The Kid On The Bike - 11. Chapter 11

The next day at lunch, Elena reported. “Henry Chang says he knows a lot about drugs. But it mainly seems to be things he’s heard.”

“From who?” Ike asked. “His friends? Family?”

“We never talked about either. It didn’t seem important last night.”

“Makes sense,” Jae reinforced. “On first contact.”

Elena laughed. “If you forget the earlier two.”

“What do you want to do next?” Don picked up.

“That’s what I wanted to talk with you about – with the rest of you – Owen and I spoke this morning.” Their boss nodded in confirmation. “ Because this is such a touchy situation – we all need to be so diplomatic – we wanted to know what everyone thought.”

“Sure,” Rob said laughing. “So you can blame us.”

Everyone laughed at that. Then Elena went on.

“The logical thing is to go to the high school next – to talk with this girl and boy – if they really exist. Because even though Henry Chang seems nice – and honest – there’s still the slightest chance he isn’t. And if the girl and boy do exist, we need to know what Liz or Maureen – or any of the teachers or staff or security guards – know about them. Though we can only talk with people we trust to keep quiet. That’s why I doubt we can ask any of the students.”

“It might start more rumors,” Owen pointed out.

“Are we sure they’re not already going around?” Jae asked. “But no one’s connected them to the drugs?”

“Could be,” Elena agreed. “In which case, Liz or Maureen might know – and that would let us find out before talking with these two students.” She hesitated. “Though is it a good idea to talk with them at all? Because that may confirm their original rumor, and now they’d have proof.”

“That may be all they wanted,” Ike considered. “One of them, at least.”

“But which one?” Elena pushed. “The boy – out of jealousy. Or the girl – who might feel she’s being ignored.”

“It’s a mess,” Owen agreed, “that I wish we weren’t in the middle of.”

“It would be so much easier if what happened four years ago hadn’t,” Don put in. “We’d be able to do our jobs normally.”

“Unfortunately, there’s no escaping that,” Owen reminded them. Again – everyone agreed.

“So what Owen and I talked about,” Elena told the group, “is that we go on nosing around. We know it’s probably the least effective way to work, but it’s also the safest.” She turned to Ike and seemed to ask abruptly,” How old’s your older daughter?”

Ike immediately laughed. “You not thinking of putting Sienna undercover?”

“Just to ask one question,” Owen confessed. “The kind that you – or your wife – or your younger daughter – might easily ask over dinner. Reminding her first that anything said while you eat doesn’t leave the table.”

Ike continued to grin. “You know my daughters better than that – you’ve met them at parties. They’re almost always surrounded by friends and often talking about what happened at school – and definitely not in the classroom.”

“We didn’t think it would work,” Elena acknowledged. “But we wanted to ask.”

Ike went on. “Sienna knows that anything I say about work is private and not to be spread around. She’s good about that. But if it’s a question about her world – school, and friends, and gossip – there’s no way she’s gonna be quiet. She’ll let something out – if only by accident.”

Again, everyone understood. Though Ike continued. “The other thing is that she’s a senior. She doesn’t know – or probably care about – sophomores – not unless one’s an athlete or stands out in some other way – even a bad one. So even saying I casually found a way to ask this question, I doubt it would do anything but feed word of mouth.”

“It was one alternative,” Elena assured him. “We hoped she’d know something offhand.”

“I don’t think so,” Ike repeated, and Elena turned to Owen.

“Then our best chance may be Liz or Maureen.”

“Or the school guard who called you first,” Owen suggested. “Or any others. They’re always around, so they’re almost invisible – at least, to the kids, who pretty well ignore them. But the guards pick up on things like students flirting. And they see things they don’t even know are important – till somebody asks.”

“They also talk among themselves,” Jae cautioned, “because they’re so bored. And kids overhear them.” She paused. “That’s how I’ve learned a lot of things before. I’m sure we all have.”

Since following gossip was a basic police tool, no one disagreed.

“What if Liz and Maureen don’t know anything?” Don wondered. “Then what?”

“We go back to Henry Chang,” Elena admitted. “Tell him no one at school knows this girl or boy – or they won’t admit it. So if he doesn’t give us more, we can’t stop this rumor.”

“And if he doesn’t care?” Ike asked.

“We tell Maureen Bergen,” Owen said, quickly stepping in. “Let her break it to the school board. Either way, we’d be safely out of there.” He sighed before acknowledging the flaw. “Of course, the problem with that is if something blows up later, and the board says it’s because we didn’t do anything – which you know they will...”

“Sweet people,” Rob cracked.

“Well, they are elected,” Owen partly defended. “And we’re not. And some of them aren’t even paid.”

Everyone laughed at that, knowing some of the school board members were fairly rich.

“I guess we all agree with your plan,” Don soon assured Elena. “Now how can we help?”

“Are there things we can trace online?” Ike suggested.

“Like what?” Rob joked. “Who’s taking who to the senior prom? Are we gonna snoop by pretending to be high school kids? That’d get us arrested.”

“You know better ways than that,” Don complimented him.

“Thanks,” Rob said grinning. “And like Elena said – and I’ve been doing – I can poke around. But like Ike, I don’t think I’ll find anything.”

“And I’ll ask Sienna,” Ike assured them. “Probably no more than, ‘Hey, do you know someone named Henry Chang?’ If she doesn’t, I’ll stop.”

“And if she asks, ‘Why?’” Jae questioned.

Ike grinned. “I’ll tell her you think he’s cute, and you wondered if he had an older brother – way older.”

“Thank you for that,” Jae said smiling.

“At least, it would take it out of high school,” Ike reasoned. “So she wouldn’t make the connection or be interested. Though she still might ask her friends out of curiosity, and one of them could know Henry Chang.”

“Both good ideas,” Elena agreed. “Meanwhile, I’ll ask Liz, though maybe not Maureen yet. I’ll see what we can gather.”

Owen listened and then reminded them, “You’ve got to remember – as Elena said – that no matter how honest – or ordinary – Henry Chang seems, there’s no reason yet for us to trust him completely. He may not only know about drugs and be selling them – he may have learned early, from someone more experienced, how to seem innocent and go on politely lying. So until we know differently, we’ve got to find back-up for everything he says.”

“Or doesn’t say,” Elena added.

“If you can’t find this girl and boy,” Owen insisted, “he’ll have to tell us their names .”

“Easy to say,” Elena replied smiling.

“Maybe,” he admitted. “But you’ll find a way.”

“At least he trusts you,” Rob said. “Or seems to.”

And with that, Owen ended the meeting.