THE SHERIFF BARKED AT ME OVER the phone shortly after eight-thirty Friday morning. “What the hell does that mean?” “Just what Helena Craig said on Vida’s show. Maybe you should listen to the tape, too.” Milo sighed. “Give me those names again.” “Ostrom, Pedersen, Fritz, and Kramer. The Pedersens had two daughters drop out.” “I’ll skip the tape for now. I’ve got work to do. We got the body back a few minutes ago.” He hung up. Spence had discreetly left the tape with Amanda shortly before I’d gotten to work. I’d taken it into the back shop so Vida wouldn’t overhear me listening to it. If Kip suspected I hadn’t heard the original version, he didn’t say so. In fact, he expressed his own concern about what was going on at the high school. “Chili and I have a long time to wait before we worry about kids going to high school,” he said, “but what’s going on with Freeman? A couple of months ago, it was porn in the lockers, now it’s unreported dropouts?
