“Way to spin it,” she said drily as I deposited her into the passenger seat. “Since you’re determined to look at the bright side, maybe you and I can be cellmates when they send us to prison. Plus, you’ll have a lot more time to write your books. You and Mrs. Haggerty can start working together on those sex scenes Sylvia wants you to help her with. Once you’ve been locked up for a while, I bet all that pent-up frustration will give you plenty of inspiration to—”
I slammed the door. I wasn’t going to prison for this. And I damn sure wasn’t starting a writing club with Mrs. Haggerty.
“Where are we going?” Vero asked as I got in and started the car.
I considered our options. We didn’t have many under the circumstances. “Back to your sorority house. If Ava didn’t give the money to her cousin, she must have given it to someone else. Thismight be our last chance to figure out who. But first, we need to get rid of this car.” If we could dump it close to where the party was held and wipe it down, Officer Oates would have a harder time proving I actually took it. I could just say I helped Vero out of the back seat when everyone was running from the house. I doubted anyone bothered to notice us drive off during all the chaos after Cam’s bomb threat.
I drove out of the industrial complex, checking for police cars before merging onto the road.
Vero looked over her shoulder as the sirens grew louder. “They sound close. You think Bennett reported us?”
My eyes darted to my mirrors. “I don’t see any lights. Let’s just keep driving. They probably aren’t for us.”
I set a course back to the neighborhood where we’d fled the party. By now police would have set up a perimeter, advising people to stay in their homes while they searched for a gangly college kid with a bomb strapped to his belt. We wouldn’t be able to dump the car exactly where we’d stolen it, but I could try to park it as close as I could manage without anyone spotting us.
“Finlay?” Vero ducked low in her seat as she stared at her side mirror.
I checked my rearview. Blue lights appeared in the distance, closing in fast. “I see them,” I said, my palms starting to sweat. I made a sharp right turn off the main artery, onto a side street. It was pocked with potholes and barely passable for all the vehicles parked along each side. I made it a quarter mile before I caught the reflection of blue lights a few blocks behind me.
“Shit,” I muttered. I made another series of quick turns, hoping to lose them within the quiet maze of the neighborhood. We were still half a mile from the party, but it would have to be close enough.
I pulled over and killed the headlights, careful to park the car far from any streetlamps before turning off the engine.
The sirens made a few close whoops, as if they’d slowed down, searching for something.
“How are they still following us?” Vero twisted in her seat, peeking over the back of it.
“I don’t know! We were too far ahead of them when I made all those turns. There’s no way they could have tailed us. And it’s not like they could have tracked your… Oh god,” I said as a blinking light caught my attention near her foot. I stared at Vero’s ankle monitor. Vero looked down, too. Her eyes went wide. Her GPS light was flashing erratically, but when the indicator was on, it was definitely green. “We have to get out of here. Now!”
I grabbed a baby wipe from my purse and hurriedly wiped down the steering wheel, the dashboard, and the door. I tossed the keys under the floor mat. Then I raced to the other side of the car to help Vero get out. I dragged her with me between two houses. We both ducked as I speed-dialed Cam. He answered on the third ring and put me on speaker. The telltale sounds of a video game played in the background.
“Cam? I need your help!” I said urgently.
“It’s not really a good time, Mrs. D. Zoey and I are in the middle of a campaign—”
“We have a very big problem,” I said, careful to keep my voice down as I peered over the top of the shrubbery. “I need you to check Vero’s signal. I think the cops know where we are.”
“You’ve got nothing to worry about. After that dunk it took in the pool, I seriously doubt that thing is—”
“Just check it!”
“Okay, jeez!” There was a shuffling sound, then the clatter of computer keys through the phone. “Huh. That’s weird,” Cam said in a low voice.
“Is she transmitting?”
“Kind of.”
“What do you mean,kind of?”
“Her signal comes and goes. But if I can see it, everyone else can, too.”
Fuck!The blue lights were getting closer. I didn’t know how much time we had, but I didn’t imagine it would take long for them to find us. “I’ve got to go!” I disconnected, grabbed Vero, and bolted, cutting through several backyards. We couldn’t afford to be found anywhere near Officer Oates’s car.
“Where are we going?” Vero asked, struggling to keep up with her hands behind her back.
“I don’t know. We have to find a way to get that thing on your ankle to stop transmitting.”
“We could smash it,” she suggested.
