Page 81 of S.O.S. Perk

Perk slipped from the classroom and quickly approached his locker where…Fuck. Jeremy stood.

Dammit.Perk had thought he could escape before having to see the kid again.

“Hey, Jeremy. What’s up?” He pretended interest while he spun the combination on his locker.

“I just wanted to make sure you know exactly what you’re doing,” Jeremy said nervously, looking around to make sure no one was listening.

Perk grunted. “We’ve only been over it a hundred times. Chill, dude. I’m pretty sure your game will be in a bunch of phones by Monday.” He didn’t want to make the process seem too easy by promising anything quicker. It might raise red flags.

“Yeah, well, my m—” Jeremy caught himself, and wasn’t that just a shame. Perk was pretty sure the kid had almost implicated his mother.

“The boss is a little salty, that’s all,” Jeremy amended. “They want to make sure you don’t blow this.”

“No worries. I’m going to slay it.”

Jeremy grumbled, but hitched his backpack further up his shoulder. “Okay then. Have a nice vacation with the fam.”

“You too,” Perk returned, although Jeremy probably didn’t know he’d never enjoy another holiday with his father again.

Jeremy loped off down the hall, and Perk spent a little time fussing about in his locker, saying goodbye to a few more acquaintances, and otherwise letting the clock tick. He didn’t want to have yetanotherfruitless conversation with Jeremy in the parking lot. The kid seemed really uptight, but seriously?Jeremywas the one playing with fire, so he needed to own it.

As soon as Perk was safely in his Volvo, he started it up, put it in drive, and took out the phone he used for real life. He hit Sloane’s number.

“Hey,” she answered, her voice sounding upbeat. “Are you finally free from education hell?”

“You better believe I am,” he confirmed. “The only thing finer will be picking you up tomorrow morning.”

Sloane actually chuckled. “I’m so excited, I actually packed last night. And today has been very productive,” she added.

“Yeah? How so?” Perk knew he’d detected an uncustomarily positive note in her tone. He’d hoped it had to do with him, but he’d share the limelight with progress on the case if need be.

“We have a cause and a time of death for Felix Nelsin.”

“Oh?” Perk was momentarily blindsided. “Are you saying he didn’t drown?”

They’d assumed the man had been knocked out before his car had been sent into the pond, and his lungs had filled with water while he was unconscious.

“Nope. He was actually shot. Felix was dead before he hit the drink.”

Perk grunted. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Killing was killing, and somebody had clearly wanted to make damned sure that Nelsin was out of the picture.

“A nine-millimeter round under his left arm,” Sloane apprised. “A direct shot to the heart.”

“From a SIG M18?” Perk speculated.

They’d determined that Mr. Shultz, one of their two suspects, had been discharged from the Army six years prior. He’d been a computer expert while deployed, but he’d have to have known how to shoot, and the SIG was a standard weapon at the time of his service.

“You guessed it. Forensics took a look at the barrel rifling, and the markings make that assumption ninety-nine percent accurate.”

“So now we have to locate the gun,” Perk suggested, wondering if an agent would be tasked with breaking into Shultz’s house to have a look around.

“That’s true, because we have evenmorereason to assume it’s Shultz’s,” Sloane continued. “The time of death was a little tricky due to the freezing water, but the team determined Mr. Nelsin died anywhere between four and six weeks ago. That jives with the five-week dry-cleaning sighting, so I started scouring streets for Shultz during that time period, and guess what I found?”

“Something interesting?” Perk angled.

“Yup. Mr. Shultz’s was in Plymouth Center on the night of November 14th.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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