“I’ll call her.” I spun for the door my mother had left propped open.
Nick stopped me before I could disappear inside. “Vero shouldn’t walk to the restaurant alone,” he said in a low voice. “Find out where she is. One of us will pick her up.” His eyes dropped to my mouth as if he were thinking about kissing it. He pressed a chaste kiss to my temple instead, probably because Steven was watching. I slipped into my room and closed the door.
The cartoons were blaring on the TV inside. I found the remote control and shut it off. I dropped onto the bed and buried my head in my hands, listening to the muffled conversations in the hall as they all dispersed to gather their coats. The children burst into Steven’s adjoining room, their cheers loud enough to permeate the walls as they squealed about pancakes. My mother hollered over the din, ordering them to take off their pajamas and put on their clothes.
Steven banged on the door between our rooms. I ignored him as he called my name through it. How was I going to hide two dead bodies, come up with an alibi for last night, and get Vero back here before Nick started putting the pieces together?
Steven pounded louder, rattling the door. I shot to my feet and unbolted it. He yanked it open, falling back slightly.
He recovered and pointed toward the hall. “Did you know your detective friend was coming?”
“Does it look like I knew? I’m just as surprised as you are.”
“He doesn’t need to be here, Finn. I can take care of my own damn family.”
“He was just worried about us. He only wanted to help.”
“I want to help, but you never let me!”
“You really want to help me?”
The question knocked him back on his heels. “Of course I do.”
I pulled him into my room and closed the connecting door, muting the children’s excited chatter as my mother rummaged under the beds for their shoes. I glanced behind me at the door separating us from the detectives in the hall. I lowered my voice, wondering if I could trust Steven with this one small thing. His eyes were alert, his posture eager, as if his whole body were leaning in to hear. “This is how you can help. If anyone asks, I was here in my room, asleep, all last night—”
“But you said—”
“I know what I said, Steven.”
His brow creased. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“Not if you help me.” It was a risk, leveraging his desire to prove himself, but I was running out of options. “I was here all night,” I repeated. “Vero was out with a friend. I left the door open between your room and mine, and you checked on me before you went downstairs to the casino. Then you checked on me again when you came back to bed. As far as you know, I never left this room and I was asleep the whole time.” Steven’s frown deepened. He nodded tightly.
“Okay,” he said.
I released a breath. “Are you coming to breakfast?”
His jaw worked as he wrestled with that. “I think I’ll stay here and catch a nap,” he said as he retreated to his room. He started to close the door.
“Keep it open,” I said. If the door to Steven’s room was open, maybe Charlie wouldn’t be tempted to snoop. Steven threw me a questioning look as he left the door cracked.
I sent a quick text message to Vero and tucked my phone in my coat pocket, my eyes making a quick pass over the room, looking for anything incriminating that Charlie—or even Steven—might find if either one ofthem decided to poke around while I was gone. I clutched my laptop bag to my chest, looking for a safe place to stash it. If I were Charlie or Steven, that’s the first place I’d snoop, but my computer was password protected and I’d been careful to clear my search history. The only questionable file on the desktop was my manuscript, and the only incriminating details in that had more to do with my sex life than with Marco or Ike.
Georgia’s voice boomed through the door as she knocked. “You coming, Finn?”
“I’ll be out in a minute,” I hollered back. I squashed my computer bag flat under a pile of dirty towels. Something small and shiny slipped free of the open zipper. I swore as Ike’s gold-capped tooth bounced over the carpet.
In all the chaos of the last two days, I’d forgotten all about it.
Feliks had slipped it into my computer bag while I’d been chin-deep at the police academy, along with a note, reminding me not to step out of line. God (and Feliks) only knew where the rest of Ike was. I hoped Vero and I (and the police) never had to find out.
I stuffed the tooth into the pocket of my coat.
“Everything okay in there?” Nick asked through the door.
“Everything’s fine!” I called. I shredded Feliks’s note and dropped the pieces into the toilet. “I’ll be right there!” I thought about throwing the tooth in with it as I pushed the lever to flush it, but I couldn’t be sure the toilet wouldn’t cough it up after I was gone.
I wasn’t taking any chances this time.
