Vero’s engine rumbled to life. I ran around the building to meet her. The Charger screeched to a halt inches from my knees. Cam’s eyes widened behind the steering wheel. They leapt to his rearview mirror as Vero bolted out of the lobby. Cam cut the wheel hard and hit the gas, tires squealing as he peeled out of the parking lot.
“He stole my car!” Vero shrieked. “You left him alone with the key?!”
“I didn’t!” I snapped, waving the fob in front of her. “I took it with me. The only thing he had was his Slurpee and his cell.”
“And YouTube,” she said, snatching the keys from my hand. “He had YouTube on his phone. That little shit must have taught himself to hot-wire my car! That’s it.” She dragged her phone from her pocket. “I’m calling the police.”
I ripped the phone from her hand. “You can’t do that! What will you tell them? That we just bought a room for a kid who’s hiding from the cops? Cam knows too much about us. You can’t report him. We have more important things to worry about.”
“What could be more important than my car!”
“Nick just called. Steven’s gone missing. And I’m pretty sure EasyClean’s got him.”
CHAPTER 35
Vero and I took an Uber home from the motel. We needed a car to search for Cam, and the van was all we had left. The driver dropped us off at the park at the end of our street, and Vero and I cut through the neighbors’ backyards, sneaking behind the house to the side door of the garage to avoid being noticed by Officer Roddy and Mrs. Haggerty.
Vero put her key in the lock. “That’s strange,” she whispered.
“What’s strange?”
“It’s unlocked.” Vero inched the door open. From behind the hulking shadow of my minivan came a series of metallic clanks. “Someone’s in there,” she whispered. “What do we do?”
“I’ll go in this way,” I said. “You circle around from the kitchen.” Vero nodded and tiptoed toward the sliding door at the back of the house.
I slipped into the garage and crouched behind my van, peering around it. A figure stood with his back to me in front of my workbench, examining my new tools under the dim halo of light from the naked bulb above his head. I crept closer until I could see him in profile. Steven studied my plumber’s wrench and tossed it down with an infuriated sigh. He reached for my brand-new utility knife, bending over it to inspect the blade. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or pissed that he was alive.
I stood up and shouted, “What are you doing here?”
Steven swore. The knife fell onto the bench with a loud thump and he whirled around, clutching his chest. He pointed a finger at the tools as he stalked toward me. “You and I are going to talk about this. I know what you’re trying to do, but this has gone way too far, Finlay. You have the entire police force thinking someone is out to kill me!”
“Someone is out to kill you! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”
“This has to stop. Right now. Before someone gets hurt.”
“What are you doing?” I backed into the side of the van as he reached for me.
“I’m taking you to the police station.”
“You can’t do that!” I slapped his hand away.
“We’re going to sit down with your very concerned detective friend, and you’re going to tell him it was your voice on that security recording the night of the fire. You’re going to tell him everything. That you and that nanny of yours knocked me down at the tree farm and pretended to mug me, just so you could pressure me into filing a damn police report.”
“What? I didn’t pretend to mug you!” I backed away from him as we circled around the garage.
“I found that spying app you put on my cell phone, by the way. Nice touch. A real step up from the baby monitor in Delia’s backpack.”
“What spying app?”
“But messing with my gas line and slicing my tires? Just to make it look like someone was out to get me? To make it look like our children weren’t safe with me? That’s crossing the line. You’re going to explain to Nick that this ridiculous post he found on the internet was just one big made-up story you concocted so that you won’t have to share custody with me.”
My back smacked into the hood of my van. I felt my way around it, inching toward the door as he closed the distance between us. “I readily admit that was me on the recording, but I didn’t set that fire! And I didn’t do any of those other things either. I am telling you, someone wants you dead! And believe it or not, for once it’s not me! That post Nick found is real, Steven!”