My knees locked on the last step as I caught a whiff of Nick’s cologne. It mingled with the aroma of tater tot grease. Delia’s high voice came from the kitchen, relaying the story of how she lost her teeth, followed by Nick’s deep, rumbling laugh.
I pressed my back against the wall. I could do this. I just needed to keep it together through dinner. I took a deep breath and smoothed the front of my dress, heels clicking with more confidence than I felt as I walked into the kitchen. Everyone turned to look at me. Everyone except Vero.
She stood in front of the oven, her shoulders stiff as she scooped tots onto melamine plates.
“Wow.” Nick leaned back in his chair, taking me in.
My laugh was high and a little panicked. “You told me to surprise you.”
Vero set the children’s plates down on the table. Her dark eyes pierced me over Nick’s head. “Did you get my message? I’ve been texting you.”
“No, I must have left my phone in your car.”
“You should probably go get it.” She handed me her car keys with a pointed look. “Don’t forget to check the trunk.”
I cleared my throat. “Good idea.” My phone had probably fallen out while we were hauling out the trash bags. I could feel the heat of Nick’s gaze trailing me as I crossed the kitchen and slipped into the garage. The trunk of the Charger popped open when I clicked the key fob. I lifted the lid and swore.
Carl—or at least one very big piece of him—was still inside.
“Damn you, Theresa.” I groped under the edges of the trash bag for my phone. She’d probably refused to answer her door, for the same reason Feliks refused to take Carl after he’d killed him. Because if Vero and I were stuck with a piece of Carl, we were a lot less likely to tell anyone about him.
I slammed the trunk and stormed to the passenger side door, dropping into the bucket seat and fishing my purse from underneath it. I searched inside, but my phone wasn’t there. It wasn’t in my room. It wasn’t in Vero’s car. The only other place it could be was …
Fuck!
I dropped my head to the dashboard. I couldn’t go back to Theresa’s now. Not without rousing Nick’s suspicions.
I got out of the car, locking it behind me. The sooner I got Nick out of here, the better. I’d pretend everything was fine. We’d go to dinner, and Vero and I would deal with Carl and Theresa when I got home.
Vero was waiting by the door when I returned to the kitchen. “Did you find your phone?”
Nick’s back was to us. Delia giggled as he snuck a tater tot from her plate, but I had no doubt his cop-brain would quietly register every word, even if he was only half listening.
I handed her the keys. “It wasn’t in your car. I must have left it at the neighbor’s house when we dropped by this afternoon.”
“I don’t think so,” Vero said, locking eyes with me. “I just left the neighbor’s house, and no one was home.”
No one was home? How was that possible? Theresa was on house arrest. Where else could she be? “What do you mean?” I asked in a low voice.
“Just what I said,” Vero said through her teeth. “I knocked on her door, and when no one answered, I let myself in. The door was unlocked. Our neighbor wasn’t there. Neither was her guest.”
“Her guest?” Vero answered my confused look with a pantomimed chopping motion.
Carl? No!
She nodded.
But Theresa wouldn’t have been stupid enough to risk leaving her house, even to get rid of the body. “Are you sure she wasn’t in the backyard? You know … mulching her flower beds?”
Vero shook her head, darting a cautious glance at Nick, but he and Delia were preoccupied, negotiating for another tot. “They definitely were not there. I looked everywhere. For both of them,” she said, pointing at the refrigerator door. “Her guest was definitely gone. And I definitely didn’t see your phone. But our neighbor left a rather large piece of jewelry sitting out on the kitchen counter.” Vero pointed to her ankle. “I didn’t want to take a chance that someone else might let themselves in and find it, so I tidied up,” she said, holding up a tube of Clorox wipes, “and I locked her door behind me.”
Oh, this was not good.
Aimee must have gone straight to Theresa’s house at the same time we were rushing home, taking a different route from the adjacent block where her SUV had been parked. She and Theresa had probably panicked. They must have taken off the ankle monitor and run, desperate to get rid of the body, leaving me and Vero with the biggest piece of it. It wouldn’t be long before the police showed up and realized Theresa was gone.