must remain secret.

He knows that he must come home after school but decides to first ride around to see what Stepton is like. The west side of the town holds smog-belching factories and a business district that is in disarray and decline.

Nick realizes when he gets home that his parents have been fighting. This is not unusual, as they argue constantly.

At the appointed time, they call Deputy Marshal Bertram, their longtime handler. He tells them Stepton is their last opportunity to remain in WITSEC. James’s previous criminal activities have caused them to change their locations repeatedly. Bertram schedules weekly telephone calls to gauge how they are acclimating to their new surroundings.

After the call ends, Nick’s parents argue again. He goes up to his bedroom, puts on his headphones, and closes the door.

The next day at school, Nick discovers that his schedule has been changed. He is glad that he does not have to deal with Zach. He goes through the rest of the week trying to become acclimated.

When he is at home with his mother, Donna, after school on Friday, the doorbell rings. It is Eli, who makes himself at home. He reminds Nick that he promised to come to the journalism room after school the second day. Nick apologizes. The two play a video game until Donna invites Eli to supper. Eli explains that Nick’s schedule was changed so Zach would not get in trouble for fighting—the football coach does not want Zach to be ineligible for the team. Eli also explains that Nick is going to be invited to a Dust Off, a big party next weekend.

James shows up late that evening. He gets into another argument with Donna since he doesn’t explain where he has been.

On Monday at school Nick receives his official invitation to the Dust Off. The party’s name is a play on the name Dustin, one of the most popular boys in the school, who throws a lot of big parties.

Nick has been getting a lot of credit with the popular kids because he fought back against Zach and three boys in the locker room. When Nick realizes that Eli has been spreading this story, he confronts Eli in the journalism room after school about embellishing what really happened. During this, Reya comes into the journalism room to tell Eli that he is missing phone calls from their mother. She apologizes to Nick for Zach’s behavior—they’ve been broken up for two months, but Zach can’t let it go. She is going to the Dust Off and hopes to see Nick there.

After school, Nick and his parents have their weekly conference call with Deputy Marshall Bertram. They misrepresent the satisfaction they feel in Stepton.

Then Nick’s parents get in an argument again. James leaves to go back to work. Nick is alarmed because he realizes Donna is serious about leaving the WITSEC program and taking him with her.

Nick texts with Eli about starting a new video-game-review column in the student newspaper.

Throughout the school week, Nick learns how to publish the school newspaper. He discovers that Eli’s father, who was the editor of the local newspaper, died several years earlier from cancer.

That weekend, Nick decides to figure out where his dad goes at night. On Saturday, Nick plants his phone with a GPS tracker in his dad’s car and then follows it on his bicycle. He discovers his dad parked in front of Stepton City Hall.

Nick’s assumption is that his father is somehow robbing City Hall. He decides to call his father’s cell phone and disrupt whatever he is doing. However, as he calls, James emerges from the building with a box of documents. James sets down the box and returns Nick’s call, which causes Nick’s phone to ring nearby. Immediately alarmed, James finds Nick and tells him to leave right away. Nick helps James gather some loose papers and then hides in the bushes. Another man appears and gets into a new BMW. Nick sees that James is clearly afraid of this man. On a piece of paper in his hand, Nick sees the name “Whispertown.”

Because he wants to understand exactly what Whispertown is, Nick calls Eli and demands to meet immediately. At a coffee shop downtown that night, Eli refuses to tell Nick the full story. They cut a deal: If Nick helps Eli with the newspaper and shows he is serious about journalism, Eli will tell him everything. Eli confides that for some reason the city has been underreporting its crime statistics: Major felonies are scarcely reported at all and even misdemeanors are downplayed.

Eli notes that because of their conversation Nick has missed Dustin’s party. He offers to take the blame for Nick standing Reya up: “She’d buy it. Thinking I’m somehow screwing up her life is like a hobby for Reya” (60). Meanwhile, Nick remembers hearing that two young drug dealers were shot; they survived the shooting, but Eli snarks, “The way things are going, if they died, it probably would have been ruled a suicide” (61).

On Sunday morning, after going to church with his parents, Nick is alone. His mother goes for a walk to think about what she wants to do. His father is watching TV and refuses to talk about what happened the night before. Nick goes to a convenience store and buys a burner phone. He calls Bricks, his godfather, who is a mob hitman. They have a conversation in which not much solid information is shared for mutual safety. Nick tells Bricks about Reya and asks him why a community would downplay its crime statistics. Receiving little useful information, he hangs up and throws the phone into the lake, where he’s been skipping stones.

Throughout the school week, Nick works with Eli to get the Rebel Yell ready for its monthly publication. They get on each other’s nerves, as Nick desperately wants to know about Whispertown and Eli wants the paper to be perfect. Eli assigns Nick to cover the football game on Friday night—Nick must write it up by Monday morning so it can go on the front page. They do not part on the best of terms, which Nick regrets: “I don’t know if I’ll forgive myself for that” (68).

On Friday night, Nick goes to the football game with a camera and takes photos. He deletes his best picture—one of Zach. Nick sees Reya, but thinks that he has lost his chance with her because he did not attend Dustin’s party. He also sees his father having a very animated conversation with two strangers; however, Nick cannot get close enough to overhear them.

Nick works diligently over the weekend to write a story about the game and crop photos to the size Eli wants.

On Monday morning, Nick walks into the journalism room before school only to discover Eli’s dead body lying in a pool of congealed blood. His wrists have been slashed with an X-Acto knife. Nick runs to the office screaming for help.

While Nick sits stunned in the school office, the town sheriff and vice principal discuss whether it is okay for the police to question him. Nick’s mother arrives and tells them that she will decide if there’s anything that Nick has to say to the police. She leads him out of the school. As they depart, Nick sees Reya screaming and trying to get into the journalism room. Medics wheel out a gurney with Eli’s body on it, and Reya collapses.

Nick’s mother takes him home, makes him throw away the clothes he is wearing, and gives him two pills that put him to sleep. Nick has a dream in which he sees Eli’s ghost. He wakes with his father sitting beside him, patting his leg and telling him how sorry he is about what happened to Eli.

At nine o’clock that evening, Nick sees Eli’s Volkswagen pull into the driveway. He imagines Eli getting out of the car, but realizes that it is Reya—the car she shared with Eli now belongs to her. Reya asks Nick what happened to Eli. She does not believe that he died by suicide: “I’m here because my brother was murdered” (83).

Reya shows Nick an acceptance letter from the Columbia University journalism school addressed to Eli, who has planned his whole high school career around getting into this program. It makes no sense that somebody on the cusp of achieving their greatest dream would end their life. She makes Nick promise he will tell her if he thinks of anything useful.

After she leaves, Nick thinks hard. He remembers that the books Eli used to steady his worktable were splayed across the floor of the journalism room—a sign of struggle. Nick decides that Eli’s death must have something to do with Whispertown, which means it also has to do with James. It’s not hard for Nick to imagine his father could be involved: “Dad could very well have played a role in the murder of a kid. He’d done it before” (87).

In a flashback chapter, 10-year-old Nick wants to prove to his friends that his dad is a mobster, so he decides to tag along one night when his father is doing work for his boss, Kreso Maric.