“Did he tell you that?”
“No. Jay did. Edward was leaving his office when Grace and I arrived.”
“What did he say to you?”
“Nothing. We didn’t talk.”
“You haven’t seen him in how long, and you didn’t talk? No words spoken?”
“Kevin. We weren’t alone.”
“Still.”
I sighed. “I don’t know how long he’ll be here, but the sooner he leaves, the better.” Kevin remained quiet, waiting for more, but what more could I say? “So he’s definitely straight, and he’s definitely temporary, and anyway, you prefer blonds. Ah.” Saved by the blond who was sliding off his glasses as he picked up a beer at the bar and strode toward their booth. “Jimmy. Thank goodness. Sit.” He slid in beside Kevin, took a great gulp of beer, and set the stein down with athunk.
“Mmmmm. I needed that.”
He grinned. Kevin used his own napkin to wipe the foam from Jimmy’s lip.
It was a sweet gesture, but I was moving on. “What’s happening, Jimmy?” I was eager to shift the focus. Edward’s being here sucked the control out of my life. How better to get it back than by immersing myself in Grace’s problems?
“The closest Federal Court is in Rutland,” Jimmy said, court being a slurredco-utin the way that marked Jim Pratt a Dorchester boy, “so the kid had his initial appearance there, but he’s gone home with his mom.”
Home was a relief. “What does ‘initial appearance’ mean?”
“Indictment is read, charges are filed.”
“Bail?” I asked.
“None. Not in this kind of juvenile hearing. The prosecutors duked it out earlier this week to determine jurisdiction. Feds won. Ergo Rutland.”
Kevin made a face. “Ergo?”
“The chief’s word, not mine. Do you want to know what happened or not?”
“I do,” I said. A naive little part of me had been hoping that the whole thing would be declared a misunderstanding, charges would be dropped, and the circus would end there and then. Apparently not.
“The hacking was traced to Chris’s laptop,” Jimmy said. “The evidence is strong.”
I was appalled. “How can thatbe?”
“Hacking isn’t hard if you know passwords. School computers are networked, and the kids here all have school accounts. They do homeworkonline. They email the teacher, the teacher emails back. I’m sure they trade passwords. Hell, bunches of them probably use the same one, so slipping from account to account would be easy, especially for a kid who’s into it.”
“Which means it could have also been one of Chris’s classmates.”
“Could have, but prob’ly wasn’t. One of the others wouldn’t have been able to get into the Spa network. You’d have to have an entry point, like having access to a computer that has access to the Spa. Chris did.”
“Allegedly,” Kevin prompted.
“There’s evidence.”
“Allegedly,”Kevin insisted and scowled at Jimmy. “You’re becoming as absolutist as the rest of the force. You’re supposed to keep their minds open. Isn’t that the point of your being there?”
“The point of my being there is to be paid,” Jimmy shot back. He and Kevin often bickered. I typically ignored it, even though it was sweet. Silence had pounded a nail in the coffin of my marriage—well, along with other nails—but communication was key. I appreciated that Kevin and Jimmy could do it freely, not to mention that this time I had a stake in the discussion.
“I don’t have your fancy art degree,” Jimmy was saying, making artahtand drawing it out. “All I did was go two years to tech school, so I know how to use machines, and I know social media because there are plenty of times when I have nothing to do, so I play. I’m just saying what they’re saying.” After a short huff for Kevin, he faced me again. “Sorry. This may not be what you want to hear, but it doesn’t look good for the kid.”
“But he is just a kid,” I argued.
