I thought about what Anton had told us about the other notes his mother had found. Todd Anderson had been working with the Swansons, but he also appeared to be the man on the inside working against them. The only other individuals involvedin the family business who were also outsiders included Bella Rivera and Will Hurt.
If I’d had to guess which one needed money more than the other, I would put my money on Will, a man who had lost his job, a husband whose wife had quit teaching, a father whose baby had received expensive NICU treatment for several days, and a man who had seemed very on edge during the festivities of Friday night. All of that added up to some kind of desperation.
“I guess we should—” I had started to say that we should keep a close eye on Will, but before I could finish, I froze at the sound of a creaking door.
Lacy shrieked before throwing a hand over her mouth and shutting off the light on her phone. Instinctively, the two of us hit the floor, trembling.
TWENTY-SIX
The two of us remained crouched at the back of Aubergine National Bank with a stolen Anna Perry painting between us as footsteps headed our way. It was still dark inside the bank, but we could see a small circle of light coming toward us with each step. I swallowed hard and prayed that this person didn’t have a gun pointed in our direction.
“Hello? Anyone here?” a woman’s voice called, the words tentative. There were steps on the tiled floor as she slowly made her way through the lobby before opening another door and letting herself into the back of the bank. “You’re not in trouble. I just want to talk to you.”
Suddenly, I recognized the voice. It was Charlie’s deputy, Jill Wright. Her footsteps moved closer, but she was slow and methodical as she ran her flashlight across each piece of furniture and underneath each desk.
“It’s okay. You’re not in trouble.” She paused. “Yet.” The deputy’s words echoed against the steel cabinets and tables, the cold laminate flooring, and the blank walls. “Charlie told me that you might be here.”
I frowned at Lacy, who looked uncertainly back at me. I didn’tlike Charlie tattling at all. He was supposed to be hiding things from his deputy, not from me.
As soon as I had the thought, I realized that Jill might be lying. I blinked into the darkness, no longer knowing who or what to believe.
Deputy Wright obviously had a key to get inside, so she must’ve gotten permission from the manager to be here. She didn’t flip on any lights, which likely meant that she didn’t want to draw the attention of prying eyes in the lofts above Main Street to the goings-on inside the bank at this late hour. Jill was also moving slowly, indicating she likely wasn’t scared or frantic about what she might find. I wasn’t much of a danger, after all.
“You set off the alarm,” Jill said as she circled the cabinets, moving steadily into our orbit.
We must’ve triggered a silent one. I cursed under my breath.
“When we got the call, Charlie said I should come alone,” Jill continued. “He said that it would be fine, that it’s just you and me, Dakota. Don’t make him into a liar.”
Lacy’s fingers gripped my arm, and my heart pounded hard in my chest. We could stay hunkered on the ground and hope that the deputy’s light wouldn’t fall on us, which was a shot in the dark, or I could reveal myself of my own accord and hope for a good-faith response; hope that Jill would appreciate the fact that I’d been honest by giving myself up. My head said to stay down, but my gut said that I should take a chance, that if Charlie had trusted Jill as his partner for so many years before bringing her to Aubergine as his second-in-command, then maybe I should give her a chance too.
In a split-second decision, I chose to stand and confront whatever the consequences would be for breaking and entering a bank. I could only hope that Deputy Wright was telling the truth and that she hadn’t brought anyone else with her.
“I’m back here,” I called, as Lacy tried to pull me back down—we both knew that crouching in front of a lockbox while holding astolen painting wasn’t a good look for either of us. “We’re back here.”
Jill shone her light on me. I blinked against the brightness.
“We? Who’s with you?” she asked, but even in the darkness, I could see her shoulders relax as the beam of her flashlight wandered to where Lacy was hunkered. Her relief told me that she must’ve been less sure than she’d sounded when combing the bank for us.
“Thank God, ladies.” Jill huffed out a long puff of air and bent forward, her elbows on her knees as she put a hand over her heart and tried to calm herself. “I was scared out of my mind that it was one of those Swanson goons. I had no idea what I’d actually do, and Charlie told me not to bring backup.”
The confession and the vulnerability in Jill’s voice made me want to trust the deputy even though that did not sound like advice Charlie would ever give. Still, I also would’ve never expected him to slip me a key before being escorted to jail. He was changing his tactics as he grew into this job. I supposed that, unwittingly, so was I.
“Charlie didn’t want any of the other officers getting involved,” Deputy Wright said, answering my unasked question. “Said that they might do something reckless, because they don’t understand what’s really happening here.”
I wondered if she understood what was really happening. I wasn’t sure I did.
“Has he contacted the FBI?” I asked, trying to get a feel for what she knew.
“They’re already on their way to Swanson, getting their search warrants in place.” Jill lifted her head and met my eyes as she said the words, letting me know she was in the loop and daring me to trust her. “What did you find with the key Charlie slipped you?”
I raised my eyebrows, realizing that he must’ve decided to trust her with this too—and deciding that at this point I had no other choice than to do the same. I still couldn’t help but grip the key more tightly in my palm.
Jill sensed my hesitation. “It’s okay. I swear that Charlie sent me.”
“I actually want to believe you,” I said, my voice gruff with fatigue and emotion.
“As long as there isn’t a herd of officers standing outside ready to arrest us,” Lacy continued, standing to her full height, “we can work together.”
