He shifted to the photos that he’d gotten from Abe’s cottage and scanned each one. They showed scenes of white-capped mountains, a wildlife museum, Abe’s older parents sitting in a porch swing, and Jamie, Abe, and the other teachers and their spouses at a pool in their bathing suits, smiling with their arms around each other. Abe stood happily at the center, and Chris felt a pang at Abe’s loss, a sign of how deeply this operation had sunk into his bones. He couldn’t let Abe’s killers get away with murder and he had to stop them from killing anybody else. There had to be a connection.

Chris heard voices and a knocking at the door downstairs, but he ignored it. He wasn’t expecting anyone. They must have the wrong building. It happened because the townhouses in the development looked alike.

A woman called out, “Chris, are you home?”

Chris recognized the voice. It was Heather’s. As much as he liked her, he didn’t have time to deal. He waited, hoping she would go away.

“Chris, it’s Heather and Jordan! Are you home? Your car is here!”

Chris would see what they wanted and get rid of them fast. He closed the file, hurried from his office, and hustled to the front door, buzzing them in. He stepped outside his apartment door to greet them on the landing, as they came upstairs. Heather looked stressed, her hair loose and her hands shoved into her jacket pockets, and Jordan lumbered behind her as if they weren’t even together.

“Oh hello, guys,” Chris said quickly. “Sorry, you caught me at a bad moment.”

“Chris, hi.” Heather flashed a tight smile, reaching the landing. “We’re really sorry to bother you.”

Jordan interjected, “Hey Coach. My mom wanted to come, not me.”

“Thanks. Jordan.” Heather shot him a tense look, then turned back to Chris. “Chris, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t important. Something came up that you need to know about, as coach. I didn’t want to go to Coach Hardwick because, well, I don’t know him, and I didn’t want to call the principal if we could keep it to the team. In-house, as it were.”

“Okay, how I can help you?” Chris resigned himself to dealing with it, then getting them out of here.

“Well, can we come in?” Heather blinked. “I don’t want to talk about it out here.”

“Oh, sure, right. Excuse my bad manners.” Chris ushered them inside, but left the door open.

“Well, this is awkward to talk about, but here goes.” Heather frowned, barely glancing around the apartment. “Jordan got an inappropriate picture in a text from Evan today. It’s of a girl that Evan’s dating, a sext. Jordan thinks they call her Miss Booty Call, but whatever. Evan sent it to the entire varsity team and apparently he has done this before. I don’t know what to do, but we have to do something.”

“I understand.” Chris had no time for a high-school sexting drama. “I’ll deal with this first thing tomorrow morning when—”

“I just want to say, it’s the first time that Jordan ever got one of these pictures from Evan. Jordan wasn’t on varsity before. I don’t want my son to get in trouble for something that Evan is doing. Jordan needs a baseball scholarship and if this goes on his record—”

Jordan interjected, “But I don’t want to get Evan in trouble. I called him but he didn’t call me back.”

“Jordan, really?” Heather shot Jordan another look, then returned her attention to Chris. “I called Mindy, Evan’s mother, but this is the least of her worries right now. She’s beside herself. She just found out that her husband’s going to jail for tax evasion.”

“Really,” Chris said, surprised.

“Yes, and they had a big family fight. She doesn’t even know where Evan is.”

“Evan is missing?” Chris’s ears pricked up.

“Well, not missing, just not home.” Heather pursed her lips. “But Evan isn’t my problem. That family can afford to write a check for college, but we can’t, and I’m not going to let Evan hurt Jordan’s chances to be recruited.”

“I agree, Jordan shouldn’t get in trouble. But it’s Sunday night, so I can’t contact Coach Hardwick, Dr. McElroy, or anybody in the office.” Chris walked to the door. He sensed that something was going on with Evan and he had to get back to his desk. “Guys, I really appreciate your bringing this to my attention, but I’m in the middle of something. I will discuss this with them first thing in the morning—”

“Chris, I must not be making myself clear, this is so awkward.” Heather took a phone from her pocket and scrolled through it as she talked. “Maybe you need to see what I’m talking about to understand. It’s a very inappropriate picture. Look!”

“I assumed it was—” Chris started to say, but stopped when Heather held up her phone. Its screen showed the naked body of a woman whose face wasn’t shown but whose legs were parted, leaving nothing to the imagination. She had a tattoo on her side, a dream catcher.

“Heather, let me see that.” Chris felt something nagging at him.

“The sext?” Heather handed him the phone. “Kinda weird of you, but okay.”

“Excuse me for one minute.” Chris eyed the photo, handed her back the phone, and edged backwards toward his office. “Just wait here.”

Chapter Forty-six

Chris hustled into his office, closed the door behind him, and hurried to his desk for the pictures from Wyoming. He found the one he was looking for, the photo of Jamie, Abe, and the other teachers and their spouses in bathing suits. His gaze went straight to Courtney, who was wearing a black two-piece suit. She had a tattoo on her side, and he looked at it closely but couldn’t tell what it was. If it had been a digital photo, he would simply enlarge it, but he didn’t have a scanner.

Chris tore open his desk drawer, found an old-school magnifying glass, and held it up to the photo. He moved it over Courtney’s waist, and the ink came into focus. Courtney’s tattoo was a dream catcher, and it was on her right side, in the same position on her body as in the nude selfie. He compared it with the phone, and it was a match.

Chris blinked. So Courtney was the woman in the sext, and she and Evan must’ve been having an affair. But something else was far more concerning. Heather had said that Evan’s father was about to go to jail for tax evasion, a federal crime. Evan was so upset that he’d left the house. That could give Evan a motivation for a grudge against the government. But where was Evan? Could he be with Courtney?