by Box Set
I explained the set up tonight, and the plan to babysit. I went into detail about sneaking the kids into the SUV and having Sharon swap cars halfway to the restaurant. I also mentioned that I would be in the house, making sure it seemed like the kids were with me. I explained the need for keeping the tracking device at body temperature.
“If it weren’t my little sister putting herself in danger,” Graham said after a few minutes, “I think I would be impressed by the plan.”
I grinned at him.
“We need more people,” he said. “Even if I let you do the babysitting, we need more backup.”
“I have to babysit, Graham. Otherwise, they will know something is wrong.”
“What was Hearst’s role for Wednesday?” my brother asked.
“I thought he’d handle the tracker and go to the restaurant.”
“No,” Graham said. “Let’s think this through. We need a babysitter. We need somebody watching out for the babysitter. We need somebody with the tracker who goes to the restaurant. We need someone to tail Sharon in the new car to be sure she gets away clean.
“Then we need someone acting as Sharon to get home, pay the babysitter, check on her kids, and go to bed.”
“I can tail her,” Joshua said. “Make sure she gets away clean.”
My brother sat with his elbow on the table, his hand curled into a fist as he tapped it against his forehead. “If Townsey is the babysitter, there are only two backup scenarios. One is to have somebody nearby and ready to move. There’s a risk of discovery. The other option is for her boyfriend to show up and babysit with her, far more believable and less likely to raise suspicion.” He glanced at Hearst. “But also less secure and not ideal.”
Graham turned to me. “What is your plan for staying off camera during the babysitting and making the appropriate noises?”
“I already set it up to turn off the baby monitors until she gets home. I can run to the kitchen for snacks and drinks and play with them in their rooms. With the monitors off, there are no cameras. I will talk to them, read them stories… It will sound okay for the bugs.”
“Has Sharon used a babysitter and gone out to eat before?” Graham asked. “Is this a departure from normal?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I doubt she ever leaves the kids.”
“This is unusual behavior for her. This is a risk. But it gives her the best chance we have. Joshua and I couldn’t come up with anything that would give her this much lead time.” He gave me a frustrated look. “You will be in danger, Townsey. They won’t miss that she’s behaving differently. They will be paying attention. They may even check on you. They could call, or stop by.”
Stop by. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“We have to think through all the options,” my brother said. “Every possibility.”
“We only have two days,” Hearst said. “And we have a lot of shopping to do. We need to get clothes, toys, diapers for the kids.”
My brother nodded. “The vehicle has to be ready for them to get in and drive away. That means car seats too.”
Car seats! I had missed that completely.
Graham said, “We don’t want a single thing taken from the house. That means they change into new, clean clothes before they leave there Wednesday night. No toys, no diaper bag, no stuffed animals.”
“I made some notes on what they sleep with and their favorite toys,” I said.
“I’ll let Lori know to meet you two in the morning. She can help with the shopping. You can skip school. You should go to Maryville though, just in case anybody is watching us. They know she came to us for help. They theoretically don’t know that we saw through the email from the husband.
“Joshua, can you check and see if Townsey and Hearst have picked up any tails tomorrow? And check Lori too.”
“Will do,” the burly man said.
My brother sighed. “We’ll take care of business. We’ll see to it that this family gets away. Then you and me are going to talk, Townsey.” He looked at Hearst. “As for you, I don’t know how to handle your parents. You could be in danger. They could be in danger.”
“Actually, Graham,” Hearst said. “My parents are not a concern.”
My brother started to protest.
“I’m serious,” Hearst said. “My parents live between New York and London. They haven’t been home, to Tennessee, in eleven months. They stayed four days. They won’t be back until at least Christmas. They’ll probably order me to New York instead of coming here.”
Graham looked to me for confirmation.
I nodded. “He’s telling the truth. They’ve only been in town three times since I met Hearst.”
“Who looks after you? A housekeeper? A grandmother?” my brother asked.
Hearst shrugged. “I had nannies when I was younger. I had a live-in housekeeper but she retired when I was a freshman. We use a housekeeping service.”
“Who does the shopping and cooking?” my brother asked.
“Me,” Hearst said. “I order out a lot. I have credit cards to pay for groceries and anything else I need. The accountant takes care of all the other bills.”
“You’re telling me that you live alone in that big house with absolutely no adult supervision,” Graham asked.
Hearst nodded. “That’s what I’m telling you.”
I rushed to defend my friend. “He goes to school every single day. He has straight A’s. He doesn’t drink or do drugs. He hasn’t trashed his house. He doesn’t have parties. He’s more responsible than me or Liz or Felicity, and he’s more mature.”
My brother met my gaze for a minute and then examined Hearst. “I guess this is yet another thing that we’ll have to deal with on Thursday.”
“Hearst and I can get to work on the shopping list,” I said.
“Good idea,” Graham said. “Grab some paper and work over on the couches. That way you’ll be close when Joshua and I have questions.”
Chapter 14
We worked on checklists and discussed each part of the plan over and over. At two a.m., my brother finally decided to call it a night.
“Hearst, do you have a change of clothes with you?” Graham asked.
“In my car.”
“Grab them and then stay the night here. We don’t know for sure that you and Townsey haven’t raised suspicions. I don’t want you going home this late. You can sleep on the couch.”
Hearst smiled. “Yes, sir.”
“I’m going to head home,” Joshua said. “But I’ll be ready to check them for tails in the morning.”
My brother nodded. “And Lori is ready to meet you at the superstore in Maryville at nine tomorrow when they open. You’ll load everything into her car since she actually has kids. Then we’ll transfer it into something with tinted windows before taking it to your place, Hearst. You’re sure there is room to pull into your garage before moving everything over to the Range Rover.”
“Plenty of room,” Hearst said.
“You two should get some sleep,” Graham said. “Townsey, make sure to let the Gossip Girls know you aren’t coming tomorrow. Give them a reason that will keep them out of our hair.”
I nodded.
“I don’t want to pull anybody else in on this case,” Graham said. “So we need to keep thinking. Keep going over the plan in your heads. We can’t afford to miss anything.”
I texted Felicity and Liz that Graham had grounded me for sneaking out to meet Hearst. I told them that I still had the headache and would probably miss school. I also told them that if they contacted me, I’d get grounded for an extra week and that I was having to give my phone to my brother as soon as I finished notifying them. I couldn’t guarantee they would listen, but it was my best shot at keeping them safe and away from here.
I couldn’t stop going over the plan in my head. I was excited but also terrified. Doug West scared me, and by now, he had gotten a good look at me. I had to hope Sharon and her boys would get away without any trouble.
And then I had to hope that Doug never figured out who had helped her.
* * *
Hearst and I went through a drive-thru for breakfast and frappes. Then we headed for our shopping rendezvous. Lori called from her burner phone as directed, and I explained the whole situation as we drove.
“I don’t like this at all, Townsey,” she said. “You could get hurt.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m going to be careful. I promise.”
“Graham told me we were shopping, but this is a lot to accomplish in one day,” she said. “Do you have a list?”
“I do. And I know their favorite books and toys.”
“I’ll see you two in a few minutes,” she said. “We’ll knock this out by one or two this afternoon.”
Hearst blanched when I told him.
“We’re shopping all day long?”
“It won’t kill you,” I said.
* * *
We ended up going to four stores because Lori didn’t want us dropping a thousand dollars in cash in one store. I wasn’t sure how we’d get it all in the SUV for Sharon. We had shopping bags coming out our ears. We did buy girl’s clothes for Dougie, but they were very neutral considering. We didn’t get anything pink or frilly.
“I’ll take all the clothing and blankets home and wash them in baby detergent,” she said. “Then I’ll load it all into our suitcases. It will be much better for Sharon to pull up to a hotel with suitcases than shopping bags.”
“We should have bought suitcases,” I said.
“It might be better that we didn’t. I don’t mind using mine. I can replace them all later.” She frowned. “We need to get everything out of the packaging and consolidate the toys and books into duffel bags as well. We should really just go to my house now and take everything in through the garage. We can spread out and sort through everything and repack it while I do the wash.”
“What about your nanny?” I asked. “Won’t she think it’s strange?”
“She has the week off. My husband is home with the triplets.”
“I’ll let Graham know,” I said.
* * *
It was nine p.m. by the time everything was washed, packed, and stowed safely in the Range Rover at Hearst’s place. Well, everything except the tote bag with one set of clothes and shoes for each of them.
When we got to the loft, Graham and Joshua looked just as haggard and weary.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
My brother nodded. “Doug owns the house next door to Sharon. A security operative Boomers Security Emporium lives there with his family. They have somebody practically right on top of her. Tomorrow night, you and Hearst will be far too exposed for my comfort.”
The idea that there would be an enemy that close to us was horrifying.
“We need to go over every second of the plan for when you’re in that house. I want it choreographed better than the fight scenes in a martial arts movie,” he said. “Hearst, you drop her off. When Sharon leaves, you come back, park in the driveway and go inside with her. The two of you read to the kids, play with them, whatever. When the kids are supposedly down for the night, you go in the family room and watch movies. You’ll need to sell the girlfriend and boyfriend thing at that point. They will be watching you. So you’ll need to be cuddly. Kiss each other.” He flinched. “Nothing else though. No groping or anything.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that I’d be getting up close and personal with Hearst tomorrow night. I didn’t hate the idea though. “Graham, I think we’ll be too excited about what’s happening with Sharon to get carried away.”
Hearst agreed. “We can do the cuddling and kissing. Plus, Townsey will have to go check on the kids in their rooms every fifteen or twenty minutes.”
“We’ll call you when we’re on our way back. You can pretend it’s Sharon letting you know she’s leaving the restaurant,” Graham said. “Not normal for a parent to call, but it will ensure that Hearst is there as long as possible before he leaves you alone. You’ll be there maybe ten or twenty minutes before I pull into the garage in Sharon’s car. Shortly after, you will exit through the front door and get into the car with Hearst. I’ll be in the house with Joshua, avoiding all the cameras. We’ll turn the baby monitors on. You will have plenty of time earlier in the night to make the beds look occupied. Then we’ll take a chance with interference on the camera in Sharon’s room. We’ll make it look like she’s in bed. I picked up a dummy today that will fool the infrared. Once we are finished, we’ll exit through a window on the side of the house and jog two miles to Joshua’s car.
“You and Sharon will need to make sure nothing from the house goes with them. Also, you’ll have to sweep her SUV for bugs. We can’t have them hearing the kids in the car or the whole plan is shot down.”
My brother held up a tote bag. “We got some hair dye and scissors for Sharon. I made a list of things she should do at their first stop to change her appearance. We’re lucky she’s blonde. Her hair should take the color easily. We’ll add this to the Range Rover tomorrow.
“Everybody sit down,” Graham said. “We’ll go over everything again.”
Hearst and I sat. We weren’t taking any shortcuts. The cost of failure was far too high.
* * *
I didn’t sleep well at all. I couldn’t relax and let go. Instead, I held on to all the worry for Sharon and her kids. Thank goodness I wasn’t trying to pull off this plan with only Hearst’s help. It seemed almost impossible even with Graham and Joshua on board. We had to succeed.
There were points in the night where I drifted off only to dream that Doug tracked them down in a matter of days. The danger wasn’t over for them after tomorrow night. Sharon and her sons could be running for years. The truth was that they may never be able to let down their guard.
Every day that we could buy them away from all those cameras and listening devices, outside of that gilded cage they lived in, every single day would be a gift for them.
After a while I got up to get a glass of water. My brother had asked Hearst to stay on the couch again. I wasn’t sure if it was the threat of danger or remorse at his treatment of my friend, but I was glad to have Hearst staying over.
I crept into the living area, hoping that Hearst was awake, but not wanting to interrupt his sleep if he wasn’t. I tiptoed over to the couch to see if he was asleep. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed. Since he usually slept on his side, I leaned closer and risked whispering his name.
“Hearst.”
His eyelids popped open again like they had yesterday.
“Why do you keep doing that? It’s creepy,” I hissed.
He gave me a lazy smile. “I like to bug you.”
“I can’t sleep,” I said. “I came to get some water.”
He reached down beside the couch and picked up a bottle of water. He held it out to me. “It’s still cold.”
I took the bottle from him and unscrewed the cap. Then I took a sip. We didn’t need to share. We had about eighty bottles of water left from Liz and Felicity’s shopping expedition. I screwed the cap back on and handed it back to him.
Then I stood there, not ready to go back to my room.
He placed the bottle on the floor. “I can’t sleep either.”
I stood there and nodded. “I see that.”
“Come around here and cuddle up with me,” he said. “It might keep these nightmares out of my head.”
I didn’t argue. I also didn’t bother walking around the couch. I slid over the back of the couch and onto his lap.
He wrapped his arms around me. “I said cuddle, not crush.”
I squirmed around trying to push him down into the sofa cushions.
“Uncle,” he said. “Uncle.”
I stopped moving.
He rolled onto his side, pushing me off of him and onto the couch in front of him. Then he put his arm around my waist and pulled me tight against him. “Are you comfortable?” he asked.
“Yes
,” I said. “I could sleep like this.”
He laughed and his chest shook. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“It’s a bad idea,” I said, my eyes drifting shut.
“Terrible.”
“Horrible.”
“No good,” he said, his voice husky.
“Very bad,” I mumbled. And then I slept.
* * *
I woke to the sensation of warm lips against my cheek, and opened my eyes to see what was happening.
“Shhh,” Hearst said from behind me. “Don’t wake your brother.”
Light was coming through the two meager windows. I glanced over to see Graham laying on the other couch, softly snoring.
“How did he get in here?” I asked.
“He’s been here for hours. I woke up when he first came in. He watched us for a few minutes and then grabbed that blanket and laid down over there.”
“I guess he couldn’t sleep either.”
“You’re missing the point, Townsey. He didn’t bludgeon me with a baseball bat.”
I shrugged and snuggled back against his chest. “He must trust you now.”
“Maybe he thinks you’re safe from me since you have a crush on Noah.”
“No,” I whispered. “I don’t think he’s ever heard of Noah.”
“He hasn’t?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Good,” he said softly. “Go back to sleep.”
Since I didn’t think I could possibly go back to sleep, I thought about getting up. But curled up into Hearst’s warmth, I was far too comfortable. “Okay,” I said.
* * *
When I opened my eyes again, my face was jammed into the couch cushion. I rolled over to see that the sun was brighter than before. I was alone on the couch, and the scent of pancakes and syrup filled the air. A movement on the other couch caught my eye. My brother lay stretched out, his eyes on me.
“Is it morning?” I asked.