Page 50 of Tex's Angel

“I guess not. But if they think that’s going to put me off wanting to join, they should think again.”

Evan grins excitedly. “I would have never thought that, but I know you better than the club officers do. You love the club, so I would have guessed that you’d jump at the chance.”

They walk off together and only then do I realize that Clara has been on her cell phone this whole time.

Walking up to her, I ask, “Is everything alright?”

She comes to her feet and shoves her phone into her back pocket. “Yeah, just checking my e-mails. My head of department says they need me back at work. The teacher who agreed to sub for me accepted a full-time position at another school.”

“When do they want you back?” I ask.

“Tomorrow,” she says.

“That’s a bummer. Guess I’ll have to deal with Robbie’s father all on my own.”

She frowns at me, clearly not appreciating my one-upmanship humor. “Yeah, that couldn’t have worked out better if you’d planned it yourself.” There is a brief pause, and she says, “You didn’t though, did you?”

I shoot her my best doubtful look. “I would love to be as powerful as y’all think I am.”

“Well, Rigs just went to Zen’s office. If your IT guy has a lead on Robbie’s father that we can use this afternoon, I might still get to tag along.”

Rigs is right. Clara is not going to stop wanting to come. So, I just have to accept it. “Let’s go see what, if anything, Zen found.”

As we walk back to Zen’s office, she asks, “Did I hear right about Levi becoming a junior prospect? How do you feel about Rigs springing it on you like that?”

“I actually talked about it with them a while back when Levi got picked up by the police for skipping class. I thought it might be helpful for him to spend more time around the prospects who are trying to run a tight game to earn their patch. They weren’t wild about the idea because Levi’s a couple of years and some change younger than Evan. Since Levi has his fifteenth birthday coming up next month, they must have decided to give him a shot. I’m sure they’ll put him on the slowest track possible.”

“It’ll be like having a bunch of babysitters that are good male role models, I guess.”

I didn’t know whether or be offended by that statement or laugh, so I did neither.

Chapter 21

Clara

We lucked out with Zen. He gave us three addresses for Todd Blake, his parents, grandparents, and former employer whom he might be working under the table for again. The employer was someone who owns a small factory. He popped up on Zen’s radar because several years ago they got into some legal trouble for getting their employees to work overtime and paying them straight time, and there was also a bunch of health and safety violations recorded.

Rigs gets pulled into some kind of club business so Tex and I head out in his truck to see if we can track him down.

It takes us the better part of the afternoon to get to his parents’ house only to find that he’s not there. Nor is he at his grandparents’ house. When they ask who we are we just say we’re friends looking to check on him because we haven’t heard from him since his wife passed. Since we look like the nice, average middle-class people we are, his parents and grandparents are warm and welcoming to us. They tell us he’s working evening shift at the only factory in town.

Climbing back into Tex’s truck after speaking with the grandparents, Tex looks beat. “It’s getting late. I think we should pay a visit to that factory and just get this over with. He’ll be less likely to freak out or get aggressive where he works because he won’t want to risk his job.”

“You’re right. His place of employment is our best chance of talking to him in a controlled setting.”

He turns his phone around for me to see. “My GPS says it’s twenty minutes away.”

We keep up the polite conversation because we can both feel that this is all coming to a head. Todd Blake is going to give us the answers we’re looking for. I have a gut feeling that Tex won’t stop until he does. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Tex, it’s that he can be very persuasive. I hope Todd turns out to be the one stalking me because if he’s not, it means we’re no closer to figuring this out. I want this to be over now. The stress is killing me.

Since they’re not just going to let us walk into their place of business, Tex flashes his ID to the balding, middle-aged man who comes to greet us when we ring the afterhours bell. “We need to speak with Todd Blake right away.”

He glances behind us nervously, “Um, do you have a search warrant?”

Tex shoots back, “We don’t need a search warrant. We’re not gonna be searching anything.”

Looking from one to the other of us, he begins to sweat. “Do you mind if I ask what all this is about? We’ve been in compliance with all state and federal employment regulations for over a year now.”

“This has nothing to do with your business or how you pay your employees. We’re here to speak with Mr. Blake.”

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