Page 76 of Sticks and Stones (FBI Romance/Thriller #65)

Gene took the blunt still in his hand, dropped it on the floor, and mashed it out with his shoe. Because they were cops, Federal ones, and pot was illegal in Pennsylvania, and the United States, they couldn’t let him keep it.

Would they arrest him?

No.

But he wasn’t going to blaze his day away. That was for damn sure.

“Spencer Whitmore?” he asked.

The kid nodded and the whole time, his eyes were huge. He was short, and compared to Gene, the size difference had to be terrifying.

It was almost amusing for Ethan. It appeared that Gene was going to take the bad cop role.

“We’re here to talk to you about your other roommate, Wesley Thorton,” Gene stated.

The kid didn’t look any less freaked out.

“Are you going to arrest me?” he asked. “Because I can’t get kicked out of Temple too.”

Gene glanced over at his partner.

“Can you take care of the problem?” he asked, knowing he’d know what he meant.

Blackhawk nodded, and when he went into Spencer’s room, he found the bowl with the marijuana in it. Taking it to the adjoined bathroom, he flushed it.

“Not now we aren’t going to arrest you,” Gene said, hearing the flush. “If you tell us what you know, we’ll let this go.”

The kid looked relived, and so did Ethan to be out of that room.

“Is there somewhere we can talk?” Gene asked. “We don’t want your high.”

He pointed.

“There’s a community room down the hall,” he said, and they let him lead the way.

Once there, he sat.

“I’m Agent Cantrell, and this is Agent Blackhawk,” he said, snapping his fingers to get the kid’s attention. His eyes were elsewhere.

On his gun.

Well, he should be worried.

“Tell us all about the night that Wesley went missing,” he said, trying to get this handled.

As the kid started his trip down Memory Lane, Ethan got out his notebook, and held it on his lap as the man talked.

“We were supposed to meet for dinner, but he didn’t make it. I didn’t think anything of it, because honestly, Wes flaked a lot on me. He tended to stay busy.”

Gene was curious.

“Doing what?” he asked.

Spencer didn’t hesitate to answer, proving he wasn’t as high as they thought. Someone had just started that blunt.

“With schoolwork. Sometimes with a person, I guess,” he added.

Gene began his questioning, trying to figure this out.

“So he was studious?” he asked, planning to come back to the dating angle in a bit.

Spencer nodded.

“Yeah, he didn’t want to let his grades drop. He had a scholarship, and it was contingent on staying above a three-point-five.”

Then, he paused.

“Have you found him?” he asked.

Gene nodded.

“Yes, and not alive.”

Spencer sighed.

“What the hell, Man?” he asked, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Wes is a good guy. He helped people, and he was so excited to have a chance at an education. He came from the bad part of Philly , and barely got out.”

They let him talk.

“He didn’t deserve to die. How did it happen?” he asked.

Gene was to the point.

“He was abducted, and we believed used for sex trafficking. Do you do any harder drugs?” he asked, covering his bases.

Spencer shook his head.

“Hell, no!”

Gene kept peppering him with questions.

“Did Wesley?”

He shook his head.

“Nah! He was a good kid. He told me that he had to keep his nose to the grindstone so he could make something of himself to help his mom out. She’s a single parent. I spoke to her a few weeks ago. Does she know he’s dead?”

He nodded.

“I’m sure. The cop who interviewed you first likely did a notify,” he said. “Who was he hooking up with?” he asked. “Because we were guys in college once too,” he said, pointing at himself and Ethan.

Spencer thought about it.

“I don’t know. He kept his sex life quiet. The ladies loved him, but I never once saw him with a babe.”

Gene glanced over, and Ethan was making notes. When he showed Gene, he saw what he was writing.

‘Ask if he was gay, or if he spoke about the professor, or Julian Mercer.’

They were on the same page.

“What’s he writing?” Spencer asked, paranoid as hell, but it could be from the pot.

Gene went there.

“He’s my lie detector, and he’s making sure you’re not yanking my chain, Spencer. You wouldn’t do that, now would you?” he asked.

Spencer looked hella uncomfortable.

“What aren’t you telling us?” he asked.

The man squirmed.

“Okay, maybe I came back to my dorm room one night, and Spencer was here with a dude. Maybe they were naked, and he was getting fucked.”

Gene stared at him.

“Did you tell the cop who was investigating it?” he asked.

He shook his head.

“No, because I didn’t want to out the guy.

It was clear he liked what was happening to him.

After that, Spencer and I didn’t talk much.

He avoided me. That’s what I thought blowing me off for dinner was about.

I didn’t care he was gay. If he wanted to use the room, all he had to do was tell me.

It was more awkward having to walk in on someone having sex—not the gay part. I don’t give a shit about that.”

Gene kept pushing.

“Who was the ‘dude’ he was having sex with?” he asked.

He shrugged.

“I don’t know his name unless it’s ‘Jesus Christ! Fuck me harder!’ ,” he stated.

“He wasn’t wearing a name tag on his ass.

All I can tell you is that he was white and older.

Maybe in his thirties. He was going hard though.

I guess once you go black, you never go back is a real thing because he was enjoying it too. ”

Ethan was making notes.

Gene could see what he was writing, and it was one name—circled.

Julian Mercer.

Gene took the hint and ran with it.

“Did he have a lot of contact with the scholarship committee?” he asked, changing up the questioning.

Spencer thought about it.

“I mean, the guy would call to make sure Wes was on track, but that’s about it. He didn’t say much about him but that he had to keep his grades up or there were consequences.”

Gene kept asking questions.

“How did he feel about talking to the scholarship committee?” he asked.

Spencer shrugged.

“He didn’t mind. He liked talking to Julian. He said the guy was cool, and always nice to him. Most of the time, he’d take him to lunch, and they’d discuss a proactive plan to get him back on track.”

Well, that was the opposite of what Elliot felt regarding it.

Gene was curious, and he pulled out his phone. In it, he had the email Ethan had sent with all the information he’d dug up yesterday.

“Do you recognize this man?” he asked.

As soon as he showed him, Spencer’s eyes went huge.

“Holy shit! That’s the guy who was having sex with him! That’s him!”

Gene showed Ethan, and the picture was of Julian Mercer.

The benefactor.

Both men were thinking the same thing—that there were strings attached to the scholarship, and the reason Julian was hands-on was more about him getting laid.

And taking advantage of kids who needed those scholarships.

Gene kept questioning the guy.

“The cop who interviewed you said that later that night, you got a text from him.”

He nodded.

“I have shit cell service. I was inside a building, and when I came out after dinner, and my late class, I saw a message from him.”

“What did it say?” Gene asked.

“That he was hooking up with friends and couldn’t do dinner. Really, I thought he was avoiding me because of what I walked in on. That’s the last I heard from him.”

They had the cell records, and knew that the man was telling the truth. Unfortunately, finding out if Julian contacted the students would take time.

Corbin had warrants out for cell records, but they weren’t overnight.

While sitting there, Ethan had been silent, but now, he had a question.

“Who else did he hang out with other than you, and the white dude?” he asked.

Spencer didn’t hesitate.

“A guy named Trav. They were pretty close. They were trying to get to be roommates for this semester, but…”

Yeah, they knew the ‘but’ part.

“Where can we find this ‘Trav’ guy?” Gene asked. “Is he around?”

He shook his head.

“I haven’t seen him around. Once Wes went missing, Trav stopped coming by the room. He disappeared too. For a while, I thought maybe they went off to be roommates, but then I called the police when he never came back for his things.”

Both Gene and Ethan lifted a brow.

“Did he mention anything unusual going on in his life? Again, I’m going to ask about the drugs because my inner voice, that tells me when people are bullshitting me went off when you said he didn’t do drugs.

Did he, Spencer, do drugs?” he asked. “He’s dead.

I can’t arrest him for that, nor would I. We know how college works.”

That seemed to help.

The man flushed.

“What?” Gene asked.

Finally, he caved.

“Wes was the one who got us our drugs. Now that he’s gone, I’ve had a bitch of a time. That’s why you flushing my stash hurts.”

Gene and Ethan didn’t care.

“Know what hurts more? Going to jail for illegal drugs and getting kicked out of college. AGAIN .”

Yeah, he shut his mouth fast.

Well, no shock there.

“Can I go back to my room?” he asked.

Gene put the kibosh on that.

“We have another question. Tell us about Professor Dunne. Did Wesley have any issues with the man?” he asked.

Spencer had to think about it, but it didn’t take long. Honestly, for how big that blunt was, he was pretty coherent.

“No. He didn’t have any issues with his class. Well, he didn’t finish it because he went missing, but he said he liked the class. I didn’t have Professor Dunne since I’m a math major.”

Gene kept pushing.

“Did you ever see him with the professor outside of school?” he asked.

He shook his head.

“No, sorry.”

It looked as if they had someone who had contact, but they weren’t sure how much. Still, at the top of their list of suspects was the professor and the scholarship benefactor. They were running neck and neck.

“Thanks for your help, Spencer,” Gene said, jerking his head to signal that the kid could leave.

They were going to sit there and talk to regroup since it was quiet.