Page 64 of Don't Say a Word

“What happened to McMahon?” I asked. “Jimenez got attempted murder, did the plea deal hold with McMahon?”

“Jimenez pled down to aggravated assault,” Tess said. “According to the report, Jimenez shot McMahon when he was leaving his house. One of three bullets hit, but McMahon wasn’t seriously hurt. He was with UC3, who identified Jimenez as the shooter. The gun was found in his locker at school.”

“Dumbass,” Theo muttered.

“They don’t have lockers at Sun Valley,” I said.

“Not for the general school population, but athletes use lockers in the gym. Jimenez played for Coach Bradford as well.”

“I read that his wife got six years, Bradford fifteen?” I questioned.

“Bradford got fifteen to twenty,” Tess said. “He pled guilty to multiple counts of drug dealing, child endangerment—because the kids were minors—and money laundering.”

I frowned.

“What?” Tess asked.

“I’m just working through a few things... Both Bradfords pled, the police believed they were protecting their supplier, but they don’t know who that person is.”

“They don’t even have a suspect,” Tess said. “There are two opposing theories. One is that the supplier was local and Bradford used someone else, possibly his wife who wasn’t under surveillance, as the go-between because Bradford never met with anyone suspicious. Second theory was that of the lead investigator, DEB Detective Mike Hitchner, who thought that Bradford’s semi-regular trips to the border was him meeting with his supplier. But they followed him and never came back with any suspects and never witnessed any exchange. After Jimenez shot McMahon, they didn’t have a choice but to shut down the operation even though they didn’t have evidence to nail the supplier.”

“The Bradfords were scared shitless,” Theo said. “You don’t give up your supplier if you know the supplier will whack you.”

Blunt, but accurate.

“Is there a transcript of the anonymous call?”

Tess grinned. “I can do you one better.”

She typed on her computer and a moment later a staticky recording started.

“I’m calling because, um...” The voice—young, female—trailed off. “I don’t know who to call. I don’t want anybody to know I called. It says Silent Witness and I don’t have to give my name. But. Um. My, um, Mr. Bradford at Sun Valley High School is dealing drugs. I don’t know what to do. I saw him do it last year, and then again yesterday and I can’t sleep and I don’t want anyone to get hurt again. I hope you can stop it.”

The call ended.

Tess said, “The Silent Witness program is usually when law enforcement asks citizens for help in solving a crime and offer a reward. They promise anonymity. This call, however, went to Phoenix PD. Maybe the girl didn’t understand how the program worked. The file says the call came from Sun Valley High School, but that’s it.”

“Play it again,” I said, and listened very carefully, eyes closed. When it was over, I said, “My... she saidmybefore Mr. Bradford.”

“Hitchner believes the witness is a softball player. Bradford coached football in the fall, and softball in the spring. There were sixteen girls on the team that spring, six graduated, which leaves ten girls who were still at the school in the fall.”

“So she was going to say my coach,” Theo deduced.

“What day?” I asked.

“The call came in on a Friday morning, 7:15 a.m.”

“Before school,” I said. “So maybe she saw something on Thursday and put it together with what she saw before. She said I don’t want anyone hurtagain. It sounds like she or a friend had trouble with drugs.”

“That is going to be next to impossible to determine,” Tess said. “But I ran a list of all Sun Valley students whose deaths were drug-related in the last five years.” She slid over a printout for me.

“You are amazing.”

Tess smiled proudly. “I know.”

It was an unfortunately long list. Twenty-seven students died from a drug overdose—six of those were determined to be suicides. Nine more died in DUI-related accidents.

“However,” Tess continued, “I can’t get complete information about kids who survived a drug overdose or kids who are addicts—which a student might consider beinghurt. The school could possibly provide a list of dropouts, but I don’t know that they will. It would be considered confidential.”