Page 39 of Don’t Say a Word (Angelhart Investigations #2)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jack Angelhart

Jack came into the office shortly before nine Thursday morning and was surprised to find Tess and his mother in the conference room going over stacks of records. He stepped in and asked, “Did I miss something?”

“Margo has a hunch,” Tess said.

Jack picked up one of the sheets. “Who are these kids?”

“Softball players,” Ava said. “They played for the coach who was arrested.”

He sat down. “How does this connect to Elijah’s death?”

“I don’t know that it does,” Ava said, irritated. “Margo is in Prescott and not answering her phone, so we can’t even follow up. She wants to know where all these girls are now and said she’d know it when she saw it.”

Jack understood that. Sometimes you didn’t know what was important until you had all the facts laid out and could see the bigger picture.

He said, “She wants to talk to the DEB detective who worked the case. I reached out to him, but haven’t heard back yet.”

“She thinks that Coach Bradford’s daughter turned him in to the police,” Tess said.

“That would be big.”

“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 a hint of 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.”

“I don’t have any active investigations at Sun Valley.”

“He didn’t die on school property, and the detective in charge ruled it an accidental overdose.”

“I really don’t know how I can help,” he said again.

Jack knew Hitch wasn’t this obtuse. It was like he didn’t want to help.

“I read the original case reports and we have some follow-up questions that you might be able to answer.”

“Look, I don’t have the time for this right now, Jack. If you uncover anything specific that relates to the Bradford investigation, send it up the chain. But that case is closed, and the investigation into the supplier is one hundred percent under DEA purview. Sorry I can’t help you. I gotta go.”

He hung up so quickly that Jack just stared at his phone.

That was unusual. Something was definitely up with Hitchner.

He doubted there was another undercover investigation at Sun Valley—it would have come up at some point after Elijah’s death or Lena Clark’s murder.

Maybe Hitch was trying to put something together.

That didn’t feel right—if DEB had an active Sun Valley investigation, then he would have called Jack immediately to tell him such, and ask him to stand down.

He wouldn’t have to give any details, and Jack would have put the case aside to leave room for Phoenix PD to do their job.

So what was going on?

He called Margo.

“Hitch called me back.”

“I’ll meet him anywhere.”

“He doesn’t want to help.”

“Why?”

“He claims he’s swamped.”

“Claims?” Margo questioned.

“He says there’s no active investigation involving Sun Valley, and that the supplier end of the Bradford case is on the DEA’s plate.”

“But I wanted to ask questions about how he investigated—”

Jack cut her off. “I know, and I pushed and he pulled back even more.”

“Why?”

“Maybe it has to do with the DEA investigation. I can’t force him to share.”

Margo said, “There was a DEA number attached to the Megan Osterman death.”

“You’re thinking that Osterman’s death might circle around back to Bradford’s supplier.”

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

“If there is an active investigation,” Jack said, “maybe we should slow down.”

“Nope. I’ve been thinking about this on the drive up to Prescott.

Elijah started working at the Cactus Stop in March.

By all accounts, he loved his job. In July, Megan Osterman died across the street, early Sunday morning.

Elijah didn’t work weekends but he knew her—and he knew about her death.

After her death, he began taking pictures of people coming and going—in the evening, after he got off work.

Megan died of an overdose, Elijah died of an overdose. ”

“Megan was an addict.”

“Yes, and her death was probably accidental. But that tells me drugs are involved in whatever crime Elijah had uncovered. All the pictures he took, maybe he was monitoring drug deals. And yesterday, when I went to talk to Coach Bradford at Eyman Prison—”

“What the hell? You went to Eyman?”

“Uh, yeah.” Margo sounded sheepish. “I was going to tell you when I got to the office. It’s been a busy couple of days.”

“Why talk to him? Do you think he’s running a criminal organization from behind bars?” It wasn’t unheard of, but Jack didn’t think it likely.

“I actually hadn’t thought of that,” Margo said.

“I thought someone else on campus might be running drugs. Everything I have—my theories, interviews—is just conjecture. Nothing I can prove. I think Elijah uncovered a crime at work which got him killed, but there’s still a lot we don’t know. And where does Lena Clark fit in?”

“Maybe she doesn’t,” Jack said, though he didn’t believe it, and neither did Margo.

“Elijah also went to Silent Witness on his computer the day before he died. I don’t know if he reached out or was simply looking for information.”

“If someone contacts Silent Witness without linking it to an active case, it’s hard to follow up. Tips like seeing a drug deal at a known spot doesn’t give police enough to act on. But if they provided specific details, like names or locations, someone will follow up.”

“Would you be able to find out if he called?”

“No,” Jack said. “The program is compartmentalized. Cops are only told information that is relevant to their specific investigations. Most of the time the Silent Witness program is used for current cases that Phoenix asks for someone to step forward anonymously. You could get Elijah’s phone records which would show a call, though if he filled out the online form, then that won’t help. ”

“I have most of his records, and Alina is getting the rest from the phone company,” Margo said.

“After talking to Jessie Oliver yesterday, if there was something illegal going on with the Cactus Stop, the staff would have to know. It’s too small a store for them not to witness one of their coworkers committing a crime.

More, if what I think is happening—illegal use of EBT cards—that means someone in the Cactus corporate office must also know what’s going on.

Maybe we should loop in Manny Ramos. He would be able to get answers faster. ”

“Be careful,” Jack said cautiously. “You’re jumping three steps ahead. You have no hard evidence of any crime, barely even circumstantial evidence.”

“Fortunately, I’m neither a cop nor a lawyer, and I can pursue my theory without worry that I’m going to screw up a conviction. Let’s talk to mom about it, okay? She knows Ramos. Hey—I have a call, I’ll be there in less than an hour.”

She hung up before Jack could say another word.