Chapter 11 - Smoke at North Lake
The burned SUV sat crooked in a ditch, flames already knocked down by firefighters.
No body was inside.
That was the good news.
The bad news was a blood trail leading into the woods.
State police sealed the road.
Maya and her family were ordered to stay away, which meant they spent three agonizing hours in a diner twenty miles south while rumors multiplied online.
At 3:40 p.m., Officer Bennett called.
They had found Alan Pike alive in an abandoned fishing shed with a head wound and two broken fingers.
Principal Hargrove was still missing.
Pike asked for a lawyer.
Then, after learning Gordon Mercer had publicly blamed him for "fabricating old evidence," Pike changed his mind.
"He wants immunity," Detective Ruiz told Elena later. "Or as much as the prosecutor can give him."
"For what?" Maya asked.
Ruiz looked at her for a long moment.
"For helping falsify your father's crash report."
Maya stopped breathing.
Elena gripped the kitchen counter.
"Falsify how?"
"Pike says Mercer's foreman called him before the crash was reported. Told him there had been an accident involving a city inspector and that Mercer wanted things handled quietly."
"Before the crash was reported?" Luis repeated.
Ruiz nodded.
"Pike says when he arrived, another man was already there. The brake line had been cut. Pike changed the report and accepted cash."
Maya felt the room tilt.
"Who cut it?"
"He claims he doesn't know."
"Do you believe him?"
"No."
Ruiz continued. "He also says your father had called the state that afternoon and scheduled a meeting for the next morning. Someone knew he was going to talk."
Maya walked out onto the porch because she could not cry in front of everyone.
For seven years, she had believed her father made one bad turn.
Now she pictured him driving home, not knowing someone had already decided he was too expensive to keep honest.
Elena came outside and stood beside her.
"I should have asked more questions," she whispered.
Maya shook her head.
"You were grieving."
"So were you. You were nine."
They held each other in the cold air.
Inside, Luis called them back.
"You need to see this."
The television showed Gordon Mercer standing behind a row of microphones.
"My family is being targeted by false accusations," he said. "My son was assaulted at school and is now being blamed for crimes he did not commit."
A reporter shouted a question about Gabriel Torres.
Gordon's face stayed calm.
"I barely knew the man."
Maya stared at the screen.
Then Seth texted her a photo of something he had just found in his father's garage.
A team banquet picture from eight years earlier.
Gordon Mercer stood in the center.
Coach Danner stood beside him.
And on Gordon's other side, smiling stiffly at the camera, was Gabriel Torres.
Pinned to Gabriel's jacket was a handwritten note.
May you like
MEETING TONIGHT - 9 PM - G.M.
The photo was dated the night he died.
