Page 140 of Don't Say a Word

Sounded like a teenager. “Yes, that’s me.”

“This is Benny Vallejo. I’m a friend of Angie’s? She gave me your number, she said it was okay?”

“Areyouokay?” I asked. He sounded awkward and a little stressed.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just finished my shift and Angie said if I saw anything weird I should call you. I don’t want to lose my job though.”

“What did you see?” I pressed.

“I got here at four when my shift starts, and Desi left, told me to run the register. Sheneverlets me run the register. I mean, I know how, I’ve done it, but it’s not my job. Three people came in looking for her, all kind of, well, sketchy. I’m not judging, but they were allsort of in my face. Edgy. Jumpy, you know? Suspicious-like. If they hung around longer, I would have called the police because I sort of thought they might rob the place. But then they left.”

When he stopped talking, I said, “Go on.”

“Um, yeah, and she got back an hour later. She was angry and stomping around, had me restock shelves that she said were sloppy, and they weren’t. I just did what she said. Those three people all came back and she rang them up for nothing. I mean, maybe I missed something, but Angie told me to observe, and maybe because they came in one after the other, like they were waiting for her, it made me suspicious.”

It clicked. “Benny, did Desi hand these people anything?”

“No.”

“She handed themnothing?”

“I mean, like what?”

“Anything.”

“Well, they didn’t buy anything, but she handed them a receipt. They didn’t get food or cigarettes, just put in their card and she gave them a receipt.”

“A receipt from the register?”

“Yeah, it’s rung up like all transactions.”

“Do you know if it was a debit card or an EBT card?”

He thought on it. “One was a debit, had a Disney character on it. The other two I think were EBT.”

I knew what she was doing. I just didn’t knowhowit worked because of the paper trail Jessie Oliver warned me about. These people were paying Desi for drugs... maybe to pick up later? Was that what Elijah had figured out, why he was taking pictures? Except he didn’t take pictures of an exchange. Just of people leaving.

Maybe he had evidence in his missing backpack.

“You’re right to call,” I said. “When do you work again?”

“Monday.”

“Okay. Stay away until then.”

“I can’t quit. Angie wants me to quit, but I need this job.”

“If you quit, I’ll find you something.” I had lots of family in therestaurant business—they were always hiring. “Might not pay as much,” I told him, “but it’ll be safer than where you are.”

“I don’t go back until after school Monday.”

“We’ll talk before then,” I said.

I pocketed my phone and went back inside. Everyone was having coffee in the library, which seemed to have books for display more than for reading. I accepted a cup from Ramos. “Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, fine. Work.” I smiled. I wanted to talk about Brighton, but wasn’t certain now was the time to bring up his nephew. Maybe Elijah tried to reach out, but was killed before he could talk to him.

Or maybe Brighton was involved in Desi’s scam. If she was ringing up purchases on debit cards and EBT cards, someone in the corporate office had to be involved.