A long stare down ensued. Curtis went to lock the door, then returned to the front edge of his desk. “Okay. I’ll tell you what I can on two conditions: First, nothing I’m about to say leaves this room. If there’s one thing that will throw a wrench into any investigation it’s the wrong person saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. One slipup and even an open-and-shut case can be overturned in court for the slightest breach in proper procedure. Second, I don’t want anybody acting on this except my men, who are all working under my authority. You want justice to be served, you just let us do our jobs. Is that understood?”

Hickham nodded.

Cole merely shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest.

“All right, then.” Curtis slipped a fresh matchstick into his mouth. “We know that this wasn’t an accident. A bus crash like that—especially following the attack on Cole and all that business at the pep rally—clearly there’s some foul play involved. Taking into account your testimony and what we found at the scene, it looks like some kind of industrial-strength chain was set in the bus’s path. We found a few busted links scattered around the scene. We believe it was meant to disable the bus violently, but we can’t prove that they meant to send it off the bridge. Looks to us like a harebrained prank gone terribly wrong.”

“And the pickup?” Hickham said. “I saw a Ford through the bus window, a blue one.”

“I saw it, too.” Cole said. “Whose was it?”

Curtis didn’t answer.

“Come on, Curtis, the thing was a monster,” Cole said. “A big four-wheel-drive pickup with a lift kit and tires four feet high. You said there were tracks. There can’t be too many vehicles like that around.”

Curtis held Cole’s stare. “Before I answer anything else about the bridge, what say we do a little quid pro quo? How ’bout you tell me what really happened at your house yesterday morning.”

“I thought I did that.”

“Cut the crap, Cole. What are you hiding?”

It was a question Savannah wanted answered as well. She’d suspected all along that he was withholding information about the attack.

Cole lowered his chin but said nothing.

Curtis waited. “Cole, I can’t help you unless you help—”

“They told me not to play, all right? They said that if I didn’t find a reason to sit out, they would give me one.”

Curtis came off the desk. “What did you say to them?”

“I told them to go to hell. Then they chopped off my fingers.”

“Is that all?”

Cole raised his head. “They also said that if I didn’t stay away … they would hurt the rest of the team.”