First Lie Wins(21)

“With me,” he says. “Uncuff her. I’ll secure her with my set.”

Within seconds I’m free, only to be handed over to the new guy.

He towers over me. “Can you walk with me to my car without causing a problem or do I need to put the cuffs back on you right now?”

“I’ll cooperate,” I say.

The officers get back in the patrol car and drive away just as we approach his unmarked vehicle. He puts the box in his back seat then turns to me, a small phone in one hand and my backpack in the other. “Call the number in that phone and do what he says, and you’ll get your stuff back.”

When I don’t take either immediately, he shakes the phone around in the air in front of me. “I wouldn’t pass this offer up. You won’t be getting another one.”

I snatch both and stare at him. “You’re letting me go?”

He moves to the driver’s door without a word. I stand frozen in place until his taillights fade away in the darkness.

Noise from the front door of the club spurs me into action; the crowd is dissipating now that the excitement is over. I run for my car and pull my keys from my bag. The phone is on the passenger seat, but I don’t touch it until I’m pulling up at the garage apartment I’ve been living in.

Racing inside, I throw my backpack on the small kitchen table then take the phone to my bed. There is one contact listed: Mr. Smith.

I press the contact name and hit send. “I was told to call this number,” I say as soon as it connects.

“We’ve been watching you.” The mechanical voice catches me off guard and I almost drop the phone. He’s using one of those voice changer devices. “First in Greensboro, now in Raleigh. Sorry to hear about your mother’s passing.”

I go cold inside. There’s no way anyone should be able to connect the girl in this apartment to the one from the trailer park in Eden. I’ve made sure of that.

Or so I thought I had.

“Why?”

“You were able to take something you shouldn’t have had access to. It took us some time and resources to find out it was you. I’m hard to impress but somehow you did just that.”

Oh shit.

Even though I am freaking out inside, I take a few breaths to calm myself. It didn’t take long for me to graduate from the simple pieces of jewelry to paintings, silver, antiques . . . anything I could get my hands on as long as it was small enough for me to carry on my own. And when you dig deep enough on the internet, you can find a willing buyer for anything.

“Do you need it back?” I ask.

“We’ve already retrieved the item.”

This is even worse somehow.

“You’ve found yourself in a bit of trouble, though. Bad piece of luck your equipment gave you up like that. I might not have been able to get you out of trouble if you had made it to the station.”

I lie back on my bed and stare at the ceiling. This feels surreal, and I don’t know how to process it. No one has watched out for me since before Mama got sick, but I didn’t think my guardian angel would sound like a machine. “I guess I should thank you. How’d you do it?”

“Called in a favor,” he says. “I have your laptop, which I’m assuming you’d very much like back. I’ve got a job for you, and if you’ll hear me out, I’ll return your property.”

“Even if I pass on the job?” I ask.

“You won’t pass. You’ve been digging for change in the couch. I’m offering you more money than you’ve ever seen and the support behind you not to get caught as you did this evening.”

I don’t respond because we both know I’ll be there.

“I’ll text you the address. Be there Monday morning at nine a.m.”

And then the line goes dead.



* * *





I’d like to say I wasn’t curious about the job and had every intention of turning it down no matter what it was, but that would be a lie.

When Monday rolls around, I’m waiting down the block just out of sight before the sun comes up. The address brought me to a bail bonds place, and by eight a.m., there’s a steady stream of traffic in and out, which I guess would be normal for an establishment like this after the weekend.

I don’t like walking into the unknown, and I’m hoping I’ll see someone who looks familiar before I’m expected. The voice on the phone gave me nothing to go by. I’m not sure an accent would make it past the voice changer, but something tells me that if he ever had one, he did what I did—spent years wiping away any trace of who I was or where I came from. It wasn’t long after I took that first job at the flower shop that I realized my twangy accent created a greater divide between me and the women who came into the store than our bank accounts ever would. The way you walk, the way you talk, the way you move your body screams more about you than anything else ever could.

Mr. Smith and I must have crossed paths in the past if I was able to take something from him. Faces, names, places, events, numbers lock into my memory the moment I hear or see them. But as the clock inches closer to nine, I resign myself to going in blind since the only people on the street are strangers.

The squatty brown brick building sits in the middle of the block with similarly depressing buildings on either side of it. I pull open the door under a blue sign that says AAA INVESTIGATIONS AND BAIL BONDS. And in smaller letters underneath: check cashing and payday loans.