Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(15)

She was sharp and strong, bringing a passion to her work he could respect the hell out of. The realization made him regret the fact he had screwed up with her so many years ago. That, even though she said she was okay working with him, she probably had this image in her head of a frat boy who only wanted what her body could offer him. He didn’t want that to be the way she thought of him. He wanted to show her there was more to him.

Ronan got out of the car as they approached. “I’ve got two players whose parents are taking this seriously enough to come in this evening. I’m halfway through the list, but so far most of them have said they could come tomorrow or—” he took on an affected tone that Zach assumed was his imitation of some of the people he’d talked to— “they’ll ask their people to call us to schedule something in the coming week.”

“Really?” Shauna said, and Zach grinned at the tone. She would no more allow that than he and Ronan would. “I take it you educated them?”

“I did. I told them we’ll see them in the morning or we’ll show up at their homes in a marked car with lights going to discuss it there.”

Zach let out a laugh. No one needed to know their captain would hand their asses to them if they pulled that move. Right now, whatever got these people in the door was fine with Zach. He wasn’t about to let anyone stand in their way now that they had one dead teenager and another one still missing.

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Chapter Nine





Ronan’s strategy paid off. They’d brought in some of the backup players on the team and sent Shauna in to interview them with their parents present. She’d talked to them about not taking the fall for the other guys—the first string. As soon as they found out she knew about the scoring system the boys were using with the girls, their parents had handed over their sons’ phones and forced the kids to give them the passwords.

Watching from the other side of the glass, he could almost feel the parents’ anger as they realized what their sons had been part of. More than one parent had mumbled something about Sawyer and his buddies being behind it. One woman had gone past mumbling, smacking her son in the back of the head and telling him to start thinking for himself instead of following Sawyer like a damned puppy dog.

They would go back and interview the kids more in a bit. For now, they stood in Stephanie’s office where she worked her magic with a keyboard and computer.

“Holy shit.” Shauna was the first to speak.

“Yeah.” Ronan echoed the sentiment.

Stephanie had projected the Facebook group they’d tracked down in Kyle Lawler’s account up on the large screen that took up one wall of her small office. The pattern was clear. The hockey team—mostly the members of the first line and the captain, but there were others—posted a picture of a teenage girl. Each time, there were codes just as Stephanie had shown them before.

Stephanie scrolled through, starting earlier in the posts and moving toward more recent posts.

“Stop.” Zach pointed at the screen. A picture of Adrienne Edwards had been posted by Aiden Fleming. She was sitting at one of the benches outside the cafeteria on campus. She looked at something off in the distance, tucking her hair behind one ear. He had a feeling she wasn’t aware anyone was taking her picture.

“CBF,” Ronan read from the post.

“Can’t be fucked.” Stephanie translated for them as she took a screenshot of the post and saved it in the file she’d created. She’d download and save all of this, he knew, but having screenshots of anything of note would be helpful.

Minutes later, they stopped on a similar post where Carrie Athill was pictured with the same abbreviation in the post.

“Nate Mathews. He’s one of the guys that’s coming in tomorrow, isn’t he?” Shauna asked.

“Yeah.” Zach looked down at the hockey roster he’d pulled up on his phone. “First line, left wing.”

Stephanie took the screenshot and continued to scroll.

Seconds later, they were all silent as she stopped on the next photo of Adrienne Edwards. Stephanie stayed behind her computer, but the other three all shuffled toward the screen, almost as one.

“We’ve got him.” Zach said what they were all thinking. “Can you print it for me, Steph?”

We’ve got him, Zach thought again, as he waited for the printout, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. He couldn’t wait to get into that interview room.





Chapter Ten





Keeping Jonathan Michael Sawyer and his parents waiting had been fun, but it also meant Zach had to keep his own temper under control. He’d been pacing in the observation room next to the interview room as they waited for a warrant to come through. With the timing of the Facebook post, the presence of GHB in her system, and the fact he’d claimed in the Facebook group that they had sex the day she died, they should be able to get a warrant for the kid’s DNA. Zach couldn’t wait to spring that on the parents.

Zach watched as the lawyer they’d brought with them stood, clearly getting ready to pull his clients. He didn’t blame him. If he’d been the lawyer, he’d want to walk, too. Zach stepped out into the hallway just as Shauna came down the hall, paper in hand. He grinned, but wiped it from his face as he turned to the interrogation room in time to catch the lawyer and his clients.