“Nothing—that’s the thing, there was nothing to take. We’d surveyed the site, were ready to break ground and do some preliminary work that wasn’t dependent on weather. I always thought the thieves were after something in the school, or that they saw Jason lurking around and thought he was a guard or whatever. I don’t think we’ll ever really know.”
“Why was Jason here late on a Saturday night?”
“I have no idea. Honestly, Ms. Revere, I don’t know why he was here, other than he loved the project and was excited to start working on it. We’d planned the ground breaking on Monday morning, by the oak tree. He and his uncle had spent most of Saturday here—oh, you know, the trailers had been delivered to the site the Wednesday before. Maybe the thieves thought something was inside.”
A lot of maybes and what-ifs.
As Roger spoke, Max noticed that the secretary was typing slower. More deliberate. The girl was eavesdropping. Max wanted to talk to her, but not here, and not in front of Roger.
“What about security? About half the construction sites had some surveillance, the others took their chances with lock and key.” Max was making up those statistics—she had no idea whether that was true, but she couldn’t quickly think up another way to question Roger about Evergreen security.
“We were putting in a state-of-the-art security system—part of our agreement with the school and financing company. But it wasn’t in at that point.”
Roger grabbed his ringing phone. “Sorry, but this is a supplier, and he’s been calling me for the last three minutes.”
“Not a problem. I have another appointment. Thank you for your time.” She stood and let Roger answer the phone. She walked over to the girl. There was no nameplate on her desk. “Hello,” she said quietly. “Maxine Revere.”
“Dru.” She glanced at Roger. “I can’t talk.”
Max slipped Dru her card. From behind her, Roger said, “Dru! Take these contracts to the post office now. They have to be there by Monday.” He put an express envelope on her desk. “Excuse us, Ms. Revere, we’re really busy right now.”
“I understand.” She walked out and glanced back at the trailer as she drove off. Dru was getting into a bright yellow VW Bug with the package.
The secretary definitely had something to say. Max was going to find out what.
*
Max waited for Dru outside the closest FedEx office. What was truly odd about the exchange is that most businesses had a shipping account that picked up packages, even on Saturdays. It certainly wasn’t cost-effective to send staff to the storefront for daily shipments. Had Dru not left the construction site, Max may not have gotten suspicious, but it was clear to her that Roger didn’t want Max to talk to the secretary, and that made Max twitch. She sent David a message with Dru’s license plate number, her employer, and her description, and asked him, when he had time, to dig up what he could on her, as well as Roger the foreman.
David sent back a message: Have any last names for me, or are you trying to make this particularly difficult?
She smiled and responded: Roger Lawrence. Nada on Dru.
Dru walked out of the shipping office and toward her car. Max was parked next to her, but Dru didn’t notice her until Max stepped out of her car. The girl jumped, then glanced around.
“Hello, Dru.”
“Did you follow me?”
“No.” Not technically. She’d made an educated guess as to where she’d go to mail the package. Considering it was already preprepared in a FedEx pouch, it wasn’t difficult. “Let’s talk.”
“I can’t.”
“Roger isn’t here.”
“Roger?”
“He didn’t seem to want you to talk to me.”
She shrugged it off. “He’s just protective of Evergreen and Mr. Robeaux. There were a lot of people hanging around after Jason’s murder.…” Her voice trailed off. “I have to get back.”
Max walked around her car and put her hand on Dru’s door as she tried to close it. “Dru, don’t you want to know what happened to Jason?”
“He’s dead. I’m sorry, really—I liked Jason a lot. But I don’t want to get in the middle of this.”
“You’re already in the middle of this. If you know anything, you need to tell me.”
“I thought you were a reporter, not a cop.”
“Jason’s family wants to know who killed him.”
Dru stared at her like she was crazy. “I really gotta go.”
“Dru, please—”
“I can’t talk to you!” She was beginning to get scared and her voice increased in pitch. Several people looked over at them.
“You have my card. Call me. I promise you, keeping secrets will tear you up inside.”
Dru drove so fast out of the parking lot she ground her gears.
Maybe Max should have a talk with Jessica today and follow up on the conversation that Jason’s sister had with Detective Santini.
She looked at the time. Dammit, if she didn’t go straight to St. Bede’s, she’d be late for Kevin’s funeral. Jason’s murder was going to have to go on the back burner until tomorrow.
Chapter Seven