Page 53 of Betrayed

“One of the detectives. We caught that kid. Didn’t know he recorded himself. That won’t help his court case.”

“I’ll send you that one too,” Miles said.

“Thanks, man. We’ve got to put a stop to this. Someone is going to end up hurt.”

“It’s amazing no one has been yet.”

Logan nodded. He got the brats off the grill, then brought the bottle of whiskey out with the broccoli and condiments. They ate on the back deck and drank a few more glasses. Probably too many. Logan did anyway.

He stopped when he realized he was going to start talking about AJ. The whole point of drinking was to numb himself, not to loosen his tongue.

Miles must have caught the drift. “I really should head out now. Mind if I leave my car? You may have served me a bit too much to be safe behind the wheel.”

“Probably shouldn’t drive home from a cop’s house inebriated.”

“The fact that you can pull that word up after so much to drink is something.”

“Eh, I use that word at least once a week at work.”

“Ha. Well, I’m out. Thanks for dinner.”

Logan showed him out the front door then collapsed on the couch. He needed to find out which detective was on the trash-can-fires case.

He called Adam’s number.

“Jamison.”

“Hey, it’s Logan. I found some very interesting information this evening regarding the trash-can fires.”

“Are you home?”

“I am.”

“I’ll swing by. I’m out walking Rusty. As long as you don’t mind the dog.”

“Not at all.”

“I’m only a block away.” Adam and his wife, Ella, lived about a mile from Logan.

They hung up, and Adam was knocking before Logan even made it to the door.

Adam shook his hand, and Logan invited him and the dog in. The men sat on the couch, and Logan gave the golden retriever a good rub-down.

Logan showed Adam the videos and sent him the links. They chatted about the case for a few minutes.

Adam said, “I’ll pass these on. Can’t believe it’s a stupid social-media dare. I will never understand why teens do these things when they should know better.”

“We were all young and dumb once.”

“Speaking of which ...” Adam ran his palms on his pant legs. “You’ve been drinking.”

Logan slumped back against the couch. “I had a friend over. It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing on the anniversary of your daughter’s death.”

That one hit square in the heart.

“At least I wasn’t drinking by myself.”