by Box Set
She nodded.
Me: What else should I know? What else do you need?
Sharon: Car.
Me: We’ll take care of it.
Sharon: Someone will need to take the tracking chip to a restaurant and keep the chip at body temperature.
Oh my God. Me: No problem.
We’d have to figure that one out.
Sharon: Blank forms for shot records with fake doctor
Me: Will do.
Never occurred to me.
Sharon: Can I really trust you?
I looked up and met her gaze. I nodded.
“We should go,” she said. Then as if she were a natural at all this deception she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow night at seven? I can show you around, let you play with the boys. That way when you babysit later in the week they will have an easier time of it.”
“Yes,” I said. “See you tomorrow.”
She started to gather up the mess they’d made.
“I’ll take care of it,” I said. “Bye boys.”
The little one waved at me. The other gave me a distrustful glance. I guess it was a good thing I was never going to babysit them. He didn’t want to give me a chance.
She stood with her child and diaper bag in one hand and her grip on the little boy’s hand. “Thank you,” she said.
I knew from the emotion in her voice that this was a real thank you. I just nodded, too choked up to speak. They left and I spent a few minutes messing with the burner phone as if I had no reason to rush out of here. Finally, I finished my drink, cleaned up the table, slung the messenger bag over my shoulder, and took the trays to the trash can.
Chapter 12
When I got to the car, Hearst had already beat me there and started the engine.
I got in and put my finger to my lips to shush him. Out of an abundance of caution, I wanted to sweep the car and each of us.
I did and nothing turned up.
“It’s safe to talk,” I said.
“What happened?” he asked. “I was dying to know what you were texting about. Is she going to run? Does she want your help?”
“Yes and yes. And we need some fake shot records for the kids. I got their sizes and hers. Can we really get the money? She’s counting on us.”
“He’ll have it by noon tomorrow. He’ll route it through so many banks, Doug will never find it.”
“She wants to go soon because of the custody hearing. I’m going to go over tomorrow and see the house and play with the kids so when I babysit later this week I’ll be ready.”
“You’re babysitting while she runs?”
“It’s the only thing I could think of. I can fake being there with two kids. She can run in another car with the kids. You will have to take the tracking chip that she has behind her ear…”
“You’re kidding me?”
“No. It’s despicable. But you have to keep it on you and keep it at body temp, go to a restaurant. Hang out for hours, then come back in her car, pull into the garage. Then we can get out of there.”
“I don’t like you being alone in that house.”
I didn’t either, but I didn’t see any other way. “This could buy her an entire night. I can slip into her bed. You can interfere with the camera signal for just long enough for me to put pillows and maybe a heating pad there, and then we can sneak out. She’ll have at least four to six hours. Maybe as many as twelve. Can you think of any way to buy her more time?”
“No,” he admitted.
“Did anybody follow her here today?”
“I don’t think so. That’s a positive at least. Maybe nobody will tail her to the restaurant.”
“Take me home so I can let my guard down for a while. I’m starting to get paranoid.”
“Probably not a bad thing.” He backed out of the parking space. “Can we please bring your brother in on this plan?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Let me think about it for a little bit.”
“You’re really considering it?” he asked.
“I’m not completely reckless and stupid,” I said. “I know we would be safer if he knew.”
“I never said I thought you were stupid.”
Foolish. But I didn’t want to argue with him. “We have so much to get done,” I said.
“We can do it.”
“I want to at least go over to her house before we tell my brother. That way it will all be a done deal, and he’ll go along with the plan.”
“It makes sense,” Hearst said. “Is he going to be home? If so, I shouldn’t come inside. I need to change and put all the jewelry back in.”
“My God,” I said. “That will take hours.”
He stuck his tongue out at me, and I giggled.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be out,” I said. “Did you bring your real clothes with you?”
“Of course,” he said. “I need to get out of these weird clothes as soon as possible.”
I snorted. A baseball shirt and jeans. Crazy clothes. “Soon you’ll be back to the Angel of Death Metal.”
He groaned. “I hate it when you call me that. I don’t like death metal.”
I didn’t have a clue what death metal was if he wanted to know the truth.
We got to my street and could see that my brother’s car wasn’t in front of the agency. “I think we’re good,” I said.
“I’ll go switch out the car and come right back over,” he said.
I gathered up the messenger bag, athletic bag, and my purse and went to unlock the door. He waited until I was inside before driving away.
I hadn’t thought to ask where he’d found the car. I couldn’t imagine where he’d found it. The guy didn’t have any friends. I didn’t exactly see criminal hacker Rob driving the cheerful Beetle.
I went to my room to change out of the cheerleader outfit and stow it with the athletic bag and pompoms in my closet. I laid Hearst’s jacket on my bed, and put on the clothes I had worn that morning.
Did I have to put that uniform on again tomorrow night? It might be a good idea. I wanted anybody watching to see cheerleader and not look much farther. But was it realistic to wear the thing constantly? I should have picked up some of the Admiral High t-shirts and sweats at the store. I guess we could grab some tomorrow. A hoodie maybe, and some shorts. Anything to keep up the appearance.
Hearst arrived and came to my room with a backpack over his shoulder and his kick-butt black boots in one hand. “Can I get changed in here?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m done. We don’t know how soon my brother will be back. Do you need help with all the piercings and stuff?”
“No. I got it.” He kicked off the Vans that he must have bought just for today.
“Before you start stripping, tell me where you got that car.”
“I thought you’d be more curious about the clothes,” he said.
“Where did you get the car?”
He shrugged. “It’s my old nanny’s. She can’t drive anymore, so it sits in her garage. The car is seven years old and has only five thousand miles on it.”
His old nanny? “I didn’t know you kept up with any of your nannies. I thought you didn’t like any of them.”
“I don’t like any of them. Her daughter contacted my parents about six months ago and asked them to have me visit her.”
“And did you? Visit her?”
“I went to the house. The daughter took one look at me and told me to get lost.”
“I don’t get it. Why did you go at all? And why didn’t you mention it to me?”
“I went because my parents threatened to come home and take me themselves if I didn’t. And I didn’t feel like talking about it.”
“Wait. Why did she loan you the car then?”
He put his hands on my shoulders. “Townsey. We have a hacker stealing half a million dollars from a man to give to his sister-in-law. Do you really think I asked permission to take the Beetle out for a spin?”
Half a million. “I guess I was
trying not to think about the laws we’re breaking. Half a million dollars. I didn’t realize it was that much.”
He nodded. “She needs that much.”
I nodded, and he removed his hands from my shoulders.
“Will we get her a car in time? We aren’t stealing one are we?”
“I’m going to send her in my old Range Rover. She can dump it somewhere when she’s ready to buy a new one with cash. It’s been sitting in the garage for a year. And it’s big enough for the kids and everything she needs.”
That should work. Even if they tried to trace her disappearance to Paxton PI, they probably wouldn’t think to connect the cars registered to Hearst’s father.
“We have a lot of shopping to do.”
“Let me get changed, and I’ll go over your list.”
“I don’t have a list yet.”
“And you weren’t going to rush right out there and make one while I changed.”
“Know it all,” I said. Then I left him alone in my room.
When my brother came into the loft a few minutes later, I was sitting on the couch, hand writing a list in a spiral notebook.
“Hey!” I said. “Where did you go?”
He didn’t look like the same cheerful brother from this morning. His eyes were tired and he didn’t return my smile. “I had to go see Joe about a case.”
Sharon’s case? He must have read Carol’s email after I left this morning. “I take it your visit didn’t go well.”
He sighed. “It’s a bad situation, Townsey. I need to think some more about what our options are. Joe wasn’t able to help.” He shook his head. “I’ll tell you more later. Right now I need to grab my laptop and go down to the office for a couple hours.”
“You’ll really tell me about it?” I asked, trying not to sound like an eager puppy.
“I will. You need to know what’s going on so you can be prepared for any trouble.” He held up his hands. “Not yet though. I need to get a few things done.”
I was feeling so many things at once, I wasn’t sure how to cope. He was going to tell me about the case! I was relieved that he wasn’t hiding it from me. On the other hand, I was hiding a ton from him, and I felt guilty about it. Then there was the complete confusion about whether to tell him before tomorrow night.
Graham came out of his bedroom with laptop and headed down to the office.
Hearst appeared moments later, in full goth regalia.
“You’re back!” I said. “I missed you!”
He gave me crooked grin. “You like me better like this?”
“Of course,” I said. “That other guy was a tool.”
He laughed. “Very funny. Now tell me what your brother said.”
I told him, and then grabbed my laptop to log in to Carol’s email. “With any luck, he went right down there and emailed her.”
I opened the inbox to see an email from my brother marked urgent. I clicked on it.
“Please contact me by phone immediately. I can’t seem to locate your phone number. It isn’t like my assistant to make this kind of mistake.”
“Uh oh,” I said.
“What are you going to do now, Carol?” Hearst asked.
“If he finds out now, he’ll never let me go tomorrow night,” I said. “I can’t let this all fall apart.”
“Maybe he can send someone else. Maybe it will all work out.”
“Do you really believe that?” I asked. I waited for him to look me in the eye and tell me someone else could handle it. “It would stress Sharon out. I don’t think she could cope with any changes.”
Hearst didn’t answer.
“You don’t believe it,” I said. “And neither do I.”
“Are you sure Graham wouldn’t let you go tomorrow night? Isn’t there a chance that he would?”
I thought about it for a minute. “Let’s see how he reacts to Carol doing it. If he doesn’t want her to go, he’ll never let me go.”
“True,” he said.
I focused on replying to Graham’s email.
“I have updates for you. First, I was able to make contact today with Sharon West. She wants to make a move in the next week because she is fearful of the outcome of the custody hearing. She was leery of trusting me, but we established a rapport.”
“Nice,” Hearst said, reading over my shoulder.
“I plan to visit her home tomorrow night under the guise of seeing her home and spending time with the boys before babysitting later in the week. I have provided her with a burner phone and advised her of the location of all the cameras in her home. There is another complication of sorts. She indicated that her husband actually had a tracking device implanted under her skin behind her ear. However, she told me that she can extract the device herself when the time comes.
“I believe I will have quite a bit more information tomorrow night after meeting with her. I understand your distress at the turn this case has taken. However, I assure you that I have backup.”
“Am I backup?” Hearst asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“I would like to go through with tomorrow’s visit before we talk since there are so many gaps right now regarding her situation and how to proceed. I am extremely concerned about spooking her.”
“How’s that?” I asked.
“Not bad,” he said. “Carol is more tactful than you are.”
I pressed send. “Let’s see if he buys it.”
We waited for him to respond. Hearst looking over my shoulder.
And we waited.
“Is this a good sign, or a bad one?” my friend asked.
“I’m not sure. If he wanted to yell at her, he’d have to stop and think since it’s email. If he was okay with it, he’d also stop and think.”
“So you have no idea.”
“Not a clue,” I said.
“Is it okay if I grab a Gatorade?”
“Grab about twenty. We’ll never drink all those.”
“Do you want one?”
I sighed, my eyes glued to the screen. “Sure. Why not.”
The email came through and I clicked it.
Graham wrote, “If I decided to take you off this case right now, what would you do?”
I hadn’t expected the question.
I hit reply and typed, “Is that what you are deciding? Is it time for me to make that choice?”
I motioned for Hearst to hurry.
He came over and read Graham’s email and my reply. “How can the man not know he’s talking to his own sister? It’s almost like he’s talking to a clone of himself.”
“Not funny,” I grumbled. I hit send.
We waited again. Hearst handed me a Gatorade and I unscrewed the lid and took a sip.
Finally, the response came.
Graham wrote, “No. It isn’t what I’m deciding. It isn’t time for you to make that choice. Will you brief me fully, on the phone or in person, by ten o’clock tomorrow night?”
“Well,” Hearst asked, “will you, Carol?”
I hated the way he said the name Carol. “Yes,” I said. “I will.”
“Thank God,” Hearst said. “Now we just have one more day of this torture before we get some help.”
“What do you plan to do tomorrow night?” I asked. “You can’t come with me.”
“I’ll drop you off and pick you up. I can hang out a mile away at that gas station on the corner. That way I can get to you fast if something goes wrong.”
I nodded. “That works for me.”
“Reply to your brother before he has a coronary.”
I typed my answer. “Yes. I will contact you as soon as I leave her home. We can arrange a meeting then.” I hit send.
Graham answered back quickly. “I’ll be waiting.”
“He’s kind of bossy,” I said.
My friend shook his head at me. “He let Carol have her way for the good of the client.” He came around the couch and sat beside me. “I can’t wait to hear you tell Graham the truth.”
I didn’t answer. I hadn’t pictured Hearst being part of that conversation, but I was open to considering it. Whatever kept my brother from killing me. He was not going to be happy about any of this.
“What now?” my friend asked. “Did you finish the list?”
“No.” I reached for the notebook. “I was thinking that they may need more than one ID. Maybe a couple of choices in case they have to run again.”
“I told Rob to get her six. He’s also going to have money in bank accounts for all six identities. He said he’s dealt with this kind of thing before.”
“Right,” I said. “In his twenty-four long years on the planet.”
“It beats the seventeen we have under our belts. Plus, I told you. The guy is a genius.”
* * *
We compiled an exhaustive list over the next hour. I’d forgotten to ask Sharon about diapers, so I’d need to find out tomorrow. While I was there, I’d also look for the kids favorite toys. It might help them adjust if I could find identical replacements.
“I guess I can get Lori to help with the shopping,” I said. “Since we’re coming clean tomorrow night.”
“I hope so,” Hearst said. “I have no idea what a 2T is or where to find it.”
I didn’t either, but I wasn’t going to confess to him.
My brother came upstairs and gave Hearst a dirty look. I guess he’d used up all his patience on Carol.
“Don’t you need to get home for Sunday dinner or something?” my brother asked.
I really needed to tell him the truth about Hearst’s home life so he’d stop hurting my friend’s feelings.
“Yes,” Hearst said. “I guess I do. I’ll get my bag.”
My brother watched him go to my room for his backpack.
When he came back out, Graham said, “Thanks for staying here with Townsey last night.”
Hearst took a minute to answer. “You’re welcome.” He turned to me. “I’ll pick you up at the usual time for school?”
“Yes. Thanks.”
Hearst left and my brother went over to the kitchen. He opened the freezer. “Fish sticks or microwave dinners?”
“Microwave dinners,” I said. Now that I was a little calmer, I was starving.
“We have a frozen pizza in here,” he said. “I guess we shouldn’t since we had pizza last night.”