Chapter 12

Grace invited Sheriff Conly over for breakfast so they could talk away from their respective offices. She wasn’t surprised when Janice showed up with her dad. Everyone was on edge and wanted to get to business, so they skipped eating and only had coffee cups in front of them.

“I want to show you what we’ve done so far. Alex was a big help because he already had org charts for the county’s Sheriff’s Department, Jail, District Attorney’s Office, and Judicial Office. He also has a list of all other law enforcement that worked in the county, including the State Police and FBI,” Grace said, showing them on her laptop.

“I knew he was paranoid, but this is beyond that,” Sheriff Conly said.

“His dad taught him well,” Grace said.

“How did he figure all this out?” Janice asked.

“The little shit tapped into all our devices when he first got here. I’m sure he simply looked on my office computer and found the organizational chart,” Sheriff Conly said.

Grace allowed them to absorb what she’d shown them before showing them the rest.

“Alex also has a chart of who he feels are threats.”

She showed them everyone he felt was involved in the creating and testing phase of developing Moondust, the designer drug. The chart also had lists of people interacting with the Sheriff’s Department, specifically the criminal types.

“Let’s take a quick look at the Moondust case. He has listed everyone who was a person of interest to the police and what happened to them. Either they were never charged or were convicted or killed,” Grace said.

She pointed out a few names that stood out. It started with the now-defunct Wolf Pack, the three princes of Conclave. Those were Luke Donnelly, whose dad had owned Agri-Tech Fertilizer; Ethan Brewer, whose father owned the leading building company in the county; and Caleb Hiatt, whose pop owned much of the farmland around Conclave.

They were listed because they were with the girl who’d been dosed at the first party of the summer. The initial trials had proven to have sketchy results. She’d literally lost her mind.

It wasn’t surprising that Ethan’s and Caleb’s dads were on Alex’s list. Ethan’s dad was there because he’d built the automated factory that produced the drugs. Caleb’s father was listed because he owned the farm where the drugs were moved to and where Alex was held.

Alex’s other focus was on Carl Cooper and everyone who worked for him. Alex surmised that Carl’s drug organization was used to ‘test’ the various iterations of the designer drug. There were still open cases across the state of people hurt or killed by the drug before they landed on the final version. In some instances, Alex named who he thought had done it.

“It looks like I need to follow up on a few people,” Sheriff Conly said.

“How are you using this to weed out the bad apples at the Sheriff’s Department?” Janice asked.

“Mandy and Lyric are creating files on everyone,” Grace replied. “We plan to use the tried-and-true method of following the money. We’ll flag anyone living beyond their means and then focus on those individuals.”

She paused before continuing.

“My question is, do you want us to give you information as we find it or once we’ve identified everyone?” Grace asked.

“I think as soon as you get it,” Janice said. “There’s no reason to wait.”

“I agree with that, but I suggest that you wait to act on the information until we know the full extent of what’s going on,” Grace said.

“As much as I agree in principle,” Sheriff Conly said, “we have to be careful here. We don’t want the bad actors to disappear like former Sheriff Calhoun has. We also need to take the public’s safety into account. If one of them is about to do something illegal, I’ll have to act.”

“Something else has come up: Rusty Scruggs and Bobby Slade responded to my flyer looking for part-time help. I’m sure they’re moles for Calhoun. Do we risk letting them work for me or not?”

“It would be a good way to determine whether they really are moles. You can provide them with some false information and see where it leads,” Sheriff Conly suggested.

“But they’ll be working with Alex and Lyric. Alex almost managed to get himself shot over the weekend,” Janice said, pushing back.

“Stop and think about who you’re talking about. Do you honestly think Alex will ever avoid danger?” Sheriff Conly asked.

“And Lyric is doing mostly office work, filling in the blanks about each person in your department,” Grace said. “Do you really want to risk those two seeing that?”

“I’m starting to regret letting you talk me into allowing you to hire Alex for the summer,” Janice said.

“We agreed that it was best he learned to do good with his skills. God knows what Alex would get up to if he had too much time on his hands and no adult supervision,” Grace reminded her.

“Knowing him, he’d be charming the grandmother types into baking him cookies,” Sheriff Conly said.

They both looked at him like he’d lost his mind.

“You’re right,” he admitted. “Alex could easily be a one-man crime wave.”

Lyric glanced at the clock, desperate for the time to miraculously spin forward. She was bored out of her mind from filling in boxes on Alex’s organizational chart. Mandy had given her all the employee salaries to use as a starting point. Lyric was in the process of determining whether they were spending more money than they took in via their wages.

She’d quickly figured out that it was easier to hack into the local bank records to figure out what they paid for each month. Lyric could also see if there were any mysterious deposits. So far, she’d flagged another deputy and a guard at the jail.

She wouldn’t have found them if she hadn’t accidentally searched back an entire year instead of just a month. It looked like around the time the former sheriff disappeared, the extra money stopped coming in. When she combined that with the two struggling to meet their bills, it all made sense. Their outside income had dried up.

Grace came back from her meeting.

“Find anything?”

“I think so,” Lyric said and filled her in.

“Good job,” Grace said once she was done.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve had enough for one day,” Lyric announced.

Grace did a double-take but kept her thoughts about that statement to herself.

“I can give you a ride home. I’m going to the Aldrich farm to look in on what Alex is doing anyway. It’ll be on my way.”

“I don’t like drama, but if you’d rather I went with you—” Lyric began, but Grace interrupted her.

“It’s okay. With Mandy’s help, we can finish what you started.”

It was Lyric’s turn to do a double-take. Did she want to risk Mandy taking her job? Then again, she hadn’t asked to work for Grace this summer. Lyric would be content to go to the clubhouse and hang out with the other kids in the community. This might be her way out.

“When she starts, I’ll help Mandy get up to speed,” Lyric said.

On her ride home, Lyric had a chance to think it through. Not having to go into the office every day would give her an opportunity to work on her tan. If she waited too long, she would be pasty white while all the other girls looked great. That would put her at a serious disadvantage to the other girls with respect to the boys taking notice of her. Specifically, Zac.

Alex clearly remembered riding his bike a few minutes ago ... or was it hours? He recalled a red Ford F-150 pickup truck pulling out in front of him. He laid his bike down in an effort to avoid hitting it broadside but was thwarted when the driver hit the brakes when they realized what they’d done.

He recalled the young man had turned his head, his brown eyes got as big as saucers, and his phone slipped from his hand. Alex remembered that he’d slid on the blacktop as layers of skin were removed from his butt, thigh, and forearm on his left side. That was until Alex slammed into the door panel.