He’d left Rafe out. How interesting.
Before Janie could decide if she wanted to stick her tongue out at him or nod, Nathan continued, and it was clear he wasn’t happy. “I understand Justin’s already spoken with you more than once.”
Rafe nodded. “Justin called me the morning the art book disappeared. Then, I called him yesterday with some more questions. He never believed Derek’s death was accidental.”
Janie glanced at Justin, waiting to be filled in.
“I knew Derek,” Justin explained to Janie. She detected a slight tremor in his voice, the briefest glimpse of sorrow. “Kid wasn’t as stupid as most. He didn’t make meth or sell it, just experimented with it. Didn’t use crack, either. I met him three years ago. I was pretending to be a senior in high school, he really was a junior.
“Thanks to Derek,” Justin said, “in the last three years, we’ve put at least two small-time dealers behind bars and confiscated almost a million dollars of marijuana and cocaine. I’m still trying to find the person who is the connection to the cartel. When I find him, the streets will be a bit safer.”
“Derek was a narc?” No way could she have missed that.
“No,” Justin said. “All I had to do was hang with Derek and I’d find what and who I was looking for. He wasn’t as jaded as most. He still trusted people, trusted me.”
“Why didn’t you try and help him?” For some reason, Janie felt indignant. Maybe because it was easier to feel than guilt. After all, she’d had a kid in her class who’d expressed himself through drawing, a kid who’d maybe been honestly trying to change his wayward life, and she’d not reached out to him. Instead, she’d done everything to avoid him.
Because he wasn’t easy to like.
She’d not been easy to like, either. She’d taken to wearing black. She’d been miserable and sullen. Yet, she’d managed to drop a sentence here and there, a plea really, to certain teachers, hoping someone would see past her facade and into the nightmare she was living.
One teacher had seen, and it had been her testimony that had swayed the judge to grant Katie custody.
What if the teacher hadn’t cared?
Janie continued, “Why weren’t you helping him if he still trusted people? Was it because you didn’t want to lose your in with the dealers?”
Justin shook his head, suddenly appearing as the mature professional he was instead of the immature kid he was pretending to be. “I did try to help. I liked Derek. I might have even called him a friend. It was my advice that led him to Adobe Hills Community College, and for six months, I didn’t see Derek at all.”
“Then what?” Janie queried.
“A few months ago, I run into him at a rave. Next, he shows up at a minor drug deal. Pretty soon, he was back in my scope, and I’m running into him just about everywhere. We turned this kid around for a while, and then someone else dragged him back down. I want to find out who.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
RAFE WANTED TO find out who it was, too.
And now it wasn’t just because of Brittney, it was because of Janie and how she’d stumbled into a dangerous situation.