Note: Thanks as always to Alison for beta reading. Also, thanks to everyone
who is reading this story.
They pulled into the parking lot of Desert Springs School. Grissom had not spoken one word since leaving Nan Giles home. After several attempts to engage him in conversation, Sara had rolled her eyes and turned to stare out of the window.
Now Grissom pulled his keys from the ignition and stared at the steering wheel. Closing her door, Sara walked around to his side of the car, waiting for him to join her so they could begin the process of convincing the principal they needed to interview the football team. When Grissom did not move from his trance, she knocked on the window, waiting with more than a little impatience as his face slowly registered that he acknowledged her presence. Opening the car door, Grissom climbed out and then leaned back against it as he stared at the front of the low one story brick building.
"You are coming in with me, right Grissom?"
"Of course." Grissom mentally pushed his uneasiness from meeting Nan and Tom Giles to the back of his mind and concentrated on the task at hand. They had several boys to interview and it could take them a few hours to accomplish.
The halls were silent as they entered the front doors; Sara assumed that the kids were all in class. She glanced at her watch. 10:40 a.m. She read a sign that pointed towards the office and began to walk in that direction when she noticed that Grissom was moving away from her and towards a trophy case. She followed his stare and saw that the display case housed the previous year's state championship baseball trophy. A large picture of the team was propped behind the trophy and in the center of that picture was Andrew Giles wearing the biggest grin Sara had ever seen. Moving from case to case in the front lobby Sara and Grissom noticed that Andrew appeared in a good many of the championship pictures from the past years. Football, baseball, tennis; Andrew Giles was a star athlete.
A bell rang throughout the hall, and as if someone opened a can of worms, kids of all ages appeared to stream from the walls. Several stopped upon seeing the two strangers and many whispers began to flow among the passing students. Sara felt a firm hand take her elbow and guide her through the throngs towards the office sign. When they entered the relative silence of the office, he released her elbow and they turned as one towards the secretary.
Bending over something at her desk, the secretary failed to notice their entrance and kept her eyes downcast. Sara noticed that she was reading the newspaper as she stepped up to the front of the desk.
"Hi there." Sara spoke into the silence and watched the secretary jump ten feet in her chair.
Wild eyes flew up and darted from Sara to the man standing directly behind her.
"You! You are those investigators from Vegas who are here to find Andy." The woman smiled widely and pushed her chair back from the desk. "I'm so happy to meet you Mr. Grissom and you too Miss Sidle." The wisp of a woman pushed her dark hair back from her face and glided around the desk. Grissom stepped back and to Sara's other side as if she could shield him from the dynamo flying towards them.
"My name is Ellen Thompson." She held out her hand towards Sara, who took it with a slight smile. When Sara dropped her hand, the woman turned with determination to Grissom who reached forward, careful to keep Sara between them.
With an amused smile, Sara waited while the woman told them again, how glad she was that they were in town.
"We would like to speak with Andy's friends, Ellen, if that's possible." Sara smiled warmly, but it was not enough to keep the woman's face from clouding over with doubt.
"I don't know about that." She glanced towards a door that had the principal's name, Howard Owens, stenciled across the front. "I will have to speak to Howard and see if that would be okay."
"That would be fine, Ellen." Sara watched the woman knock on the door and slip inside. She turned to Grissom, who was staring after the woman with a puzzled expression.
"That was an odd reaction, don't you think?" Grissom raised his eyebrows at Sara and she responded with a shrug.
"This town is filled with strange reactions." While they waited, Sara read the article in the newspaper that mentioned Grissom and his girlfriend were investigating Andy's disappearance. She looked up to catch Grissom's narrowed eyes daring her to comment.
"It's a gift, reading things backwards."
"You couldn't read that small type from here."
"Where are you keeping your girlfriend, Gris? In the back of the car?"
Grissom was spared a retort when the principal's inner office door swung open and a man came hurrying out.
"I'm Howard Owens." He greeted them with a terse smile. Grissom noticed that he swallowed several times and had the nervous habit of running his finger between his tie and his throat. The man was in his mid to late forties and had fading brown hair and small black eyes.
"Hi, Mr. Owens." Sara returned his greeting by introducing herself and Grissom. She could tell by his reaction that he knew who they were and wanted nothing more than for them to leave.
"We would like to speak with a few of Andy's friends and teammates, Mr. Owens." Sara spoke with a calmness that did not match the knot that was growing in her stomach.
Howard looked like he was about to deny their request when the door burst open and a teacher stormed in pushing a little boy in front of him. Sara and Grissom recognized the boy as Mattie Giles and they could tell that the child was surprised to see them.
The teacher hesitated when he saw the strangers, but his ire was recalled when Mattie shrugged out of his grip. He pointed towards the child. "That child can not stay in my class. He has disrupted it for the last time. There is no excuse for his behavior."
Glancing at Grissom and Sara, Howard repeated his nervous habit and swallowed before he turned his attention to the distraught teacher.
"Now Gary, be reasonable. You know that Mattie has been going through a lot with his family life shattered the way it is." His glare at the child did not match his words, but Mattie did not appear to notice or care. His eyes were trained on Grissom.
"I'm tired of that excuse, Howard." Gary folded his arms. "I don't want him back in my class. He tries to disrupt the class every day and now he has succeeded in upsetting my students to the point that they refuse to enter my classroom."
"They are chickens." Mattie spoke with defiance and shoved his hands in his pockets in a posture of nonchalance.
"What.Why," Howard was having trouble formulating his thoughts as he put a restraining hand on Gary's arm. "What could he have done to keep your students from wanting to enter their classroom?"
"He released a jar full of cockroaches." Gary shuddered in dismay. "There must be more than a hundred roaches running around my classroom. I'm surprised you didn't hear the kids screaming."
"One hundred and twenty four." Mattie corrected.
Grissom chuckled, earning a playful jab in the ribs by Sara. Mattie looked at him with a new respect.
"You are not helping, Mr. Grissom." Howard turned to Ellen. "Why don't you take Mr. Grissom to the gym where he can speak with the football team?"
Ellen nodded. Grissom was reluctant to leave the defiant Mattie in the office alone with the disgruntled teacher and principal, but he followed Sara out of the room after giving Mattie a conspiratorial wink.
"You shouldn't encourage that, Gris." Sara spoke in a soft voice as they walked along the hallway. They passed a group of laughing and joking children who mingled around in front of a closed door.
Grissom shrugged. "It is serious. He has potentially put those roaches in the pathway of being destroyed by unaware individuals."
"You're kidding." Sara sidestepped one of those creatures as it scurried from out beneath the door. Several kids screamed as the roach paused and vanished back the way it had come. "I would stomp it if I had on different shoes."
The comment earned her a displeased look from the bug man himself, but she did not care. "It's a roach, Grissom."
They reached the entrance to the gym. Ellen called over the coach. The man took in the investigators with an appreciative smile.
"I was hoping that you would stop by here." Ray Ebsen was the first adult in the school to appear genuinely happy that the investigators were planning to talk with Andy's friends.
After Ellen left them to return to the office, Ray motioned them over to a group of boys who were whispering to one another and staring at their approach.
"This is the class that Andy was in and these are the boys that he was around the most." Ray introduced the group of nine teenagers. Sara's attention was focused on the one he called Paul Hanson.
"We would like to speak with each of you individually." Grissom stated. "We will split up, with Miss Sidle talking with one of you while I speak with another." He looked back at Ray. "If that is okay, Mr. Ebsen?"
"That would be fine." Ray informed the boys that they should be honest and tell the investigators anything they wanted to know.
Sara heard a snicker from one of the boys.
"Is there a problem, Paul?" Ray did not speak to the boy with any affection. Sara decided she would talk with Paul Hanson first.
"No, sir." Paul replied without a hint of sincerity.
"I'll speak with you over there, Paul." Sara motioned towards the bleachers on the far side of the gym. She watched the boy grin and toss his basketball to another boy as he strutted over to the bleachers.
Grissom pointed to a boy, but Ray shook his head and nodded towards another teen that stood a few feet off to the side of the group. Grissom caught the teen's eye and motioned towards the bleachers on the opposite side of the gym from where Sara was walking. Emmett reluctantly followed Grissom, averting his eyes from the rest of his teammates.
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Sara chose to stand while Paul sat back on the bleachers, his arms stretched out along the back of the seat behind him.
"You knew Andrew Giles well, Paul?"
"Everyone in this town knows everyone else well, Miss Sidle." Paul let his eyes roam over her.
"Were the two of you friends?" Sara ignored the impulse to reach over and wipe that insolent look from the teens face. That would look good in tomorrow's paper. 'Grissom's girlfriend smacks a student, one of our own.'
"Yep. Andy and I have been friends for ages." His voice did not lend truth to the words. Somehow, Sara got the impression he was fibbing.
"Why do I think that you are lying to me, Paul?"
"I'm not lying," Paul insisted. "Andy and I were at a party together the weekend before he went camping."
"That doesn't make you friends." Sara was beginning to wonder what she had hoped to accomplish by interviewing Paul first. She should have spoken with the other boys and then Paul. She decided to come back to him after she interviewed the last teen. "Is there anything about Andy that you could share with me, Paul? Anything that would explain who he was meeting that weekend?"
"He was meeting someone that weekend?" Paul was truly surprised by her comment. He did not know about the note.
Sara decided to ask him about Olivia while his defenses were down." Tell me about your girlfriend and her relationship with Andy."
"Olivia? She and Andy were friends." Paul shrugged.
"They were best friends, weren't they?" Sara watched him lean forward, his grin now gone.
"They used to be best friends. Andy was doing more stuff with the boys and Olivia didn't like it."
"If Olivia was your girlfriend, then why should she care what Andy was doing with the boys?"
"You would have to ask her that question." Paul wore a bored expression. "Is that all? Because I need to practice my game."
"You do that." Sara watched him jog back over to the group and hoped that Grissom was having better luck.
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Emmett kept his eyes on his hands, twisting them with a nervousness that intrigued Grissom.
"Why are you so nervous?"
Emmett stopped twisting his hands and risked a quick look into the face of the investigator.
"I don't know."
"Tell me about Andy. Were you and he close friends?"
"We used to be good friends." Emmett looked in the direction Sara and Paul were sitting. "Then he started goofing off with Paul and his group."
Grissom kept his eyes on Emmett as the boy looked away from Paul. "You don't like Paul very much, do you Emmett?"
"No."
"Why don't you like him?"
Emmett was quiet as he debated what he should tell Grissom. He was worried about Andy, but he did not know how much he should share without alienating himself from the entire group.
"Andy used to be his own person. He liked everyone, but he didn't care about impressing everyone.you know?" Emmett did not wait to see if Grissom understood what he was saying. "And then one day he did."
"What happened?"
Emmett looked around him to make sure that nobody was listening. "I don't want you to tell anyone that I'm the one that told you this."
"It depends on what you tell me, Emmett. I can't make promises that I'm not sure that I can keep."
Grissom was afraid that Emmett would change his mind. The boy wiped his brow and took a deep breath.
"A few months ago, when Olivia started dating Paul." He looked around again to confirm they were alone. "Andy decided to go to one of Paul's parties. He wanted to keep an eye on Olivia and make sure that things didn't get out of hand."
Grissom could see that happening, based on what he had learned of Andrew. "What happened?"
"They spiked the punch and Andy got wasted."
That was not unusual, Grissom thought to himself.
"Andy was more than wasted." Emmett tapped his knee. "Paul and some other boys put ecstasy in his punch. He was wired."
Grissom considered these details and waited for Emmett to continue. It took him another long pause and another look around the room. Grissom followed his eyes.
"Which of these boys were involved?" Grissom watched the teens throwing a basketball between them while they talked.
"All of them." Emmett shrugged. "Andy was the best, but he had no clue that all of these guys were doing drugs. When he realized what had happened he was stunned to say the least."
"He decided to turn them in?" Grissom quizzed.
"No." Emmett was so pale now he was shaking. "He told me what happened and made me promise not to tell anyone."
"Why would he do this?"
"Olivia was seeing Paul." Emmett let the statement speak for itself. "If he turned them in, then he turned her in. He wanted to get her out before something happened to her, but she wouldn't listen."
"So, he was in the process of trying to make Olivia stop seeing Paul and also stop her from doing drugs?"
"Yes and no." Emmett stood up and started to walk back to the group, but hesitated. "That was what he intended to do, but somehow he started joining in with them. He was smoking pot and doing ecstasy and heroin almost every weekend."
He left Grissom standing there with more questions than answers. Grissom saw Sara walking back towards the group and waved her over. Speaking softly he filled her in on what he had learned and watched her expression change to sadness.
"He thought he could help Olivia by being part of the group, but he ended up getting in way over his head."
Sara shook her head as Grissom spoke. "Stupid kids." Her voice choked on the words and she looked up at Grissom. "Do you think that Kyle suspected?"
"I have a good idea that he did."
"We should finish interviewing the rest of the kids. I suppose we need to ask them the drug question without letting on that Emmett spilled."
"They will figure it out anyway, but we can try."
They spent the next hour and a half speaking with the remainder of the group. Only one other boy let on that Andy was involved with drugs. He stressed that drugs had nothing to do with why Andy and Kyle had disappeared. "It was recreational; I promise we had nothing to do with his disappearance."
Grissom let the boy go back to the group and watched as they glared in the direction of Emmett. He hoped that the boy would not be ostracized by the school for speaking to them in such a candid manner. Ray patted the teen on the shoulder and jogged over to where Grissom and Sara stood by the gym entrance.
"Did you learn anything useful, Mr. Grissom? Miss Sidle?" Ray had the look of genuine concern and for the first time since meeting him, Sara wondered if he was aware of what was going on with his team and sent Emmett in first to figure out what the boy would tell them.
"Are you aware of any of your boys doing drugs, Mr. Ebsen?" Sara watched his face clearly and found it interesting when no flicker of surprise altered his features.
"I was suspicious." Ray rubbed his chin. "I noticed a behavior change in Andy several weeks ago that bothered me. When I talked to him about it, he shrugged it off as stress with school and home."
"Stress at home?"
"He said that he was struggling with some of his classes and his parents were not happy about it."
"Did it concern you that he was struggling with classes?"
"Of course."
"If he failed then he wouldn't be able to play football this year." Sara suggested.
A flash of anger lit behind his eyes. "I didn't care about the game, Miss Sidle. I've known Andy since he was in first grade. He is an avid learner and excelled at school. I was concerned about him."
"I can see that." Sara felt that he was being sincere. "What did you do after you spoke with Andy?"
"I called his dad." Ray told them about calling Kyle and asking him to stop by the school. They had a long talk and later Kyle told him that Andy had denied drug use. His dad did not believe him and was determined to get to the bottom of it. "I told him that if there was anything I could do to let me know."
Grissom was thoughtful. "Why didn't you tell the principal? Why haven't the rest of these kids been tested."
Ray was ashamed of the answer he had to give them. "I did tell them. They said that I was mistaken, these were good kids who would never take drugs"
"They dismissed the whole thing as untrue." Grissom mused aloud.
The bell rang for the next class and Ray watched the boys jog off to the locker room. "I get these kids two hours a day and then practice after school. I talk to them about not doing drugs, about keeping their lives in order. I think that the only one that listens is Emmett and I worry about him the most."
With that, Ray left them to find their way back through the halls to the front entrance.
Grissom paused outside of the closed classroom door that led to the roach release of several hours earlier. On impulse, he peeked inside and found the room empty with the exception of one little crouching body. Mattie was scooping up one of the roaches and placing it inside a jar, his face a study of concentration.
"Is this your punishment?" Grissom was impressed that Mattie did not flinch at the sound of his voice, nor did he turn to look at him. He was focused on a corner of the cabinet where a small tentacle peeked out.
"I got you." Mattie placed another roach inside the jar before acknowledging Grissom's presence. "This and I've been suspended for four weeks."
Sara heard the pleased tone that accompanied the boy's statement. She wondered if he had planned on being suspended.
"So, how many have you caught?" Sara asked him as her eyes searched the floor around her feet.
"I've recaptured one hundred and five." Mattie moved a container on the shelf and looked behind the books.
"That is better odds than I would have given you." Grissom commented.
Mattie did not look at him as he kept peering behind book after book on the shelf. "Oh, don't I know it. I blocked all of the main holes in this room before I let them go, but some of them still found a way out."
"They always do." Grissom started to leave when Mattie spun the lid on his jar and looked at them with wistfulness.
"Would you give me a ride home? They haven't been able to get in touch with my mom and I don't want to ride the school bus."
"If that is okay with the office, then sure." Grissom stepped aside as the boy lifted the jar and walked past them to the door.
"Why didn't you call your Uncle Tom?" Sara could not help but ask the boy.
Mattie's eyes sparkled and he stopped in his tracks. "Uncle Tom is here? I didn't know that he was coming this week."
"Do you want to call him or do you want us to take you home?" Sara was surprised by Mattie's answer.
"Oh, you can take me home. It would be faster and I can call Uncle Tom from there."
"We need to speak with your mom, anyway." Grissom stayed in the hall as Sara verified with the office that they would take Mattie to his home.
"No problem." Sara said when she returned. "Strangers can waltz in there and take home one of their students."
"You're not strangers." Mattie whispered, almost to himself.
TBC
They pulled into the parking lot of Desert Springs School. Grissom had not spoken one word since leaving Nan Giles home. After several attempts to engage him in conversation, Sara had rolled her eyes and turned to stare out of the window.
Now Grissom pulled his keys from the ignition and stared at the steering wheel. Closing her door, Sara walked around to his side of the car, waiting for him to join her so they could begin the process of convincing the principal they needed to interview the football team. When Grissom did not move from his trance, she knocked on the window, waiting with more than a little impatience as his face slowly registered that he acknowledged her presence. Opening the car door, Grissom climbed out and then leaned back against it as he stared at the front of the low one story brick building.
"You are coming in with me, right Grissom?"
"Of course." Grissom mentally pushed his uneasiness from meeting Nan and Tom Giles to the back of his mind and concentrated on the task at hand. They had several boys to interview and it could take them a few hours to accomplish.
The halls were silent as they entered the front doors; Sara assumed that the kids were all in class. She glanced at her watch. 10:40 a.m. She read a sign that pointed towards the office and began to walk in that direction when she noticed that Grissom was moving away from her and towards a trophy case. She followed his stare and saw that the display case housed the previous year's state championship baseball trophy. A large picture of the team was propped behind the trophy and in the center of that picture was Andrew Giles wearing the biggest grin Sara had ever seen. Moving from case to case in the front lobby Sara and Grissom noticed that Andrew appeared in a good many of the championship pictures from the past years. Football, baseball, tennis; Andrew Giles was a star athlete.
A bell rang throughout the hall, and as if someone opened a can of worms, kids of all ages appeared to stream from the walls. Several stopped upon seeing the two strangers and many whispers began to flow among the passing students. Sara felt a firm hand take her elbow and guide her through the throngs towards the office sign. When they entered the relative silence of the office, he released her elbow and they turned as one towards the secretary.
Bending over something at her desk, the secretary failed to notice their entrance and kept her eyes downcast. Sara noticed that she was reading the newspaper as she stepped up to the front of the desk.
"Hi there." Sara spoke into the silence and watched the secretary jump ten feet in her chair.
Wild eyes flew up and darted from Sara to the man standing directly behind her.
"You! You are those investigators from Vegas who are here to find Andy." The woman smiled widely and pushed her chair back from the desk. "I'm so happy to meet you Mr. Grissom and you too Miss Sidle." The wisp of a woman pushed her dark hair back from her face and glided around the desk. Grissom stepped back and to Sara's other side as if she could shield him from the dynamo flying towards them.
"My name is Ellen Thompson." She held out her hand towards Sara, who took it with a slight smile. When Sara dropped her hand, the woman turned with determination to Grissom who reached forward, careful to keep Sara between them.
With an amused smile, Sara waited while the woman told them again, how glad she was that they were in town.
"We would like to speak with Andy's friends, Ellen, if that's possible." Sara smiled warmly, but it was not enough to keep the woman's face from clouding over with doubt.
"I don't know about that." She glanced towards a door that had the principal's name, Howard Owens, stenciled across the front. "I will have to speak to Howard and see if that would be okay."
"That would be fine, Ellen." Sara watched the woman knock on the door and slip inside. She turned to Grissom, who was staring after the woman with a puzzled expression.
"That was an odd reaction, don't you think?" Grissom raised his eyebrows at Sara and she responded with a shrug.
"This town is filled with strange reactions." While they waited, Sara read the article in the newspaper that mentioned Grissom and his girlfriend were investigating Andy's disappearance. She looked up to catch Grissom's narrowed eyes daring her to comment.
"It's a gift, reading things backwards."
"You couldn't read that small type from here."
"Where are you keeping your girlfriend, Gris? In the back of the car?"
Grissom was spared a retort when the principal's inner office door swung open and a man came hurrying out.
"I'm Howard Owens." He greeted them with a terse smile. Grissom noticed that he swallowed several times and had the nervous habit of running his finger between his tie and his throat. The man was in his mid to late forties and had fading brown hair and small black eyes.
"Hi, Mr. Owens." Sara returned his greeting by introducing herself and Grissom. She could tell by his reaction that he knew who they were and wanted nothing more than for them to leave.
"We would like to speak with a few of Andy's friends and teammates, Mr. Owens." Sara spoke with a calmness that did not match the knot that was growing in her stomach.
Howard looked like he was about to deny their request when the door burst open and a teacher stormed in pushing a little boy in front of him. Sara and Grissom recognized the boy as Mattie Giles and they could tell that the child was surprised to see them.
The teacher hesitated when he saw the strangers, but his ire was recalled when Mattie shrugged out of his grip. He pointed towards the child. "That child can not stay in my class. He has disrupted it for the last time. There is no excuse for his behavior."
Glancing at Grissom and Sara, Howard repeated his nervous habit and swallowed before he turned his attention to the distraught teacher.
"Now Gary, be reasonable. You know that Mattie has been going through a lot with his family life shattered the way it is." His glare at the child did not match his words, but Mattie did not appear to notice or care. His eyes were trained on Grissom.
"I'm tired of that excuse, Howard." Gary folded his arms. "I don't want him back in my class. He tries to disrupt the class every day and now he has succeeded in upsetting my students to the point that they refuse to enter my classroom."
"They are chickens." Mattie spoke with defiance and shoved his hands in his pockets in a posture of nonchalance.
"What.Why," Howard was having trouble formulating his thoughts as he put a restraining hand on Gary's arm. "What could he have done to keep your students from wanting to enter their classroom?"
"He released a jar full of cockroaches." Gary shuddered in dismay. "There must be more than a hundred roaches running around my classroom. I'm surprised you didn't hear the kids screaming."
"One hundred and twenty four." Mattie corrected.
Grissom chuckled, earning a playful jab in the ribs by Sara. Mattie looked at him with a new respect.
"You are not helping, Mr. Grissom." Howard turned to Ellen. "Why don't you take Mr. Grissom to the gym where he can speak with the football team?"
Ellen nodded. Grissom was reluctant to leave the defiant Mattie in the office alone with the disgruntled teacher and principal, but he followed Sara out of the room after giving Mattie a conspiratorial wink.
"You shouldn't encourage that, Gris." Sara spoke in a soft voice as they walked along the hallway. They passed a group of laughing and joking children who mingled around in front of a closed door.
Grissom shrugged. "It is serious. He has potentially put those roaches in the pathway of being destroyed by unaware individuals."
"You're kidding." Sara sidestepped one of those creatures as it scurried from out beneath the door. Several kids screamed as the roach paused and vanished back the way it had come. "I would stomp it if I had on different shoes."
The comment earned her a displeased look from the bug man himself, but she did not care. "It's a roach, Grissom."
They reached the entrance to the gym. Ellen called over the coach. The man took in the investigators with an appreciative smile.
"I was hoping that you would stop by here." Ray Ebsen was the first adult in the school to appear genuinely happy that the investigators were planning to talk with Andy's friends.
After Ellen left them to return to the office, Ray motioned them over to a group of boys who were whispering to one another and staring at their approach.
"This is the class that Andy was in and these are the boys that he was around the most." Ray introduced the group of nine teenagers. Sara's attention was focused on the one he called Paul Hanson.
"We would like to speak with each of you individually." Grissom stated. "We will split up, with Miss Sidle talking with one of you while I speak with another." He looked back at Ray. "If that is okay, Mr. Ebsen?"
"That would be fine." Ray informed the boys that they should be honest and tell the investigators anything they wanted to know.
Sara heard a snicker from one of the boys.
"Is there a problem, Paul?" Ray did not speak to the boy with any affection. Sara decided she would talk with Paul Hanson first.
"No, sir." Paul replied without a hint of sincerity.
"I'll speak with you over there, Paul." Sara motioned towards the bleachers on the far side of the gym. She watched the boy grin and toss his basketball to another boy as he strutted over to the bleachers.
Grissom pointed to a boy, but Ray shook his head and nodded towards another teen that stood a few feet off to the side of the group. Grissom caught the teen's eye and motioned towards the bleachers on the opposite side of the gym from where Sara was walking. Emmett reluctantly followed Grissom, averting his eyes from the rest of his teammates.
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Sara chose to stand while Paul sat back on the bleachers, his arms stretched out along the back of the seat behind him.
"You knew Andrew Giles well, Paul?"
"Everyone in this town knows everyone else well, Miss Sidle." Paul let his eyes roam over her.
"Were the two of you friends?" Sara ignored the impulse to reach over and wipe that insolent look from the teens face. That would look good in tomorrow's paper. 'Grissom's girlfriend smacks a student, one of our own.'
"Yep. Andy and I have been friends for ages." His voice did not lend truth to the words. Somehow, Sara got the impression he was fibbing.
"Why do I think that you are lying to me, Paul?"
"I'm not lying," Paul insisted. "Andy and I were at a party together the weekend before he went camping."
"That doesn't make you friends." Sara was beginning to wonder what she had hoped to accomplish by interviewing Paul first. She should have spoken with the other boys and then Paul. She decided to come back to him after she interviewed the last teen. "Is there anything about Andy that you could share with me, Paul? Anything that would explain who he was meeting that weekend?"
"He was meeting someone that weekend?" Paul was truly surprised by her comment. He did not know about the note.
Sara decided to ask him about Olivia while his defenses were down." Tell me about your girlfriend and her relationship with Andy."
"Olivia? She and Andy were friends." Paul shrugged.
"They were best friends, weren't they?" Sara watched him lean forward, his grin now gone.
"They used to be best friends. Andy was doing more stuff with the boys and Olivia didn't like it."
"If Olivia was your girlfriend, then why should she care what Andy was doing with the boys?"
"You would have to ask her that question." Paul wore a bored expression. "Is that all? Because I need to practice my game."
"You do that." Sara watched him jog back over to the group and hoped that Grissom was having better luck.
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Emmett kept his eyes on his hands, twisting them with a nervousness that intrigued Grissom.
"Why are you so nervous?"
Emmett stopped twisting his hands and risked a quick look into the face of the investigator.
"I don't know."
"Tell me about Andy. Were you and he close friends?"
"We used to be good friends." Emmett looked in the direction Sara and Paul were sitting. "Then he started goofing off with Paul and his group."
Grissom kept his eyes on Emmett as the boy looked away from Paul. "You don't like Paul very much, do you Emmett?"
"No."
"Why don't you like him?"
Emmett was quiet as he debated what he should tell Grissom. He was worried about Andy, but he did not know how much he should share without alienating himself from the entire group.
"Andy used to be his own person. He liked everyone, but he didn't care about impressing everyone.you know?" Emmett did not wait to see if Grissom understood what he was saying. "And then one day he did."
"What happened?"
Emmett looked around him to make sure that nobody was listening. "I don't want you to tell anyone that I'm the one that told you this."
"It depends on what you tell me, Emmett. I can't make promises that I'm not sure that I can keep."
Grissom was afraid that Emmett would change his mind. The boy wiped his brow and took a deep breath.
"A few months ago, when Olivia started dating Paul." He looked around again to confirm they were alone. "Andy decided to go to one of Paul's parties. He wanted to keep an eye on Olivia and make sure that things didn't get out of hand."
Grissom could see that happening, based on what he had learned of Andrew. "What happened?"
"They spiked the punch and Andy got wasted."
That was not unusual, Grissom thought to himself.
"Andy was more than wasted." Emmett tapped his knee. "Paul and some other boys put ecstasy in his punch. He was wired."
Grissom considered these details and waited for Emmett to continue. It took him another long pause and another look around the room. Grissom followed his eyes.
"Which of these boys were involved?" Grissom watched the teens throwing a basketball between them while they talked.
"All of them." Emmett shrugged. "Andy was the best, but he had no clue that all of these guys were doing drugs. When he realized what had happened he was stunned to say the least."
"He decided to turn them in?" Grissom quizzed.
"No." Emmett was so pale now he was shaking. "He told me what happened and made me promise not to tell anyone."
"Why would he do this?"
"Olivia was seeing Paul." Emmett let the statement speak for itself. "If he turned them in, then he turned her in. He wanted to get her out before something happened to her, but she wouldn't listen."
"So, he was in the process of trying to make Olivia stop seeing Paul and also stop her from doing drugs?"
"Yes and no." Emmett stood up and started to walk back to the group, but hesitated. "That was what he intended to do, but somehow he started joining in with them. He was smoking pot and doing ecstasy and heroin almost every weekend."
He left Grissom standing there with more questions than answers. Grissom saw Sara walking back towards the group and waved her over. Speaking softly he filled her in on what he had learned and watched her expression change to sadness.
"He thought he could help Olivia by being part of the group, but he ended up getting in way over his head."
Sara shook her head as Grissom spoke. "Stupid kids." Her voice choked on the words and she looked up at Grissom. "Do you think that Kyle suspected?"
"I have a good idea that he did."
"We should finish interviewing the rest of the kids. I suppose we need to ask them the drug question without letting on that Emmett spilled."
"They will figure it out anyway, but we can try."
They spent the next hour and a half speaking with the remainder of the group. Only one other boy let on that Andy was involved with drugs. He stressed that drugs had nothing to do with why Andy and Kyle had disappeared. "It was recreational; I promise we had nothing to do with his disappearance."
Grissom let the boy go back to the group and watched as they glared in the direction of Emmett. He hoped that the boy would not be ostracized by the school for speaking to them in such a candid manner. Ray patted the teen on the shoulder and jogged over to where Grissom and Sara stood by the gym entrance.
"Did you learn anything useful, Mr. Grissom? Miss Sidle?" Ray had the look of genuine concern and for the first time since meeting him, Sara wondered if he was aware of what was going on with his team and sent Emmett in first to figure out what the boy would tell them.
"Are you aware of any of your boys doing drugs, Mr. Ebsen?" Sara watched his face clearly and found it interesting when no flicker of surprise altered his features.
"I was suspicious." Ray rubbed his chin. "I noticed a behavior change in Andy several weeks ago that bothered me. When I talked to him about it, he shrugged it off as stress with school and home."
"Stress at home?"
"He said that he was struggling with some of his classes and his parents were not happy about it."
"Did it concern you that he was struggling with classes?"
"Of course."
"If he failed then he wouldn't be able to play football this year." Sara suggested.
A flash of anger lit behind his eyes. "I didn't care about the game, Miss Sidle. I've known Andy since he was in first grade. He is an avid learner and excelled at school. I was concerned about him."
"I can see that." Sara felt that he was being sincere. "What did you do after you spoke with Andy?"
"I called his dad." Ray told them about calling Kyle and asking him to stop by the school. They had a long talk and later Kyle told him that Andy had denied drug use. His dad did not believe him and was determined to get to the bottom of it. "I told him that if there was anything I could do to let me know."
Grissom was thoughtful. "Why didn't you tell the principal? Why haven't the rest of these kids been tested."
Ray was ashamed of the answer he had to give them. "I did tell them. They said that I was mistaken, these were good kids who would never take drugs"
"They dismissed the whole thing as untrue." Grissom mused aloud.
The bell rang for the next class and Ray watched the boys jog off to the locker room. "I get these kids two hours a day and then practice after school. I talk to them about not doing drugs, about keeping their lives in order. I think that the only one that listens is Emmett and I worry about him the most."
With that, Ray left them to find their way back through the halls to the front entrance.
Grissom paused outside of the closed classroom door that led to the roach release of several hours earlier. On impulse, he peeked inside and found the room empty with the exception of one little crouching body. Mattie was scooping up one of the roaches and placing it inside a jar, his face a study of concentration.
"Is this your punishment?" Grissom was impressed that Mattie did not flinch at the sound of his voice, nor did he turn to look at him. He was focused on a corner of the cabinet where a small tentacle peeked out.
"I got you." Mattie placed another roach inside the jar before acknowledging Grissom's presence. "This and I've been suspended for four weeks."
Sara heard the pleased tone that accompanied the boy's statement. She wondered if he had planned on being suspended.
"So, how many have you caught?" Sara asked him as her eyes searched the floor around her feet.
"I've recaptured one hundred and five." Mattie moved a container on the shelf and looked behind the books.
"That is better odds than I would have given you." Grissom commented.
Mattie did not look at him as he kept peering behind book after book on the shelf. "Oh, don't I know it. I blocked all of the main holes in this room before I let them go, but some of them still found a way out."
"They always do." Grissom started to leave when Mattie spun the lid on his jar and looked at them with wistfulness.
"Would you give me a ride home? They haven't been able to get in touch with my mom and I don't want to ride the school bus."
"If that is okay with the office, then sure." Grissom stepped aside as the boy lifted the jar and walked past them to the door.
"Why didn't you call your Uncle Tom?" Sara could not help but ask the boy.
Mattie's eyes sparkled and he stopped in his tracks. "Uncle Tom is here? I didn't know that he was coming this week."
"Do you want to call him or do you want us to take you home?" Sara was surprised by Mattie's answer.
"Oh, you can take me home. It would be faster and I can call Uncle Tom from there."
"We need to speak with your mom, anyway." Grissom stayed in the hall as Sara verified with the office that they would take Mattie to his home.
"No problem." Sara said when she returned. "Strangers can waltz in there and take home one of their students."
"You're not strangers." Mattie whispered, almost to himself.
TBC