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I never got a foot out. I was parked far enough back so I knew Kevin couldn’t see me. He wasn’t focused in my direction anyway. Instead, he saw the truck move forward, ready to pick up the totes for his closest neighbor across the street.

Then Kevin Bell stood up out of his chair. He straightened his back and took two steady, confident steps forward to grab the handle on his garbage tote.

The lid didn’t close, as it nearly overflowed with white trash bags. As Kevin rolled it forward, two of the bags overbalanced and fell to the concrete.

Kevin steadied the tote with one hand, then reached down to pick up the first bag. He arced it over his head as if it weighed nothing, and smashed it into the tote. He did the same with the other.

Just before Dustin’s truck reached the end of his driveway, Kevin shoved the tote to the edge of the driveway then ran back up to his wheelchair.

Dustin saw nothing. Kevin had timed it perfectly, making his move when the kid’s attention was focused on the house across the street. The driver kept his eyes on Dustin.

No, all Dustin saw was what Kevin wanted him to. Kevin hunched his back and turned his left arm inward at an awkward angle, as if he had no voluntary control over it.

He raised his “good” arm as Dustin hopped back down.

“Hey, Mr. Bell,” Dustin called out. “You look good today! You’ll be jogging circles around me by spring, I betcha!”

Kevin shouted. “Good luck with Central next month. You pound them into the ground, you’ll be state bound. You mark my words.”

Dustin heaved the Bells’ trash tote onto the arm. He laughed and waved as he hopped on the truck and rolled to the next stop around the corner.

“Dad?” Landon came out the front door. “I was looking all over for you. Coffee’s done.”

Landon went to his father. Kevin made a move as if he were trying to stand up out of his chair. Landon lunged, catching him just before he thought his father would fall to the ground. He let his son strain his back as he helped him back into the chair. Then Landon wheeled his father back up the driveway and out of sight.

A moment later, Geneva drove by me. She saw me waiting and waved.

I didn’t know how. I didn’t know why. But Kevin Bell was faking his injuries and lying to his children.

What other secrets might he be trying to hide?

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

I didn’t tell her.

Geneva remained stoic as I updated her on what I chose to. I came with a different agenda. To tell her my suspicion that someone from Helene may know more than what they told the police. To tell her about my second meeting with Boone Sidney.

But the moment I saw Kevin Bell’s deception, some vault inside me closed.

“So you have nothing,” she said. “We’re no closer to finding out who did this to me than we were before.”

“We know someone out there is trying very hard to frighten you and now me.”

She took the news about the vandalism to Dad’s boat with that same stony silence.

“I’ve told exactly no one that you’re working with me,” she said. “At least, no one that I don’t trust.”

Her father was just inside. We’d taken our meeting out on the back porch. The man barely acknowledged me when I walked in. Maybe it was better that way.

“But a lot of people know anyway,” I said. “The entire Sheriff’s Department. Dan Holland. Derrek Sidney’s own son.”

“But all of those people found out after I was already receiving those awful messages.”

“Geneva, I’m sorry. Whoever’s doing this knows how to cover their tracks.”

It was more than that though. They didn’t just know how to torment Geneva, they knew my own routines now too. They knew my father. They knew his boat. They knew exactly when to go to the pier in the exact window of time no one would likely see them.