Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
Maren didn’t move her hand out from under Colin’s.
For one small, stolen breath, she let herself sit there in the soft afternoon light with flowers nodding in the breeze and the murmur of voices drifting from inside the safehouse.
She let herself feel the roughness of Colin’s palm, the steadiness of his touch, the way he had looked her straight in the eye and told her the truth.
Mira had been working on something dangerous before Juni was ever conceived.
Her sister’s work at LRH had touched naval weapons systems and contracts and money, all the boring, invisible pieces that kept the dangerous parts moving.
Mira had opened an encrypted account. Then that account had gone dark two weeks before her death, which was not an accident, not wrong place, wrong time.
She was murdered.
Maren had pushed the thought away over the past few days, afraid of being overwhelmed.
Her stomach clenched, but the nausea she expected didn’t come.
Neither did the shaking. She’d expected anger, grief, fear, that awful feeling of helplessness that had lived under her skin since the second she’d opened her front door and seen the couch cushions ripped open.
Instead, calmness settled into place.
Whoever had torn apart her home didn’t know what Mira had left behind because Mira hadn’t left anything behind, at least, nothing that Maren knew of. No diary. No letter. No hidden flash drive tucked in the spine of A Blue Fairy’s Treasury of Tales. No neat, obvious answer from beyond the grave.
Just Juni.
Just a little girl with silver-gray eyes and a stuffed bear patched together and an entire family she didn’t know she’d had until two days ago.
Maren looked toward the house.
Through the window, she caught a glimpse of a painfully normal scene—Juni’s head bent close to Star’s. Arden stood nearby, one hand on her hip, smiling at something Ellie said. Women laughing in the kitchen.
That was what Maren had wanted since the day Mira died, and tried to give Juni.
Normal.
She’d built a normal life with lunchboxes and bedtime stories and grocery lists and the Blue Fairy Book. She’d built it with spaghetti and cheap Parmesan and ice cream on sale. She’d built it while grieving her twin and lying to herself that she was fine because Juni needed her to be fine.
And now Colin was telling her that someone had reached into that ordinary little life and tried to turn every responsible thing she did into a trail. The police report, her work laptop, probably her phone records and credit card—
Oh, shit. License plates.
Maren’s fingers curled slightly beneath Colin’s hand.
She had spent the last few days being protected, watched over, fed, and reassured by people who had just met her, but who now trusted her and would not let anything happen to her or Juni.
And for the first time since she’d arrived at Watchdog’s gate, it occurred to her that maybe she didn’t have to just sit still and stay safe. She could stop being the woman who ran and start being the woman who fought back.
Maybe she could help protect the people who were protecting her.
Maren’s mind started moving.
Colin stroked his thumb across the back of her hand—just once, barely there. She looked him in the eye and read the question there—Are you okay?
Maren nodded. “They think I have something,” she said quietly. “Whatever Mira was hiding. They think she gave it to me.”
“Yes.”
“She didn’t, but that doesn’t matter. They’re going to try and find me. They are trying to find me.”
Colin clenched his jaw. “I’ll keep you safe. I’ll—”
“I know. But I have an idea,” she said. “And you’re probably going to hate it.”
Colin tilted his head. He wrapped his fingers around Maren’s hand.
“If they’re watching normal systems, then they’re watching normal tracks,” she said slowly.
Colin’s gaze sharpened. “What tracks?”
“My car. If I were looking for me, I’d look for my car on cameras. I’d look for my plates at gas stations, hotels, check my credit cards for charges. So, the only logical thing to do is to make them think I stopped in Denver for a couple of days, then moved on.”
“Maren—”
“No, listen. Mira and I were born in Iowa. We lived there until we were nine. If I had to run somewhere after my house was broken into, that’s believable, isn’t it?
I’m running to some old family friend or relative, some place from before San Diego.
I could call into work and tell them I’ve had an emergency that’s taken me out of town to Iowa and I need a week or so. ”
Colin went very still. “So you want to send your car to Iowa.”
“I watch too many crime dramas, okay?” She grinned, trying to get him to listen. “I want to protect you guys,” Maren said. “If they’ve followed me here, let’s make them think I kept on going. So, what do you say?”
She held her breath as she watched Colin think it over.
“You’d be willing to give up your car.”
She nodded. “The only thing that bothers me is that I’d be putting someone else into danger, impersonating me.” She hesitated. “Maybe it’s not a good idea after all.”
Colin held up his other hand, stopping her. “Let me call Kyle,” he said. “We have people who know how to protect themselves.”
Maren let her breath out in a relieved sigh. “Yes, thank you.”
And who says watching TV rots your brain?
Colin gave her hand one last squeeze, then stood and pulled out his phone. He walked to the edge of the garden, far enough from the house that the girls wouldn’t overhear, Maren realized. She watched his shoulders, the way he held himself—tense, but listening.
He walked back to the table and sat down across from her. “Kyle and Gina are on their way. But they want to hear it from you,” he told her.
Maren’s stomach flipped. “Really?”
“Really. Kyle said—and I’m quoting here—’If Maren Walsh has an operational idea, I want to hear it before I tell her why it won’t work.’”
“That’s not very encouraging.”
Colin’s mouth twitched. “That’s Kyle taking you seriously.”
They went inside to wait. Arden and Ellie were making snacks for the girls. Colin briefed Mac, who nodded at Maren. “Beauty plan,” he said.
“You think so?”
“I do. I think the boss will, too.”
Kyle’s truck pulled up a few minutes later.
Maren watched Gina get out first, Fleur at her heels.
Kyle followed, his face expressionless. Arden went to Kyle immediately.
He touched her lower back, a quiet, automatic reassurance.
Then they went straight to the garden table—Maren, Colin, Kyle, Gina—who actually sat for once—and Mac. Fleur settled at Gina’s feet, watchful.
Kyle turned his attention to Maren. “Colin says you have an idea.”
Maren’s mouth went dry.
It had sounded better when it was just her and Colin and the flowers and the distant sound of Juni laughing.
Now, with Kyle and Gina sitting in front of her, it sounded like something an exhausted medical coder from San Diego had pulled out of three seasons of true crime and a half-remembered episode of a network procedural.
Which was exactly what it was.
“Yes.” She folded her hands on the table before she could twist them together. “Maybe a bad one.”
Gina’s mouth curved faintly. “Let’s hear it.”
Maren explained her plan. “I think Iowa works as a believable destination,” she told them. “But if you think there’s a better one, then you can take my car anywhere, I don’t care. Just so long as it keeps everyone here—all of you—safe.”
When she finished, she waited.
Kyle looked at Gina. Gina looked at the table for a long moment, then back at Maren.
“It’s smart,” Gina said.
Maren’s breath caught. “Really?”
“Yes. It’s civilian logic. That’s what makes it smart.”
“Civilian logic?”
“If I built a false trail, someone like me might recognize the fingerprints.” Gina folded her arms. “But you, Maren, built one out of normal panic behavior.”
Maren half-laughed. “Well, I certainly was panicked.”
“But you kept your head,” Gina told her.
“Not everyone would have. It’s admirable,” she added, her voice full of genuine warmth.
“If they’re watching systems, they might be watching which systems light up and when.
Credit card in Denver for a few days, then on to Iowa?
It reads as a woman who stopped to think or maybe thought she could hide in Denver, realized she needed to get farther away or didn’t have the support network, and kept moving. ”
“Depends on how we layer it,” Kyle said. He looked at Maren. “When did you last use your credit card?”
Maren thought back. “Gas station outside Grand Junction. I paid cash after that.”
“Good. That helps.” Kyle pulled out his phone and started typing notes.
“Elissa can put a hotel charge in Denver starting the day you got here,” Gina said. “Makes it look like you stopped, regrouped, then moved on.”
“Can she do that?” Maren asked.
“Elissa can do a lot of things,” Kyle said. “Some of them even technically legal.”
“The car’s the bigger problem,” Gina said.
“We’d need someone to drive it. Someone who looks enough like you on a traffic camera that nobody asks questions, but who can also defend herself.
” Gina’s mouth curved. “I’d suggest Charlie and she’d be more than happy to help, but she’s got about a foot of height on you. ”
“Officer DeVivo,” Kyle said. “I happen to know from Alex that Carla’s off-duty this week. She’s about Maren’s height. Build’s close enough. Hoodie, ballcap, sunglasses?” He shrugged. “Low-res traffic cameras are forgiving.”
“Who is Officer DeVivo?” Maren asked. “And do you really think it’s a good idea to involve the police?”
Gina actually laughed. “You’re learning.”
“Yeah, right, from true crime shows.”
Gina considered that. “Maybe I should watch some.”
“So who’s this officer?” Maren asked again.
“Carla DeVivo. She’s the partner of Alex’s wife, Sylvie. Alex is Watchdog’s kennel master. Carla’s smart and terrifyingly funny. You’ll like her.”