“Thanks for coming,” said Maggie. “I really appreciate it.”
“No problem. We were vegging out at Sean’s place anyway, since they canceled school this afternoon,” said Josh. “Free pizza’s good.”
Maggie smiled. Whatever worked. Pizza seemed appropriate under all circumstances in Winslow. “Mr. Silva told me you were friends of his son, Tony.”
The boys looked at each other. Sean shrugged.
“I’m not going to tell Mr. Silva anything you tell me. And if I tell anyone what we talk about, I won’t say who it was told me. Okay with you guys?”
Sean nodded. “It’s just that, Tony was okay and all. And we were on the same team, sure. But we weren’t exactly the closest.”
“Got it,” said Maggie. “Did Tony have any close friends?”
Sean looked at Josh and shrugged. Josh shook his head. “Not really. He wasn’t exactly the most with-it kid around.”
His dad had played baseball, and said Tony was getting better. “Could he play baseball?”
“He stunk,” said Josh bluntly. “Mr. Costa, the coach? He didn’t put him in too often. Tony struck out, and he couldn’t run fast. Part of it was, he had asthma, and he had to stop to use his inhaler. You can’t play baseball when you have to stop to breathe.”
“He was supposed to play left field. But most of the time he couldn’t catch fly balls, and when he did, he dropped them,” added Sean.
“His dad was always at the practices, yelling at him to try harder, and telling Coach to put him in, to give him another chance. But Tony was a disaster.”
Their pizza arrived and the boys lost no time digging in.
“He played baseball because his dad wanted him to?”
“For sure. He hated it. Some of the guys made fun of him for even trying.”
“Who wouldn’t hate being the reason we’d lose games?” added Josh, wiping tomato sauce off his chin. “He was an embarrassment.”
“What about the drugs? If you guys wanted to get drugs, where would you go?”
The boys looked at each other.
“I’m not asking if you use, or if any of your friends do. But in most schools, or towns, there’s a place or a person where you can go. I’m from Jersey; I don’t know Winslow. Where would someone go in this town? If a person were interested.”
Sean glanced around, as though someone else were listening. “You said no one would know what we said, right?”
“Right. I’m telling you straight. Did you know Dan Jeffrey?”
“Sure. Friend of Coach Costa. Helped with team equipment last year.”
“I heard he got killed a week ago,” said Josh.
“He did,” said Maggie. “Tony’s dad said Dan Jeffrey was the one who gave Tony the pills that killed him.”
Sean looked sideways at Josh. “Tony’s dad got that wrong. I never heard of anyone getting anything from Mr. Jeffrey. He was just a nice guy who liked baseball. He used to give us tips, sort of like a second coach. He helped me with my fast ball. He wouldn’t have done anything to hurt Tony.”
Josh shook his head. “Mr. Jeffrey used to talk to Tony about his asthma. Once I heard him tell Tony’s dad not to go so hard on him; to let Tony drop off the team and do something he was better at. Mr. Silva got real mad. He told Mr. Jeffrey to mind his own business.”
Sean said quietly. “It wasn’t Mr. Jeffrey who had pills.”
Josh elbowed Sean.
Neither of them said anything more. They both focused on their pizza. They didn’t look at Maggie or each other. No one said anything for several long minutes.
Then Maggie asked. “Who was it, then? Who had the pills?”
“We can tell her, Josh. It don’t make a difference anymore,” said Sean.
“I guess.” Josh didn’t look as sure. “But you won’t tell our parents? ’Cause Sean and me, we didn’t do pills. Honest.”
The two of them looked so young and so scared Maggie was almost certain they were telling the truth. But they knew something. “I won’t tell your parents. But I won’t lie to you. I might have to tell the police.”
“Just don’t tell our parents you heard it from us. It could have been a lot of people who told. Everybody knew,” bargained Sean.
“I promise,” said Maggie, hoping no one would else would break her promise.
Sean took a deep breath and looked around. Then he lowered his voice. “Maybe there were other places in town to get stuff, but kids I know got pills from that deaf lady who came to watch the games. Miss West.”
Chapter 36
Silver Maple. Chromolithograph published by Stecher Lithographic Company, Rochester, New York. c. 1890. Probably part of a sample book for use by nurseries and tree salesmen. Shows stately home, with tree in yard, elegant carriage beneath, and inset of leaf. “A very rapid growing tree, forming an open spreading head, has abundance of clean, healthy foliage and makes a fine shade tree” printed in small letters at bottom that could easily be matted over. Silver maples are common in the northeast United States; their leaves turn yellow in the fall. They do, however, have the disadvantages of shallow root systems and brittle wood, so are vulnerable in storms. 5.5 x 8.5 inches. $50.
Maggie drove the boys back to Sean’s house through increasingly heavy rain. The wind was stronger, too. In the short time they’d been at the restaurant gusts had turned to gales. Maggie’s van rocked as she turned one sharp corner.
Hurricane Tasha might not have reached the Cape yet; forecasts said major winds wouldn’t arrive for hours yet. But she was definitely sending warnings that she was on her way.
The boys pointed at branches that had already fallen and excitedly speculated about how high the surf might get and whether anyone they knew had wetsuits and surfboards they could borrow.
Maggie was relieved when they reached Sean’s house and the boys ran for cover. Let their parents warn them of hurricane dangers. She’d have to cope with young people’s sense of invulnerability soon enough. Listening to them she’d been reminded of how fearless kids could be. And how hungry. In twenty minutes the boys had consumed an entire extra-large pizza, plus chips and large sodas. She was taking this as a personal warning that her food budget might have to change drastically in the near future.
She turned the van carefully, managing to miss a garbage can rolling erratically down the street. Luckily, the Six Gables Inn was only a couple of miles away.
Had Cordelia really been the kids’ source for drugs? Or at least one source, she told herself; there might have been another. Thinking about Cordelia as a drug dealer was totally changing the way she looked at Winslow, and the people who lived here.
Who would’ve suspected that the quiet deaf woman who took long walks along the beach and streets of Winslow, who stopped to watch children play, who smiled at everyone and never spoke was also the source of illegal pharmaceutical medications?
She tried to put it all together.
Those boxes Cordelia received from all over the country. And from other countries, the postmistress had said. She’d specifically mentioned Canada, Maggie was sure. Small quantities of prescription medications could be hidden and shipped, perhaps mixed in with the supplies she received to make her dolls. And those eBay sales she made, and the packages she sent out. Were they dolls, or was she sending drugs, too?
Gussie’d wondered how Cordelia managed to pay the high taxes on her house. Perhaps selling drugs had solved that problem.
A strong gust of wind sent the van shimmying across the road.
Maggie turned her windshield wipers on high and refocused on getting back to Six Gables. Rain was now hitting the van from all directions. The sky had darkened enough so she not only turned her headlights on because it was the law, but because she needed them.