Chapter Sixteen

P olice lights soon danced around the back wall of the school, gathering a sea of students and teachers. Gasps, whispers and excitement circulated through the crowd but Olivia and Brock kept to themselves by the sheriff’s truck parked a little further away from the scene. The only information that Olivia had been able to gather was Josh’s friend’s name, Jake. Other than that, there was no telling where the drugs came from or who Josh’s supplier could be. The kid had clammed up, a rebellious and belligerent look on his face as he was hauled away.

Billy Carter, the sheriff, strode over to where they were. He was a man with sagging skin around his eyes and a receding hairline, evidence that he had been on the job for a while and seen too much. He walked with a slightly dejected gait, as if taking down a drug dealer under twenty years old was enough to drain the life out of him. Olivia understood that entirely. It had been enough to discourage her, too.

“Well, thank you guys for helping us take down a drug dealer.” The sheriff’s voice sounded resigned, as if it was the least they could have done. “Any progress is progress, I like to say.”

Olivia and Brock gave a few series of nods. “I wish we could have done more,” Brock mentioned. “We’d like to come down to the station sometime tomorrow to talk to him. We think that he might be involved somehow, but we can’t give out details.”

“Josh Gallegos’s dad is an attorney. He’ll probably be the one representing him.” Billie informed them.

So that’s why the kid knew to not say a word. The moment he realized what they were pinning on him, he went silent. Probably made his first phone call to his attorney dad, too. Olivia felt herself inwardly groan at having to contend with an attorney father with the attitude that his kid could do no wrong. The guy was caught dealing drugs. How was that going to go down with him? Whatever the case, it wasn’t the drugs that held her attention. It was the fact that Josh denied being in a cult. These things were never easy. Suspects never came outright and admitted fault, not even young ones.

“But you’re welcome to come down.” Carter gave them directions to the sheriff’s office. “Anything to help out with the investigation.”

“Thanks.” Olivia nodded to him.

When the sheriff drove away, she walked with Brock to where their car was parked. Unsure if any of the students had seen their faces or not, they kept their backs to the gathering crowd and relied on the tinted windows to conceal their identity until they drove away. “Well, so much for being undercover,” Olivia grumbled. “Anyone who was smart enough to see a man and a woman leaving the scene after helping law enforcement may have seen us in the school earlier.” They would put two and two together and the nice little newlywed cover would be shattered.

“You don’t know that.” Brock shook his head, steering the car out of the one-way drive that led to the school. “And even if anyone picked up on it, it would probably be Susanna, who is more like our contact at this point, anyway. A smart girl like her would keep the information to herself, especially if she knows it will help us keep her friends safe.”

“Still.” Olivia leaned her head against the headrest, fists clenched in angry disappointment. “Drugs. We did all of that tailing, eavesdropping, and stake outs only to bust a teen drug dealer. Not that that’s a bad thing, but that leaves us empty-handed with the missing teens investigation! If he’s not a part of any cult, we’re right back to where we started!”

“We don’t know that he isn’t part of it. We will learn more tomorrow when we talk to him.” Brock reached with his free hand, intertwining his fingers with Olivia’s. “Hey. It’s going to be okay.”

Olivia tried to relax and forced her lips to part in a small smile. “Thanks.” She was hit with the realization that it was the first time in a while that she had gotten worked up about a case. Frustration or not, it felt good to be in a case again that brought out these emotions.

Brock held her hand for a few moments before returning to the steering wheel. “Personally, I don’t know what to think about this kid.” The heaviness in his voice was enough to stop the car in its tracks. “But I don’t think he’s our guy.”

Olivia’s gut told her that Brock was right. Josh may be dealing drugs, which might be involved with a cult somehow, but there was just something about the kid. Still, she wasn’t dismissing anything. “Okay, so what if he’s not? We still haven’t left empty-handed. What about this teacher speaking Dutch and having secret conversations with some guy? Doesn’t that seem to fall into your theory, a bit? That a teacher is some kind of influencer in these kids? ”

“It doesn’t prove anything, other than she speaks Dutch.” Brock shook his head. “Probably has a Dutch-speaking boyfriend that she was spending time with before the game.” He ran a hand through his hair and gave another weary sigh. “We’re going to have to get some answers from Josh.”

“We’ll talk to him.” Olivia already couldn’t wait to get down to the sheriff’s department and get some nitty-gritty details from Josh. Any little bit helped at this point.

The sheriff’s office was no bigger than Breakers Cafe, but it seemed to do the trick. A small town like Cape Fremont didn’t need anything terribly large, anyway. Olivia strolled beside Brock while they were escorted back to a room where Josh sat, waiting for them. The belligerence from last night hadn’t left his face and when they entered, he looked like he wanted to cut them both in half. That was fine. Olivia had seen a thing or two, she wasn’t scared of some kid with a threatening glare. She almost found it humorous, if not for the situation.

The man sitting with Josh rose to his feet. His face was drawn with a disappointed and rather miffed appearance. “Jace Gallegos, I’m Josh’s attorney.”

“I’m Special Agent Olivia Knight. This is Special Agent Brock Tanner.” Olivia nodded to Brock before seating herself across the table.

“Whatever you have to ask,” Jace also settled across from them and cast a look at Josh. “Go for it.”

Well, he seemed open to this. This was already going better than Olivia had anticipated. It seemed that Josh’s father had no idea he was into drugs until last night, given the angry look that creased his eyes and turned the corners of his lips down.

“Thank you.” Olivia spoke calmly, looking into Josh’s eyes. All veils and covers were gone, and she hoped they could speak freely and get to the bottom of this, sooner rather than later. “We’re just here to ask you a few questions.”

“I’m not a criminal.” Josh barely muttered the words past his clenched lips and folded his arms over his chest. One of his knees quaked up and down as if they were keeping him from more important matters.

Brock took over, raising his voice a bit. “Really? Then why were you caught trying to deal drugs to one of your classmates? That’s a serious offense, man.”

“It’s not what you think.” Josh rolled his eyes, huffing a sigh at the same time. Another angry look darted toward him from his father’s eyes, but he kept going. “I found the drugs, okay? I found them, I tried them, I thought they were cool.”

“Where did you find them?” Olivia tried to draw him out.

Josh shrugged. “They were laying in some tire tracks, outside a building somewhere in town. Can’t remember where. I took them that night.”

“So you saw some drugs lying around and thought it was a good idea to take them, having no idea what they were or what effect they’d have on you.” Brock nodded. “Smart.”

“I knew what they were! I’m not stupid!” Josh exploded.

“Oh. So you’ve used drugs before?”

He slammed his back against the seat, huffing another sigh. “No. But every kid knows what heroin looks like. And hey, if you see free drugs laying around and not take them, what kind of idiot would do that?”

“One who doesn’t want to screw his life up.” Brock pinned him with a serious tone. “So what happened next, after you found the drugs? Tell us everything.”

“Everything?” Josh raised an eyebrow. Olivia braced herself, waiting for the step-by-step breakdown of everything he had done since finding the drugs. As belligerent as he was, she wouldn’t be surprised if he detailed how he put his left foot in front of his right, walked to wherever he was going, turned the knob, opened the door, stepped through with his left foot and closed the door behind him. She’d been in interrogation sessions like that before. They hadn’t gone well.

Josh surprised her by cooperating. “I went to the beach. It took me a while to get there, I walked, but I found a nice spot.”

“When was this? When did you find the drugs?” Brock clarified.

“Monday night. There was a meteor shower that night. And if you haven’t noticed…” He leaned his head to one side, tracing the moon and star tattoo down with his finger. “I’m into that stuff. I thought it would make it extra cool if I took a bump during the meteor shower. And let me tell you, I was right.”

He linked his fingers behind his head, spreading his arms out as if he were getting comfortable right here in the interrogation room. His eyes roamed the ceiling and a contented smile broke out on his face. “I found me a nice patch of grass, near where the neighborhood is but secluded enough to hide me. Took a hit. Laid back. And when the meteor shower hit, man, it was like going to a whole new world. There’s nothing like feeling like you’re floating when the stars are falling. They fell in brilliant colors and it was the best thing in the world.”

“Cut the crap,” Brock barked. “We aren’t here to hear about what a wonderful experience your drug-induced high was. If anything, it was highly dangerous. Let’s get to the part where you decided it would be a good idea to share them with your friends, not knowing what it would do to them, I’ll add.”

Olivia threw a glance between father and son, seeing nothing but displeasure on the father’s face. Clearly, he was upset enough not to counsel Josh to keep silent. He, himself, probably wanted to hear it all. The bewilderment on his face struck Olivia as interesting, though. As if he didn’t know his son was capable of doing drugs.

Josh sighed as if Brock had burst his bubble and released his hands from the back of his head. He brought them down to the table again and steeled both of them with a stare. “I shared them with Jake. Well, tried to. That’s what we were doing the night you guys showed up.” He threw a look between Olivia and Brock, bitterness clogging his voice. The words you guys were spat like a cuss word. “We were going to take them the night of the next meteor shower since we’re both into astrology. After I tried the drugs Monday night, and it was tripping, I wanted to do it again with my friend Jake.”

“Was anyone with you when you tried the drugs on Monday night?” Olivia almost knew the answer but she had to ask. Josh had avoided that, entirely.

“No. I was by myself.”

Olivia took a pen and paper out and set the pen against the paper. “Where exactly on the beach did you take them?”

“There’s a patch of wheatgrass or something that’s down the beach, a little bit from the neighborhood. It’s secluded, but not terribly far away. On the right side of Breakers if you’re facing the ocean.”

His father finally broke. His head shook in disbelief as he ripped around to face his son. “We moved here six months ago and already you’re getting into trouble.”

Six months? Olivia straightened, her eyes coming off of the page and onto Jace. “You moved here six months ago?”

“That’s right.” Jace sighed and looked forward again.

The teens had been disappearing for a lot longer than that. It only confirmed what Olivia had been feeling the night before. Josh may or may not be involved, but he wasn’t their guy. But maybe their guy, whoever he or she was, had seen Josh’s astrology fascination and had found that he could be of some use for his purposes. She leaned forward, conveying the seriousness of her question through low tones. “Josh. I need to ask you a serious question.”

He looked bored.

“I’m serious. We’ll see what we can do for you, but I need to know. Are any of your teachers aware of your drug problem?”

Josh slammed his hands on the table, causing his dad to do another double-take. “Son! ”

So much for feng shui. “I don’t have a drug problem.” The words ripped from Josh’s mouth.

Brock and Olivia kept still, mutually agreeing that it was better to let Josh back himself up with his puny attempt at a defense. He let his angry words simmer for a few moments before sitting back. “And, no. I go to school, I do my time, I go to Breakers or I go home. I don’t talk to any of my teachers.”

“I can confirm,” Jace added, rather helpfully. “His grades speak to that.”

Not only did it shoot their theory down, but it gave them nothing to work with. They had been counting on getting some sort of lead from Josh, but he had given them nothing but dead ends. It was little more than frustrating, which Olivia worked to control. She leaned forward again. “Where did you really get the drugs?”

“I told you.” Josh practically spit. “I found them.”

“Where did you find them? Where were you going that night? You don’t just forget what places you visited.” Brock didn’t move, but his voice tone left no room for argument. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re in trouble. And it would serve in your best interest to help yourself out by helping us out.”

His argument didn’t faze Josh at all. He crossed his arms over his chest again, closing off posture, communication and every hope of a lead. “I don’t know. They were outside some building somewhere.”

Olivia and Brock exchanged one more glance. They could go back to the drugs. Run them for fingerprints. Tire tracks, even. If Josh had found them in some vehicle tracks, maybe the tire imprint would have been left on the plastic. “You said they were in some tire tracks, though?”

“That’s what I said,” Josh answered.

He knew. He knew exactly where he’d found them, he was just giving them garbage. Probably his way of getting back at them. How many other teens were going to get hurt by this? It was no small amount of heroin they’d found, which meant there was another case wide open. Cape Fremont had a drug dealer and their only witness wasn’t talking. “Are you talking dirt road, the sand, the beach, maybe?”

“I don’t know. I just remember tire tracks. Are you done?”

Olivia bristled. He was the one headed to jail and he had the audacity to ask if they were done? She opened her mouth, ready to retort an answer but Brock answered for her, his voice tone clipped with annoyance.

“Yeah. We’re done.”

“He’s lying.”

Olivia slipped into the driver’s seat, giving Brock a break from navigating the streets and crossed her seat belt over her shoulder. “No one just finds drugs lying around outside of a building. And no one forgets where they found them, either.”

“He could have.” Brock shrugged. “He could have gotten so high that all he remembers is what he told us.”

So now Brock was defending him. Olivia’s voice rose a notch. “He couldn’t even tell us which building!”

Brock sighed, running another hand through his hair. “Well, that didn’t help.”

Olivia started the car but glared straight ahead. “What now? Test the drugs, see if the dealer was stupid enough to leave his tire tracks on it? Find some ridiculous tangential connection”

“We could do that,” Brock said with a resigned sigh. “How about some breakfast while we figure out where to go from here?”

“Somehow I knew you were going to say that.”

They had left early enough that food had been the smallest priority. Now, it seemed like their only option. Food in their stomachs and thoughts in their mind. Where else would they go but Breakers, their only working lead so far? Even though the teens were in school, they could talk to Mila and maybe score some information only she would know about them. At this time in the morning, it shouldn’t be too terribly busy. “Let’s go. I’m starving, anyway.”