Higher Learning (The Charlie Davies Mysteries Book 4) Read online

  “Excellent,” said Adam, cutting me off. I could feel the heat of his glare radiating onto the side of my head, so I decided not to turn and face him just in case I got permanent eye damage from it. Not that my vision was that crash hot to begin with. “I assure you, Helen, Charlie is good at her job.”

  “Yes, of course. I’m sure she’ll have no trouble fitting in with the cheerleading squad.”

  A noise – kind of a fearful gurgle – escaped my throat at that moment.

  “Of course,” said Adam, doing a very good impression of someone who was not sitting next to the most ridiculous human being he’d ever encountered. “Now, we’re also going to need to have another employee here to act as Charlie’s backup. He’ll need an office or a place to work from where he can listen in on Charlie’s wire and report back to me without being interrupted by students.”

  A wire? My goodness, this was all sounding very James Bond.

  Skinner nodded once. “I know just the place.”

  “The school library?” I guessed and she nodded again. Adam raised his eyebrows. “No students ever go in there voluntarily,” I explained.

  “And there are a few rooms that branch off from the main library that are unoccupied currently.”

  “Perfect place for an office,” I said. “Plus the library’s centrally located in the school, so I won’t ever be too far away from my handler.”

  Adam nodded. “Sounds perfect,” he said. “OK. So everything’s in place for Charlie to start tomorrow?”

  Skinner paused. “Yes,” she said hesitantly. “But there is one other thing...”

  “Yes?”

  “We, um... We have a police officer undercover here already. As a teacher.”

  Adam nodded. “Yes, you mentioned that when we spoke on the phone,” he said.

  Skinner shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I think... I think you should speak with him.”

  Adam nodded. “Of course. Is he free now?”

  “I’ll see if I can track him down,” said Skinner, picking up the phone on her desk and dialling.

  I leaned closer to Adam. “I’m wearing a wire? Are you serious?” I whispered. I’d never worn a wire before, so this case was clearly important. I’d never actually gone undercover officially though, so maybe that was just standard procedure. “And I have a handler?”

  He nodded. “We need to record your conversations so we have evidence of what’s been said. We also have to have someone listening in to make sure you don’t get in trouble.”

  “So when you told me this wasn’t a dangerous job –”

  “We’re just being cautious,” he said. “There’s nothing to worry about as long as you don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger.”

  I grimaced. “So there’s definitely something to worry about.”

  “Just play nice with the other kids,” he instructed. “Don’t try to take the dealer down by yourself. Get us information and then you can leave.”

  “So who’s going to be listening in on my wire?” I asked.

  “Tim will be your minder while you’re here.”

  I stuck out my bottom lip. “I was kind of hoping you would back me up.”

  He exhaled, smiling – the kind of half-laugh you do when someone says something dumb. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going to spend any more time here than I have to. High school is awful.”

  Skinner hung up the phone. “He’s on his way here. His staffroom is just down the hall, so he should be here any –”

  A knock on the door cut off the remainder of her sentence.

  “Come in,” she said.

  The door opened slowly and in stepped James McKenzie.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Once upon a time, James McKenzie appeared in my nightmares. Now he more frequently featured in my daydreams. Now I understood why Skinner had just about had a heart attack when she was telling us about the undercover police officer at the school – James had been my archenemy in high school, and Skinner had had to deal with the fallout from that on a regular basis.

  Our attitudes towards each other had changed when I’d helped clear him of a murder charge. Since then we’d had our ups and downs, finally culminating in a kiss (along with a weird arm-squeeze on my part, which was the kind of memory that caused me to wake up with cold sweats). Just the one kiss, though, because after that I’d started my PI classes and he’d been caught up with a bunch of business stuff and my friend Stacey had moved in with me which meant that my other friends were always at my house visiting. Then James had headed overseas for two months to do business – though really, I had no idea what kind of business took two months – and I hadn’t seen him since he’d returned. In fact, I hadn’t known he had returned until this moment.

  On the few occasions I’d seen him since ‘The Incident’, we’d stood in awkward silence until one of us thought of an excuse to leave. I had no idea where I stood with him now. Seeing as he hadn’t brought it up again, I had come to the conclusion that maybe he wanted to just forget it ever happened. Which was fine by me. Totally fine. Completely.

  He looked just as hot as always, dressed in joggers, shorts and a polo shirt. He even made the lanyard around his neck look attractive. There were going to be a lot of girls in his class having trouble concentrating on their studies, and a decent number of guys, too. Seriously, those legs...

  Principal Skinner sighed and I turned to look at her. She was staring blankly into the distance as if recalling the horrors of war. I guess if she was thinking back to the times she’d had to deal with James and me at school then ‘war’ was kind of an apt description.

  “Hi,” said James.

  “Hi,” I replied, giving him an awkward little wave before realising what I was doing and lowering my arm.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  “Good,” I said. “And you?”

  “Yeah, good,” he said, nodding.

  Then the silence began.

  Skinner looked like she was waiting for the situation to implode. Adam looked like he couldn’t believe he had to share his air with such dorks. James looked like a giant pair of lips atop a sexy pair of legs. (There’s a chance my mind was playing tricks on me there.) As I looked at him, all I could think of was the squeeze – how grabbed his arms mid-kiss in a pincer grip, an action so ridiculous that he’d burst out laughing, bringing our lip-touching to an immediate end. And of course, Adam had been there to see it, which made this whole interaction so much more fun. (Not that I thought Adam had watched us intently or anything – he wasn’t a lurker – but still.)

  “OK,” said Adam, finally bringing me out of my trance. “James, why don’t you fill us in on your backstory?”

  “Uh, right, yeah. I’m a PE teacher. I’m also one of the cheerleading coaches.”

  I frowned. “Really? I didn’t think that would be your area.”

  “It’s not like I’m on the team or anything,” he said. “I’m mostly there to make sure no one gets hurt. And to stop Chelsea from stabbing anyone.”

  “Who’s Chelsea?”

  “The captain,” Principal Skinner said. “She’s talented, but she’s not quite as amicable as some of the past captains we’ve had – she can be a little closed off, though I think stabbing is a bit of a stretch, James.”

  I nodded. All the cheerleaders had been nice when I’d gone through school, though I wouldn’t have described any of them as particularly talented. Cheerleading isn’t a big thing in Australia, so the Gerongate High team mostly won competitions because they were the only team in them.

  “My housemates Lea and Stacey were both cheer captains while I was here,” I said.

  “Yes, lovely girls,” said Skinner.

  I nodded. “Super unfortunate that they both ended up falling in love with psycho murderers.”

  The principal opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, then she just closed it again. Although no words passed her lips, her eyes told me what she was thinking. Obviously she hadn’t kept
up with their lives post-high school.

  “They’ve broken up with those guys now,” I said quickly. “They weren’t involved in the murders or anything.”

  Helen just nodded and in a strangled voice said, “Of course.”

  “Anyway,” I said, hoping to change the subject before Helen passed out from stress, “the point is that I live with past cheerleaders, so they should be able to coach me well enough for me to try out for the team.” I turned to Adam. “I assume you were going to make me do that anyway?”

  His face remained expressionless, but his brown eyes had turned a distinct shade of arsehole. Of course, because what could make sending me back to school even worse? Making me try out for the cheerleading squad, naturally.

  “I’m sure you’ll be great,” said James. Helen frowned and turned to face him slowly, a look of utter disbelief on her face. I didn’t blame her. Not only was that a blatant lie – I was the least coordinated person in history – but James McKenzie had just lied to make me feel better. As the teacher who had sent me to anger management counselling for attacking James with a hockey stick in response to his snide comments, Skinner had good reason to be shocked by this change.

  “I’ll be awful,” I said, “but I appreciate the thought.”

  “You’ll be passable,” said Adam, “or you’ll be fired.”

  “As long as I don’t have to do any, like, moves or anything it’ll be fine.”

  Adam raised his eyebrows at me. “Great. So basically as long as you don’t have to do any cheerleading you’ll be a good cheerleader?”

  “Maybe I can dress up as the mascot,” I said. “Or, I don’t know... I can project my voice pretty well. Maybe I can be in the chorus line.”

  “You know that cheerleading isn’t the same as musical theatre, right?” Adam said.

  I paused. “Yes?”

  He looked like he wanted to sigh but didn’t think I was worth the effort. “We’ll discuss this later.” He turned back to the others. “Anyway, it looks like we’re all ready for tomorrow.”

  “Yes, thank you very much, Mr Baxter,” said the principal as they both stood and shook each other’s hands.

  “Right,” said James. “I’ll, uh, get back to my lesson plans. See you tomorrow, Charlie.” He waved and left.

  As soon as Adam and I were out of the school building he turned to me.

  “Shut up,” I said before he had a chance to speak.

  He shook his head as we walked to the car. “What exactly was that? Other than the most painful thing I’ve ever endured,” he said. “I know you’re just pretending to like James so you can use him for information, but if you want him to believe you then you’re really going to need to do a better job of faking it.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m not pretending!”

  “Right, of course. That was a really passion-fuelled wave hello.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He’s going to be my teacher. I can’t exactly start making out with him in the middle of the principal’s office.”

  “Right. Behind the bike shed is a much better option,” he said. “And I’m not joking. You really need to step up your acting game or he’s definitely going to figure it out.”

  I huffed. “I wasn’t pretending to like him. It’s just that things have been a bit weird since... The Incident.”

  “The Incident?” he repeated.

  “Yes, the...” I nodded, encouraging Adam to fill in the blanks. He just raised his eyebrows. I sighed with exasperation. “Are you serious? Come on, you were there.”

  “You’re calling a kiss ‘The Incident’ now?” he said. “How mature and adult you sound.”

  Crossing my arms, I said, “It’s just that we haven’t really talked since...”

  “The Incident,” he finished, smirking.

  I glared at him. “OK, you don’t need to say it in that tone. It’s a big deal. Stop mocking me.”

  “I’ll stop mocking you when you stop making a mockery of yourself,” he said. “So you haven’t talked about it. Who cares? You just kissed. It’s not like you’re married now.”

  “I know that!” I snapped. “I wasn’t expecting us to live happily ever after or anything, but an acknowledgement that it happened would have been nice. Just something. But we haven’t spoken about it. It’s like it never took place.”

  Adam shrugged. “I don’t understand why that’s an issue.”

  “Well, you’ve probably never made out with your former arch nemesis before.”

  Adam shrugged. “You’ve got me there. Unfortunately, seeing as I live in the real world and not a comic book, I don’t even have an arch nemesis.”

  “Then you wouldn’t understand,” I said. “I’ve never felt so awkward in my life.”

  “For fuck’s sake, Charlie. It’s just a kiss.”

  “This is why I didn’t tell you about this earlier,” I said. “I knew you wouldn’t get it.”

  He looked like he was fighting back an eye-roll. “If you want to discuss it with him, why don’t you just discuss it with him?”

  “I can’t. I –”

  “You can. You just use your words,” he said. “If you want me to start treating you like an adult, act like one. Until then you’ll always be everyone’s first choice of who to send undercover as a high school student, because that’s the way you behave.”

  “I hate you.”

  “Only because you know I’m right.” I heard a buzz and Adam checked his phone. “Alright, we’d better get back to the office. You need to clean up your desk for the new secretary.”

  “You mean my replacement.”

  Adam frowned at me. “Are you actually jealous?”

  “No,” I snapped.

  He shook his head. “You’re ridiculous.”

  We drove back to the office, parked in the underground parking lot and then walked inside and proceeded to my desk. While I tidied up my stuff, Adam filled me in on the case.

  “So what do we know about the girl who overdosed?” I asked.

  “Her name was Gabby Michaels. Straight B student.”

  “Solid effort,” I said. I’d been a straight D student (and yes, now that I’m saying that I’m aware that it sounds like a line from a porn film).

  “Never in trouble at school,” he continued. “Teachers loved her. Everyone seemed pretty shocked that she died of an overdose.”

  I nodded. “So she was just trying to rebel against her parents at a party or something and took it too far?”

  Adam shook his head. “Not as far as we know. It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday. She was found in a park.”

  That was odd. “What park?”

  “Green Meadows,” Adam replied.

  “Right. That explains it.”

  He nodded. Green Meadows was known for being frequented by people who wanted to buy drugs. Plenty of people had overdosed there in the past.

  “But why am I going undercover at the school, then?” I asked as I hid all my best pens in the bottom drawer of the desk. Yes, OK, I have a problem with sharing. “If she overdosed at the park, surely you’d be better off focusing there.”

  “The police have been staking out the park for months but somehow they haven’t managed to catch anyone big. Just a couple of users,” Adam said. “The higher-ups are too smart to get caught there.”

  “Right,” I said. “So the park is a no-go.”

  He nodded. “Yep. If we want to find out who Gabby’s dealer was, we’re going to need to find out from her friends.”

  I wrinkled up my face. “Still, that seems like a bit of a long shot,” I said. “I never knew who Will’s dealer was. Or my brother’s, for that matter.”

  “And?”

  “I just mean that people don’t necessarily blab about their habits to their friends. What makes you think the other cheerleaders know anything about it?”

  “They found more meth at the school.”

  “The meth they found crushed into the concrete?” I rolled my eyes. “That could have come
from anywhere. That doesn’t necessarily mean her friends would have known about it. It could be anyone’s.”

  “I’m not talking about the drugs they found on the ground,” he said. “I agree; they could have come from anywhere. I’m talking about the other cheerleader who got expelled for drug use.”

  I frowned. “Why didn’t Skinner tell us about that?”

  “I don’t think she thinks it’s related,” he said. “It happened late last year while the team was away on excursion. A teacher found drugs in the girl’s bag.”

  “Why was the teacher going through the girl’s bag?”

  He frowned. “I think you’re missing the point.”

  “Right. Sorry. Back to the drugs.”

  “The teacher called the cops. The girl didn’t come back to the school.”

  I thought for a moment. “Why wouldn’t Skinner think it was related?”

  “This was back before the other dealers had been arrested,” he said. “Helen probably assumed it was from one of them.”

  I nodded, contemplating whether or not New Secretary could be trusted to look after my potted plant. “That makes sense.”

  “It seemed like too much of a coincidence that a second cheerleader was using, so I tracked the girl down,” he said. “She wasn’t much use. She claimed the drugs were planted and refused to tell me who her dealer was.”

  Deciding that my plant was too precious to leave with the imposter receptionist, I slipped it into my handbag. Adam gave me a look of concern but said nothing. “Could’ve just been Gabby hiding her drugs on her, though, right? If she knew their bags were going to be searched, maybe she hid hers on this other girl.”

  Adam shook his head. “Afraid I already thought of that, too. Turns out Gabby wasn’t on that particular trip. Unless she somehow planted drugs in the other girl’s bathroom bag before they left for the excursion, I think that theory’s out.”

  I nodded slowly. “OK, so you think there’s a drug epidemic within the cheer squad?”

  “I think there’s someone dealing at the school, not just at parties like the other dealers who already got caught. I mean a student or a teacher.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  He shrugged. “Those girls are all pretty involved with extracurricular activities. They go to every sports game as well as train every week. It’s not often that they’re anywhere outside of school unchaperoned. It seems likely that they have a connection at the school.”