“I was outside. I saw you drive in.”
“No,” Marni said. “You were in Noah’s bedroom.”
Gabe frowned. “Which one is his bedroom?”
A good answer. Safe. Practiced. We needed to throw him off again. Gain the upper hand. We should ask if he was the one who hit Marni but there was a bigger question. “Are you Noah?”
I could feel Hanna and Marni’s sudden attention. Their heated stares. Their restlessness as they waited for an answer.
Gabe sighed. “Of course not.”
“Prove it.” Unreasonable, I know, but was he acting? I didn’t trust my instincts anymore. Not when it came to the Tanners.Everything and everyone touched by them had an angle and secrets they’d die to protect.
A change came over Gabe the longer we sat there. A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. “I’m willing to trade information if you are.”
“That’s not—”
Hanna talked over me. “What do you want to know?”
“You were all at the Tanner house that day. Aubrey told me that much during our initial interview.” He flipped his pen between his fingers. Totally at ease. “I’m confused about when each of you came and why.”
Too close. Having him, or anyone, dig around in the timeline spelled danger. I fell back on diversion. “The police know all of this. We’ve all been interviewed. Several times.”
“They know what you told them.” His gaze stopped on Hanna. “But not the truth.”
“That’s it.” Hanna stood up. “You failed. You can go. And tell Aubrey that if she has questions for us, she should ask us and not use you.”
“No. You’ve got this all wrong.” Gabe gripped his notebook but didn’t stand up. “I’m independent.”
Another Hanna eye roll. “Sure you are.”
It took another ten minutes to get him up and out the door. He hedged. He pretended he’d take our original deal and earn our trust. He finally slinked away when Hanna didn’t give him any choice.
“Sorry for the abrupt stop but I wasn’t expecting the Noah angle. Gabe will tell Aubrey the theory. That makes me nervous as hell,” Hanna said.
Marni shook her head. “Is the Noah theory also from Lukas? I’m not buying it. Where has this fake Gabe been?”
“Probably the same place Aubrey was. Locked away in some boarding school, then living on Xavier’s dime, out of the way.” The idea made more sense the longer I talked.
Hanna made a humming sound as she thought it all through. “It would explain why Aubrey never talks about Noah. She knows he’s fine.”
“But if Xavier thought Aubrey killed her parents and didn’t take in Noah, does that mean he thought Noah was in on it?” Marni made a face. “That’s hard to believe. He was only eight at the time.”
“If we want the answer, we’ll need to get it from Aubrey.” I hated the idea of talking with her, even being in the same room with her, but ignoring her hadn’t worked for fifteen years. It was time for me to face her.
“What’s wrong?” Marni looked at Hanna when she asked the question.
“Now I understand the odd sensation that came over me right before he left. If both Tanner kids are alive there’s only one person standing between them and Xavier’s fortune.” The blood ran out of Hanna’s face as she spelled it out. “Jeremy.”
We were operating on the theory that we needed to move because Jeremy was running out of time. What if we were already too late? I looked over and Hanna was staring at me with wide eyes.
“He’s not dead,” she said. “I would feel it.”
I hoped she was right.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Aubrey
