Page 76 of Counter Attack

“No,” Mason said. “Just marijuana.”

Jonathan raised his eyes to the ceiling. “This interview is over.”

40

Alex leaned back and took a deep breath. Somehow, they had to get the attorney to let the boys talk. “I would advise against shutting the interview down, Mr. Kennedy. If they help us catch Trevor Martin’s killer, it’ll go a long way with the judge.”

“I want that in writing.”

“You know we can’t do that,” Nathan shot back.

Cole jumped up. “I don’t need it in writing. What if whoever killed Trevor saw us there? And ... and thinks we can identify him? What if he comes after us?”

An uncomfortable silence followed Cole’s outburst, and she let it lay in the room for a full minute. Alex turned to the boy she deemed the youngest. “How about you, Mason? How do you feel about this?”

The teen jiggled his knee and wiped his hands on his jeans again. Then he took a breath. “Okay, yeah, we know Trevor ... or knew him—that’s where we got our weed, but we didn’t kill him.”

Tension eased from Alex’s shoulders. “I believe you.”

Mason’s gaze fastened on Alex like she was his best friend.Then he slumped back in his chair. “I’ll never forget how he looked.”

“Did you see anyone when you got to the gravel pit?” Nathan asked.

All three boys shook their heads. “There wasn’t nobody there but us,” Ethan said. “Whoever killed him was long gone.”

So far Alex hadn’t mentioned what happened at the field house. Had it only been a day ago? Should’ve talked to Nathan about whether to bring it up or not. She flipped back through her notes and saw where Taylor had found the branch with a piece of leather glove on it. “Did any of you handle a piece of brush and wipe out your footprints?”

“What do you mean?” Cole asked.

From their blank stares, none of them had been the person who tried to cover up their prints. “It’s not important. One more thing. Have any of you ever heard of anyone who goes by Phame—fame spelled with a p-h instead of an f?”

Ethan sucked in a breath, and Nathan said, “How do you know this person?”

The teen dropped his gaze to the floor. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Look, Ethan, you recognized the name.” Alex tapped the notebook. “Tell me what you know, and that information stays here in this room. Otherwise...”

“Son,” his dad said, “if you have information that will help the police find a killer, tell them.”

Ethan chewed his thumbnail.

“We’re not making any promises.” Nathan placed his hands on his thighs and leaned toward Ethan. “But the more you help us, the more we’ll help you.”

Ethan continued to stare at the floor, then he raised his head and lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “I was curious. Kept hearing about the dark web.”

Alex strained to hear his words. “Can you speak up?”

He cleared his throat. “I researched how to get on the dark web,” he said, louder. “Downloaded Tor and got in. It’s not all bad. But I found this site, really I just stumbled on it, and that name you said—Phame, it was on the site. There was one photo that you didn’t have to pay for. It was this girl, and you could tell she was scared.”

He scrubbed the side of his face. “I’ll never forget the caption.” Ethan shuddered. “It said,‘Alive one minute. Dead the next. Watch the video.’And it was signed Phame.” He palmed his hands. “That’s as far as I went. I got out of there and never went back.”

For a second Alex focused so hard on wrapping her mind around someone doing something so depraved, she couldn’t speak. Killing people and recording it to make money? Who could be so evil? And who would pay for videos like that? That was easy. The world was full of evil people.

She shook away the mental image Ethan had painted. “How do you get to the site?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know—like I said, I just stumbled on it. And I promise, I never went back, not even to the dark web.”

She had asked Dylan to research Phame’s name, but it wouldn’t hurt to go behind him. At this point, Alex wasn’t sure she trusted anyone other than Nathan. She flipped her notepad to a clean sheet. “Tell me how to access it.”

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