Chapter 12 - Ryan Finally Talks
The photo changed the investigation.
So did Ryan.
For three days, he said nothing.
Then Gordon Mercer announced through his attorney that Ryan had acted independently in every school incident and that "teenage behavior should not be confused with adult business matters."
Ryan saw the statement on television.
According to Detective Ruiz, that was when he asked for a lawyer who did not work for his father.
Maya was not in the interrogation room, but Ruiz later told her what happened.
Ryan started with denial.
Then blame.
Then fear.
Finally, he admitted that Seth's abduction had been Hargrove's idea.
Hargrove had told Ryan to lure Seth to the fieldhouse and scare him into revealing where the original ledger was hidden.
"I didn't know they were going to tape his mouth," Ryan said.
Ruiz asked who "they" were.
Ryan gave him two names: a Mercer security contractor and a former assistant coach.
Both were arrested that night.
Then Ryan said something nobody expected.
"My dad hates Maya because of her father."
"Why?"
"Because Gabriel Torres didn't stay bought."
That sentence hit Maya like a second betrayal.
When Ruiz told her, she stood so fast the chair behind her tipped over.
"My father took money?"
"Ryan may be repeating something he heard."
"Did he?"
Ruiz did not soften it. "We found a deposit of fifteen thousand dollars into your parents' old joint account three weeks before Gabriel died."
Elena went pale.
"I never knew about that."
The bank record listed the source as a consulting payment from a company tied to Mercer.
Maya felt sick.
Everything she had believed about her father wobbled.
That night, she locked herself in her room and refused dinner.
At midnight, Elena knocked once and came in anyway.
"Your dad made mistakes," she said.
Maya looked away.
"You don't know that."
"I know people. He was terrified those last few weeks. He told me he had gotten too close to something dirty. He said he was going to fix it."
"Maybe he was part of it."
"Maybe for a moment."
Maya's eyes filled.
Elena sat beside her.
"Courage isn't never doing wrong. Sometimes it's deciding the wrong thing stops with you."
The next morning, Seth arrived with another box from Coach Danner's garage.
Inside was a sealed envelope addressed to Elena.
Gabriel's handwriting.
Elena's hands shook as she opened it.
The letter began:
ELENA, I TOOK MONEY I SHOULD NEVER HAVE TAKEN.
Maya closed her eyes.
May you like
Then Elena kept reading.
AND TONIGHT I'M GIVING IT BACK WITH EVERYTHING I KNOW.
