Page 79 of Don't Say a Word

“My name is Margo Angelhart. I’m a private investigator and just want a conversation, you and me. No strings.”

Slowly, he sat across from me, keeping his eyes on mine. Skittish, as if he would bolt if I saidboo.Odd, for a man who appeared as if he could defend himself.

I’d been thinking about what my dad said, that Bradford had no reason to talk to me about anything. Certainly it wouldn’t be the first time I’d made a mistake, or went down an investigatory road that ended in a brick wall.

But I was here, and I had to try. Because Lena Clark’s death nagged at me almost as much as Elijah’s—and Bradford must have known her. I decided to focus on Bradford’s connection to the school, with my goal to have him explain how his drug operationworked. If I understood, maybe I could find a parallel in Elijah’s life—or Lena’s circumstances.

“Do you remember Lena Clark? She was the guidance counselor at Sun Valley.”

He nodded once. “So?”

“She was killed in her office on Monday.”

“What does that have to do with me? I knew her to sayhi.We weren’t friends.”

“Lena was helping me find out what happened to a student who died of a drug overdose under suspicious circumstances.”

“I don’t care.”

But he didn’t walk away or ask the guard to be taken back to his cell or the yard. He stared at me, and that gave me hope that maybe I could get something from him.

“I’m trying to understand how your operation worked. Because an honors student with no history of drug use died of a drug overdose, then his guidance counselor was killed not two weeks later.”

“Not my problem,” he said with a quick glance at the guard.

“Did the kids you used know what they were doing, or were they ignorant, just following coach’s orders? From my understanding, only one student knew that you were in charge, but I think we both know that secrets in an operation as large as yours have a way of getting out.”

“I don’t have to talk to you,” Bradford said, sounding angry. “Anything going on at SVH has nothing to do with me, not anymore.”

“A woman was murdered on campus, and the only thing she was doing that might put her in danger was asking questions about a student’s death. So I started thinking... Elijah died of a drug overdose. There had once been a very extensive and long-running drug operation at SVH. The police believed you had a partner—your supplier you didn’t turn on.”

He laughed.

“Or,” I continued, “maybe another teacher took over for you.”

That was my sticking point. Sun Valley had had an extensive drug operation going on for years. What if it had just gone dormant?

Angie didn’t kill Lena, and unless the police tied her boyfriend Parsons to the crime, someone else found out she was asking questions and, maybe, they feared she would uncover another illegal operation. Maybe I really was grasping at straws, but why else would Lena be killed in her office? It was extremely risky, even though it was after-hours. People were still on campus. It was risky, violent, and spontaneous.

Bradford sat stone-faced.

I continued, remembering what Tess had learned. “You had Eric McMahon recruit dozens of students to help sell drugs for you. You, or your partner, found out he was turning state’s evidence and tried to have him killed. When that failed, everything came tumbling down. Maybe you don’t believe in redemption. I do. You just have to ask for it.”

“I don’t need or want anything fromyou,” he said, his voice low and angry.

“Whoever you’re protecting is laughing all the way to the bank,” I said. “They’re free and you’re in here, your wife is in prison, your kids don’t have their parents. You won’t be out of prison before your youngest graduates. For what? Because it could just as easily have been one of your kids who ended up dead of a drug overdose.”

Bradford got up, slammed his fist on the table, and walked toward the guarded door.

Okay, I went too far. I shouldn’t have mentioned his kids.

I sat at the table and watched him leave, thinking.

His anger could just be that—anger at the fact that he’s in prison. Or he could be angry because he did have a partner and I reminded him that his partner is free and happily continuing their operation.

But it wouldn’t be done in the same way. Because the police had that figured out... The school administrators would know what to look for.

Sun Valley High School had over two thousand students. Hundreds of teachers and staff and coaches. Same operation... but different?