Free The Reveal: A Detectives Seagate and Miner Mystery (Book 6) by Mike Markel Page A

know, the VA?”
    She took a breath. “Randy committed suicide. Right
before Christmas.” She pinched her eyes shut, then wiped at them with her
fingers.
    “I’m very sorry to hear that.”
    She nodded, then stood up straight like she wanted
to change the subject. “Some of the guys in this class.” She shook her head.
“Like Martin. The one who made that remark about Krista being upstairs? They’re
such …”
    “Assholes?”
    “Exactly. Everything’s about sex to them. If you’d
seen Krista during that class, when she was trying to tell us about her
background? It would have made you cry, what she’d been through.”
    “Yeah, well, guys like Martin are insecure. They
think if they talk about sex the girls’ll think
they’re real studs or something.”
    She rolled her eyes. “I just think they’re … well,
what you said.”
    “Just keep your distance from them. Live your
life. Don’t worry about those guys. They’re harmless. They just need to grow
up.”
    Donna reached out and touched my arm, then turned
and walked out of the room.
    I walked over to Ryan, who was sitting at the
table, making notes on his seating chart.

 
    Chapter 7
    Ryan sat at his desk in the
detectives’ bullpen, staring at his screen, a sandwich in his left hand and a
pen in his right.
    “Any stone-cold killers in the class?” I had just
gotten back from the break room, where I had nuked some leftovers from last
night. It wasn’t that Ryan and I decided to eat lunch separately when we were
at headquarters. It was more that Ryan liked to work through lunch, so I
couldn’t talk to him, anyway.
    “Not that I’m seeing.” He took a long swallow from
his bottle of water. “But I’m a little afraid of getting on the roads when
these kids are driving. Half of them have moving violations. No blinkers.
Running red lights. Inattentive driving. Failure to yield. The works.”
    Ryan is twenty-nine. A few of these kids are his
age; the rest are the same age as some of his younger siblings. But I guess
having a family can make a young guy think like an old fart.
    “Anything jump out at you?”
    “Not really. Of the kids at the meeting this
morning, the only one who’s interesting is this guy Martin Hunt.”
    “Which one was he?”
    “The jerk who made that comment about Krista being
upstairs at Virginia’s house because that’s where the bedrooms are.”
    “Yeah, what’d he do?”
    “Possession of controlled substances. He’d steal
his brother’s Ritalin and his parents’ Valium and Ambien.”
    “Personal use?”
    “Some of it.” Ryan took another bite of his
sandwich. “But some he’d sell—”
    “That’s trafficking.”
    “The amounts were too small and he was too young.”
Ryan looked down at his notebook. “And he gave them to some girls.”
    “Because he’s a nice guy?”
    “For sex.”
    “That’s statutory rape.”
    “Not if the girls and their parents won’t file a
complaint.”
    “So it’s what? A misunderstanding?”
    “Well, according to the county, it’s a misdemeanor
possession of a controlled substance.”
    I shook my head. “How about the three kids who
didn’t come to the meeting this morning? Did you run them down?”
    “According to the notes from the secretary in the
sociology department, Maria Ortiz is a member of the Talking Cougars—”
    “What?”
    “The debate team. She’s in Wyoming now, at some
regional championship. She didn’t attend class last night. Anyway, she’s clean.
Oliver Huntley was in his chemistry lab at eleven this morning. He’s clean,
too. And the third one is Zach Gilcrist. The secretary couldn’t reach him.”
    “He in class?”
    “I looked him up on the student system. No, he
didn’t have a class this morning.”
    “Did you try calling him?”
    “Yeah, he’s not picking up.”
    “He in our system?”
    “Couple of underage drinking misdemeanors. Driving
with an expired license.”
    “Hand me his transcript, would you?” Ryan