The Kid On The Bike - 4. Chapter 4

By the next morning, Rob has easily gotten the past five years of graduation lists from online. “It took five minutes of ‘copy and paste,’” he told Elena. “No negotiations.”

“Oh, sure,” she told him. “Next time, I get to do that.”

He laughed as they started to compare the six lists. Elena had picked up the newest one from Maureen on the way to work. They quickly eliminated duplicate names and sorted likely ones, both girls and boys.

“Some first names are neutral – or non-binding,” Rob pointed out. “Mountain... Coyote...”

“I don’t think it’s the kind of school where anyone would come out yet,” Elena said. “Not and feel comfortable about it. They’d at least transfer to Northampton.”

“Not if they had money,” Rob offered. “Any private school nearby is more protective.”

“And there’re more of them than public high schools,” Elena said, almost sighing. They both knew how hard that made public schools to fund.

After they went through the names, the low number of Asians Ike had predicted was confirmed – sixteen, spanning the four years – four percent – boys and girls included. Though Elena assured Jae at the next lunch meeting that she was right – students could be “hiding” under family names gained through marriage.

“We’ll have to do some checking,” Elena told Owen. “How far do we have permission to go?”

“I doubt there’s much harm in checking the Internet,” he replied. “We’d only be reading what the kids – sometimes foolishly – post.”

“Or looking at pictures,” Don picked up. “Saying, ‘That’s a boy. That’s another boy. Or that kid’s name is Smith but he looks a little Asian.”

“What’s that mean?” Jae jibed.

“That I’m in trouble,” Don said, pulling up himself up to his full height, as if that would offer protection. Jae simply grinned.

“But that means we’ll have to check every name,” Rob objected.

“Then stick with the ones most likely,” Owen guided. “See what we get and where we can possibly go. And keep this all in the office and as low key as possible, not leaving trails. Then we’ll look everything over.”

“And track your time,” Ike reminded them. “If this starts going to days, rather than hours, we’ll have to pull back.”

“Even though it’s about drugs?” Elena questioned.

“So far, that’s still rumor,” Don answered. “There’s not one confirmed sale.”

“Or any complications,” Jae added. “Overall, I’m really not sure why we’re doing this.”

“To cover someone’s butt,” Ike insisted. “But whose?”

“Ours,” Owen reminded them. “If we don’t stop this now, it may come back bigger. So if we can identify the kid... and somehow ease him off... it takes the problem away.” He smiled, then added, “So go to it.” That was directed at Elena but this time seemed to include Rob. Still, Elena knew that, having the senior rank, she’d be in charge.

Soon after lunch, Rob came back with more data. “Of the seven boys I’ve checked – and that’s all that’re currently on our list – there’s only one I can’t find an address for – or really any information. The others I can track through addresses and parents names and friends – and also postings and photos and sometimes even mentions in the school paper – or what would be a paper if it was still printed. It’s now a blog on a website that uses the old paper’s name.”

“I’ll bet the name goes back to before Owen and Don,” Elena said, “probably to when the school was new. I think that was in the thirties and the WPA.”

Rob nodded. He knew a bit about local history. “Anyway,” he went on, “ that’s the kid I’d be interested in – if he really is a kid. As the security guard noted, he may be a young looking guy... in his twenties... possibly short, too.”

“You can’t find anything about him?”

“Just a couple of connections to New York – very loose connections.”

“The state?” Elena asked.

“City.”

“Where?”

“It only says ‘New York.’”

“What kind of connections?”

“A possible friend or two,” Rob said. “High school guys... maybe younger... seventh or eighth grade. And they’re all guys.”

“Wonder what that means.”

“Tracing him is also complicated ‘cause there’s a mystery writer with the same name. He lives in New York and writes about Chinatown. So everything I run comes up with him first. You have to go to, like, twenty pages in before the kid turns up.”

“Could they be related? ”

“The boy’s not a junior or third or fourth – at least, not on your school list. But it might not be accurate.”

“Maybe he hates having a repeated family name,” Elena suggested.

“Could be.” Rob seemed to be thinking. “I wonder if his family moved here recently... and that’s why there’re no records. And – also – if that’s when the drug selling began.”

“If it began.”

Rob agreed to that. “Also, if the kid’s related to the writer, it may not be directly – since he’s still based in New York.”

“An uncle or grandfather?”

“ Or cousin. Maybe divorced parents?”

“Or a second home?”

“Then why would the kid be in school here?” Rob asked.

“He got thrown out of his first one? Or two or three?” She smiled. “Maybe because of drugs.”

“All possible, but there’s no way to verify that on the Internet – not with the privacy schools keep records. And not with the Internet we’re allowed to use.”

“There’s another?”

Rob laughed. “You know about the dark swamp.”

Elena acknowledged that.

“But if you can’t believe – or use as evidence – what you read on the accessible sites, you can imagine the objections to the dark side.”

“Still, should we tell Owen?” Elena asked. “That the kid looks suspicious?”

“I would.”

Elena looked again at all of Rob’s notes. Finally, she said, “Thanks for being so thorough.”

“What I’m here for,” he said laughing. “What we all are.”