“You’re Russell?”
“Milo, his uncle. Why don’t you ladies have a seat?” Milo was a good-looking guy and he knew it. The other two he was with were a bit bulkier, not unattractive.
Jax tugged on her miniskirt as she sat down.
Claire took a seat beside her and said, “Nice place you guys have here.”
Milo nodded. “It’s okay.”
Claire pointed behind her. “You know it’s a mess in there, right?”
“We pay people to clean it up.” Yup, the guy talked like a baller.
“My dad would never let me have a party like this.” Jax played the innocent girl really well.
Milo leaned forward. “Where do you girls go to school?”
They both answered at the same time and then laughed.
“I’m Jax.”
“Claire,” she said, pointing to her chest.
“Welcome to my home. This is Brian and Gorge.”
Brian and Gorge were sitting back in their chairs, arms spread, smiles wide. Claire made sure to swipe at an imaginary bug so her watch faced the other guys. Jax’s necklace was the perfect magnet in the V of her breasts.
“You guys seniors?”
“Yeah,” Claire answered.
“Eighteen?” Milo asked.
“Next month,” Claire answered.
“My birthday is in July.”
Milo nodded a few times. “That’s cool. You ladies could pass for twenty-one. Do you have fake IDs?”
“Keep him talking,” Sasha told them.
“Of course,” Claire told him. The rebel would.
Jax shook her head. “No. I wouldn’t know where to find one.”
“I could help you out with that.” Milo reached for a pack of cigarettes at his side, pulled one out.
Jax’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Milo bent his head, lit his cigarette. The action of him lighting up a cigarette added to the whole package. Claire made a mental note to adapt that skill.
Milo blew smoke between his lips. “Yeah. You seem like you’re all right. No reason not to help out a friend. Besides, I was seventeen once.”
“That would be really awesome.”
“Wait, what’s it gonna cost her?” Claire played bad cop.
Milo tilted his head. “Aren’t you the suspicious one?”
“Shut up, Claire.” Jax turned back to Milo. “I can pay you. I mean, I can come up with—”
Milo shook his head. “A girl as pretty as you doesn’t have to pay for anything.”
“Bingo!” Claire heard Cooper in her ear.
“Now what are you ladies drinking?” Milo pointed to Brian and Gorge. “Go get the good stuff, none of that shit the kids are drinking in there.”
“Neil is sending in a diversion,” Cooper said.
There was no way they’d be sipping what Milo’s boys were bringing.
“Have you been to one of our parties before?” Milo asked Jax.
Claire wasn’t oblivious to the fact that Milo wasn’t asking her.
Jax smiled, blushed as if on cue. “My parents just got divorced, now I’m living with my dad.”
“That’s tough.”
Jax shrugged. “New school, bunch of kids I don’t know. Sucks.”
Milo sat forward, a flirty smile on his lips. “You’re meeting new people.”
“I guess.”
It took a lot not to laugh. Jax had never been that passive in her life.
“Holding on diversion until your drinks are delivered. Bring them with you.”
“I guess?” Claire nudged Jax.
The two of them went back and forth for a few minutes.
A good ten minutes passed.
“Took long enough,” Milo told his boys. And that’s how Claire saw it. Milo was the leader, the others were ancillary.
Brian handed Jax and Claire crystal glasses.
“What are we drinking?” Claire asked, stalling.
Jax sniffed her glass.
“I enjoy a good whiskey. The kind that doesn’t need a lot of help.”
Jax smiled, flirted. “You mean it’s straight?”
Brian set the bottle on the side of the firepit, poured liquid into his glass.
In her ear Claire heard Cooper’s voice. “Five, four . . .”
“A good whiskey doesn’t need any fillers.”
“. . . three, two . . .”
Sirens filled the air.
Two things struck Claire at the same time.
Milo looked utterly shocked while sitting still.
Second, his friends stood tall, flanking Milo as if protecting the boss.
“Cops?” Jax asked.
“We got this,” Milo said.
Claire grabbed Jax’s arm. “We need to bounce.”
“My dad will kill me.”
Claire looked at Milo. “Is there a way out back here?”
Milo huffed, sat back in his chair, and pointed to the far end of the yard.
Claire and Jax started to go.
Jax turned. “I had a good time. We’re still good on the ID?”
“I’ll have Russell hook you up.”
Jax bit her lip. “Thanks.”
And they ran.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Five of them shoved in the back of the surveillance van was rather tight, not that Cooper would complain with Claire at his side.
Sasha bagged the glasses and bottled what was left in them for testing and prints.
Claire and Cooper worked together to ID every kid at the party that they knew from Auburn, while Jax and Manuel did the same for Bremerton.
Cooper enhanced an early image of Milo standing with his two friends and a few others.
Manuel pointed to the screen. “This guy could be Russell. Hard to tell from this angle, but I’ve seen him at Bremerton.”
“Troublemaker?” Cooper asked.
“Not that I’ve noticed. I’ve seen him leave campus at noon, not sure if he comes back.”
“Put a trace on his car,” Sasha said from the front of the van.
“Easy enough. Seniors have assigned parking spots,” Manuel said.
Cooper circled a half-hidden face in the crowd. “This guy looks familiar.”
Claire shook her head. “He looks too old to be a student.”
Jax leaned back, scratched her head. “This is unusual, right? A big party like this with a huge mix of kids from private and public schools?”
“If this was a neighborhood party, I’d say no. But Bremerton’s students come from all over, and most of the kids at Auburn had a decent drive to get here.”
“The question is, why?” Sasha asked.
Claire turned around to look at Sasha. “I think that’s obvious. We’re looking for a link between the schools, and we may have found it.”
Sasha shook her head. “You’ve found nothing incriminating. We have a rich man entertaining his nephew, who is showing off for his friends.” She lifted the plastic evidence bags. “If these come back tainted, then we have a little more, but not much. In Seattle, I chased a lead. The girl is now nineteen. Marie Nickerson, she ran cross-country for Auburn. She wasn’t good. We know she dropped out of school her junior year. Warren’s investigation revealed this girl as having met an older man she never introduced to her friends or family. She started to attend parties, skip school, and within a month of finding trouble, she disappeared. The first hit in the system signaled Warren. Until now, there was no way to know if she was simply a runaway or a victim.”