by Box Set
“We shouldn’t,” I said. “I’m starving though. So if you aren’t up for pizza, I’ll eat the whole thing.”
He pulled out the pizza and turned to me. “I’ll make a salad to go with it. That will soothe my conscience.”
We ate dinner together but Graham didn’t share any information about the case. I was glad I didn’t have to lie to his face about my involvement. Knowing I was coming clean tomorrow helped a lot. I only had to get through school tomorrow and then the afternoon and evening. I could manage.
After we finished, Graham loaded our dishes in the dishwasher.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me,” he said.
“I’m going to work on my trig homework and go to bed.”
He was too preoccupied to realize I had put off my homework until Sunday night. I never procrastinated that much, and my brother should have picked up on it immediately. He didn’t. And I was glad.
* * *
I didn’t sleep well at all. When I got to Hearst’s car, he had cups of coffee stashed in every drink holder.
“How much coffee did you buy?” I asked.
“Two for each of us. I figured you might need extra today.” He had dark smudges under his eyes that I knew weren’t from his guyliner.
“You didn’t sleep either?” I asked.
“Not much,” he said. “I’m counting the hours until school ends and we can go get more coffee.”
I laughed. “Sounds like a plan.” I picked up my first cup of coffee and took a sip. “This is going to be the longest day.”
“Yes it is.” He put the car in gear and we headed to school.
* * *
By lunch, I had decided I should have stayed home sick. Felicity and Liz were especially talkative today and I didn’t have the energy to listen.
Hearst and I had lived a hundred lives since Friday night, but they hadn’t. For them, our Friday night fun was fresh and needed to be discussed and rehashed at length.
Finally, I said, “You guys. I got no sleep. I have a pounding headache. I don’t mean to be rude, but please forgive me if I sit here and stare at the wall most of the day today.”
“What happened to you?” Felicity asked. “You never get headaches.”
I didn’t.
Hearst ditched us all at lunch. He texted me that he didn’t want to ruin the strides he’d made with Felicity and Liz by biting their heads off.
I figured he made a good call.
* * *
The day finally ended, and I climbed into Hearst’s Mercedes.
He sat behind the wheel, looking a bit droopy.
“Are you awake enough to drive?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet,” he said.
I knew I should have had some kind of witty comeback, but instead I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes.
“Let’s go to my house and take a nap,” he said.
I wanted a nap. “What if we oversleep?”
“We won’t. We can set both our alarms.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Does that mean we skip the coffee?”
“Let’s get Cokes instead. When we wake up, we can go for coffee.”
“I’m not going to be much help to Sharon if I can’t stay awake,” I said.
“You’ll be fine. The fear and adrenaline will kick in once you think of all those cameras watching and bugs listening.”
“Thanks,” I said.
He started the car. “You’re welcome.”
We got to his house at three fifteen, set the alarms for five thirty, and crawled onto his luxuriously expensive bed.
* * *
I woke at five twenty-nine. I didn’t turn off the alarms for fear I wasn’t as awake as I thought.
When they went off, Hearst’s eyes popped open like those creepy dolls in the antique stores.
I stared at him. “You’re secretly a robot, aren’t you?”
He closed his eyes again. “Would a robot need as much coffee as I drink?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” I crawled out of the bed. “We need to get something to eat. Then I need to memorize my list of things to ask her. And you need to steal the car again. We have a lot to do in the next hour and a half.”
“I also have to normal-fy myself. And you have to get all cheerleadered up.”
“Oh no. I forgot to get the clothes I need.”
“We can run by the loft.”
I shook my head. “I’m going to pick up some things from the Admiral High School collection at the drug store. Sweats and a t-shirt, I think. I can’t live in that cheerleader uniform.”
“Good point. We have time. That’s actually less hassle than running by the loft.”
He got up and went over to the mirror on his dresser. He started taking off his ear jewelry.
“Maybe you should just buy a hat that covers your ears. You know, like Elmer Fudd.”
Hearst stopped what he was doing. “Isn’t it enough that I’m changing everything about myself for you? Must you be so hurtful?”
I couldn’t help laughing.
“You’re buying your own coffee today, young lady,” he said.
“I was trying to help.”
“Help somebody else,” he said.
“I’ll go put my hair up,” I said. “And do my makeup.”
* * *
We stopped at the drug store at seven fifteen. I jumped out and rushed inside with Hearst behind me. I went straight to the section and found sweatpants in a nice blue that had the school’s name down the leg and a hoodie.
“Actually,” Hearst said, “these shorts would be better.”
I glanced at the shorts with big white letters across the butt that said, “Admirable.”
“Get it. Admiral High’s girls have admirable booties.”
I sighed in defeat. “Okay fine. I’ll get the hoodie and the shorts. Let’s pay for them so I can change.”
Since we were rushing, there was a line at the register. After five minutes of waiting, I pulled the tags off the shorts and hoodie. I handed them to Hearst. “You pay for them with these. I’ll go ahead and change.”
He saluted me.
I went to the restroom to change.
The timing turned out to be perfect. He got the receipt and we went to the car.
“You ready for this?” he asked.
“I think so. I’m going to just think of it as if I’m really planning to babysit. I’m a little worried that I’m sleepy and will make a stupid mistake.”
“If you were a real babysitter, she’d do most of the talking. Let her handle it.”
I nodded. “You’ll drop me off and then stay close by?”
“I will. I didn’t take all those piercings out twice just to let you get hurt.”
I tried to laugh. “Let’s get this over with.”
Chapter 13
When I climbed out of the car at Sharon’s, I remembered to paste the perky smile on my face. I went to the door and rang the doorbell.
Sharon opened the door looking very different from the day before. She wore pants and a jacket and had makeup on. She also had a smile on her face.
“Come in,” she said. “It’s good of you to come.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I stepped inside the house and looked around with interest. The place didn’t raise any red flags. I would have thought a normal family lived here.
“The boys are in the play room. Let’s go in there and you can spend some time with them. Then I’ll show you their rooms and everything.”
I followed her into the playroom which did have a family room with it. That meant two cameras were on us right now. On one end of the room, a shelving unit held what must have been every kind of toy on the planet.
“Boys,” Sharon said. “Rory came to play with you for a little while.”
The two kids were on the floor pushing toy trucks around. The older boy surprised me by smiling at me.
“Greg loves to play,” Sharon said. “He gets frustrated with
his brother when he isn’t quite old enough to play the way Greg wants.”
I leaned down toward the three-year-old. “Hi, pumpkin. What do you want to play with?”
He looked down at his truck, then went across the room and grabbed a large plastic bulldozer. He pushed it over to me and stopped.
I got down on the floor and reached for the truck. “Is this a bulldozer? What sound does it make?” I started making a noise like a car engine and pushed the truck. “Is that it? Or is it louder, like this.” I made a louder machine noise.
He smiled at me again. Then he surprised me by joining in. We were making a horrible racket.
The little one started crawling after the truck.
“No, Dougie!” Greg said.
“Here we go,” Sharon said, getting down on the floor with us and reaching for a firetruck. “Do you want the firetruck or the car carrier?”
I was glad I was actually communicating with the kids and not quaking in my boots at the thought of the cameras.
The little one grabbed for the car carrier and made his own room, room, vrooming noises.
“They love trucks,” she said. “There’s a television show they love about Busytown.”
I took note for later.
“What time do they go to bed?” I asked.
“I put them in the tub at seven thirty and in bed at eight. Some kids their age go earlier, but we don’t have early mornings around here.” She glanced at me. “I’ll have them already bathed for you. The only thing is that they may take longer to go to sleep that way. You may need to read them some extra bedtime stories.”
“No problem,” I said. “I love books.”
“Dougie is in diapers,” she said. “You’ll want to check him every hour or so while he’s awake. He’ll need a change in the middle of the night, but I’ll be home by then. He goes through about six diapers a day.”
Noted.
“I’m not afraid of changing diapers,” I said, in between making the bulldozer noises.
“I have a changing station set up in his room and another over here in the corner.”
I glanced over to the changing table and saw the diaper box. She was pretty good at giving me information without it looking suspicious.
Size 4. And we needed a lot of them.
“Hey boys,” she said. “Do you want to show Rory your rooms?”
“Me do it,” Dougie said, pushing up to his feet.
Greg reached for my hand.
I took his little hand in mine and smiled warmly at him. “Your boys are the cutest kids in the world,” I said to their mother.
“They are, aren’t they,” she said.
I let Greg lead me up the stairs and down the hall to his room. He had a bed shaped like a dump truck, and the wall had a busy construction scene. “You do love trucks!” I said.
There was a loveseat on one wall next to a bookcase. On the top of the bookcase, several books were prominently displayed. Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, a Curious George book, a Dr. Seuss book.
I took note of the baby monitor which was on. I planned to turn it off when I came over to babysit. I needed to set that up.
“Oh, this baby monitor is fancy. Do I have to use it if I’m nearby and checking on them?” I asked.
“Not really,” she said. “I like to be able to see them easily during the night. I can turn it back on when I get home.”
Uh oh. Now I had to remember to turn them on and make it look like the kids were in the beds.
“Okay. Cool,” I said. “I love your room, Greg.”
“C’mon, Dougie,” Sharon said to the boy in her arms, “Let’s show her yours.”
The room had a crib instead of a bed. The walls were Dr. Seuss. “Ooh,” I said. “I love your room too.”
Inside the crib, he had a Curious George doll. “Do you sleep with that, Dougie?” I asked.
“Yes, he does,” Sharon said. “And Greg sleeps with his caterpillar. He’s had it since he was a newborn.”
Check.
“We are gonna have so much fun when I come over next time,” I said.
Both boys smiled at me.
“Let me show you where the sippy cups and juice are. And their snacks. Then I think we’re finished.”
She led us out of the room, but detoured into her room and her closet. “Here’s the dress I’m wearing,” she said. “And the shoes.”
“Oh, wow,” I said. “You’ll look amazing!” Then I nodded so she knew I understood to buy a similar outfit for her to wear out that night. It would be easier than remembering to scan the dress and shoes for tracking devices.
We went down the stairs to the kitchen.
“Let me text my boyfriend that I’m almost ready,” I said.
I sent Hearst a text. Then I watched as she showed me the snacks and drinks.
“You can cut up some fruit for them if you want,” she said. “It needs to be no bigger than half the size of a small grape to be sure they don’t choke.”
“Got it,” I said.
We went back to the play room for a few minutes and then I got a text from Hearst that he was there.
“I guess I’m leaving,” I said. “But I can’t wait to play with you guys again.”
“Wednesday at six-thirty?” Sharon asked.
“Perfect,” I said. “I’ll see you then.
They all walked me to door where we said a lot of bye-byes and waved bye-bye. Then I got in the car.
* * *
“How’d it go?”
“Good,” I said. “Hang on. Let me type all this in my phone before I forget.” Books, toys, diaper size.
He backed out of the driveway. “When are we coming back?”
I finished typing and said, “Wednesday. Will it work?”
Putting the car in gear, he said, “Rob has everything now. Do you want me to drop you at home first? Or do you want to switch cars and run by Rob’s drop point with me?”
We drove out of the neighborhood as I pondered the obvious question. “Rob has a drop point? And yes, take me with you. I don’t want to face my brother alone.”
“He doesn’t like to meet in person when he doesn’t have to.”
“I thought he hung out at your place?”
“Well, right. But this is business. He’s not usually getting IDs and moving money around for me.”
I guess he had a point.
Hearst dropped me at his car in a deserted parking lot a block away from his old nanny’s. Then I followed him, watched him return the car to the garage, and moved to the passenger seat when he was finished. The drop point was a bit of a disappointment. Hearst drove us to a local technical school with night classes. “There are lockers in the breakroom,” he said.
“Rob stashed all the IDs and some cash in a breakroom locker?”
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later, he came out holding a text book. When he got in the car, he handed it to me. As he drove, I saw that the book had been hollowed out. There was an envelope with cash, another with shot records, a stack of passports, each with a driver’s license and a card inside with bank account information for that identity.
“He’s good,” I said.
“Time to tell your brother,” Hearst said.
“I know.” I took a deep breath. “He can help though. And we need to be sure Wednesday night goes according to plan.”
“So you aren’t going to change your mind?”
“I can’t. I don’t have that luxury. But at this point, no. I think telling him is the best plan.”
Hearst nodded and didn’t rub it in.
* * *
We pulled up in front of the loft a few minutes later and parked.
“Are you ready for this, Cheerleader Girl?” he asked.
“Are you, Average Boyfriend?”
He grinned. “Let’s get this moving.”
The lights were off in the offices, so we went through the door and
up the stairs to the loft.
My brother sat at the island with papers spread in front of him. Joshua, his go to enforcer sat next to him.
I hadn’t expected to face Joshua tonight too.
Graham looked up at me and said, “Hey, Townsey.”
Then he looked harder. “Why are you wearing an Admiral High hoodie?”
Then his eyes flicked to Hearst. At first Graham started to smile, as if I might be hanging out with a normal boy now. Then realization hit. “Hearse?” he asked.
“Graham, I have a confession, and then we have a lot of work to do.”
My brother nodded. “Okay, let’s hear it.”
“I’m Carol. I’m the one who has been doing contract work for you. And I’m the one who made contact with Sharon West.”
Graham stared at me. “You made contact with the battered wife? You. My God, Townsey! Do you have any idea how much danger you’re in? That man is terrifying, and he is obsessed with Sharon.”
“I know. That’s why I had to do it.”
My brother turned red and shifted from foot to foot. “I can’t believe you!”
“I’m telling you now, Graham. I’m sharing everything so we can help that woman and her sweet little boys escape.”
Graham glanced down at the papers in front of him and then over at Joshua who hadn’t said a word. “It’s not going to be so easy.”
“I have a plan,” I said. “Things are already in motion. She needs to run with the boys on Wednesday.”
“Wednesday? That’s crazy, Townsey. We have way too much to do. We can’t be ready.”
“We can,” I said. I set the book down on the island. “We’ve already got her access to cash, and we have IDs right here and shot records for the kids. We’re using Hearst’s old SUV to send her off.”
Graham looked at me as if I had three heads. “How could you possibly have done all that? You’d need contacts with people who don’t mind breaking the law.”
“I have a contact,” I said. “And listen to my plan before you reject it.”
My brother nodded. “Tell me what you came up with. We have to put Sharon and these kids first. We’ll deal with your perfidy later.”
