AllFreeNovel
Share Us
13
The conference was in Charlie’s office this time. The hyper-efficient Rosa wasn’t currently guarding the sanctum—Sofia imagined her clocking off at five o’clock on the dot, lining up the few items she permitted to remain on her desk in perfect symmetry for the next day.
Sofia refused Eric’s offer of coffee, and Ian seemed equally keen to get down to business. He’d barely glanced her way in the car, after their exchange in the café. The air between them was charged with tension, and not the delicious sexual kind of before. Sitting upright on the edge of her chair, her nerves strung tight, she risked a peep at him, then focused on Charlie.
“Sofia, just to double-check, you’ve noticed an uptick in drug-related incidences since this past spring, right?” he asked.
“Right,” she confirmed.
“That matches with what I’ve found. Using Sofia’s notes and lists as a starting point, the medical records I’ve discovered indicate that the MDMA-laced marijuana has been in circulation for at least six months.”
“Wait. How did you get medical records?” Sofia asked. She’d given him the names of the kids she knew of who’d OD’d and all the kids she knew went to the big parties, information neither the vice-principal nor the police had been interested in. But there was a big difference between knowing a kid’s name and accessing his or her medical history. She looked from one man to the other at the silence her question met.
“Should I not be asking that question?” she asked.
“Truth is, Charlie’s a world-class hacker,” Ian told her. “He has a nickname and everything.”
“What?” Sofia gasped.
Eric nodded. “Yeah, hackers have tags, just like graffiti artists do. Oh, and the government has a whole filing cabinet of notes on him.” He moved his hands apart and raised them to show the size of the cabinet. “They can’t keep electronic records on him because he’d just get into the system and erase them,” he added in a whisper.
“No!” Sofia started to protest, but then she dissolved into giggles. The image was funny.
“Oh, for God’s sake! If you two comedians have quite finished?” But Charlie was grinning too. “May I continue?”
“Please.” Sofia wiped her eyes, glad for the silliness, which had dissipated some of the tension.
“I’ve been making calls to the parents of the children in question, and they volunteered the information.” Charlie was all business now. “They actually seemed thrilled that someone was taking this seriously. They definitely want to know who’s to blame for their kid’s bad reaction—or death, in Tony Ramirez’s case.”
“That was a tragedy,” Sofia murmured. “I can’t believe it wasn’t enough to motivate the police to do more. They downplayed it, wanting to dismiss it, you know? And treating me like some busybody who was trying to make something out of nothing.” That still rankled. “So what’s the next step?”
“We need to sort through the files and notes we’ve made so far. I have media reports and statistics from the local police too.” Charlie tapped the file in front of him. “Getting it into the computer will create a more accurate timeline and track how much MDMA has been introduced into the area.”
“Why is that something you need to check out?” Sofia asked.
Ian turned his attention to Sofia. “Cartels have a system. They get the people in a chosen area hooked and up the addiction rate over several months so their buyers are clamoring for their product.”
His scowl revealed what he thought of these “business practices” and Sofia felt sickened. “These buyers are just kids!” she exclaimed.
“I know.” Ian’s lips folded into a grim line. “If we can see that there’s been a steady increase in the number of MDMA ODs in our area, we might be able to determine if this is teenagers deliberately enhancing their marijuana, or if it’s something more organized.”
“A cartel…” Sofia could hardly get her head around it. She wasn’t naïve about drugs—what person her age, and a high school teacher into the bargain, was?—but she hadn’t imagined this could be so deliberate, so coldly planned out.
“So, Ian, you and I can get working on that,” Charlie said, reaching for his laptop, and Ian nodded.
“Where do they get the MDMA?” Sofia suddenly asked.
“Good point, and something I’ve been wondering, too.” Eric rose to pour himself another coffee. “My idea to try to get an answer to that is to call labs in the area, see if anyone might know how the MDMA is making its way into the weed and from where.”
“Oh, I can help with that.” Sofia was glad to volunteer. She needed something to do. “I have some contacts in the industry. I can call them?”
“Yes.” Ian looked at Charlie for his opinion, and Charlie nodded, spreading out his files. “If we can find the source, we might figure out a way to shut it down.”
“Sofia, feel free to use my office and phone.” Eric stood.
After a quick glance at Ian, and failing to catch his eye, Sofia followed Eric down the corridor to his door.
“Make yourself at home. There’s water in the mini fridge and a coffee machine with pods,” Eric told her, waving her in.
