The window cranked down a few inches. Zoey sat behind the giant steering wheel, her finger poised over the hydraulic controls. Cam was in the passenger seat, both hands braced on the dashboard as the car continued to bob. I blinked, surprised to see Arnold sitting between them and even more shocked to find they both had their clothes on.
“Turn off the damn disco light! The party’s being busted, and the cops are on their way.”
Zoey paled.
Cam reached across the dashboard and pushed a button. The disco light turned off, and the back end of the Lincoln dropped with a final bounce. I climbed into the back seat.
“Where’s Vero?” Zoey asked, frantically using her sleeve to clear the fog from the windshield.
“In the back of that police car.” I pointed out Officer Oates’s sedan. “Vero fell in the pool. The transmitter on her belt must havedied before her ankle monitor did. That must be how Oates knew she was here. Didn’t you see my texts?”
Cam dug his phone from his back pocket. He winced as he read my messages. “Shit! Please tell me the cops didn’t find my spoofer.”
I shook my head and tossed the belt into his lap. “Nobody saw it. We heard Oates coming. We had just enough time to throw the belt out the window before anyone…Oh!”
I felt the tension slacken in my face as something clicked in my brain.
Cam turned around to stare at me. “Mrs. D? Are you okay?”
“That’s it,” I murmured. The answer to the mystery had been right under our noses all along. Or more accurately, out the window. I stared across the road at the frat house, remembering our conversation with Mia in the bathroom during the party, right before we’d thrown the belt outside.
Suddenly, I knew who had stolen the money. And I knew how they did it. I just needed proof.
My pulse raced. “I need to talk to Vero. Right now!”
“Whatever you need to say to her, you’d better do it quick, Mrs. D.”
Officer Oates set her microphone back in its mount and started her engine. My only chance of keeping Vero out of jail was to prove someone else stole the money, and I couldn’t do that without her help. “I can’t talk to her in front of the police. I need some way to get her away from the car.”
“I’ve got you, Mrs. D.” Cam slung the transmitter belt over his shoulder. “Zoey, stay with the Eggplant. Keep the engine running. Be ready to get the hell out of here as soon as I come back. If I don’t make it, I’ll meet you at the gas station at the end of the street.” His door opened with a screech.
“Cameron! What are you doing?” I shouted after him.
Zoey grinned as she watched him sprint across the lawn and duck around the back of the frat house. “I have absolutely no idea.”
A moment later, a figure appeared on a small second-floor balcony above the front door. Cam stood by the railing, backlit by the house lights. A lumpy shadow distorted his silhouette, but it was definitely him. He gulped down the contents of a red plastic cup and tossed it over the side. I watched in horror as he spread open his jacket. The transmitter belt was buckled around his waist, the duct-taped battery packs on full display.
He shouted down at the people on the lawn. “Listen up, assholes! I have a list of demands!” A collective gasp rose from the crowd. “I want an orange Slushy andsixQuarter Pounders with Cheese. And no onions!” Cam demanded. “If I see so much as one damn onion in my food, someone is going to pay, and it willnotbe my dog. Do you understand?”
Someone shouted, “Everybody run! He’s wearing a bomb!”
A wave of screaming, panicked partygoers ran for their cars. People inside the house started fleeing for the exits, a stampede building as they fought to get out.
Officer Oates thew open her car door and dropped to one knee, shielding herself behind her vehicle as she reached for her service weapon. She spotted Cam on the balcony and sprung to action. She fought her way upstream through the onslaught of inebriated, screaming college students as they poured out of the front door. Cam caught sight of her as she made a beeline toward the house. He stumbled back. “Screw the cheeseburgers! I’m out!” He vaulted over the railing and landed on all fours in the grass. He took off like a shot, his long legs pumping as he disappeared around the side of the house.
Officer Oates’s car sat less than a hundred feet away from me. Its front door was still flung open wide, a ribbon of pale exhaust unspooling from its tailpipe.
“Find Cam and get yourselves out of here,” I told Zoey.
“What about you?” she asked as I scrambled out of the back seat.
“Don’t wait for me. Just go!” I made a run for Officer Oates’s car. The Eggplant roared behind me, tires smoking as Zoey peeled down the road.
I got into the driver’s seat of the police car and slammed the door.
Vero’s face was gobsmacked in the rearview mirror. “Finn? What the hell are you doing?”
“Nothing you wouldn’t do for me,” I said, buckling my seat belt. “I know who stole the money, and it wasn’t who we thought. I can prove it, but I can’t do it alone, so you’re coming with me.”
