Page 111 of Don't Say a Word

My mom didn’t interject—score one for me.

“Elijah had taken a picture of a license plate. I asked a friend to look it up, the car is registered to John Brighton. I have the address. But Elijah had the address as well—he looked it up on his computer the night before he died.”

“Who’s John Brighton?” Jack asked.

I turned to Tess, and she immediately said, “I haven’t had time to run him yet.”

“Tomorrow’s soon enough,” I said. “But Elijah had the address. Maybe that’s where he went Friday.”

Mom said, “I don’t know that I would jump to the conclusions you have, but I see where you’re going. We’ll run Mr. Brighton, but you still don’t have evidence that Elijah went to his house.”

“I want to ask Brighton.”

Mom nodded, though glanced at Jack as if for confirmation. I tried not to let it irritate me.

“A good idea,” Jack said. “I’ll back you up, Margo. In fact, I’ll check out his house first. I won’t confront him, just get a lay of the land.”

“Thanks,” I said, and meant it. There were some definite advantages to working on a team.

Mom said, “Why did you have Tess tracking down more than a dozen softball players from Sun Valley? This is all tedious, time-consuming work that doesn’t directly connect to Elijah.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, and this time I really meant it. “It was a tickle I had when I saw that Coach Bradford’s daughter was on the softball team—and my gut tells me she’s the one who called in the anonymous tip against him.”

“It wasn’t that time-consuming,” Tess said. “I found most of the girls, so if we need to follow up with them when we can. I also learned that Scott Jimenez was released a year after his arrest, put on probation. But I couldn’t find a current address or employer. Scott has an older sister named Desiree Jimenez.”

I blinked, then it came into focus. “Desi.”

“And she works at the Cactus Stop,” Tess said with a smile.

“Small world,” I muttered. “I talked to her today.”

“Here’s her address,” Tess said and slid over a printout. “She lost her license because of two DUIs, spent six months in jail for the second. That was four years ago. No drug arrests, and she hasn’t had a ding in four years.”

“Desi could have known Megan Osterman,” I said. “Megan dated her brother for at least a year, maybe longer. Maybe McMahon knows more—I reached out, and I hope his family will give him the message.”

“What do you expect to learn?” Mom asked.

“Eric may suspect another teacher or staff member was involved, even if he doesn’t have proof.”

“What incentive would McMahon have to talk to you?” Jack asked. “He was shot, he probably wants nothing to do with any of those people.” He glanced at Tess. “Has he kept his nose clean?”

“Yes,” Tess said.

“So he’s keeping a low profile.”

“I’m still going to ask,” I said. “Megan’s mom let me take her phone and a flash drive I found hidden in her room. I’ll go through those and see what I can learn. Megan’s file has a DEA case number attached, so I think there may be a bigger investigation that we know nothing about.”

“We don’t want to step on the toes of a federal investigation,” Mom said.

“Yes, we do,” I said. “Elijah is dead because of something that was going on at the Cactus Stop. If there was an investigation, where are they? Why didn’t they take over the death investigation? Or talk to his mother? And then Lena Clark—why was she killed? Just a random coincidence ten minutes after she called me? I’m not going to sit back and wait for some lazy ass fed tomaybesolve the case.”

Mom said, “In four days, you have learned a lot of information thatmaypoint to a criminal enterprise, but very little to give to Mrs. Martinez about what happened to her son that night.”

“I know.” And I was frustrated. “But I think Elijah’s activities after work are directly connected to his death. I need to follow through and see what I can learn.”

We all looked at Mom. She nodded. “It’s suspicious, and a good avenue of investigation. When do you feel we should tell Manny Ramos what may be going on?”

“When we have something definitive,” I said. “Or if we’re stuck, maybe we bring it to him. The EBT fraud angle seemsweak, based on what I’ve learned. That would show up in their financials. But if Desi or Tony are involved in some sort of scam, or dealing drugs and Elijah caught on, that would give them motive to kill him.”