Chapter 18
Assuming Vero’s sleuthing had steered us to the right place, it appeared that Theodore Sideris rented a ramshackle house on a lot that could have doubled as a salvage yard. Vero grimaced as she studied it through the binoculars she’d found in my glove box.
“What did you say he majored in again?” I asked, determined not to let my children pursue whatever area of study had landed Theo in a dump like this.
“Business,” Vero said, passing me the binoculars. “We had a lot of classes together freshman year. That’s how we met.” She tapped her fingernails on her armrest as we waited for his BMW to show up. “How long does it take to do a little shopping?” she asked irritably.
“Maybe he stopped at a restaurant to grab something to eat.” We’d been sitting in my minivan staking out his house for almost an hour.
We knew exactly where Theo had been all night, thanks to the AirTag on his car, but he hadn’t gone anywhere we could easily corner him and force him to talk to us.
We’d tracked his car to a shopping mall forty minutes ago, and it hadn’t moved since.
Rather than tail him from the parking lot and risk being spotted, we decided to lie in wait for him at his house.
“Well, my butt’s asleep, and I have to pee,” she said. Her transmitter belt caught on the door as she started to get out of the van. “I’m going to find a bathroom.”
“We can’t go into Theo’s house!” I called after her. “What if someone reports us to the cops?” It was bad enough that Vero had spoofed her GPS; if she got caught stalking her ex and breaking into his home, that would be a recipe for a much longer sentence.
Vero waddled across the front lawn in her bulky belt and ducked under a window.
With a swear, I killed the engine and scrambled out after her.
I squatted beside her, inching up on one knee to peer through the gap between the blinds.
A dim light was on in Theo’s kitchen. Other than that, the house looked empty.
I followed Vero as she circled around the house to a side door. She knelt in front of it, and I watched in horror as she pulled two slender lockpicks from the front pocket of her sweatshirt.
“Where did you get those?” I hissed at her.
“I stole them from Javi.”
“You’re on trial for larceny, Vero! Do you have any idea how bad this will look if you get caught with them?”
“If we get caught, we’ll say we were worried about Theo when he didn’t return my calls. We were just concerned citizens, here to check on an old friend, and the door happened to be unlocked when we got here.”
“How are you going to explain that?” I asked, pointing to the lumps in her waistline.
“Easter candy and stress. All this house-arrest stuff is bad for my cortisol levels.” She turned the knob. It opened with a soft click.
I jumped out of my skin, ducking behind Theo’s trash can, as a set of headlights rolled past the driveway. I darted into the house on Vero’s heels and slammed the door behind me. I stood in the small, dimly lit kitchen, waiting for my heart rate to slow.
“Hurry up and find the bathroom, and don’t touch anything!” I said as Vero began exploring. I pulled a pocket-sized pack of baby wipes from my purse and passed one to Vero. She took a small flashlight from her pocket and disappeared down the hall.
I looked around the kitchen while I waited for her. The vinyl floors were sticky where I walked, but for the most part, the place seemed tidy. The faucet dripped into the empty sink. The counters were clear of dishes and food, and the small melamine dining table had been wiped free of crumbs.
A toilet flushed down the hall and Vero returned from the bathroom. We both paused at a soft thump outside.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered.
Vero tipped an ear toward the front of the house. “It sounded like a car door.”
A low male voice came from somewhere outside. No … two male voices. Vero turned off her flashlight, and we pressed our backs against the wall, making ourselves as flat as possible. Or at least as flat as Vero’s bulky belt would allow.
A shadow passed in front of the window. Vero lunged quietly for the doorknob and quickly turned the lock.
The knob rattled as someone on the other side tried to open it.
“Theo must be home,” I whispered.
“There’s no way he could have made it here so fast. He was just at the mall!” she whispered back.
“Whoever it is, we can’t let them see us.
We need to find another way out.” I scanned the adjacent rooms for another door, or a window we could climb out of without drawing any attention.
I wasn’t sure Vero would be able to fit through any of them with her transmitter belt on.
Vero and I tensed at the rasp of a key being inserted into the lock.
We held our breaths through a series of soft scrapes and metallic clicks.
“What’s taking so long?” asked a hushed voice outside.
“I’m going as fast as I can, asshole. The lock’s rusty, and I’m missing two of my picks.”
Vero’s shoulders sagged. She whipped around, flipped the lock, and yanked open the door. Javi fell through it into the kitchen. Ramón took a shocked step back, nearly falling off the stoop.
Vero shielded her eyes against the glare of his flashlight. “What are you two idiots doing here?” She grabbed her cousin by his collar, dragged him inside, and locked the door.
Ramón gaped at us. “We came here looking for Theo! How did you figure out where he lives?”
“She AirTagged his BMW,” I said. “Tell me you didn’t follow it here.” I prayed that his car wasn’t parked outside. That they hadn’t jumped Theo in his driveway and locked him in his own damn trunk.
Ramón’s eyes narrowed on his cousin. “We couldn’t follow Theo home from the bar because he wasn’t there.
We sat in the parking lot all night, waiting for his M Series to show up.
After a couple of hours, Javi flagged down one of the servers on her way to her car.
She told him Theo missed his shift—he never made it in to work. ”
Vero raised an eyebrow. “If he never showed up, how’d you know to come here?”
“Javi sweet-talked her into checking the employment files in the back office and copying Theo’s address.”
Vero shot Javi a scathing look. “Oh, he did, did he? Apparently, my boyfriend has no trouble chatting up women in bars. He seems to be making quite the impression at Theo’s place of employment. Is that where he happened to bump into Sophia?”
“It’s not like that!” Javi said defensively.
“There is nothing between me and Sophia. It was one stupid mistake! She came to your mom’s house while I was there doing a few odd jobs as a favor for Gloria.
Sophia must have seen my car in the driveway.
The door was unlocked, and she let herself in.
” Javi rubbed his eyes as if he wanted nothing more than to forget the whole thing.
“She kept asking about you. If you and I ever hung out anymore, and if you had any plans to come back to the neighborhood. When I told her you weren’t speaking to me and I hadn’t seen you since you’d left for college, she suggested we go out sometime.
And then she kissed me.” Javi looked away.
“And then what?”
Javi winced. “It was one time, Vero. It didn’t mean anything. I would take back every second of it if I could.”
“But you can’t!” Her voice shook.
“No, I can’t! But that will never change the way I feel about you!
The way I have always felt about you, Veronica!
I’ve loved you since we were kids. You’re the only woman I have ever wanted to be with.
But I hadn’t seen you in nearly three years, and as far as I could tell, you wanted nothing to do with me!
I convinced myself that if I slept with someone else, maybe I could forget about what you and I had.
It was stupid, and I was wrong, and I will never forgive myself for giving up on us.
But I’m not going to ask you to forgive me for something I did to myself.
So you’re either going to have to be okay with what I did or you’re not. I can’t change it.”
Vero cast him a sidelong glance, as if the verdict were still out. “Was it good?”
“It was terrible.”
Vero’s frown softened. The hint of a smile touched her lips. “Liar.”
Javi smiled, too. He wrapped his arms around her and dropped his forehead to hers. “Every minute I’m away from you is terrible, V. That will never be a lie.”
I looked down at my phone, feeling guilty for watching as their makeup kiss grew steamy. A flutter of panic rippled through me as I registered the location of the AirTag; it was moving. Fast. “Um … I hate to spoil the moment, but I think Theo might be on his way back!”
Vero pulled out of Javi’s arms. “Where is he?”
“Headed in our direction.” I held my phone out for her to see. Theo’s blue dot was closing in, only a few miles away. Javi and Ramón hovered behind us, watching over our shoulders.
“We should get out of here,” Ramón said.
“Wait.” Javi squinted at the screen. “I think he’s turning.”
“He’s driving toward the campus,” Vero said as the dot changed direction. We watched Theo’s car make its way toward the distinctive arc of Frat Row.
“Figures,” Vero said, the tension leaving her shoulders. “Theo always hit the campus parties on game days; it’s where he picked up most of his bettors. If he found some action, he’ll probably be gone for another few hours. We might as well do a little snooping while we’re here.”
“For what?” I asked.
“Money,” Vero said, rifling through a stack of mail on the counter.
“Or any evidence he ever had it. Bank statements, deposit slips, investment portfolios, real estate documents…” She tossed aside the pile of junk mail and began combing through the kitchen cabinets.
“If we can find proof he took the money—or he knows who did—we can turn the evidence over to my attorney and maybe he can get my charges dismissed.”