Vero rushed into the house with Zach on her hip. “What’s with all the blue lights? Where’s Finlay? Is everything o…oh!” Vero slapped a hand over Zach’s eyes. “Finn, why are there three armed cops in the house? And why are you naked?” Nick, Georgia, and Joey all holstered their weapons.
“I’m not naked! I just took a shower, and all the grown-up towels are in thewash,” I said with a piercing look at Vero. “And the police are here because Mrs. Haggerty is a busybody. She thought she saw someone suspicious prowling around outside.” Vero held Zach tighter against her body and glanced out the open front door. I tugged the hem of my towel to cover myself. “As you can see, this was all just a false alarm. There was no 10–99.”
“Sixty-six,” my sister corrected me.
“Whatever. Obviously, Mrs. Haggerty was mistaken. There’s nothing suspicious going on here, so you can all go back to whatever it was you were doing.”
“I’m not so sure,” Joey said, exchanging a look with Nick. “I did a quick check around the house and found this on the front porch. Aside from her name, it’s unmarked.” Nick descended the stairs,taking a fat brown envelope from Joey. Vero peered over Joey’s shoulder to see it. From the top step, I could clearly make out my name, printed on the envelope in bold, indelible ink. I recognized that handwriting. And by the shocked look on Vero’s face, she did, too.
I raced down the steps as Vero snatched it from Joey’s hand. “These must be the adult toys Finlay ordered. Stacey down the street does catalog parties. You know, like Tupperware but with batteries.” She showcased the front of the envelope. “See? They even offer discreet packaging to guarantee your privacy.”
Three sets of eyes shot to me. Nick cleared his throat as he reached for the envelope. “I should probably check it out first.”
“They are not sex toys!” I yanked it away from him. “It’s probably just… you know… copyedits. My editor must have sent them by courier.” Nick’s eyes twinkled a little, the curl of his smile becoming wolfish as his gaze drifted down. I jerked the towel higher. Then lower. Struggling to adequately conceal all the cold, damp flesh on display.
I raised my chin to restore some modicum of my dignity. “I’m going to get dressed. When I come back down, I want all of you out of my house.”
Envelope clutched to my body, I bolted up the stairs.
“Finn, wait.” Nick caught up to me in the hall just outside my room. He maneuvered past me and performed a quick search inside, then moved deftly through the entire second floor, checking every bedroom. He reached for the laundry closet, wrinkling his nose.
“Do you smell something?”
I grabbed him by the arm, jerking him toward me. “Wet towels! I forgot all about them and they started to mold.” My hair dripped, a cold bead of water trailing over my collarbone. Nick’s dark eyes followed it. Then down, to where my hand still rested loosely on his arm. I let go, but it did nothing to break the sudden swell of tensionbetween us. “There are no perps hiding in the laundry closet. Mrs. Haggerty probably saw someone deliver the package and overreacted. You don’t have to search the house.”
The wall was at my back. My bedroom door was open beside me. Enough room between us that I could have slipped inside and shut him out. If I wanted to.
“I owe you an apology,” he said, his voice a little husky. “I swear, I didn’t mean to bust into your home like that. Your car was in the driveway. When I knocked and you didn’t answer, I thought…” He rubbed the day-old stubble on his face. “After the gas leak at Steven’s this morning, when dispatch called and said someone was creeping around your house, I assumed the worst.”
“Gas leak?” My stomach bottomed out. “What gas leak?”
He swore under his breath. “I’m sorry, Finn. I figured Georgia already told you.”
“Told me what?”
“Steven’s fine,” he assured me. “But Fauquier PD were out at Steven’s place this morning. There was a gas leak in his house. Thankfully, Steven found it and shut off the main before anyone got hurt, but the gas company thinks the line might have been tampered with. Given what they know about the fire at his trailer, they’re looking into the possibility that it may have been intentional.”
I crushed the envelope to my chest. “Where’s Steven now?”
“He’s at home. The EMTs suggested he get checked at the ER, but he insisted on being at his house when the gas company came out to inspect the lines. I asked a couple of off-duty uniforms to head over to his place. They’ll stay and keep an eye on things until we know what happened.”
I sagged against the wall. It had to have beenEasyClean. How many times could she miss before she finally succeeded in killing him?
Zach babbled downstairs. Kitchen drawers opened and closed.The microwave beeped, and the strong herbed smell of leftover pot roast filled the house. It was a little early for lunch, and I wondered if Vero was doing it just to mask the faint scent that had begun creeping from the washer.
“I should go,” Nick said, hitching a thumb toward the stairs. “Joey’s waiting for me back at Theresa’s.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Theresa disappeared.” The kitchen noises stopped, as if Vero was listening. “We found her ankle monitor in her house. It looks like she may have been gone for a few days. We’re not sure exactly how long. We’re talking to her neighbors, but so far, no one remembers seeing her leave. Until I figure out where she is, and what’s going on with Joey’s CI, I want you to be careful. I have a bad feeling this is all connected somehow.”
I clutched the knot in my towel. “What happened to Joey’s CI?”
“He never called with that intel he promised me yesterday. Joey went to his house to follow up on it this morning, but the kid wasn’t there. The attendance office at his school says he never showed up. I sent a car out to his house a couple of hours ago to talk to his grandmother. No one’s heard from him since we saw him on Saturday.” When I’d drawn my finger across my neck and warned him not to say a word about me. Cam must have decided his probation wasn’t worth the risk of turning over what he knew about the forum. Nick shook his head. “I’m starting to think Joey’s CI may have been onto something. If he’s right about that forum, then Theresa, Steven, and the kid all have a link to Zhirov, and I don’t like it.”
“You think Feliks Zhirov had something to do with what happened to Steven?”
“I can’t rule it out. Until then, I want you to be more careful. You really shouldn’t leave your front door unlocked.”
