Chapter 17
Norma and Gloria came home an hour later, their arms heavy with gym totes and shopping bags.
“Who’s this?” Norma gestured to the teenager and the Chihuahua who had made themselves comfortable on her sofa. Cam had converted Norma and Gloria’s television into a game station using a handheld controller he’d brought from his house.
“That’s Arnold. And that’s Cam,” Vero said, knocking his boots off the coffee table. “Cam, this is my mom and my Aunt Gloria.” She dropped her voice to a harsh whisper. “Do not piss them off.” She turned back cheerfully to her mother. “Cam is a friend from Virginia. He came to visit.”
“That’s wonderful,” Gloria said, setting her bags on the kitchen counter. “All this company will keep you from getting bored while you’re stuck in the house. You should stay for dinner, Cam. I’ll fix something nice.”
“I hope it’s okay, but I put a little something in the Crock-Pot,” I said. “Just a simple goulash I threw together. You and Norma have been so generous letting me stay, and you’re both so busy. It was the least I could do.”
Gloria peeked under the lid. “It smells wonderful, Finlay.”
“To mask the taste,” Vero said.
I threw her a look. “It’s nothing fancy, but there’s plenty.”
The mention of another meal caught Cam’s attention. Even Arnold wagged his tail.
“Where are Javi and Ramón?” Norma asked.
“In the basement, trying to figure out what’s wrong with their stupid security cameras,” Vero said. “They’ve been down there all day.”
Norma frowned. “The cameras still aren’t working?”
Vero could have done a better job of hiding her grin. “Nope!”
“I’m pretty good with computers,” Cam offered. “Maybe I can help.”
“You’ve helped enough.” Ramón and Javi emerged from the basement. Ramón glared at Cam. “What the hell is he still doing here?”
“That’s no way to talk to Vero’s friend,” Gloria scolded him. “Cam will be joining us for dinner.”
Ramón dipped a spoon into the Crock-Pot and blew off the steam. “Javi and I have plans.”
“Then you’ll just have to cancel them,” Norma said. “Your mother and I have to go out, and I don’t want Vero and Finlay here alone while that lunatic vandal is out there, hurling stones at our house.”
“Why can’t one of you stay with her?” Ramón asked as he tested my cooking.
“Because we’re going to work,” Norma said at the same time Gloria said, “Because we have a date.”
Ramón choked. He dropped his spoon into the sink and pounded his chest. “Who has a date?”
“Your mother,” Norma said, as Gloria said, “Your tía.”
He side-eyed them both. “Which is it?”
“We’ll be out late,” Norma said, “and the rest is none of your business. I expect you and Javi to stay here and keep an eye on the house while we’re gone.”
Ramón muttered a swear and Gloria swatted the back of his head. “Language,” she reminded him.
Vero’s gaze slid shrewdly to Cam. “Cam’s staying for dinner anyway,” she reminded her cousin. “If you let him stick around for a few hours to work on your camera problem, you and Javi can do whatever dumb thing you were planning to do tonight. It’s not like I can leave the house anyway.”
“That’s a good idea,” Gloria agreed.
Norma nodded decisively. “Then it’s settled.
Cam will sleep on the air mattress with Ramón and Javi in the basement.
I don’t like the idea of him driving back to Virginia so late at night.
” She held up a finger when Ramón started to argue.
“It’s the least we can do after he offered to help fix the cameras, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.
You can leave after you eat. Dinner is ready. We shouldn’t let it get cold.”
The table was unusually quiet during the meal.
Everyone ate quickly, and no one but Cam went back for seconds.
I hoped that wasn’t a reflection of my cooking, rather that some of us were preoccupied with our plans for the night.
I wasn’t sure what Vero was plotting, but I knew her well enough to recognize trouble brewing when I saw it.
She watched everyone out of the corners of her eyes as she lingered in the kitchen, scrubbing the dishes.
Norma and Gloria excused themselves right after the meal, changing into dressy mom-jeans and lightweight cardigans, then reminding us all to lock the door as they hurried out of the house.
Javi and Ramón were next to leave. They looked like avenging angels in tight-fitting tees and dark jeans, their battle scars from the bar brawl on full display.
Ramón shrugged on his leather jacket. Javi leaned toward Vero for a kiss.
When she refused to so much as look at him, he quietly slunk out of the house.
Vero watched them through the window. The second Ramón’s van pulled away from the curb, she grabbed a roll of duct tape from a closet in the hall.
“What are you doing?” I asked, chasing her up the stairs.
She darted into the bathroom, opened the cabinet, and took out three small boxes of tampons.
Then she carried everything to her room and turned the boxes upside down, showering her comforter with feminine hygiene products.
She flung open her closet and snatched a leather belt from her shelf.
The duct tape shrieked as she pulled it from the roll and began affixing the empty tampon boxes to the belt strap. She covered them completely with layers of silver adhesive. When she was finished, they looked exactly like the battery packs Cam had taped to her spoofing belt a few hours ago.
“Tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re doing.”
“I’m making a belt,” Vero said, “exactly like the one Cam made for me.”
“And you plan to make it work how? With the power of your flow?”
“This is just a dummy,” she said, rolling her eyes at me as she tore off the last strip of tape with her teeth.
“It just has to look like the one Ramón took from me. I’m going to swap this belt for the real one.
When my cousin gets home and asks where we are, Cam will tell him I went to bed early and you went home to check on the kids.
Ramón will see the fake belt, right where he left the real one, and he won’t suspect a thing. ”
“And where are we going to be?”
“We are going to Theo’s.”
“How did I know you were going to say that?”
I followed her as she carried her phony belt downstairs to her cousin’s bedroom. She checked his dresser drawers first, then under his bed, searching for the belt he’d confiscated earlier.
“It’s probably in his van,” I pointed out. “He wouldn’t just leave it where he thinks you might find it.”
“No,” Vero agreed with a mischievous grin, “he’d leave it in a place he thinks I don’t know about.
” She got down on her knees in front of the floor vent and plucked off the cover.
She reached a hand deep into the air duct, her grin widening as she retrieved the transmitter belt.
Triumphant, she held it in the air and blew off the dust. She fed the fake one into the hole, careful to leave the end where Ramón could see it if he shined a light inside to make sure it was there.
“Ramón and Javi used to hide weed in here when we were in high school. I used to spy on the two of them—mostly on Javi,” she admitted as she wrapped Cam’s belt around her waist. “I spotted them stuffing a joint down here once when they thought Aunt Gloria was going to bust them. They still have no idea I—”
Ramón’s bedroom door opened. Javi stopped in his tracks.
His gaze dropped to the belt around Vero’s waist, his jaw working around all the things he probably wanted to say to her. She stared back at him, looking both guilty and defiant. He walked to the closet and took his jacket off its hanger. “I forgot my coat.”
“Javi, wait!” she said urgently as he headed for the door. “Are you going to tell Ramón about this?”
Javi’s grip tightened around his jacket as he slowly turned around. “And say what, Vero? It’s not like you tell me what you’re doing anymore.”
Vero’s jaw dropped. “Me? I’m not the only one who’s been keeping secrets! And I shouldn’t have to tell you everything I do. You’re not my big brother! And we’re not kids anymore, Javi!”
“Then maybe we both should start acting like adults.” He started to leave, then paused. “For what it’s worth, Veronica, I always knew when you were spying on me, because I never stopped looking out for you, too.”
He walked out and shut the door.
Vero took a second to absorb all the things Javi had just said and all the things he hadn’t.
She shook her head, bringing herself back to her mission.
She took one of Ramón’s sweatshirts from his closet and dragged it over her head, pulling it down to cover her belt.
“Let’s get out of here in case he changes his mind. ”
My phone vibrated with an incoming call. “Hold on,” I said, “it’s coming from my house phone. It must be Delia.”
Vero looked concerned. “Why would Delia be calling?”
“Because I asked her to,” I said, rushing to connect the call. “Delia?”
“Hi, Mommy!” Delia’s greeting was endearingly enthusiastic. I had to hold the phone away from my ear, and my heart ached with a rush of homesickness.
“Hi, sweetheart! How’s everything there?”
“Good! We went to work with Aunt Georgia today.”
“That sounds fun. Did Nick go, too?”
“No, he had something grown-up to do. Zach and I couldn’t come.”
“It was nice of Aunt Georgia to take you to work with her. Is Nick there with you now?”
“Yes, but he’s busy. Zach hid something he wasn’t supposed to, and Nick can’t find it. I told him all the places to look, but it wasn’t there.”
“Uh-oh. What was it?”
“Nick said it’s very important. He said it’s—”
“Hey, Finn?” Nick sounded harried as he took the phone. “Sorry, I didn’t know Delia was going to call you herself. I told her we’d try you after dinner.”
“Everything okay?”
“Sure, yeah! Everything’s great,” he said, a little breathless.
“Delia said Zach hid something important?”
“You could say that.” Nick sounded like he was holding on to his sanity by a thread. “I brought something home from work, and I don’t know what the heck Zach did with it. I left it on the credenza next to my car keys while I was changing my clothes, and when I came back, it was gone.”
“What is it?”
“I … can’t really tell you that.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Please tell me you didn’t lose a firearm in my house.”
“No, Jesus, Finn, nothing like that! You know I’d never leave a weapon around the kids.
This is … more like a piece of evidence.
I can’t lose it. That would be really, really bad.
You know, chain-of-custody stuff.” Nick was always so cool under fire.
I’d never heard him so frazzled before. Whatever this piece of evidence was, it must have been critical to his case.
“I’m sorry, Finn. I told myself I wasn’t going to say anything.
You’ve got enough on your mind with Vero’s case. ”
“Have you tried looking inside all the shoes?” I suggested. “In the snack boxes in the pantry? How about in the toilet?”
“The toilet? Shit,” he whispered.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call my mom? She’s probably feeling better by now. I’m sure she’d be happy to come over and help you look.”
“I’m sure, Finn. It’s all under control. Can I call you tomorrow?” He sounded rushed.
“Okay,” I said, feeling guilty for not being there. “Kiss the kids for me.”
“I will. Love you.”
I didn’t get a chance to tell him I loved him, too, before he hung up.
Vero winced. “I’m sure it’s nothing he can’t handle.”
“Let’s just find Theo and get you out of this mess so we can both get home.” If I had any hesitation about letting Vero try that belt before, they were gone now.
Javi was long gone by the time we got upstairs. Cam was hunched over Ramón’s laptop on the sofa, his face pinched into a grimace of concentration. “This isn’t a software problem. Looks to me like a network problem.”
“It’s a not-for-you problem,” Vero said, slapping Ramón’s laptop shut.
“When Ramón gets home, you’re going to make up some highly technical reason his cameras aren’t working.
Tell him you couldn’t fix it and you had to order a part.
Finlay and I are going out,” she said, holding up her sweatshirt and showing Cam her belt.
“I need you to make this thing look like I’m in my room.
My bedroom door is locked. If anyone asks, Finn went home to check on the kids and I watched a movie and went to bed early. ”
“What movie?” Cam asked.
“I don’t know! Make something up.”
“What if you tell him one movie and I tell him another? He’s gonna know. Our stories have to match.”
“Pick one where a pissed-off woman strangles a hacker.”
“Jeez, I was only trying to be helpful.”
“You can help by making sure no one figures out that we’re gone.”
“What’s in it for me?” Cam asked.
“I’ll let you survive long enough to have breakfast tomorrow.”
“Can I have pancakes?”
“Let’s go,” I said, directing Vero out the back door.