Ingrid catches my drift. "I'll pull up the files of everyone in Grotke's class. Maybe we can get something." I ask her to keep on it: it's about time for me to meet our guy on the inside.

TJ Detweiller. The kid with his finger on the pulse of the underbelly of X Middle School. "So," he starts. "I heard about what happened to Miss Grotke."

"Yeah. You got any leads? Anyone who might want to get back at her for something?"

TJ chuckled. "Man, if you don't know...you need to get out of that office more."

Smug Sonuvabitch. "Stow it. How much will this info cost me? 20 smoids or smoits or whatever? We look the other way while you 'borrow' equipment from the gym again?"

TJ shakes his head. "Forget it, man: this one's a freebie. Me and Grotke have history." I chuckle. TJ, you still have some surprises left in you. "C'mon, we can discuss this over lunch."

Now, there are a lot of bad things in X Middle School's Lunch Room. The deals going down. The highest concentration of perps I've ever gotten, all in one place.

That creepy lunchlady with the mole who always gives me extra jello and winks at me.

But none of that could compare to what TJ and I saw today.

The Ashleys. In matching Red Robin Uniforms.

They were gathered around Penny Proud, another one of "Folsom's kids"- kids who had their lives completely shifted because of our Ex-principal's plan to boost her status. Kids who had left their old schools, their old friends, everything they'd known, purely to follow a dream of "Academic Excellence" that turned stale.

To a group like the Red Robins, Penny Proud was like blood in the water.

"Break it up, ladies." I approach Penny. She's never been the strongest willed person I know: the last thing she needed was to get mixed up with a group like the Red Robins.

"Officer Fillmore! It's such a pleasure to see you! Would you care for some Red Robin taffy?" In a second, Ashley B. is shoving the stuff in my face.

Needless to say, I decline. After the last bit of trouble with the Red Robins, the school had the group completely restructured: all senior members were expelled, and now the group was carefully directed by a member of the faculty.

Problem is, that member of the faculty is Hans Rotwood. Guy gives off vibes that tell me trusting him with a group of middle school girls is like trusting a cougar to guard your baby.

TJ shoos the robins away as I check on Penny. "You OK?"

She nods. "Yeah...they were saying some stuff about the future, and the reddest robin, and...never mind."

I go on. "Ignore them. Unless you see them shaking down a band kid. Then come get me." I chuckle a little bit.

Penny laughs. Too loud and too long. It's more than a bit disturbing.

I decide to get out of there, hastily spewing some words about supporting your local safety patrol as I go to catch up with TJ.

"What's her deal?" I ask, making sure I'm out of earshot of Penny. (Take notes, Danny.)

TJ tells me what he's apparently been aiming to tell me all along: turns out Penny, in the rush to a new school, got mixed up in the wrong crowd. A bad crowd. A nasty crowd. A vengeful crowd.

Roger Klotz's crowd. More specifically, Roger himself.