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“Maybe,” he said. “The problem is that if there’s a lot of money involved, and from what you’re telling me, this sounds like the case, it means they’ve figured out how to launder the money clean from the school system in a way that no one will notice. It might be some offshore account, or system of dumping the money into different organizations that could take a lot of time and manpower to track down, if at all. And if there’s an investigation, it may take longer, and the school would be out of that money for a very long time.”
My lips parted. I sensed there was something more to the Academy being in the school before, but he rattled off this information way too easily, like he’d known for a while. “You knew about this? This is why you guys are at the school? It’s not just for security?”
He smirked. “You pretty much know it all now anyway. I guess there’s no harm in you knowing about what’s going on. It’s your school they’re messing with. But right now, we don’t have evidence and we don’t know where they’re pulling the money from, or where it’s going. And we’re missing the identity of the third person you were talking about. My guess is a whole lot of money got moved into at least three people’s Swiss accounts somewhere. But I’m not allowed to go on guesses.”
“How could that happen?” I asked. “Aren’t there teams of people involved when it comes to money for a school? I thought there was a whole school board to monitor this type of thing. Are you saying the whole school system could be in on this?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “If the superintendent is involved, it probably means a lot of things are getting by without anyone noticing. Like our contact who told us something was going on. Paperwork and data can be falsified pretty easily. A lot of people working at the school board may not know anything about it. That’s also something we have to consider. When people start shouting scandal, innocent people who had nothing to do with it could lose their jobs and their reputations. It’ll draw a lot of negative attention to the schools, too. Money would get frozen, and Ashley Waters is already a poor school. Freezing those accounts could make things worse. That second school they were talking about building might never happen.”
I sat back, staring out the window at Mr. Crowley’s car a few lengths ahead of us. It was hard to imagine how three people could set back an entire school district. “You guys came in at a good time. It seems like we’ve got until the end of the year before they’re planning to disappear.”
Luke smiled. “Let’s hope we can recover the money before then.”
It seemed like such a huge responsibility. Wouldn’t the FBI or someone want to get involved in this? But if he was right, if the Academy figured out what was going on and could stop it, how would they return the money to the school? And how were they expected to do it all while attending school and trying to help with security?
And spend so much time helping me?
We tailed Mr. Crowley to an upper middle class neighborhood. When he pulled into a drive, Luke circled the block. The street had opulent brick homes, with white column porches and fresh black asphalt drives.
“No fences,” Luke said, gazing up and down Mr. Crowley’s street. “There’s trees. Not a lot of good angles.”
“Are you looking for a place to park the car so we can watch?” I asked.
Luke grinned. “Does this look like the movies? We’re just here checking out the neighborhood and then we’ll move on. I doubt he’ll do anything exciting today. But we’ll want to keep an eye on him, and get to know his routine.”
He circled the block one more time and then started back the way we came.
“Where to now?” I asked.
“We’re supposed to check on Rocky.”
My eyes widened like saucers. That really wasn’t what I was expecting. “You’re kidding.”
“We suspect he’s the one dishing out this new drug. After the party, Kota followed him. He holed up at home for a long time and his actions were odd. Silas talked to Jay, and it sounds like what we’re dealing with from other cases at school, although that’s just a guess because we haven’t seen him taking anything. We’re supposed to figure out if he’s dealing this stuff out, or if he’s innocent and if so, what’s wrong with him.”
I kicked off the sandals and drew my knees up to my chest, hugging my legs in. I felt the hem of the pink dress ride up my thighs. I tugged at it to try to keep myself more modest. It wasn’t the easiest thing to curl up in.
His gaze turned from the road and focused on my movements. “You weren’t wearing that earlier at school.”
“Mr. Blackbourne had me change at the country club.”
“Oh yeah?” He studied me. “I don’t know if I like that dress on you.”
I had been watching the neighborhoods passing by, but his comment drew my attention. I met his brown eyes, striking against the blond hair. “You don’t?” I asked.
“You usually wear cute things. That’s a little more... I don’t know. Mr. Blackbourne likes more sophisticated styles.”
“And you like the cute stuff?”
His playful lips started to curl up. “You are cute, sweetie.”
My cheeks heated, and I squeezed my legs closer to my body to contain my heart that wanted to pitter-patter.
Luke pulled into a neighborhood that was nestled in a golf course not far from the school in Goose Creek. The homes were big, the yards tiny, leaving more room for the golf course greenery.
Luke pointed to a home at the end of a block, right before a row of newly constructed homes being built. “I think it’s that one.”
The house was exactly like the ones next to it, but instead of having four car garages like the others, two of the garages were made over into an attached apartment.
“Does he live in the main house or that apartment?”
“I’m going to take a wild guess that he’s a spoiled kid that lives in that apartment. Probably how he gets away with what he does. Surprised he doesn’t go to a private school.” He made a circle around the neighborhood. Since it was later in the evening, the construction crew on the houses next door were gone. Luke pulled along beside them, stopping the truck.
“Aren’t we far away?” I asked. “How are we supposed to check out what’s going on?”
“With these,” Luke said. He opened the middle console and plucked out two pairs of binoculars. He passed one over to me. “We’re checking if anyone shows up or leaves.”
“What are the chances he’ll do a drug deal at home?” I asked. “Won’t his parents notice?”
“Does Rocky act like a kid who gets a lot of attention at home?”
I sighed, holding up the binoculars.
I lasted for about an hour of playing peek-a-boo with different windows and doors of Rocky’s house, but nothing happened. Luke was right. Babysitting was boring work.
Luke sat up sharply and reached back for his phone. He said hello, listened and then passed it to me.
“Are you okay?” Nathan asked right off after I said hello. His voice was a little raspy, like he’d been talking for hours.
“Yeah,” I said.
Nathan breathed into the phone, hesitating. “Everything okay on your end?” I asked, trying to be encouraging.
“Is it okay for me to spend the night in your room? I know you’re not going to be here.”
“Sure.” Alarms went off in my head. “Is it your dad? Should I come back? I think I’m grounded and have to stay away, but I can ask Mr. Blackbourne.”
“He called me.”
“Oh?” I sat up in the passenger seat. His tone made my heart drop. Luke lowered the binoculars, asking me with curious eyes what was going on.
“He basically told me we couldn’t move out on our own.”
“Yeah,” I said, sorry that he heard it from Mr. Blackbourne first. I should have called him. “I tried to talk to him about it. He made a good point about how much we would have to work to afford it. Neither of us can drop school, not with everything going on.”
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nbsp; “I don’t agree with him. I think we could pull it off, but we can’t do anything about it now.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, unsure of how to make it better. He wasn’t in a good place, and neither was I. It didn’t seem like we had much of a solution and I really wanted one for him. “Maybe there’s another way.”
He huffed into the phone. “I miss you.”
A warmth spread through me. “I miss you, too. Sorry I got grounded.”
“Seems like when you get grounded, we all do,” he said. “Where are you going tonight?”
“Dr. Green’s or Mr. Blackbourne’s.”
“Call me if you need anything.”
I hung up the phone. Luke dropped the binoculars into his lap and stretched. “What did Nathan want?”
“He’s staying the night in my room.”
“Oh.” He sighed. “When the phone buzzed, I was worried it was North.”
“Why?”
“He’s madder than anyone that you’re grounded, I think.”
I started to smile a little. “Where is he?”
“I think he’s at the diner. Or something Academy. I can’t keep up with him.” He slumped into the seat and then swung his head, looking at me. “Heard you wanted to move in with Nathan.”
I sighed and nodded. “Well, Nathan wanted to. I kind of did, too.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Did you?”
“I guess.”
“You don’t sound excited about it.”
“Am I supposed to be?”
