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Nathan didn’t like the sound of that. He wasn’t too sure they should have told him as much about Volto. If he took down Volto, they’d owe him a lot more.
Besides, when it came to Volto, he was determined to take him down himself. After taking Sang, after the swim in the lake, not to mention Luke’s nose and the time he got them all sick. After so much of what they’ve done to them all, he needed to be taken down. Dangerous. Crazy.
But he couldn’t stop Ramirez from looking in on Volto. He’d just have to get to him first.
Ramirez held out a hand to Nathan, offering to shake. “I’ll be in touch. Give me a call if there’s any updates.”
“You’re keeping Sang out of this, right?” he asked, shaking hands with him. “You sure? We need this. She needs it.”
“You said. I did.” He held up the bag, showing him before he put it on his back. “But if you don’t keep her out of trouble, I won’t be able to help it. Lord knows David is going to be in some shit after this. The precinct already gets after him going it solo, but he knows the streets, knows the people. Goes into territory other cops won’t.”
“And you trust him?”
“As far as I can throw him,” Ramirez said. “But he won’t talk if I tell him not to.”
Ramirez left. Nathan sat back down in the chair at the table. He tapped his fingers against the surface, the sound echoing in the kitchen.
Sang spent the night with Kota. And as far as he knew, Kota was having a conversation with Erica. He wasn’t sure how deep he’d go into describing the Academy, or what was going to be revealed about Sang, but he hoped Erica would understand.
After last night, though, this might change things for Kota. The Academy alone, what it was about, and Sang’s role in it, everything...Would Erica see them as teens in a dangerous adult situation and demand her son get out of it? Would she even understand why they were in the middle of all this in the first place?
And what would Kota do if she did make such demands?
A door opened, the one to his father’s bedroom. Victor materialized a moment later. “He’s gone.” His eyes were shadowed. His white shirt was wrinkled, the sleeves rolled up to near his elbows. They’d all been up all night over this.
“I know,” Nathan said. He looked up at him.
Gabriel appeared behind Victor. His hair was wild above his head, the blond sticking up and out from his face. “You didn’t tell him about the rest of us.”
“Let’s keep what he knows to a minimum,” Nathan said. “We’ve told him a lot. We’ll be lucky if we aren’t under investigation at some point.”
“Shouldn’t we trust him?” Gabriel sidestepped around Victor. “You know, telling him not to look into Sang...I mean, he’s a private investigator.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “So?”
“Couldn’t we get his help with...you know...the whole Sang’s mom thing? Maybe he can work something through his network.”
“More than we can do?” Victor asked. “I don’t know. I think he’d get as far as we did. With waiting to get information from people who won’t talk to us. There’s no way Marie or anyone in Sang’s family will talk to a complete stranger and not us.”
Nathan chewed on his lower lip. He didn’t like the sound of someone else looking in any closer on Sang. “If he saw anything, like the potential underage rape and all of that, he’d have to report it. He’s a private investigator. They still have to follow some rules, like informing the police of certain things. We’re asking a lot for him to not include her at all.”
“Maybe we could look into him,” Gabriel said. He pressed a palm to his forehead. “I don’t know. After all this, I’m questioning everyone. Even Hendricks went off the rails this time. Didn’t see that coming. Who knows who might be next?”
There was a knock at the door. Victor yanked his phone out before any of the others could, checking Nathan’s app and the camera feeds. “It’s Danielle. And Marie.”
“Speaking of devils,” Gabriel said and then looked toward the door. “Should I get it?”
“No, I will,” Nathan said. He waved to them silently. There was no doubt Danielle knew some of what happened last night. The police car in the front yard was enough to come around asking questions. And she’d stayed up half the night with Sang at the diner.
She didn’t go to school, since they didn’t drive them today. Maybe he should have made sure she went before he talked to Ramirez.
But then, most of them were too busy to keep her contained to the music room.
Nathan went alone to the front door. Danielle wore jeans and a large, loose shirt, part of it hanging off of one shoulder. Marie stood back, a bit away from her, looking frazzled in a simple pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
She didn’t want to be here. He couldn’t blame her. “Not a good time,” he said.
“Really?” Danielle said with an irritated tone. “Do you want to tell me about why you were outside with cops all over the place last night? Because my parents are asking me a lot of questions about where I was. They found out I was gone and thought I was in the middle of that.”
“Good,” he said. He imagined during the incident, which woke up neighbors, Danielle’s mother checked on her, found her gone. “I told you to go home and stay there last night and you didn’t listen.”
“I went after Sang!” she sputtered. “My god, I’m not a kid. I saw Sang running off and I went after her. I figured something was going on.”
Nathan took a moment to count, and breathe, so he’d stop throwing all of his frustration at Danielle. If that was true, then they owed her, too. At least she made an effort to be a decent human being. For once. “Sorry,” he said, and he opened the door further. “I’m just irritated after last night.”
“I got it,” she said. “You’re just like your dad. Angry first, maybe listen later.”
Nathan bit down hard at his tongue to not lash out at her for that.
Danielle marched past him into the living room. Marie followed behind her, keeping her head down.
Nathan joined them, aware Gabriel and Victor were listening in. “What did you need?”
“There’s a rumor going around Mr. Hendricks is in police custody,” she said.
“You probably want to keep away from anyone talking about that,” Nathan said. “Don’t get involved.”
“But what does it mean for us?” she asked, pointing to her own chest. She said us, but he suspected she was talking mostly for herself. “I thought you said we needed a principal to get out of this. Sounds like we don’t have one.”
“You’ll have a new one by next week.”
Danielle raised an eyebrow. “Who?”
“Does it matter?” Nathan didn’t want to give into any more information. It didn’t matter to her who the principal was, that Mr. Blackbourne was going to be one for the remainder of the school year while the school board looked into options for next year. “You wanted out. You’ll get out. But you’ll have to explain to your mom why you’re out of school.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
Nathan looked over at Marie. “You’re okay,” he said. “You can stay home if you want. We’ve already got you covered.”
Marie picked up her head. “You could do mine?”
“Yes,” he said. “The same for Sang. Danielle’s is tricky because her parents are actually active in her life.” He returned his attention to her. “Right?”
Danielle grumbled.
“So we’ve done what you’ve asked,” Nathan said. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning on one foot where he stood. He ached all over, but he didn’t want to sit down and get comfortable with them around. He was hoping they were leaving soon. This had gone on long enough. He got them what they wanted. “So maybe you can tell us what you know about Sang. We’re pretty busy...”
“Just one more thing,” Danielle said, moving deeper into the living area, standing next to the table. She checked the walls and then put her back to the fireplace.
“Come here for a second?”
Nathan inched closer as she brought out her cell phone. “What do you need?”
“You said you’d do a picture?”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Really? Seriously?” he motioned to his face, with a fresh bruise at his jaw and looking ragged with shadows under his eyes. “You want me in a photo like this?”
Danielle spun around, her brown eyes flashing briefly and then finally settling down. “Yes. I’ll Photoshop out the bruises. Just do it, okay? It helps you. It helps me. If you don’t screw it up like with having Sang in the car with you last night, it’ll smooth things out in no time.”
It didn’t help him at all, as far as he could tell. After last night, who knew what Kota was telling his mother just now. Whether he’d bring up the relationship thing or not, he wasn’t sure. The Academy would be enough to explain.
However, it was just a picture. Luckily Victor was probably listening in the other room. He’d be able to delete any she took.
So if all he had to do was stand here and take pictures with Danielle and she’d get off his back, this was the last favor. Marie could go home, and they could get the name they needed. It’d be mission accomplished. “Okay,” he said. He held up a single finger. “One quick photo.”
“Two,” she said. “A second one for in a couple of weeks, maybe.”
He grumbled. He told himself it didn’t matter but he hated her pushing. “Danielle...”
“Trust me,” she said. She motioned to him to come closer.
Just a picture. He relinquished, coming over to her. “Fine.”
