A chorus of yeses was heard.
“His name is Tony Mazzeo. Twice a week, at Kyle’s request, I open the shop early. Let the gearheads use the place. This guy is alumni. How old would you guess him to be?” he asked the group.
“Twenty-five.”
“Twenty-three to twenty-eight” was Claire’s guess.
“Nineteen,” Cooper confirmed.
Claire looked closer. There was no way.
Even Sasha shook her head.
“He was a transfer in the last half of the year. More typical senior, only spent half a day on campus, a lot of time in auto. He is a friend to Kyle. A direct connection between Auburn and Bremerton since he was seen at this party.”
“Every Auburn kid at that party has a connection,” Claire argued.
“Do any of the other Auburn kids look this age? This doesn’t smell right,” Cooper added.
Tony’s name and image moved to the top of the board.
“Anything else?” Neil asked.
“Elsie.”
The girl’s name had Claire listening closer.
“She may have a new boyfriend at Bremerton. She and Kyle have been fighting, and outside of the teenage drama part, a few things came up. She has a new group of friends, isn’t acting herself, and this algebra tutor is being blamed by Kyle for the crack in their relationship.”
The hair on Claire’s neck started to stand up.
“The tutor and the new boyfriend are one and the same?” Manuel asked.
“I don’t know if we can call him the new boyfriend, but yes.”
Claire spoke up. “Can we pause here for a second? Jax, the night Ally and Elsie came over, did you tell Ally you needed help with algebra or—”
“No. The other way around. Ally said she was failing, I suggested the study date. The other day she said something about seeing a math tutor as well.”
“Are we talking teachers or student tutors?” Neil asked.
Jax shook her head. “No idea. But that should be easy enough to uncover. Girls’ night at Claire’s house.”
“Okay, Claire, you’re up,” Neil said.
“I can’t eliminate anyone. My recon with Marie and the yearbooks didn’t shed light on anything. Outside of the class photo and the cross-country photo, there was no mention of Marie Nickerson. Cooper arranged for me to run with that group today. It gave me time to look at the most vulnerable kids that match Marie Nickerson’s personality. And it gave me connections to the girls that were on the team when Marie was at the school. I need to put in more legwork. That’s about all I have right now,” Claire concluded and sat back from the computer.
“Any change in Eastman’s actions today?” Neil asked.
“No. I asked him if he had any new equations he needed help with so I could sleep in the rest of the week. He called me a smart-ass and I agreed. You’d never know he was in the yard planting a camera.”
She heard Jax laughing and watched Cooper smile.
“Okay, Sasha . . .”
“Leonardo Eastman is the name on the lease agreement at the apartment. He appears to live alone, however, this two-bedroom apartment has a young boy’s room with the appropriate toys. Either Eastman is an exceptional housekeeper for his son, or the boy hasn’t visited in some time. The rest of the place is a mess.”
“Hoarder status?”
Sasha moved her head into the frame of the camera. “Look up from your screen,” Sasha told Cooper.
He did.
“That kind of a mess. We’ll watch through the weekend and find an opportunity to get inside for a more thorough search next week.”
“Do we have a landline tap?” Neil asked.
“No landline. But there is an alarm system. Nothing fancy.”
“Okay.”
“The prints on the glass from the party belong to a Brian Contreras, twenty-six years old. He’s used several surnames, but Contreras appears to be the one he was born with. Has a rap sheet going back to when he was sixteen. Spent some time in juvenile hall, mainly drugs and gang affiliation. Only he’s been off the police radar for close to four years.”
“Leopards don’t change their spots,” Cooper said.
“What about Gorge?” Neil asked.
“The images we have from the party weren’t good enough for a positive ID.”
“And the content in the glasses?”
“Whiskey. Nothing else,” Sasha reported.
“If there isn’t any more new news . . .” Neil paused. “All right. At the invitational, I want as many players in this circle in the stands. I want to see movement. Who is interacting with who. Jax, try and make Russell pick up the photo in person. We’ll have Lars and Isaac on the sidelines. Sasha, time to have a face-to-face with Eastman. Claire’s concerned aunt only has time during the meet. Did the party after get canceled?” Neil asked.
“It was moved to tomorrow,” Jax said. “That’s the word from Ally.”
“Any idea where or when?”
“That news drops on Instagram thirty minutes before it begins,” Jax elaborated.
“You’re starting to sound like Emma,” Neil pointed out.
“By-product of going back to high school.”
“You have to use their language to fit in,” Claire reminded Neil.
“Okay. We’ll have Jax show up when Sasha leaves for work. Make a point about going to a party where Eastman’s bug can pick it up . . . see if Eastman makes any moves. As soon as the information is delivered, we’ll mobilize. Any players we have on the board are our first priority. Any questions?”
The line was silent.
Claire found herself looking at Cooper’s image on the screen. Wondered if he was smiling at her.
“Call in with any changes.”
With Neil’s final instructions, everyone disconnected the call.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
As soon as the online meeting was over, Cooper called Claire privately. It took three rings for her to pick up.
“Hi. Hold on.” It sounded as if Claire had put her phone on a table and was talking to Sasha. Cooper listened to her voice, not understanding a word.
It took nearly a minute before Claire got back on the phone. “Sorry. My aunt and I need to go shopping and buy food we actually want to eat.”
“Do you write all your shopping lists in Russian?”
She laughed. “No. But since Sasha’s Russian is better than mine, I’m trying to use this alone time to my advantage.”
“It sounds good to me,” he said, a hum in his voice.
“Me speaking a different language does something for you?”
“I think I told you that.”
“This is weird.”
Cooper felt his smile slipping. “We’re back to that?”
“No. I know headquarters is listening in.”
He switched his phone to the other ear. “They only hear your voice.”
“So only you can talk dirty?”
Suddenly Cooper’s mind shot right there and that was all it took to have him shifting his hips in his seat and adjusting his jeans. “Are we going to talk dirty?”
“Not with Isaac listening.”
With that image, the heat he’d started feeling had ice cubes raining down. “Probably a good call.”