Chapter Twenty-Seven
Fox
It was a fair question.
Was now the moment to admit that I was starting to have doubts that there even was a gun? No—that would definitely make things worse.
“I…I haven’t been able to find it. But, you know, it’s dark!”
Haze was staring at me with her arms folded.
Why did I feel like she didn’t believe me?
I tried to ignore my mounting anxiety. I needed her to know that I would never go behind her back, that I wouldn’t ever risk losing her, not now, not ever.
Judging from her outburst earlier tonight, she had clearly been stewing over me being dead weight—and that was before I ran over her ex-boyfriend.
“I swear, there was definitely a gun!”
“You’re trying to tell me that it’s just a coincidence that right after I reference your recent inability to kill, you go out and kill my ex?”
“It was self-defense!”
Haze stared at me. “You didn’t see that it was him? Before your foot hit the accelerator?”
“No!” He’d been wearing a cap—hadn’t he? But then, where was the cap? The same place as the gun? I walked away from Haze. I didn’t want her to see my face.
I couldn’t admit to her that it had all happened so fast, I didn’t really make a conscious decision.
There was no cool, calm, controlled decision-making.
I’d panicked. Like an amateur. Like I hadn’t ever faced down a threat before.
What was wrong with me? I’d trained for moments like this!
And then I’d just ducked and slammed my foot down.
No control. Sloppy. Desperate. God, I was a total mess.
Haze was looking down at Danny. “We’ve got enough going on as it is, and now we’ve got to go dump his body and get Jenny on the case to make sure we’re covered.” She looked around. “Why the hell would Danny be out here, anyway?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Haze frowned. “None of this is obvious.”
“Danny must’ve been working for The Chameleon. His company is organizing the Balgray party. The Chameleon has been linked to the party. The dodgy name from the guest list was renting an Airbnb at the end of this dead end.”
“You think The Chameleon had Danny working for him? As what? Danny was a party planner! He’s not in the criminal world.”
“How do you know? What else would he be doing out here? You hadn’t seen Danny in years and he appears back in your life the same time The Chameleon comes to the UK? Of course it’s linked!”
“You could’ve waited to find out before you killed him.”
“Forgive me for being too busy trying to stay alive to think to ask him nicely how the hell he was involved. He was aiming a gun at my head!”
“A gun you haven’t found.”
“It happened like I said, Haze. You have to believe me.”
Haze ran a hand through her hair. “Jenny sent you out here because of a lead on The Chameleon, and you happened to come across Danny, who happened to be trying to kill you?”
“Yes!”
“And it’s not that you discovered he’d groped me the other day, so you followed him out here and ran him over?”
“He did what?!” I resisted the urge to drag him out of the boot and run him over a few times more.
“It’s not a big deal. I handled it.”
“You didn’t tell me, though!”
“Because I was worried you’d do something like this.” Haze gestured at the dead Danny.
“God, Haze. You can’t trust me?”
“Look at how you’ve been behaving! You’re all over the place! I wasn’t about to upset you with information I wasn’t sure how you’d react to.”
“I’m sorry. I know I’ve been…off my game. It’s been hard. I’m trying.” I risked putting a hand on her shoulder. “Please, let’s find the gun. I don’t want you doubting me. It has to be here somewhere.”
I didn’t want to tell her it was more for my own peace of mind than hers. She was right. I was all over the place. I kept seeing danger where there wasn’t any. What if that was what had happened here?
Haze huffed and slammed the boot closed. “Where was he when you saw him?”
I motioned toward the large oak tree. “He was standing halfway behind there. He came out just as I approached.” I turned on my flashlight. “I’ll take this side. You go over there.”
Haze walked over to the other side of the road. “Have you told Jenny?”
“Not yet. Didn’t think it was a good idea to even insinuate something was wrong when she was sitting at work, in an actual police station.”
Haze turned on the flashlight on her phone. We started sweeping the ground.
I didn’t want to think about what I’d do if I found anything other than a gun.
In our line of work, I had to be able to rely on my instincts.
What if mine were broken? I chewed the inside of my cheek as I stared at the ground.
We worked silently for ten minutes or so.
And then I saw it. A black object in the long grass.
I held my breath as I reached down toward it and picked it up.
A gun. It was an actual gun. A Glock 45.
I recognized it right away. I might now be an honorary Brit, but I’d grown up American.
“Found it!” I called out to Haze as I examined it. The safety was off. My shoulders loosened a little. It had been a righteous kill. I had got him before he’d got me. I clicked the safety back on.
Haze came up to me and took the gun from me. She turned it round and round in her hands.
“You believe me now?”
“I didn’t ever doubt you. Not really. It’s just…you can see how it looked.”
Now that I was redeemed in my wife’s eyes, I felt a little calmer. But my head was hurting with trying to piece it all together.
“Danny had a gun. He was pointing it at me. Who the hell was he? What was he into?”
Haze shrugged. “Back when I knew him, he was just a party boy with a six-pack. We didn’t talk much.”
I gritted my teeth.
“He had a fancy car,” she continued. “A nice flat. Didn’t seem to work much, as he was always hanging out in clubs. I just presumed he had rich parents.”
“He was out here pointing a gun at me. I’m thinking it wasn’t rich parents, but…”
“He was a criminal! And I didn’t even notice.” Haze’s eyes widened. “Ohhh, he was a drug dealer! Out at the clubs, he was always saying hello to random people. Carried a lot of cash. And he did always have a weird amount of energy. He was always wanting to keep going, never wanted to stop, really—”
“Haze! Come on.”
“Dancing! I’m talking about dancing!”
I paced around in front of the car. “He was working with The Chameleon. Running this event at Balgray. Whatever they’re planning, it’s big.”
“What did you find at the Airbnb?”
“I…I haven’t been to it.” God. I had forgotten all about it. What was happening to me?
Haze stared at me. “Wasn’t that the whole reason Jenny sent you out here?”
“I got a little distracted! What was I meant to do? Drive the body down to a house to discover who-knows-what waiting for me there? The Chameleon could be in residence with a whole host of—”
“Okay, okay.” Haze gripped me by the shoulders. “I’ll go check it out.”
“You shouldn’t. What if—”
“I’ve got this.” Haze waved Danny’s gun at me. “And my phone. I’ll just creep down the road and see if anyone’s even there. You need to stay here with the cars and work out where we’re going next.”
Before I could reply, she’d jogged off down the road.
I ignored my racing heartbeat as I scrolled through our shared Google Drive spreadsheet titled “Picnic Sites!” Jenny had created this document—it was a handy guide for potential body-disposal locations, and each entry had a notes section as well as a star rating.
I’d just decided on where to go when my phone beeped. A message notification. Mike Martin asking “Harriet” if she had any food allergies. Haze’s secret dad was texting me, just as I was working out where to dump Haze’s ex. Sometimes, just sometimes, I wished we were a normal family.
I looked up to see the light blue of Haze’s jumpsuit returning. I silenced my phone and put it back in my pocket.
“There’s no one there. No cars, and no lights on. Let’s just get out of here.” Haze scraped her hair up into a ponytail. “Where are we going to dump him?”