Amy, trailing behind them in her own car, said a moment later, “There’s an alley.I don’t know the people on the other side.But that’s where I usually park.”
“We’re going to drive around back.Stay here—just sit in the middle of the road.If another car comes, you can circle the block and come back, but don’t pull over, don’t park.If anybody comes up on foot, get out of here.”
“Go to a police station,” Tean said.His throat was dry, and the words sounded like they were crumbling.
“You really don’t have to do this,” Amy said.
“We’re just taking a look.”
“I felt like I had to say that,” Amy said.“Seriously, thank you so much.”
“Yep,” Jem said.“Stay on the phone.”
Tean gave the Subaru gas, and they rolled forward again.He turned, turned again, and started down the alley.It wasn’t much to look at—some homes had wooden privacy fences, and a few even had vinyl, but many had chain-link or, almost as common, nothing.The headlights picked out a home that must have been a teardown, and they passed one or two where new windows and siding had made the small homes look more appealing, but the reality was that this was a neighborhood of small, old homes on small lots.At some point, this had probably been a cheap place to live, but that was a vanishing concept in Utah.
Jem was counting quietly.Then he said, “Bingo.”
From the back, the little clapboard rambler looked even worse.The driveway, if that was what you wanted to call it, consisted of a few pavers sunk into the ground at irregular intervals, creating a pair of concrete tracks.Beyond that, a half-finished patio led up to the house.The glare of the headlights caught a broken edge of glass—a window with a long crack and what appeared to be a missing piece of glass.
“Did you have a broken window on the back of your house?”Jem asked.
“What?Oh.Yeah, it’s just the sunroom, so I haven’t gotten it fixed.”
“That’s the kind of thing burglars look for,” Jem said.“Just an FYI.Might want to take care of that when you can.”
“I will, yeah, definitely.”
“I’m going to disconnect now.If you need us, call, but only if it’s an emergency.Remember what you’re going to do?”
“Sit in the middle of the street.”
“You got it.”
Jem disconnected.Tean waited for instructions, but when Jem didn’t say anything, he started to turn onto the concrete tracks behind the house.
Jem shook his head.“Just park here.If somebody gets pissed that we’re blocking the alley, they can deal with it.”
“Everything okay?”
“Peachy.”But Jem bounced the phone in his hand a few times.
“What?”Tean asked.
“Am I crazy for thinking this might be a trap?”
“It seems like a lot of effort to get rid of us,” Tean said.“And I’m not sure why they’d care.We can’t locate them.We don’t have any evidence against them.We’re not a threat to them.”
“Because we fucked them up, Tean.Twice.These people, they can’t let that stuff go.”
“Do you think it’s a trap?”
“No.”Jem grinned.“I think she’s scared and doesn’t know what else to do, and I think we should help her.But that would make it a pretty good trap, right?”
Tean tried to wrap his head around this.He gave up and said, “Jem, we don’t have to do this.We can call the police and ask for an officer to come out for suspected break-in.”
“Nah.”Jem shook his head.“We’re here.Let’s do this.”He added, like it was an afterthought, “It’s probably not a trap.”
Tean honestly wasn’t sure he could respond to that, so he didn’t.
