Ramón’s bedroom door opened. Javi stopped in his tracks.
His gaze dropped to the belt around Vero’s waist, his jaw working around all the things he probably wanted to say to her. She stared back at him, looking both guilty and defiant. He walked to the closet and took his jacket off its hanger. “I forgot my coat.”
“Javi, wait!” she said urgently as he headed for the door. “Are you going to tell Ramón about this?”
Javi’s grip tightened around his jacket as he slowly turned around. “And say what, Vero? It’s not like you tell me what you’re doing anymore.”
Vero’s jaw dropped. “Me?I’mnot the only one who’s been keeping secrets! And I shouldn’t have to tell you everything I do. You’re not my big brother! And we’re not kids anymore, Javi!”
“Then maybe we both should start acting like adults.” He started to leave, then paused. “For what it’s worth, Veronica, I always knew when you were spying on me, because I never stopped looking out for you, too.”
He walked out and shut the door.
Vero took a second to absorb all the things Javi had just said and all the things he hadn’t. She shook her head, bringing herself back to her mission. She took one of Ramón’s sweatshirts from his closet and dragged it over her head, pulling it down to cover her belt. “Let’s get out of here in case he changes his mind.”
My phone vibrated with an incoming call. “Hold on,” I said, “it’s coming from my house phone. It must be Delia.”
Vero looked concerned. “Why would Delia be calling?”
“Because I asked her to,” I said, rushing to connect the call. “Delia?”
“Hi, Mommy!” Delia’s greeting was endearingly enthusiastic. I had to hold the phone away from my ear, and my heart ached with a rush of homesickness.
“Hi, sweetheart! How’s everything there?”
“Good! We went to work with Aunt Georgia today.”
“That sounds fun. Did Nick go, too?”
“No, he had something grown-up to do. Zach and I couldn’t come.”
“It was nice of Aunt Georgia to take you to work with her. Is Nick there with you now?”
“Yes, but he’s busy. Zach hid something he wasn’t supposed to, and Nick can’t find it. I told him all the places to look, but it wasn’t there.”
“Uh-oh. What was it?”
“Nick said it’s very important. He said it’s—”
“Hey, Finn?” Nick sounded harried as he took the phone. “Sorry, I didn’t know Delia was going to call you herself. I told her we’d try you after dinner.”
“Everything okay?”
“Sure, yeah! Everything’s great,” he said, a little breathless.
“Delia said Zach hid something important?”
“You could say that.” Nick sounded like he was holding on to his sanity by a thread. “I brought something home from work, and I don’t know what the heck Zach did with it. I left it on the credenza next to my car keys while I was changing my clothes, and when I came back, it was gone.”
“What is it?”
“I… can’t really tell you that.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Please tell me you didn’t lose a firearm in my house.”
“No, Jesus, Finn, nothing like that! You know I’d never leave a weapon around the kids. This is… more like a piece of evidence. I can’t lose it. That would be really,reallybad. You know, chain-of-custody stuff.” Nick was always so cool under fire. I’d never heard him so frazzled before. Whatever this piece of evidence was, it must have been critical to his case. “I’m sorry, Finn. I told myself I wasn’t going to say anything. You’ve got enough on your mind with Vero’s case.”
“Have you tried looking inside all the shoes?” I suggested. “In the snack boxes in the pantry? How about in the toilet?”
