“What?”
“Utility costs are no joke these days.”
“I meant the lights.”
“They’ll probably turn them off when they go to bed.”
Nolan felt the blood drain out of his face. “You’re telling me the Lelands are still awake?”
“In the living room, watching a movie. But Storm’s keeping an eye on them through the window, so don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry? How can I not worry? What if they catch her? What if she gets shot? You need to call them back.”
Alexa rolled those vivid blue eyes, miraculously not bloodshot despite the amount of sleep she hadn’t gotten.
“This is why I didn’t tell you earlier. I knew you’d get your panties in a bunch.”
Nolan loved Alexa, he did. She was loyal, generous to a fault, and liked to help people in her own way. But he’d almost forgotten how crazy she could act when she had her mind set on something.
And when she teamed up with Jerry? Fireworks.
He could do nothing but watch as his former housemate tiptoed through the house, checking each room in turn.
“Are you insane? What if Roy gets up to fetch a glass of water? What if the movie ends?”
“Relax, the movie still has an hour and ten minutes to run.”
“Couldn’t you just wait for them to go to bed?”
“This way is better.”
“How? How is it possibly better?”
“Firstly, the TV provides background noise. Secondly, few people set the security system before they go to bed. And thirdly, nobody expects an intruder while they’re still awake. If there was a dog, it would be different. We’d have to drug it before it barked, yada yada yada. But they don’t have a dog or even a cat.”
Jerry finally found an open laptop in a messy office, the screensaver on. She shoved a widget in the side, and Alexa began typing furiously, chewing her lip and frowning as she focused. She must do that a lot, the frowning. Fine wrinkles crisscrossed her forehead. Nolan didn’t care about the wrinkles, but he did worry that she was placing herself under too much stress.
“Okay, we’re good,” she said finally. “Time to exfil.”
Jerry removed the widget, crept back through the house, and exited through the unlocked back door. Instead of heading up the driveway to the road, she snuck across the backyard, sticking to the shadows, past the barn where the Lelands kept a trio of pet llamas and a pony for their granddaughter, past a winery twice the size of Nolan’s, past the machine shed.
“They’re taking the long way,” Alexa explained. “Through the forest, and Marcel will pick them up at the end of an old logging road.”
Give me strength. “You have Marcel playing getaway driver?”
“Usually, Chase does it because Marcel hasn’t quite mastered J-turns. But needs must.”
“I need a Xanax.”
“Why don’t you go pour us some wine? They’ll be back soon.” A pause. “Ah.”
“What? What happened?”
“It’s probably nothing.”
“Alexa…”
“Okay, so Ari was taking a look around the outbuildings while Jez was in the house. And there’s this old barn, but the hasp and padlock look brand new.”
