Page 98 of Don't Say a Word

“It may not be relevant,” his mom said. “Margo has good instincts, but I don’t like how she had you two running around pulling records, going through archives, running backgrounds, without even ahintof what she thinks is going on.”

Jack didn’t want his mom and Margo at odds, and their different styles were heading them down that path. “Margo thinks Elijah uncovered illegal activity where he worked.”

“What kind of illegal activity?”

“I assume drug-related.”

Tess pulled a file from near the bottom, handed it to Jack. “Margo got this file from Josie last night. I don’t know why she’s looking into the OD of a girl who has a long history of drug use—it’s not similar to what happened to Elijah. The only connection is that she died near where he worked, and she’d gone to Sun Valley High.”

Jack opened the thin file. A nineteen-year-old female, Megan Osterman, was found dead on July 6 across the street from the Cactus Stop.

“She mentioned this,” Jack said. “She thinks something happened over the summer that he didn’t tell his friends or mom about. Maybe this girl was a friend of his.”

Ava leaned back. “This is a lot of work when we don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

Jack didn’t think Margo knew what they were looking for either, but he didn’t say that. No need to further antagonize their mom.

“I’m getting a headache,” Ava mumbled. Her phone vibrated and she picked it up, read the message. “Good news. Margo is done with the interview and Logan is cleared to hire the new groundskeeper. She’s on her way back.” She rose. “Tess, I’m going to leave this with you and Jack. I’ll call Logan, tell him we’ll deliver the final report this afternoon, and when Margo returns, we need a sit-down.”

She left the room and Tess let out a long sigh.

“That bad?” Jack asked.

“Mom is meticulous. She likes a detailed plan and clear goals.”

“We have a clear goal: find out what happened to Elijah the day he died. That’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“Tell me about it,” Tess mumbled as she opened another file and turned to her computer.

“Do you need my help?” Jack asked.

She looked at him with a frown. “It would take me longer to get you up to speed than for me to finish it myself,” she said. She slid over a sheet. “However, here is the list of everyone at Sun Valley High School who was part of Coach Bradford’s operation and the disposition of their cases—most of them received probation. I’ve filled in the blanks where I could find them, but there are several people I can’t locate. They could be in prison or moved out of state. Lulu is looking out of state, can you check with the Bureau of Prisons?”

“Not a problem,” he said and took the list to his office.

Just as he sat down, Mike Hitchner returned his call.

“Sorry it took me so long to get back to you,” Hitchner said. “It’s been crazy around here.”

“I hear you,” Jack said. “How you’ve been?”

They made small talk for a minute, then Hitch said, “Did I get the message right? You’re looking into the Coach Bradford case?”

“My firm was hired to investigate the overdose death of a teenager from Sun Valley High School.” He gave Hitch the basics about Elijah’s situation. “In the course of our background, we may have made a connection to Bradford’s old network.” Slight exaggeration, Jack thought. “I was hoping my sister Margo and I could have a sit-down and pick your brain about that investigation.”

“I don’t know how I can help. He took a plea, his wife took a plea, we rounded up everyone involved.”

“You caught the supplier? The records indicate Bradford’s supplier was never identified.”

A long silence. He had pushed and maybe overstepped.

“True,” Hitch said after a moment. “The DEA has that end of the case. Do you have leads on that?”

“No, we only know what you know,” Jack said. “We theorized that someone may have recreated the Bradford network. A staff member at Sun Valley was killed on campus Monday. She had been talking to us about Elijah Martinez’s death, and questioning his friends and classmates.”

“And how’s that connected to Bradford?”

He didn’t have an answer to his question, so instead said, “We’d like to pick your brain on how Bradford’s network operated,” Jack said. “It could help us figure out where our dead kid got the drugs.”