“He was in a hurry to get home when he dropped her off here. Maybe he just miswrote the number.”
“Hurryis an understatement. He couldn’t get out of here fast enough. The guy laid enough rubber in the street to outfit thetire department at Costco. I’m telling you, Finn, he’s ditching his grandma.”
“I don’t think he would do that. They’re very close.”
“If they’re so close, why didn’t he come pick her up first thing this morning? You saw the news. By now he’s seen it, too. If he was so worried about his grandma, do you really think he’d leave her here, living under Steven’s old roof with you?”
She took Mrs. Haggerty’s phone and opened the contact list. There were only a handful of entries in it. Vero held it between us as she scrolled to Brendan’s name. “See? That’s the same number he gave you. Face it, the guy’s ghosting her, Finn.” Vero thrust the phone back in my hand and reached for her laptop.
“What are you doing?” I asked as she opened a search engine. She typed Brendan’s full name into the search bar as I looked over her shoulder.
“I’m finding out where he lives so we can go to his place and escort his ass back here.” Vero reached for a notepad and jotted down an address. “This must be it. You get Delia ready to go. I’ll go find Zach’s shoes.”
“We can’t leave Mrs. Haggerty alone.” The woman was far too nosy. Giving her unfettered access to snoop inside my house seemed like a dangerous idea. Especially given the secrets Vero and I were keeping. It was bad enough that my ex-husband had been publicly implicated in a murder case. But if Mrs. Haggerty was to discover Vero was living under an assumed identity to avoid an arrest warrant in Maryland, that would only make things worse, and we didn’t need that fun fact coming up in a neighborhood watch meeting. We’d be on Mrs. Haggerty’s radar for the remainder of her days, and with our luck, I was pretty sure she was going to outlast both of us.
“I’ll go talk to Brendan,” I said. “You stay here and keep an eyeon Mrs. Haggerty. And don’t let her anywhere near my office.” The last thing either of us needed was for the woman to read my unfinished manuscripts and recognize the plot of my own life inside them. Hell, she could probably write my novels herself, given how much she’d seen through her kitchen window over the years.
“What am I supposed to do with her while you’re gone?”
“Nothing. When she gets tired of playing homeschool, put on the TV and let her watch reruns ofJeopardy!Just keep her busy, and don’t let her snoop.”
CHAPTER 11
Thirty minutes later, I pulled my minivan into the parking lot of a three-story building in a condominium complex halfway between the Metro station and the mall. I squinted to read the number on the sign out front. There had been several Brendan Haggertys listed in Northern Virginia, but only one had a public profile that presented a likely match. Brendan had told me he lived in a one-bedroom condo on a third floor, though after a quick loop through the parking lot, I hadn’t seen his white Volvo anywhere.
I parked in front of the address Vero had written on her notepad. A vicious wind sliced across my face as I climbed the three-story stairwell to what I hoped was Brendan’s unit. I shivered, teeth chattering as I rapped on the door. There was no sound on the other side, and I knocked again, louder this time.
My phone buzzed with an incoming text.
Vero:Did you find him?
Finlay:I’m at his condo, but his car’s not here and no one’s answering the door.
Vero:Try opening it.
Finlay:That’s against the law!
Vero:It’s only breaking and entering if it’s locked. Otherwise, it’s only entering, which is probably a misdemeanor.
I didn’t justify that with a response.
Vero’s ringtone blared from my phone. I connected the call, desperate to silence it. “Look in his windows,” she said before I could speak. “He’s probably pretending he’s not home.”
I leaned around the side of the building and peeked over the railing. “The blinds in the windows of his balcony are open, but I can’t see inside. The angle’s all wrong.”
“How far away is it?”
“At least four feet.”
“That’s nothing. Get closer.”
“It’s three stories up, Vero!”
“So? You climbed out our dormitory window at the police academy!”
“We fell!”
“You survived.”
