Page 349 of Sticks and Stones
Gene kept pushing.
“Did you ever see him with the professor outside of school?” he asked.
He shook his head.
“No, sorry.”
It looked as if they had someone who had contact, but they weren’t sure how much. Still, at the top of their list of suspects was the professor and the scholarship benefactor. They were running neck and neck.
“Thanks for your help, Spencer,” Gene said, jerking his head to signal that the kid could leave.
They were going to sit there and talk to regroup since it was quiet.
“That the kid was the drug connection might be something,” Gene admitted, when Spencer was gone. “We allknow that marijuana can be the gateway drug. Maybe he fell down the rabbit hole into Snow.”
That was a good point, but Ethan saw flaws with it. Mainly one.
“That’s a far jump from weed to Snow,” Ethan mentioned. “Could that be how he got pulled into this? We won’t know until we find the supplier. What I do know is the older scholarship guy having sex with a college kid who gets that scholarship…that’s unethical. Maybe he’s the one trying out kids, and then grabbing them. We know that Elliot was gay. We know that Wesley was having sex with a man. Now, we need to see what Graham was doing—or better yet, who.”
He had a point.
“We could try to find the Travis kid,” Gene suggested. “But that’s going to take a lot of time, and if he’s not on campus…”
Yeah, that was a wild goose chase as far as Ethan was concerned. They were running short on time. If the supplier was expecting the bikers to be shipping for him today at any time, suspicion would start to kick in. Gabe wanted this shut down, so they didn’t need the supplier bolting for it.
Then, the dead kids wouldn’t get justice.
“Let’s just finish the third interview. That’s all Corbin got done. After the next-door neighbor, we’ll decide if we’re going to hit the professor or the scholarship guy next. To me, as I profile this, either fits.”
“What do you have so far?” Gene asked.
He thought about it.
“I’m thinking white male, power position, definitely having access to money since he drives a Benz, and possibly trying to stay rich. Selling human beings for sex takes a layer of desperation. You have to either be at risk for going to the poor side, or so greedy you want more.”
Gene agreed.
“This would be so much easier if we knew more than there was a white Benz being driven by the dude dropping off the drugs and the location of the abducted college kids.”
Oh, Blackhawk knew.
For all they knew, this person was out there looking for another set of drug mules—or he had them.
“The good news is the grad student doesn’t live too far away from here,” Gene admitted. “We can bang that interview out and go from there.”
That was good because it was getting worse out.
“Snow is coming,” Ethan admitted. “The roads are going to be shit. We might have to go home and get your truck. Mustangs and snow aren’t BFFs.”
Oh, he was aware.
As for the weather…
Yeah, well, that was the only thing normal happening around them today.
Heading out, they walked side-by-side as they moved toward the off-campus apartments and to where the last victim, Graham Sinclair, had lived.
Once inside, they didn’t go to his apartment, but instead went to the neighbor’s door. There was no point trying since Graham had lived alone, and the landlord had likely re-rented his place.
