Page 104 of Don't Say a Word
“You tell my mother that, and she will explode. Eric isnotinvolved with drugs.”
“I don’t think it’s Eric,” I assured her. “I want to pick his brain, go through the list of everyone involved and where they are now. I have no intention of getting him in trouble.”
She bit her lip, so I pushed, “Would you please give him my name and number and ask him to call me? I’ll meet him anywhere, anytime. His rules.”
“I’ll give him your information, but that’s it.”
“I appreciate that. Thank you.”
She closed the door without saying goodbye. Fifty-fifty she’d give Eric the info. But it was a start.
When I got back into my Jeep, my phone vibrated again. I had two missed calls from my mom. I didn’t want to talk to her... but I hit Call Back. She answered on the first ring.
“Margo, I appreciate that you are working to find answers for Mrs. Martinez, but you have Tess and Jack working without any context.”
“Mom, I can explain it all when I get there, but—”
“But you’re not here. Does this three-year-old closed investigation into Coach Bradford connect to Elijah’s death?”
“I think so, but I don’t know.”
“You need to give all the information you have to the police. We weren’t hired to investigate a drug ring, or reinvestigate Bradford.”
“I don’t have anything specific, it’s a gut feeling. Based on some evidence,” I added quickly. Jack appreciated intuition; my mom wanted cold hard facts.
“There is an active homicide investigation and if you have anyinformation that may assist Detective King in solving Lena Clark’s murder, you have a responsibility to share it.”
“I don’t, I’m working on it.”
“Margo—”
“Mom, trust me.”
“I do,” she said. “But we need to talk. You’re part of a team now, and we’re all good sounding boards.”
“I know. I’ll be there soon.”
“Thank you. By the way, I received an email from Manny Ramos inviting us to dinner on Friday.”
“You go, I don’t need to.” Or want to, I thought.
“It would be good for us. Manny said he admires your tenacity in helping Alina. Councilman Borgas will be there—you remember Bill, right?”
Bill Borgas was a longtime friend of Mom and Dad’s. “Yeah, so?”
“Think about it. Manny would be a good contact for the agency.”
“And you’re the best face for the agency,” I said. “Not me.”
“We’ll talk about it later. And please, as soon as you’re done in the field, come down here and explain your thought process. To me, this is a lot of work with no goal in sight.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I hung up before she could say anything else.
Chapter Thirty-One
Cal Rafferty
