who gave you the pills—Ziggy—what do you know about him?”
Nate gnawed his lip thoughtfully. “He’s not really a high school student,” he said bluntly after a moment. His hands paused mid bread slice. “Coach Schroeder is the only teacher who seems to know who he is. Calls him Ivanov, like he’s a football player or a kid, but he’s not in any of our classes. Ty and I….” Nate frowned. “We don’t trust him. He was always trying to get us to go to parties and stuff, and, I mean, we were studying for our AP exams and our SATs and stuff. We didn’t have time for that shit. I mean, Ty and me, we’re not even in the same league as players, but we were both pretty good students, and, I mean, my folks would kill me, right?”
Jackson nodded. “No, that’s what Ty told us. That you guys shoved the drugs in your pockets so you could throw them away later. But that you didn’t want to piss Ziggy off.”
Nate shifted from foot to foot. “I… I saw Ziggy one day, walking by the store. He had his arm around this girl. She looked like his sister, and she was crying. She was young—like maybe fourteen—and they were talking in what sounded like Russian. And at first I thought, ‘Hey, maybe he’s not as creepy as I thought.’ He seemed to be comforting her, you know? And then, as they were disappearing around the corner, I saw his arm tighten, like, you know what muscles look like, when they’re all taut? And it wasn’t until I was walking home that I thought, ‘Wait—was he restraining her?’ And I started watching the news and stuff for amber alerts, but I didn’t see one, and thought maybe I was imagining it. But… but I just keep thinking about that. And it hasn’t left me. I’ve never trusted him, and I didn’t want to, I don’t know…. Call down the heat of God on him because of a muscle spasm. But….” Nate shuddered. “I just can’t get it out of my head.”
Jackson nodded and felt bad because he was going to color this kid’s world a little darker. “Your instincts were right on, kid. You see Ziggy around—especially with any kids—and you need to call me.” Jackson gave Nate his card and then wrote the department’s general phone number along with Fetzer’s and Hardison’s names on the back. “If you can’t get hold of me, get hold of these two cops and tell them what it’s about. Ziggy, he’s bad news. And those two cops aren’t the same as the two who busted that party. Can you tell me about those guys?”
Nate resumed his sandwich making, obviously trying to gather his words, and Jackson gave him his space. For one thing, he was actually getting hungry, and for another, if he didn’t feed Henry, Henry’s newfound sense of humor might go up in hunger fumes.
For another, this kid had a sharp mind, and he might be able to give Jackson something important.
“Ty and I were toward the back. To be honest, I was heading for the bathroom so we could ditch the stupid butterfly drugs. God, making X look like candy? It’s fucking creepy, you know? I’ve got a little sister. Someone could tell her that’s a fucking vitamin, right?”
Nate’s swear words got a little more pronounced as he got upset, and Jackson approved. But then something Nate said pinged something he’d seen in Ellery’s notes on the police report.
“Ty said something about that too—little pink pills with butterflies on them. Have you seen those around?”
“Ziggy passes them around a lot.” Nate shuddered. “God, I just keep thinking I should have beaten him up on general principle, but my folks didn’t raise me that way.”
Jackson’s breath quickened, remembering that knife. “He’s really fucking dangerous, Nate. Don’t… the next time you see him, you call the cops or you call me, do you understand?”
Nate nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I get it. What’s he done?”
And Jackson sobered. “You heard about No Neck and Tage Dobrevk?”
Nate’s eyes widened. “Tage couldn’t have done that. Are you representing him too?”
“Yeah. And guess who was there before Tage got knocked unconscious at the scene?”
Nate shuddered. “Oh God!”
“So take this seriously, and don’t let on to Ziggy you know he’s dangerous. If he asks you to do anything, just tell him you can’t. And then call me!”
“Okay. I hear you. Do… do we know why No Neck was killed?” Nate’s