Golden Trail (76 page)

“I hear you, brother, but I’m on duty in the
office. I gotta brief Roc before I leave so she can take over. I
gotta go,” Layne replied.

“Gotcha, see you in ten,” Cal said and Layne
heard the disconnect.

His eyes were still on Rocky so he spoke.
“Jasper found out who slipped Keira the drug, he’s bearin’ down on
him now, Cal’s five minutes out, I gotta get to my boy.”

“Go, baby,” she whispered.

“You take notes you hear anything important,
see the numbers on the screen?” he asked, she glanced at the screen
and nodded, “Write down timings. I can scroll back and listen. You
hear something big, something that freaks you, you take note of the
time and call Merry then you call me. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “Go.”

He leaned in quickly to kiss her forehead
that she helpfully tipped back for him and he took off.

* * * * *

Jasper’s Charger and Cal’s truck were in
front of an enormous house that took up the entirety of a secluded
cul de sac at the end of a street on The Heritage. The house was
set back from the road and surrounded by trees. Its front yard was
also littered with cans, bottles, chip bags and used plastic
cups.

Layne parked behind Cal’s truck and jogged
to the front door which was partially ajar. He slipped through and
saw the house was like the yard, except a lot worse. The place was
a disaster and it smelled like vomit and stale beer. And there
wasn’t one keg in the wide entryway, there were three.

He heard the voices from upstairs, Jasper’s
pissed, Cal’s a murmur, another boy’s sounding scared.

Layne took the stairs two at a time, moved
down the hall and walked into a bedroom that was a mess, not from
the party, but from a teenaged kid living in it. And it was
enormous. It had a queen-sized bed, heavy, expensive furniture and
it was stuffed full of everything a kid could want.
State-of-the-art stereo, computer, TV, PS3, shelves full of DVDs,
CDs and games, handheld video games, digital picture frames,
expensive cell phone and an MP3 player scattering the surface of
the desk and chest of drawers, tangles of clothes everywhere.

All three pairs of eyes came to him when he
entered the room and Layne saw Cal had Jasper held back with a hand
in his chest, Jasper was keeping it in check but that didn’t mean
he wasn’t straining. Another boy, three inches shorter and
definitely slighter than his son, his hair a sandy blond mop on his
head, a bedhead, Layne had no doubt when he primped it was styled
passed Tripp’s best efforts, had pressed himself against a wall.
His eyes were bloodshot and his skin was gray because he was
hungover. His lower lip was already swelling fat and a trickle of
blood was seeping from his nose because Jasper had time to get a
few in before Cal arrived.

Layne’s eyes went to his son. “You
cool?”

“No,” Jasper bit out, his eyes never leaving
the other kid.

Layne looked at Cal and Cal shook his
head.

Layne looked back to Jas. “Stand down,” he
said low.

“Slipped it to her, Dad,” Jasper growled,
his gaze piercing the other boy.

“Stand down,” Layne repeated.

“Drugged her, drugged my babe, made her pass
out. I wasn’t there –”

Layne got close to his son as Jasper spoke
and demanded quietly, “Jasper, cool it.”

Jasper scowled at Tyler Berger and he did
this for awhile as everyone waited, tense. Then he took a step back
from Cal’s hand and Layne watched him force his body to relax.

Cal studied Jasper then dropped his
hand.

Then Cal looked at Tyler. “You do it?”

Tyler’s frightened eyes went from Jasper to
Cal. Then he realized, with two adults in the room, things had
changed. One look at his room and Layne knew that Tyler Berger
played the adults in his life and he was really good at it.

This was proved true when he jutted out his
fat lip and grunted, “No.”

“You did it,” Jasper said softly.

“You see me do it?” Tyler shot back.

“Nope, but Justin did,” Jasper replied.

“Justin’s an asswipe,” Tyler returned.

“Justin’s got no reason to lie,” Jasper
retorted.

“Maybe
he
did it,” Tyler
suggested.

“Yeah, right, he did it,” Jasper said
sarcastically. “He’s Keirry’s lab partner in Biology, they’re
friends.
And
he’s dating Heather and thinks he’s gonna get
in there. You think he’s gonna fuck that up by drugging Heather’s
best friend?”

Tyler shrugged.

Layne entered the conversation. “Advise you
to come clean, boy.”

Tyler’s eyes came to his and they were
belligerent. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Then you better be a whole lot more
convincing than you are right now,” Layne told him. “’Cause Cal and
me, we can control what happens in this room. We cannot control
what happens at school. You get me?”

Tyler straightened and stated, “No. I don’t
get
you. What I get is that I’m gonna tell my parents that
you and him and your kid broke into my house and he hit me and
they’re gonna call their lawyers and we’re gonna see if the Great
Jasper Layne plays ball for Purdue after my parents’ lawyers get
done with him.”

Layne clenched his teeth.

“My future doesn’t hinge on a full ride,”
Cal remarked and all eyes went to him.

“What?” Tyler asked when no one spoke.

“Carried my girl to her bed last night. Her
boy here says she had three or four beers and she was out. She’s
probably a lightweight but she was
out.
You’re young, you
don’t know how a man feels when life proves to him how vulnerable
his girl is when she’s not under his watch. Not a good feelin’,
boy,” Cal said.

“I’m so sorry for you,” Tyler sneered.

“Thinkin’ you better get smart pretty
fuckin’ soon or I’ll make it so you feel a whole lot sorrier,” Cal
whispered and Tyler’s eyes widened before he quickly pulled his
asshole teenaged kid cloak back into place.

“My parents will hear that too,” he snapped,
“you threatening me.”

“Won’t be able to do shit,” Cal returned.
“You don’t play this smart, right fuckin’ now, I can guarantee you
Jasper is gonna make your days a livin’ hell and I’m gonna make it
my mission to make the rest of your life a livin’ hell. Now, do you
get
me?
”

“You can’t threaten me.” Tyler’s voice was
rising.

“Sure I can,” Cal replied casually. “Can
fuck with you too and you don’t cop to what you did, I will. That’s
a promise.”

Tyler looked to the floor, muttering, “This
is bullshit.”

“I see you don’t feel like gettin’ smart so
we’re done here,” Cal stated, moving to Jasper, putting his hand on
his back and starting the both of them toward the door, he finished
with, “It’s on.”

Cal and Jasper kept moving but Layne kept
his eyes on Tyler as Tyler’s narrowed on Cal. He was scrambling, he
knew he was fucked, he just couldn’t find a way out.

So he took the only way out he knew.

“He can’t come in here and hit me and you
can’t come in here and threaten me!” Tyler was beginning to shout.
“And you can’t fuck with me! My Dad’s CEO of Wyler
Pharmaceuticals.”

Cal stopped, turned and looked at him, brows
up. “He is? Well, fuck me, that’s impressive.” Cal put his hands to
his hips and went on. “It’s impressive but what it isn’t is
frightening. What’s he gonna do, come to my house and throw pills
at me?”

“Shut up,” Tyler whispered.

“Still not bein’ smart,” Cal muttered,
shaking his head.

“Tyler,” Layne called and Tyler’s angry eyes
came to Layne. “Do you know what I do?”

Tyler glared at him a beat then jerked his
chin up in an affirmative.

“Then you know I’ll follow the trail and
I’ll find evidence you had the drug,” Layne stated and Tyler’s face
started to pale. “So, you can spend the rest of the day cleanin’
this house but you’re gonna miss somethin’ or, what I saw
downstairs, somethin’ was likely damaged or missin’ and my guess is
what’s missin’ is the contents of your parents’ liquor cabinet.
Your parents are gonna know you threw a party and it’s likely
they’re not gonna be happy about it but they’ll probably let it
slide because I reckon they let a lot slide with you, considering
you’re a punk and a boy isn’t born a punk, he’s made that way.”

“Go to hell,” Tyler whispered, his cheeks
getting red.

Layne kept talking. “What I also would guess
is, they’re not gonna let it slide when I prove you drugged Keira
Winters. They’re not gonna let it slide because Cal isn’t gonna let
it slide. I get the evidence, they’ll press charges, and trust me,
a punk like you, juvvie isn’t gonna be a whole helluva lot of
fun.”

The red bleached out of Tyler’s face, it
went white and his mouth dropped slightly open.

Layne kept at him. “They can have a lot of
money, hire great lawyers but I’ll tie you so tight to that shit
you can’t get loose. And Keira Winters is famous in this ‘burg, I
don’t reckon you’ll find a judge who’ll look kindly on you druggin’
a girl whose father and uncle were murdered and whose mother was
stalked and kidnapped. I reckon a judge will think Keira Winters
has suffered enough in her short life, her mother has too, and I
reckon a judge will look at your parents’ expensive attorneys and
take in your punk attitude and know you need a lesson. I also
reckon he’ll smile when he gets to be the one to give it to
you.”

Tyler swallowed.

Layne continued. “So, right now, you got a
choice to keep bein’ a punk or man, the fuck, up. Admit what you
did, explain why you did it, apologize to Cal and Jasper and we’ll
all move on. That’s your choice. You got one second to make it
before we move out.”

“I –” Tyler started.

“No joke, Tyler, one second,” Layne
warned.

“Coach Cosgrove gave it to me!” Tyler
blurted and the entire room went wired.

Everyone was silent for long, tense moments
until Layne broke it by asking, “Come again?”

“He gave me a hundred bucks, told me to slip
it to Keira and keep her from Jasper,” Tyler told them, his eyes
darting between the three males in the room and Layne knew he was
giving it to them straight but there was something missing. “It
wasn’t even me, really, I just put it in the shot and gave it to
her. It was Coach Cosgrove.”

Layne was frozen so when Jasper moved, Layne
couldn’t do a thing about it but Cal got hold of him and shoved him
back.

“Stay cool,” Cal growled at Jasper and
Jasper must have gotten himself under control because Cal turned
back to Tyler. “No shit?”

“No shit, freaked me out, he showed at the
party about five minutes after
they
showed,” he pointed at
Jasper.

“Tell me exactly what he said,” Layne
demanded and Tyler looked at him, his body alert, his mind still
scrambling.

“He didn’t say much of anything. He just
said give her the drug, keep her away from Jasper and let it play
out however it played out. Problem was, she was with Jasper all
night and I couldn’t get to her. I didn’t know they were leaving
when I gave it to her. No one has a midnight curfew, that’s crazy,”
Tyler replied.

Layne felt Cal’s eyes on him but he didn’t
take his from Tyler. “So, you’re tellin’ me the coach of the
football team was settin’ Keira Winters up to get hurt.”

“I don’t know what he wanted. Just know what
he said,” Tyler answered then continued. “She sticks to him like
glue,” his eyes slid to Jasper, he couldn’t hide the jealousy, it
was stark on his face, then they slid back to Layne, “couldn’t keep
her from him after she took the shot so she went funny when she was
with him.” That jealousy took hold and his voice took on the thread
of a whine when he went on. “Then he picks her up like he’s in some
stupid, romance movie, carries her to his car while all the girls
watch like he’s some kind of fuckin’ movie star and then they were
gone, there was nothing I could do.”

“Cosgrove come back?” Layne asked.

“No,” Tyler answered.

“You didn’t see him at all?” Layne
pressed.

“No, not at all,” Tyler replied.

“Has he called you?” Layne pushed.

“No, nothing, haven’t seen or heard from him
at all,” Tyler said.

“That doesn’t make sense, Tyler,” Layne
noted, the kid was hiding something.

Tyler jutted up his chin, digging in. “Well
that’s what happened.”

Layne studied him a beat then asked, “How
old are you?”

“Seventeen,” Tyler answered.

Shit, as Layne suspected, he was
underage.

“When do your parents get home?” Layne went
on.

“Tonight,” Tyler replied.

“Where are they?”

“Chicago, Mom’s shoppin’, Dad’s got some
conference,” Tyler told him.

“On the phone,” Layne ordered, walking to
the kid’s desk and tagging his cell phone. “Tell them they’re
coming home now.” He turned and tossed the phone to Tyler who
fumbled and dropped it.

Tyler squatted to the phone but his head was
tipped back to stare at Layne. “What? Why?” His voice was
shrill.

“Because I’m callin’ the cops and they can’t
talk to you unless a parent or guardian is present,” Layne
explained. “And I reckon it’ll be better for you to call them now
than wait and have the cops call them and tell them they’ve got you
at the Station.”

Tyler nabbed his phone and straightened like
a shot. “But you said –”

“I thought you were fuckin’ around. I didn’t
know Cosgrove was involved.”

“But I can’t –” Tyler tried.

“You can and you will,” Layne demanded.

“I can’t! Everyone will know! Coach Cosgrove
will be pissed!” He was freaked right the fuck out.

Definitely hiding something.

“All right, this has escaped you but this is
not about you anymore. This is about Cosgrove. You owned up to it,
got smart and you were honest. You fucked up. You took a coupla
hits and manned up. Now, if you keep your shit together and
cooperate, it’ll look good for you. You go back to bein’ a punk,
this time a
sissy
punk, it won’t look so good and you’re in
that hole you were in five minutes ago with Jas and Cal both happy
to ride your ass until you beg for mercy and me workin’ with all I
got to make you pay for what you did to Keira. Again, kid, you got
a choice. Make it but make it now,” Layne ordered.