Ramirez’s dark brows were high on his forehead as Nathan rattled off what happened. Nathan had been granted permission to talk about his dive into the lake, and onward.
Ramirez shook his head slowly as Nathan wrapped it up with the fight at the Lee house. He leaned forward, writing notes in a small notepad he’d pulled out for this. “I’ve got to tell you, I don’t know why you didn’t call in someone else sooner.”
Nathan shrugged. “Who is going to believe we’ve been chasing around a guy in a mask? And what we knew about Mr. Hendricks? We can’t submit the video we’ve got.”
“You can’t,” he said and he stopped writing, putting his pen down. “I can. Someone can.”
“How do we explain the cameras?” Nathan asked. “We set them up, not the school. And Hendricks had never gone as far as he did last night. That was crazy.”
Ramirez smirked. “Okay. You’ve got me.” He pointed a knuckle out toward the street, beyond it to the Lee house across the way. “But I don’t want to see this shit happening again. You’re lucky David and I are on the same page when it comes to you-know-what. He’ll do his best to marginalize your exposure with the police, but we could have taken care of this well before if you’d let us in.”
“We can’t always do that,” Nathan said. “But outside of Volto, Hendricks and McCoy were the people we needed to put aside. And well, Morris. Only we didn’t know it before.”
He shook his head looking down at his notebook. “It’s likely more people were in on this and you don’t know it. Morris isn’t going to talk to me now. It’s going to take time to get information out of him or McCoy about who they were working with. Maybe once they start ratting on each other.”
“So they’ll be in jail?”
“Last I heard, they were awaiting lawyers and for bail. At so early in the morning, they’ll just wait for a judge. I doubt they’ll get bail. Not after attacking a minor in her home.”
“Not Sang...”
He shook his head. “Jessica Lee. And you. You’re willing to take this all the way to a trial, right?”
“Anything,” he said and he felt sure he could do it. Sang needed to stay out but he didn’t have to. “We’ll get lucky if they don’t mention Sang at all.” He was sure they could manipulate the lawyers and get Academy lawyers involved.
It’d require far more favors. More than he had.
Diego tapped at the table. “You’re lucky I went out to check up on Morris. I didn’t know he’d lead me right back to you.”
“You got on this quick,” Nathan said.
“You got driven off the road and you all looked terrified. Sounded dangerous. I wanted to get a good grasp on the situation quickly before anyone else was hurt. I showed up a little late but I couldn’t really get a idea of what was going on until it all started happening.”
Nathan couldn’t disagree with that. And they were lucky he was willing to get out there so quickly. “You threw the lights?”
“Nope. That was Mrs. Lee, I think. That’s how I realized something horrible was going down. Smart of her to do it.” Ramirez stood up, taking up his notebook and stuffing it into a sling bag he’d brought in, throwing the pen inside as well. “I’ll probably be back. I want to find this Volto.”
“We’ll take care of him,” Nathan said.
Ramirez smirked and shook his head. “This is off the clock. I’m curious. I love a puzzle.”
Nathan didn’t like the sound of that. He wasn’t too sure they should have told him as much about Volto. If he took down Volto, they’d owe him a lot more.
Besides, when it came to Volto, he was determined to take him down himself. After taking Sang, after the swim in the lake, not to mention Luke’s nose and the time he got them all sick. After so much of what they’ve done to them all, he needed to be taken down. Dangerous. Crazy.
But he couldn’t stop Ramirez from looking in on Volto. He’d just have to get to him first.
Ramirez held out a hand to Nathan, offering to shake. “I’ll be in touch. Give me a call if there’s any updates.”
“You’re keeping Sang out of this, right?” he asked, shaking hands with him. “You sure? We need this. She needs it.”
“You said. I did.” He held up the bag, showing him before he put it on his back. “But if you don’t keep her out of trouble, I won’t be able to help it. Lord knows David is going to be in some shit after this. The precinct already gets after him going it solo, but he knows the streets, knows the people. Goes into territory other cops won’t.”
“And you trust him?”
“As far as I can throw him,” Ramirez said. “But he won’t talk if I tell him not to.”
Ramirez left. Nathan sat back down in the chair at the table. He tapped his fingers against the surface, the sound echoing in the kitchen.
Sang spent the night with Kota. And as far as he knew, Kota was having a conversation with Erica. He wasn’t sure how deep he’d go into describing the Academy, or what was going to be revealed about Sang, but he hoped Erica would understand.
After last night, though, this might change things for Kota. The Academy alone, what it was about, and Sang’s role in it, everything...Would Erica see them as teens in a dangerous adult situations and demand her son get out of it? Would she even understand why they were in the middle of all this in the first place?
And what would Kota do if she did make such demands?
A door opened, the one to his father’s bedroom. Victor materialized a moment later. “He’s gone.” His eyes were shadowed. His white shirt was wrinkled, the sleeves rolled up to near his elbows. They’d all been up all night over this.
“I know,” Nathan said. He looked up at him.
Gabriel appeared behind Victor. His hair was wild above his head, the blond sticking up and out from his face. “You didn’t tell him about the rest of us.”
“Let’s keep what he knows to a minimum,” Nathan said. “We’ve told him a lot. We’ll be lucky if we aren’t under investigation at some point.”
“Shouldn’t we trust him?” Gabriel side-stepped around Victor. “You know, telling him not to look into Sang...I mean, he’s a private investigator.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “So?”
“Couldn’t we get his help with...you know...the whole Sang’s mom thing? Maybe he can work something through his network.”
“More than we can do?” Victor asked. “I don’t know. I think he’d get as far as we did. With waiting to get information from people who won’t talk to us. There’s no way Marie or anyone in Sang’s family will talk to a complete stranger and not us.”
Nathan chewed on his lower lip. He didn’t like the sound of someone else looking in any closer on Sang. “If he saw anything, like the potential underage rape and all of that, he’d have to report it. He’s a private investigator. They still have to follow some rules, like informing the police of certain things. We’re asking a lot for him to not include her at all.”
“Maybe we could look into him,” Gabriel said. He pressed a palm to his forehead. “I don’t know. After all this, I’m questioning everyone. Even Hendricks went off the rails this time. Didn’t see that coming. Who knows who might be next?”
There was a knock at the door. Victor yanked his phone out before any of the others could, checking Nathan’s app and the camera feeds. “It’s Danielle. And Marie.”
“Speaking of devils,” Gabriel said and then looked toward the door. “Should I get it?”
“No, I will,” Nathan said. He waved to them silently. There was no doubt Danielle knew some of what happened last night. The police car in the front yard was enough to come around asking questions. And she’d stayed up half the night with Sang at the diner.
She didn’t go to school since didn’t drive them today. Maybe he should have made sure she went before he talked to Ramirez.
But then, most of them were too busy to keep her contained to the music room.
Nathan went alone to the front door. Danielle wore jeans and a large, loose shirt, part of it hanging off of one shoulder. Marie stood back, a bit away from her, looking frazzled in a simple pair of jeans and a T-shirt.