Chapter 24
My minivan rattled into the driveway, and Vero and I ran inside the house minutes before Javi returned from the computer repair shop. We watched through the window as he got out of the Eggplant and slammed the door. He stood in front of the house, scowling at the camera above the driveway.
“Everything okay?” Vero asked him when he finally came inside.
He dropped the laptop on the coffee table.
“The damn thing’s still not working. The tech shop said there’s nothing wrong with the computer or the software.
He said it’s probably a bad connection somewhere in the house.
I’m going to look at all the wiring and see what the hell is going on.
” Vero and I followed him to the garage.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Vero asked him as he searched for the toolbox.
“Maybe we should call an electrician,” I agreed, stalling for time.
“I can handle it,” Javi said, walking out the back door. He stood, hands on his hips, squinting up at the security camera overlooking the backyard. “Where’s your mom’s ladder?”
“Ramón put it in the back of his van after he caught me sneaking out to meet you. That’s probably a sign. We should just wait until he comes back.”
“No way. I promised your mom I’d keep an eye on her house and keep you safe while Ramón is gone, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“You don’t have anything to prove to my mother.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Where are you going?” she asked as Javi went back inside.
“To your bedroom,” he said as we chased him up the stairs. “The camera is mounted pretty close to your window. I can probably reach it from there.”
Javi set his toolbox on Vero’s bed and opened her window. He ducked his head through the opening and leaned out far enough to see the camera to his left. “Hand me the screwdriver,” he called over his shoulder.
I passed him the screwdriver. He tucked the pointy end of it into the belt loop of his jeans and leaned out even farther, holding on to the frame with one hand.
I felt sick watching him. Vero’s former boyfriend was in a shower curtain at the bottom of a river.
The last thing we needed was for her current one to fall out of a window and break his neck. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
He laughed. “Are you kidding? Vero’s been climbing out of this window since we were kids. It’s perfectly safe.”
“Because I was using both hands when I did it, Javi!”
He grinned. “If you’re that worried about me, you can hold on to my leg.”
Vero gnawed her thumbnail as she watched Javi’s hips slide farther through the opening. She sat on the floor and grabbed hold of Javi’s thigh.
“I told you messing with the camera was not a good idea!” I whispered.
“I know!” Vero whispered back. “It’s too late to argue about it now. Help me anchor him.”
I looked for a safe place to grab him. Javi wasn’t wearing a belt, and his jeans were riding precariously low, revealing the waistband of his boxers as he stretched his body out the window. I sat on the floor and looped an arm around his other leg. “I can’t believe you’re letting him do this.”
Javi loosened his grip on the frame to extend his reach. “I think I see the problem,” he grunted. “Looks like a loose wire. Hand me a set of pliers?”
Vero’s face pinched with guilt. “Javi, there’s something I need to tell you.”
I could practically hear Javi grin. “That you would be devastated if anything happened to me?”
“Yes, but—”
“And you really did mean all those things you said in that chapel in Atlantic City?”
“Sure, but—”
“And when I come back inside the house, you plan to show me the depth of your love by stripping me naked and kissing every inch of my body?”
“Yes, Javi, but also—”
Javi yelped. Vero screamed as he slipped off the sill and his body tumbled sideways out the window.
His legs shot out of his pants like they’d been fired from a cannon.
His jeans slid all the way down, bunching around his calves and catching on the tops of his sneakers.
Vero and I scrambled to hold on to them as Javi shouted and flailed.
With a final shriek, he popped out of his shoes and his feet flew past us out the window.
Vero and I stared at each other, clinging to his empty jeans. Horrified, we listened for the thump of his body against the ground. All we heard was a quiet grunt. We clambered to the window and poked our heads out.
Javi clung to the camera by the tips of his fingers, his bare legs swinging below his boxers, his socks scrabbling for purchase against the house. An ominous creaking sound came from the mounting brackets as Javi stared up at them.
“Don’t move!” Vero shouted. “Stay right where you are! We’ll figure something out!”
Javi frowned at the camera as a screw popped loose from the siding. “Wait … Has that wire been cu—?”
The camera broke away from the wall. Vero and I gasped as Javi fell.
Vero was pacing the length of the living room five hours later when Javi and I returned from the hospital.
I held the door open wide, careful not to let it bump against his heavy cast as he maneuvered into the house on two shiny metal crutches.
Vero looked torn between throwing her arms around him or hiding in her room as he hobbled to the recliner.
He sat down gingerly and pushed the seat back, closing his eyes and sighing audibly as the footrest popped out, taking the weight off his cast.
I handed Vero the bags from the pharmacy containing his painkillers and the ointment the ER doctor had prescribed for his skinned knees and elbows.
He hadn’t been wearing pants when we’d shown up at the hospital, so the attending physician had sent him home in the T-shirt he’d been wearing when he’d arrived and a hospital gown to cover his boxers.
Vero had insisted on going with us to the hospital.
I had argued that it was a bad idea. Emergency rooms could be full of first responders, and some of them were likely to be cops.
Javi had been the deciding vote when he’d told her flat-out he didn’t want her to come, and I could have sworn I heard her heart crack the minute we’d driven off.
She had texted me every half hour from Cam’s phone for updates. When I told her Javi’s leg was broken, she’d asked me how angry he was on a scale of one to ten. I hadn’t had the heart to answer her.
“Come here,” he said gently, gesturing for her to come closer.
She walked to the recliner, hangdog and contrite, her eyes red and her nose stuffy, as if she’d been crying.
He reached for her hand and pulled her down sideways onto his lap.
She brushed his hair back from his face and pressed her lips to his forehead, his cheek, and the corner of his mouth.
Javi’s smile was a little loopy around the edges. “When I suggested you get me naked and kiss me all over, this is not what I was imagining, Veronica. I’m pretty sure you’re going to kill me someday.”
She sniffled. “I’m not trying, Javi. I swear.”
“I know,” he said, resting his chin on her head as she burrowed into his side. “You want to hear something crazy? When I fell, I saw my life flash before my eyes, and I saw our wedding night.”
“That was not our wedding night.”
“I remembered everything, V. It was beautiful.” His eyes were glassy, his focus a little fuzzy.
“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?”
“I’m serious. I promised to love and cherish you until you accidentally murder me.
And you promised to try not to kill me, but only if I swore to take you on a real honeymoon.
We can still do that, you know. We can leave right now.
But you might have to drive,” he teased, rubbing the fog of painkillers from his eyes.
“Those drugs they gave you must be pretty powerful stuff.”
His blinks became slow and heavy. “They’re not so bad. I’m clearheaded enough to know what I’m suggesting, V, and you don’t have to stay here. Not if you don’t want to. I would take you away from all this, and we can start over someplace else.”
“I can’t leave, Javi. I have to stay here and prove to them all I didn’t do this.”
He tipped her chin up to look her in the eyes. “It doesn’t matter if they don’t believe you. I do.” He kissed her softly. She kissed him back.
I busied myself in the kitchen, offering them a moment of privacy while I looked for some way to help around the house.
But Vero had already cleaned, and the whole place was spotless.
The carpets were vacuumed, the floors were mopped, a load of clothes was humming in the dryer, and the trash and recycling had been taken out.
A salad was already made for dinner, the rice cooker was on warm, and a pan of chicken thighs was roasting in the oven.
I peeped back into the living room to see if Javi wanted something to eat, but his head was resting against the recliner, his eyes closing slowly against their will.
“We’ll discuss our honeymoon when you wake up. Get some rest,” Vero said, kissing him on the cheek. He was asleep before she reached the kitchen.
“What time are your mother and Gloria getting home?” I asked as I began setting the table.
“I’m not sure. They said something this morning about working late, so I cooked.”
I nearly dropped a plate. “You didn’t call them?”
She winced. “Not exactly.”
“You said you would tell them about Javi’s accident when I took him to the hospital!”
“What was I supposed to say, Finlay? That I cut the wires to all of Ramón’s cameras and Javi nearly fell to his death trying to fix them?
My mother would have left work just to come home and strangle us both, and Gloria would have called my cousin to come back to babysit me.
The last thing we need is one more hiccup in our plan.
I texted them and told them everything was fine.
I told them I handled dinner and they can work as late as they want. ”
“What are we supposed to do with Javi?” I whispered. “We can’t leave him alone while we go sneaking all over town to solve Theo’s murder.”
Vero nibbled her thumbnail as she paced to the front window. I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She peeled back the curtain and peered outside. “Javi won’t be alone. I have an idea.”