Changing the Rules (Richter Book 1)(22)

“If she’s injured, does she drop track?” Neil asked.

“No.” Cooper shook his head. “She has to come along to the meets and the practices, even if it’s just to time other students. If there’s an academic probation, she’s likely to lose favor with the coaches and her fellow students. Which might be something we pull later if we need to.”

Neil nodded in agreement. “I like that. Lars, what do you have?”

“Both decoy residences are up and running,” he told them.

“Good, because I’ve struck up a couple of ‘friendships’ with the promise of study dates,” Claire said.

Jax pointed between the two of them “We met last week, and together we’ll start to narrow our search. We’ll bring the students I’ve struck friendships up with from Bremerton together with the Auburn kids. There is a surprisingly large number of kids that are close with those from the other school.”

“Which of these players are involved?” Neil nodded to the whiteboard.

“Elsie is Kyle’s girlfriend. She doesn’t fit the profile as victim or perp, but because of Kyle’s comments, we thought she needed flushing out,” Claire told Neil. “We’re meeting at Jax’s place, because her dad is working late. And my aunt is home.”

“Yeah, and there’s a new student at Bremerton, Ally. She’s living with her grandmother, parents lost custody and think the best place for her is a prep school. A couple conversations and I can already tell she’s looking for trouble. Parties, sneaks out at night.”

Neil narrowed his eyes. “What about this guy?” He pointed to one of the names and photographs on the board.

“Sean is the class bad boy at Auburn,” Claire said. “Spends a lot of time with the vice principal and barely makes the grade. But he drives a brand-new car and yet lives with his single mom and older brother. Something there doesn’t add up.”

“Maybe the absent dad feels guilty and buys big toys,” Lars suggested.

“We need to get to know him in order to find out. The decoy houses are the safest places to talk,” Claire pointed out. “Where is Sasha, anyway?”

Lars answered instead of Neil. “Sasha’s chasing a lead in Seattle. We’ve been spending time looking into the dropouts over the past few years.”

“All the way up in Washington?” Jax asked.

“If this is as organized as Warren suggested, moving girls away from people they know would be key for going unnoticed.”

“Warren said he’s had deep undercover work going on at Auburn for several years and is convinced there’s something sinister lurking they couldn’t dig up.”

“But not Bremerton?” Claire glanced at Cooper when she asked the question.

“If Warren had undercover cops there, the principal wasn’t aware. Which is exactly how we are playing it with Manuel. He’s the school’s new resource officer. There shouldn’t be a reason you don’t get to know Bremerton’s problem kids.”

“Are the principals at either school suspects?” Manuel asked.

“Burke passed inspection, but we have no idea if he talks to his teachers at Bremerton. So the less he knows, the better. Hanley and Green seem to be exactly who they say they are. Backgrounds check out.”

“Mrs. Hanley is a middle-aged woman, not exactly the profile fit for this behavior,” Cooper added.

Claire cleared her throat. “Never underestimate a middle-aged school administrator.”

Cooper found her gaze and was brought back to a moment in time shortly after they’d met when they were infiltrating Richter and learning just how sinister middle-aged women could be. “Right,” he said, acknowledging her thoughts without them being spoken.

Jax broke the silence. “If anyone at either school knows we’re there, I can’t imagine them doing anything so long as we’re on campus.”

“I’ll pass these names on to Warren, and if he objects to any of them, I’ll let you know.” He looked around. “Anything else?”

They collectively shook their heads.

“Okay, then. We’ll meet back here next week. I want to see more intel on staff. We’ll start switching schedules around.”

Jax bounced out of her seat. “See you on campus, Manuel.” She then turned her attention to Claire. “I won’t be home tonight.”

“I know.”

With her purse over her shoulder, Jax hustled out of the office.

Lars abandoned the room along with Neil and Manuel, leaving Claire and Cooper alone.

Instead of running off, Claire folded her arms over her chest, stood in front of Cooper, and waited.

Did he play dumb?

Did he blow off what had happened as brotherly concern?

Or did he just stare back?

That’s what he did.

And like any game of chicken, one of them would have to cave.

It was Claire.

She unfolded her arms, grabbed her purse, and stormed out the door.

“That went well.”



“Don’t you look lovely?” Gwen MacBain greeted Claire with a kiss to both cheeks before standing back and taking her in again. “It seems every time we have one of our lunches you look more grown up than the last.”