What Janie Saw(114)
“Where did she see her art book last?”
“That day when Detective Williamson came to the school. She had to leave the class, but Max Carter came out and said that you were picking up all our art books. She gave it to him and he handed it in. At least she assumed that’s what he’d done.”
“She says Max Carter turned it in for her,” Rafe said to Nathan, “the day you picked them up.”
Nathan shook his head, shuffled through some papers on his desk, and then dialed his own phone.
“Thanks, Amanda. That’s all I wanted.”
Rafe waited a moment while Nathan asked for Max Carter. After a moment, they discovered Max had handed it to one of the campus police officers: Barry Dime.
Next, Nathan called the college and spoke to the officer in charge. Barry Dime was off today. Quickly, Nathan sent one of his men to Dime’s place to bring him in for interrogation.
“Hopefully we’ll get some answers from Dime. I’ve talked to him twice already. He’s an ex-cop, hurt in the line of duty. There is nothing in his past to suggest he’s the type to work both sides of the law.”
“I’m glad we have a name. It’s starting to come together. We’ll solve this.”
“Amanda didn’t tell me she’d given the journal to Max.” Nathan shook his head. “I hate drugs. I hate watching people destroy lives—their own and others’—with drugs. Look at what drugs did to Derek. They not only took his life, but they robbed him of watching and nurturing a new life. And then there’s that poor girl’s brother.” Nathan shook his head. “Nothing destroys a family quicker than drugs.”
Rafe agreed, remembering how drugs had destroyed Nathan’s young marriage. But they didn’t have time to dwell on the past.
“Remind me,” Rafe said. “Has Max ever been in trouble?”
“Just small stuff like skateboarding after curfew.”
“Try their Facebook pages again,” Justin suggested. “It’s been a while, and we’re deeper into the case. Maybe we’ll see something we missed.”
“I still don’t get,” Nathan said to the undercover officer, “how you hadn’t heard of either Chad or his girlfriend?”
“Chad was only in our area a couple of months. I can’t be everywhere. The only girl I know who hung around with Tommy and Derek, and who also admits to being friends with Chad, is Ramona Turk. She’s only scary when she’s jonesing for a fix. I’ve chatted her up a dozen times since all this went down. She wasn’t involved.”
Nathan started typing into his computer. After a moment, he had a photo of Tommy Skinley’s Facebook page on his screen. He looked like a typical angry kid.
Kind of like Justin, who—still undercover and camouflaged as a teenager—was shaking his head as he studied the screen. “He’s around a lot.”
Rafe watched as Nathan played with the computer some more. Chad didn’t have a page, apparently, if that was his real name.
Amanda’s photo was there. Her list of friends wasn’t long, but her blog and accomplishments were. Both Justin and Rafe moved around Nathan’s desk to get a better look.
“I’ve never seen her,” Justin said.