CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN #2
I frowned. No one knew I was here. Did they? Anyone watching us would have known Cara dropped me at the airport earlier. And no one would recognize my car. I’d just rented it a few hours ago.
Cara and I stared at each other.
I walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for her. “Get in, okay?” Even though it didn’t seem like we were in any danger, I didn’t want to stand out in the open to talk about this.
I got in the driver’s side, turned on the car since it was warm outside and we needed the AC, and ran through all the possibilities in my head.
There was only one that made any sense. I turned to her, opening my mouth to talk, but she cut me off.
“I need to tell you something.” Then she proceeded to let me in on everything her director had talked with her about earlier.
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“I don’t know… we were so happy. It’s been such a perfect day—I didn’t want to ruin it. I was going to tell you when we got back to the townhouse, I swear.” She paused and bit her lip. “Um… there are some other things I haven’t told you that I probably should have.”
That was when she told me about Monty cornering her in the parking lot after a performance.
She also talked about Nora’s jealousy and overhearing her saying awful things about her.
The longer she talked, the more my sense of unease and anger grew.
I listened to all of it, and when she finished, I sat there, dazed.
Things were far worse than she’d let on.
Now wasn’t the time to get mad at her about her hiding things from me. Especially the parking lot incident with Monty. I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, thinking.
“I agree with your director. Going home is the best thing for now. We need to let your parents know and figure out what to do next.” I left off that I would be pushing hard for her to just pack up and move back home now.
I was sick of the Harts and this whole situation. I just wanted her home, safe.
“I thought about going to the police, but I feel like I’m way outmatched,” she said.
“Monty sent me the flowers at the hotel and tons of gifts over the past few weeks—they could say he was just being nice… overeager, maybe, but nice. He showed up in the parking lot and scared me—the police could say he was walking me to my car. The stage lights—the police have decided it was an accident. Nora talking about me ‘getting what I deserve’—the police could say it was just jealousy. And this note,” she gestured to the note I’d laid carefully on the back seat.
“The police would just say we had no proof it was the Harts. We don’t have anything solid.
” She shook her head. “You can’t go after the most powerful, richest family in South Carolina with any of this and expect the police to listen.
” She put her head in her hands. “The end of the year can’t come fast enough,” she mumbled while I rubbed circles on her back.
Then she looked up slowly and frowned.
“But it’s bugging me. If it was them, how did they find me this time? We cleared Nora from the location tracking feature. Right? There’s not like some hidden feature to it I’m unaware of is there?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Do you have anything else on you that Nora gave you? Or that she had access to?”
Her eyes widened. “You think she put a tracker on something else of mine?” She opened her tote bag and started going through things.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she mumbled.
“This is insane.” She pulled out a small, shiny pink zippered bag and looked at it.
“This is a makeup bag that she’s had access to.
But how would I even know if there’s a tracker inside? ”
“Let me see.” I took the pink bag from her and examined the contents. I couldn’t see anything that looked like a tracking device.
She went through everything in her tote before throwing her hands up. “This is impossible. If I don’t even know what I’m looking for, how am I going to find it?”
I looked it up online. “They kind of look like key fobs. See?” I turned my phone towards her so she could see.
She went back through her things more slowly. “It seems like that wouldn’t be that difficult to find…”
A thought suddenly occurred to me. “Cara.”
My tone was enough to make her stop digging through her bag and turn to look at me.
“Who gave you that tote bag?”
She looked confused for a moment, then she sucked in a breath. Her eyes widened. “Oh my God. Nora did. A couple of years ago.”
We both stared at the large leather bag. A sick feeling washed over me when I realized I’d rarely seen Cara without it.
I saw the small, almost hidden side pocket first. “Check that zippered pocket.”
“I never use that. It’s too small for anything but a lipstick…
” she unzipped it and felt inside. She gasped and stared at me as she pulled out an innocuous looking circular device.
It was hardly bigger than a quarter. “You’ve got to be kidding me.
” She rolled the car window down and was about to throw it when I stopped her.
“No! We might need it for evidence.”
She looked like she didn’t want to touch it, much less keep it with us. “How would police trace it back to them?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea. But I still think we should keep it. We’ll put it in one of your drawers at the townhouse before we get out of here and head to Wixby.” My mouth was set in a grim line. “That way it’ll take them a while before they realize you’ve left town.”
She turned slowly and stared at me. “I can’t believe this is real.”
I couldn’t either.