Page 44 of Little Buried Secrets

“Did anything else happen between the two of them?”

“A week after the away game, Coach Warren asked Margot if she wanted to keep practicing once we’d finished for the day,” Elle said.

“One on one, you mean?”

Both girls nodded.

“And did she?” I asked.

“Once.”

“What happened during their private practice?”

“He was helping her improve on her serve.”

“Seems like something a coach would do,” I said.

I’d made the comment hoping if I feigned innocence, I’d get more information out of them. They liked their coach, that much was clear. It was also clear they were holding back, painting him in a better light than Margot had.

“He’s a good coach,” Skye said. “He’s nice. Everyone likes him.”

Almost everyone, it seemed.

“Yeah, but Margot wouldn’t lie,” Elle said. “She just wouldn’t.”

“Lie about what?” I asked.

Another pause, and Skye said, “Margot told us Coach Warren was standing behind her during practice, and he pressed his body against hers—like right against it. He was breathing instructions into her ear and stuff. It gave her the creeps.”

“Maybe she freaked out over nothing,” Elle said. “He could have stood close to her because he was positioning her for the serve. I don’t want to get him in trouble if he didn’t do anything wrong.”

“What happened after Margot shared the information with you two?” I asked.

“She quit the team, mid-season,” Skye said.

“We were bummed,” Elle said. “She was our best player.”

A star player who quit in the middle of the season.

It didn’t make sense … unless what Margot had said was true.

“What can you tell me about Coach Warren? Is he single? Married? How old is he?”

“Married,” Skye said. “He talks about his wife all the time.”

“I’m not sure how old he is,” Elle said. “Kinda old. Like thirty?”

If thirty was old, they must have seen me as an ancient relic.

Hunter was still at her desk but hanging on to every word they’d said. She opened her laptop and began typing, looking into Coach Warren, no doubt.

“Aside from the two of you, did Margot tell anyone else what happened between her and the coach?” I asked.

“We don’t think so,” Skye said. “She was embarrassed.”

“What about her mother or her sister? Did she tell them?”

“I doubt it,” Skye said. “She said she never wanted us to talk about it again, and we didn’t.”

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