held.
A minute later, he said, “I’m back.”
“I should be out of here tomorrow and plan on getting back to the school as soon as possible.” She paused. “How’s Larry’s family doing?”
“Not good.” His voice lowered. “They need his killer brought to justice, Paige.”
“I’m working on it, but I need you to make sure that my face doesn’t appear on the news. If some hotshot reporter or photographer decides to make this his story, and someone recognizes me …”
A long pause.
“Charles?”
“I’m watching the reports now. Got Louis to pull it up and stream it to my computer as soon as you said something about reporters.” Louis, the DEA’s tech guy who could do anything with a computer. “Right now, the story’s only on the local channel. We’ll do our best to keep it that way.”
Paige blew out a sigh and shifted her head. “And you’re still against working with the sheriff on this one?”
“Definitely. He’s squeaky clean, but Larry’s dead, and the investigation of his death hasn’t produced much. Let’s keep this one close to our vest for now. If we need to bring the sheriff into it, we will. I’m still screening his deputies.”
Thoughtlessly, Paige nodded and grimaced at the shaft of pain that shot through her. Maybe she’d be out of commission a bit longer than she thought.
“All right, give me a couple of days, and I’ll see how I feel. One more thing, you’ll never guess who the little boy was.”
“Who?”
“Dylan Seabrook’s nephew, Will Price. Dylan was walking him to school when all this happened. Dylan always lets him cross to the guard who waits in the center of the street. He was almost to her when the car came flying down the street toward him.”
Charles scoffed in disbelief. “You’re kidding. Sandra Price’s son? The woman who was killed in the fire with Larry?”
“Yes.” She paused. “This accident may actually be a blessing in disguise. It gives me a way to get close to Dylan.”
A pause. “Are you sure it was an accident?”
She thought about it. “No, I’m not.”
“If the people who killed Larry and Sandra think Dr. Seabrook knows something, they may decide he needs to disappear—or cause his nephew to in order to keep him quiet.”
“I know.” The thought filled her with dread. “I need to find out if he’s had any threats made against him or Will.”
“That sounds like a good place to start. Listen, I know you haven’t had a chance to really work on the case yet, but given that you’ve been in the town for a couple of days, are you sure we’ve got you in the right place? The elementary school rather than the high school?”
“I think so, based on what Larry said about Sandra being friends with one of the parents who was arrested. Although she didn’t know the name of the person who supplied the drugs—or exactly how they were being transported through the school—she was pretty adamant that they were coming from the elementary school. The ID found in the fire is the biggest sign, of course.” A charred staff ID from Rose Mountain Elementary School had been found in the residue of the fire.
“And the drug dogs came up empty.” He sighed. “All right then. Keep in mind, we’ve also got a detective questioning those two parents who were arrested for possession.”
Paige pulled in a breath. “Great. As soon as I recover and do a little investigating, I’ll be in touch.”
“You’d better be.”
“Bye.”
“Oh, Ashworth.”
“Yes?”
He cleared his throat. “Good job on saving the kid.”
“Thanks, Charles.”
“And keep in mind, there are major storm and tornado watches going on in your area. I know tornados in the mountains are rare, but not unheard of. Keep up with the weather.”
“Will do.”
She hung up the phone and set it back on the table.
Her brain whirled. Where to start? She looked around the room. A small bouquet of flowers sat near the sink.
She had just now noticed them. A smile curved her lips. No doubt they were from Dylan and Will. Then she frowned. She didn’t need to be having any warm, fuzzy feelings for the brother of the woman she was here to look into.
A knock on the door made her jump. By reflex, her hand went for the weapon she normally carried in her shoulder holster. Only to come up empty.
Right. She hadn’t wanted to carry the gun into the school, so she’d left it locked in her gun box in the drawer of her nightstand. But she didn’t have any enemies here. She was simply a guidance counselor.
“Come in.”
The door opened once again and a man Paige knew to be her new boss stepped in. The principal of Rose Mountain Elementary.
She offered him a weak smile. “Hello, Dr. Bridges.” She’d met him briefly at the district office on the day of her interview two weeks ago. Only the superintendent of the school district, whose cooperation had been needed to secure Paige’s position at the school as the new guidance counselor, knew the real reason she was in Rose Mountain.
“Please. Call me Tom. How are you feeling?”
“Like I cracked my head open.”
He gave a laugh and, for the next few minutes, they continued the small talk. Then Tom asked, “Is there anyone I can call for you? A man named Charles answered the emergency number you listed on the application. Said he was your brother.”
“Right. Thank you for contacting him.” They’d agreed Charles would play the role of her brother if he ever needed to come see her during one of her undercover operations. Or if there was ever an emergency. Like this morning.
“Yes. He said to let him know if your condition worsened and he’d come.”
Charles had been giving her time to call him and let him know whether she needed help or not. “I appreciate you doing that.”
He stood. “Well, you take your time getting well. We’ll see you when the doctor says you can come to work.”
“Thank you.”
After he left, she closed her eyes. In her mind, she pictured the agent who’d been killed in the fire with his informant—and girlfriend. Paige frowned at that. She wasn’t sure she agreed with Larry’s choice, but he’d been struck by the woman the moment he’d met her in the teacher’s lounge of the high school.
The
