“I assume Ramón can confirm your story?”
Ramón called out in a loud, clear voice from the back seat. “Yes, ma’am. Loads of traffic.”
“Whose car are you driving?”
Ramón cringed. “Actually, my… um… my girlfriend drove us in her minivan. We’re only a few minutes away.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Officer Oates said and disconnected the call.
“Seriously? Your girlfriend?” Vero threw a packet of tissues over her shoulder at Ramón.
“What was I supposed to say? Your monitoring officer isn’t going to go digging around to see if I have a girlfriend.”
“She’d have to dig back too far to find one,” Javi muttered.
“Everything will be fine,” I said over them as they argued. “It was only a few minutes, and it was Vero’s first violation. Once Officer Oates sees Vero is back, she’ll probably issue her a warning and go.” We rounded the final turn to Norma’s house. Officer Oates leaned against the door of her unmarked police car. If it weren’t for the governmental license plate on her bumper and the badge clipped to her belt, I would have pegged her for a middle school principal. She had the stern and jaded look of a woman who had seen it all, heard it all, and was tired of every bit of it. She was probably a mom.
I watched her eyes clock my own license plate as I eased to a stop behind her.
“Shit,” I muttered, trying not to move my lips when I said, “We’re definitely going with the girlfriend story.” It wouldn’t help Vero at all if this woman knew who I really was. I adjusted my wig-scarf, which I hadn’t gotten around to removing in our haste toleave Bennett’s office building. I glanced in my rearview mirror, relieved to see Javi had already climbed over the third row and was crouched behind the bench seat, out of sight.
The rest of us got out. I locked my van and approached Officer Oates, extending my hand. “Hi, Officer. I’m Ramón’s girlfriend… Fiona.” It wasn’t entirely a lie.
Ramón put an arm around my shoulder. “Sorry we’re late. I thought Virginia’s traffic was bad. Right, babe?”
“Right,” I said through a nervous laugh.
Officer Oates looked skeptical. “What kind of essential errands were you running? I don’t see any bags.”
“Oh, you know,” I said, scrambling to come up with errands that could explain our empty hands, “the usual. We stopped at an ATM, dropped off some dry cleaning, went to the post office.”
Vero smiled. “I needed to send an important message to someone.”
“Uh-huh.” Officer Oates didn’t look convinced. “I’m going to let you off with a warning, Ms. Ramirez. But I’m going to be keeping a close eye on you. Don’t let it happen again.” Her gaze slid back to my minivan as she got into her car and drove off.
Javi waited until the officer’s taillights disappeared before opening the back door and jumping out to meet us. I pulled off my wig-scarf and raked a hand through my hair. “That was close,” I said.
“Too close,” said Javi.
“You’re not leaving this house again.” Ramón took his cousin by the back of her shirt and marched her inside.
CHAPTER 11
Vero unlocked the front door and stormed straight to the kitchen. She took the battery charger from its station on the counter, parked herself on the stool beside it, and plugged the short cord into her ankle monitor. She looked like a murderous Tesla.
Ramón headed to the fridge. He paused, pulling a sticky note off the front of it.
“What is it?” Javi asked, reading it over his shoulder.
“It’s from Mom. She and Norma are going to the gym after work. They said they won’t be home for dinner and we can heat up leftovers.” He reached into the fridge and took out a soda.
“Theo is number one on my personal list of suspects.” Javi cracked the lid of his soda before passing the can to Vero. “What kind of asshole leaves his sleeping girlfriend alone in a frat house full of drunk guys? No wonder the jerk hasn’t been returning your phone calls. He can’t testify for you without incriminating himself. He’d be forced to admit where he went that night.”
Ramón dug a bag of chips out of the cabinet and dropped them onto the table. “But if Theo did leave the party with some other girl, why didn’t he just tell the police who he was with and give himself an alibi?”
“It’s obvious the guy’s covering for himself,” Javi said. “If he tells the cops he left Vero passed out in his room, she’s off the hook and he’s on it. He probably left the party, drove back to campus, and let himself into Vero’s room to take the money.”
“How?” I asked, remembering the security pad beside the front door of the sorority house. “Wouldn’t he have needed a key card?”
