“You’re giving me gray hair, Porter.”
She laughed. “Looks like someone beat me to it.”
He was shaking his head, but he was smiling. “All right, walk that off and get in a long stretch. I don’t need any of you cramping up and getting hurt this early in the season.”
Claire saluted him.
Cooper had a hand over his eyes, a smile on his face.
She knew he wanted to say something. Instead, he turned on his heel and walked away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Cooper rolled into the shop early on Friday.
He knew Kyle was already there because of the monitoring system he’d put in place shortly after taking on the job.
In the shop, Kyle’s Jeep was up on a lift, one of the wheels was off, and he was using a hammer with some serious aggression on the control arm. The usual pink box was missing, and the music hadn’t been turned on. From the way Kyle was swinging the hammer, it was obvious something was wrong.
“What did the car do to deserve a beating?” Cooper asked, making his presence known.
Kyle rammed the hammer down two more times before tossing it on the floor with a loud bang. “Piece of shit. I don’t know what I was thinking buying this.”
Two of his seniors took that moment to walk in the shop. “What’s up with you?” one of them asked.
Cooper reached for his wallet, pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. “Why don’t you guys go grab some donuts?”
They took the hint and left, leaving Kyle and Cooper alone.
He gave Kyle a minute to calm down.
“You wanna tell me what this was all about?”
Kyle ran both hands through his hair. Took his time answering. “It’s Elsie.”
Cooper sighed. “Nothing will drive a man more crazy than a woman.” When Kyle didn’t elaborate, Cooper asked, “She break up with you?”
A shake of the head. “No. But I’m starting to think I need to break up with her.”
“You guys seem tight.”
Kyle grabbed a shop towel. “We were. Then she started hanging out with some new friends and she’s changed.”
“Changed how?”
Kyle sighed. “Suddenly her life sucks. She’s complaining about her parents, acting like she’s miserable. She wants to go out and party . . .” He glanced at Cooper as if he’d just told him something incriminating.
“I get it,” Cooper said. “I was seventeen once, too.”
“It’s too much. When I go with her, she runs off with other people. I don’t know . . . when I talk to her about it, she tells me I’m smothering her.”
Cooper opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off.
“She’s tanking algebra, for the second year. I’m in physics, I could totally help her, but she’d rather see her tutor, who’s probably trying to get in her pants.”
Cooper was about to blow off the whole conversation as typical teenage drama.
“Her tutor?”
“Someone from Bremerton. Or used to go there. I don’t know.” Kyle turned to the tire on the ground, kicked it, and yelled, “Fuck.”
Tony walked in through the shop door. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Cooper looked over. “Girl problems.”
“Screw women. Cost too much.”
That pulled a smile out of Kyle.
Cooper did a double take, saw Tony’s profile, and paused.
“I think Elsie is cheating on me,” Kyle told his friend.
“With who?”
When Kyle didn’t answer, Cooper did. “Her tutor.”
“The douche from Bremerton?”
“Yeah.”
“That blows,” Tony said.
The seniors came back with the donuts. One brought the change over to Cooper and dropped it in his hand. “Thanks.”
When someone turned on the music, Cooper knew sharing time was over.
With trips to headquarters on hold, Claire and Sasha joined the team online. Their once-a-week meeting had now turned into an every-other-day update.
The faces of the team lit up on one monitor; the other was a storyboard similar to the one in their main office with names and pictures.
Sasha and Claire sat at the living room table of their temporary home. They had headsets on and notes in front of them.
As the team slowly blipped online, their images popped up on-screen.
Claire waved at the camera when Jax appeared. “Hey, Yoda. You doing okay?”
“Yes. You know the asshole hasn’t even called, hasn’t even tried to change my mind.”
“Proof he isn’t the right guy.”
Neil’s image flickered before he disabled his camera.
Manuel joined in from headquarters along with Lars.
Finally, Cooper’s face appeared. “Hi,” he said to the group.
It was nice to look at him and not hold back her smile.
“Is Sasha here?” Jax asked.
“I am.”
Claire tilted her laptop to bring Sasha into the frame.
Neil’s voice boomed in her ear. “I want to keep this brief and organized. No extra chatter.”
Claire held her hand over her mic, turned to Sasha. “Is he pissed?” Her words were a tiny whisper.
Sasha’s lips were tight, her eyes reflected a lack of concern.
“Good. First up. The device by your front door is a camera. Limited range that activates with motion,” Neil told them.
“Audio?” Claire asked.
“Not enough to pick up inside conversations. We’re leaving it.” Neil kept talking. “Is everyone looking at the map?”
Claire directed her attention to what was on the situation board.
After a series of affirmatives, he moved on. “We need to narrow this field of vision. Let’s start with eliminations.”
Jax started. “We can remove Cummings.”
“Completely?”
“Make him a strikethrough for now. I see no evidence to spend any time or manpower on him. He may have a wandering eye, but there is no trace of anything else.”
Someone on Neil’s end updated the map as they spoke.
“Where are we with Russell?”
“I tagged his car. His movements are to school and back home with the occasional stop at a strip mall. There are two restaurants, a convenience store, nail salon, real estate office, and a mail location,” Manuel informed them. He gave the address of the mall, and someone updated the situation board.
“Lars, let’s find out if there are any city cameras we can tap into.”
“Got it.”
“More on Russell? Jax?” Neil kept things moving.
“There was a note on my car windshield today. I’m assuming it’s from him.” She held up the note that had been placed in a plastic bag. “He says he needs a passport photo for my gift. And he put his space number where his car is parked in the senior lot.”
“Good. Anyone else on your list we can eliminate, Jax?”
“No. Ally is still fluid. She knows a lot of people from both sides of town.”
“Cooper, you’re up,” Neil directed.
Claire watched him as he spoke, his concentration on his task very focused.
“Couple of developments today and a possible new lead.” A picture of the party Claire and Jax had attended popped up on the screen. “Everyone got that?”