“Kind of like you and Joey?”
Nick choked out a laugh. “Why the hell would I be suspicious of Joey?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Charlie asked. “Why’d you bring me out here instead of your partner, Nick?”
“Because I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t feel like waiting until the morning. I texted you and you were up. That’s all.”
“Did you even tell him you were coming?”
Nick looked away.
“You already know how I feel about him. I’ve never held back. And Georgia’s sister is smart. You said it yourself, she’s got good instincts. If she suspects there’s something off with Balafonte, I’d pay attention if I was you.”
Nick frowned at the yard.
“What is it?” Charlie asked.
“It’s just … I don’t know, Charlie. There’s something about that night that doesn’t sit right with me. I read Finlay’s statement a million times. She said she found this address in Steven’s calendar that afternoon when he went missing, and she came out here looking for him.”
“So?”
“So he wasn’t here. Theresa was. And so was Finlay’s missing phone, which means the two of them must have been together a few days before. But why? Theresa and Finlay can’t stand each other.”
“Maybe what’s not sitting right with you isn’t Finlay’s relationship with Theresa, but Finlay’s relationship with her ex-husband. Whatever she was doing here, she was obviously doing it to protect him, and now there’s a little green monster eating away at you, and your mind’s working overtime trying to invent some other reason she might have come, because you don’t want to admit you’re jealous.” Charlie held up a finger as Nick opened his mouth to protest. “And don’t bother telling me you’re not. I know you better than that.”
Nick sighed and shook his head in defeat.
Charlie dropped a hand on his shoulder. “No one’s home, so why don’t you and I go find that graveyard and take a look around. It’ll be like old times.”
Nick smiled and tapped his cane. “Sure you can keep up with me, old man?”
“I’ve had six months of chemo and radiation, and I’m still in better shape than you.”
They laughed as they descended the porch steps. I leaped back into the shed, pulling the door closed a second before they rounded the corner, their shoes crunching against the frozen grass.
I waited for their voices to fade. “We should make a break for it now,” I whispered. “We can take the long way through the woods and find our way back to the car.”
Vero nodded. I slunk out the shed door and held it open for her. As she stepped down, Ty’s pant leg caught on the handle of a rake, sending it crashing to the floor. The rattle of its tines echoed through the yard.
“Did you hear that?” Nick’s voice was faint but clear at the crest of the hill.
“Sounded like it came from the house,” Charlie said.
Vero and I sprinted from the shed, underbrush snapping as we darted into the woods. Flashlights clicked on behind us, their beams breaking over the landscape as Vero and I ducked behind two trees, breathing hard.
“Police!” Nick called out. “Who’s out there?”
Vero and I pressed back against the trunks as their footsteps crackled closer through the bracken. I pressed a hand over my mouth so their lights wouldn’t catch the fog of my breath. Charlie’s shoes paused a few feet beside me. My pulse ratcheted higher. I was certain he could hear the slam of my heart against my ribs.
“See anything?” Nick called out to him.
“Nothing,” Charlie said, kneeling in the brush. “Probably just a couple of raccoons making trouble. Come on.” His light swung away, his footsteps fading with it.
Nick’s light made another slow pass before clicking off again. Vero and I waited until they disappeared up the hill before breaking into a run.
CHAPTER 23
Vero and I stumbled out of the woods, breathing hard.
“That was close,” I panted.
“You think they saw us?”
“I don’t know, but let’s get out of here before they decide to come looking.” I sagged against the passenger side of the training cruiser, clutching a cramp in my side as Vero rounded the hood. She paused beside the driver’s door and looked at me over the roof. “What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?” I hurried around to her side of the car and stopped in my tracks. “Oh, god. That’s…”
“A whole lotta penis.” Vero and I both took a few steps back to absorb the entire image. The giant blue phallus spanned the length of the car. Its testicles had been artfully spray-painted around the rear wheel well, encircling the tire treads and dripping down the lug nuts.
“Jesus.”
Vero reached for the door. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”
“Go where? We can’t drive it back to the academy with a giant penis painted on it!”
“We have to take it somewhere. Nick and Charlie could come rolling by any minute, and we do not want to be sitting in the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile when they…” Her face fell as she patted the pockets of Ty’s pants.
“No. No, no, no! Do not tell me you lost the keys!”
“They must have fallen out while I was running! I told you running was a bad idea!”
“What do we do?” I asked, trying the handle of every door. We were miles from the nearest town and my purse was under the passenger seat.
Vero stared at the car. With a swear, she leaned over the hood and pulled the windshield wiper toward her. Prying back the soft black cover, she extracted a thin metal rod from underneath.
“Don’t judge,” she said, ignoring my dubious look as she bent the end of the rod and slipped it through the gap between the car door and the window frame. She worked it down the side, wiggling it into place. After a few tries, she gave a sharp, upright pull. “Get in,” she said, hauling her door open.
By the time I made it to the passenger side, Vero had the driver’s seat slid all the way back and the plastic cover removed from the dashboard under the steering wheel. “I can’t believe we’re hot-wiring a police car.” I gnawed my thumbnail as she fiddled with the wires. “It feels like we’re stealing it.”
“We stole the car three hours ago.”
“We didn’t steal it. We borrowed it. We had a key.”
“Like we had a key to the Aston Martin?”
She had a point. “Did Ramón teach you how to do this?”
“Ramón would kill me if he knew I knew how to do this. I watched Javi do it. Twice.” Vero held two wires together. The car started with a cough. She slapped the plastic cover back in place and eased onto the road as she tossed me her phone.
“Find me the most scenic route you can to Ramón’s. The fewer cars and traffic lights, the better.”
“But the garage isn’t open.”
“Exactly. And he might have something in his shop that will get rid of the spray paint.”
I directed Vero along the most rural routes I could find. The trees rushed by in hypnotizing patterns as the adrenaline rush of the last hour began to wane.