Please don’t, I text.Not Finley. I’m begging you.
He doesn’t respond.
Not Finley. Luke is a different story; I have enough on him that I can probably keep him in line. But Finley? He’s a loose cannon. He has nothing to lose. He’dloveto have leverage like this on me.
No one can ever see that school security video. Least of all Finley.
After April Fools’Day
47
Louise
—Investigation, Day 4—
At her desk in the station, Louise leans over her phone. “Bruce, are you on?”
“I’m here,” says Bruce Ghadiali through the speakerphone.
“I have Cutty here, too. Did you get the email?”
“I did. So this is a transcript of all the text messages Luke Rankin exchanged with Allison for the last three months?”
“That’s right. And they organized them in the order they’d appear on the phone, reverse chronological order, most recent first. So turn to the second page. An exchange on the Thursday before April first—March twenty-sixth.” She reads along with him:
Thu, Mar 26 at 7:44 AM
Did you *really* look hard at the state’s evidence in my case? I think you missed something in that car inventory.
Allison
I see the thumb drive. What’s on it?
I think we both know, don’t we?
Allison
What are your intentions? What are you going to do with it?
Wonder what Finley will say about it
Allison
Please don’t. Not Finley. I’m begging you.
“Does this exchange make sense to you?” Louise asks.
“Well…we did a standard inventory on Trinity Casto’s car. I’d already disclosed it in list form, and I’d given Allison photos of every item.”
“So…I take it that one of the items found in Trinity’s car was a thumb drive?”
“I’m looking that up right now. Yes. Yes, a thumb drive.”
“Did you look at it? Check what’s on it?”
“No. I just thought it was another random item found in someone’s car. For a drug possession case, it didn’t seem significant.”
Louise leans forward. “What about now?” she asks.
