Chapter 35

Sitting outside in the Jeep, I grab my phone out of my bag to text Anthony, seeing a message waiting for me from UNKOWN NUMBER, which is how Nicole has programmed her number into my phone, an inside joke between her and herself about how we first met.

I've learned something interesting. I'm off to talk to Roy. Your surprise is waiting on the kitchen counter. DO NOT DIG WITHOUT ME.

My first thought is who the fuck is Roy? My second is excitement.

Don't dig without me.

Did she find some kind of a map?

We've discussed the possibility that Dick might have buried money in the backyard, but we haven't gotten much further than taking a look at those holes. After a quick glance at them the other day, I had to admit that I know jack-all about holes in the ground and what might have made them, and even though Nicole likes to pretend she knows everything, it was clear she was equally at a loss. So I called Declan, and he took a look. He says they're definitely man-made, created by a post hole digger. The pattern seems completely random, so either this person snuck into the yard at night and hoped for the best, or Dick gave them an inaccurate map to mess with them. The only thing we know for sure is that nothing's shown up on the cameras Damien had installed the other day.

I text Nicole

Don't hold out on me. Did you find a treasure map?

More information is required.

New number, who's this?

Very funny.

Don't dig without me. If you do, I'll be pissed. People don't like it when I'm pissed.

Okay, Hulk. Who's Roy?

You seriously don't remember Roy? He'll be wrecked.

I roll my eyes and open a new message window to text Anthony, tapping the side of my phone as I think about what to say to a man who almost certainly doesn't like me by association. I decide to go for simple:

Hi Anthony, this is Dick Ricci's daughter. I was wondering if you'd be willing to meet to discuss my father?

There, that's professional. There's an instant three dots, and I straighten up, wondering what he'll say, when his answer pops up on my screen.

No offense, but there isn't much to say. Did my mother put you up to this?

No.

Thinking fast, I decide to channel Nicole in my next message.

But wouldn't you like to have an insider look at what she's up to? I'll bet Nina would like to know.

I won't betray Mrs. Rosings, much, since her son has every appearance of being a tool who completely lacks the sense of humor she's credited him for…but he doesn't have to know that.

There's a pause, then he writes:

Meet me at the Starbucks in Marshall. At 6:30.

"What if I had plans?" I complain to the empty car. I'm also not impressed by his selection—there are a few coffee shops in Marshall, and he picked the only generic one in the bunch. No question about it, Anthony Smith is a tool.

But is he a murderous tool?

That remains to be seen, but I'm guessing I won't find out at Starbucks. Honestly, if it's left to me, I probably won't find out at all.

Hopefully Declan's better at interrogating people than I am. I text him the details for the meeting with Anthony, then leave Smith House, the gate automatically opening to let me go.

My heartbeat cranks up as I pull into the driveway of the cabin.

Declan's car isn't next door, which I expected—he took Rosie to help him with a planting job that should keep them busy until just before our meeting with Anthony.

Don't dig without me.

Is it just me, or does that sound like a challenge?

I head inside the house, dropping my keys on the kitchen counter, and…I do a double take, because what's waiting there is definitely not what I was expecting.

Little Titty Women, Big Time.

Is Nicole messing with me again? And yet…

I open the box, my tongue captured between my teeth, because who knows what kind of promotional material could be tucked inside, but the box is completely empty other than a folded piece of paper covered in drawings.

My heart starts pounding again. Dick hid this map in here, obviously, and she figured it would be funnier to leave it out for me in the case. She was right, obviously. I unfold it, and press it down on the kitchen counter, ironing out the folds with my thumb. At first I can't make sense of the shapes, but then I turn it one-hundred-and-eighty degrees, and I see a couple of landmarks I recognize. The fire pit. The greenhouse.

The greenhouse.

There's a heart next to it with a red star in the middle—drawn in deep lines that suggest it's important.

I remember again the note my bio-dad left me—Declan's a good guy, mostly. He trusted him.

Itrust him.

I trust Nicole too, but the shovel leaned up against the counter feels like proof enough that this was a dare—and that she'd be disappointed if I didn't take her up on it.

She's giving this to me, same as if she wrapped it up in pretty paper and tied a bow around it.

Heart pounding, I take the shovel and the porn DVD map and make my way down the hill. On the way, I pass several of the man-made holes pockmarking the land, and it sends a shiver down my spine. Whoever's been doing this has stayed away since the cameras went up, but there's no denying someone was out here looking for something, while we were tucked into our beds, completely unaware. A killer, maybe, in my own backyard.

When I reach the greenhouse, I study the map, and then I see it—a big rock shaped like a heart about ten feet away from the entrance. Well, crap, I should definitely have fit an arm day into my non-existent workout schedule. I take a deep breath, then heave the heart rock with all my might. It budges maybe an inch.

I hear a horn beep up on the road, but my focus is on moving my nemesis rock. I give it another shove. This time it doesn't move at all. If anything, I probably wedged it further into the dirt.

Maybe I will be waiting for Nicole.

No, this is more of a Declan task. Nicole may look tough as hell, but her arms are twigs. Declan could probably move it without breaking a sweat.

"Claire Rainey," a familiar voice shouts, and I whirl around, my heart fluttering. Through the brush and trees, I can see a figure standing at the top of the hill. I hurry away from the rock so I can get a better view, stepping around a couple of gnarled trunks, and there she is.

Lainey is standing at the top of the hill in cut-off jean shorts and a checkered shirt, a huge grin on her face. The profound sense of relief I feel—as if a balloon is expanding inside of me—tells me how much I've missed her.

"You said you weren't getting in until Sunday!" I shout as she starts picking her way down. I can already tell she's wearing a pair of shoes that are completely inappropriate for the task.

She grins at me, then makes a face at one of the holes that tried to take her down. A couple of minutes later, she reaches me toward the bottom of the hill. It's wild, having her here. My past, meeting my present. It feels like the space time continuum should explode.

I wrap her up in a hug, pulling her close and burying my head in her neck. She hugs me back hard. "That's for not being around for the Todd bullshit," I say. "I hate that I wasn't. But why are you here early?"

She pulls back. "Your sister surprised you. I figured it would be fun to pull off something like that, too. Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

I wave behind me toward the heart rock, hidden by the trees. "I was in the zone, and I had it on silent. There's this big rock I need to move down there. Remember I told you about the holes in the yard—"

"Yes—" she lifts up one of her wedges, "—one of them tried to end my life."

"Well, Nicole found what looks like a map."

"We're on a treasure hunt?" she asks, her eyes lighting up. "This is the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Don't get too excited. From what I've learned about Richard Ricci, it could just be the DVD for Little Titty Women, Big Time. That's the kind of wild goose chase that would have amused him."

She lets out an amused pfft of air. "After ten hours in the car, listening to the audiobook for Unfuck Your Life, that still feels like the best thing that'd ever happen to me. What do we do?"

"We go down there and push."

So that's exactly what we do.

Lainey's not much more physically adept than I am, but she has an edge over me because she's been moving those boxes around like a human game of Tetris. Between the two of us, we get the rock budged out of the way enough that we can start in with the shovel. It's hard, dirty work, and within five minutes, I'm sweating everywhere a body can sweat.

Lainey's taking her turn with the shovel when a thunking sound meets our ears. Her eyes widen, and she shovels more dirt out of the way before I reach down into the pit we've created. There's a metal box inside, locked, and I wiggle it out of the dirt pit.

"Holy shit," Lainey says, crouching down next to me. "We found something."

We did, but it's the work of a second to discover it's locked. Which is when I remember the key Nicole found a couple of weeks ago.

I tell Lainey about it, and we start up the hill, Lainey pausing halfway up to remove her shoes. We carry the dirty metal lock box inside, setting it on the kitchen counter, so I can run upstairs to get the key.

It fits.

It turns.

Lainey whistles. "That's a lot of money."

More sweat forms on my forehead, in my pits. Because she's right. There's a folded paper note on top of two plastic bags filled with rolls of bills, one hundreds on the outside of each of the rolls. Unless this is an I got you situation, where he's wrapped hundreds around ones, or currency-sized pieces of paper, there is, in fact, a lot of money in there. Much more money than I've ever seen in my life.

"Open the note," she urges.

So I do.

Daughters-

One of the things I enjoyed most about being a father was embarrassing you, Nicole. So I hope you'll allow me this last indulgence. Don't gamble unless you're good at it. I happened to be very good at it. These are my winnings. Spend it well, kids. Have yourselves a party. Maybe you can lift one up for me while you're at it.

Maybe I'm being morose, and I'll decide to dig this up tomorrow, but I feel the end coming soon. When you get older, all the things you've done start clustering around you, threatening to smother you. Maybe I deserve to be smothered by mine.

The bag with the R on it is for Rex. I'll rely on you to get it to him. You might not believe your old man is capable of regret, but I feel bad about how I won it, and the kid deserves a break.

Yours—

D

My pulse starts pounding harder in my veins.

Rex.

He's been around from the beginning.

He made a comment about the gophers.

He's the one who installed those cameras that have kept our late-night intruder away.

He's the one who seems to know this town up and down, in and out…

And he's also the one, it hits me, whom Nicole calls Roy.

"Oh, this isn't good," I say, dropping the note.

"Seems pretty good to me," Lainey says as she reaches into the lockbox for the bags of money. "I want to count it. I've never had a chance to count this much money, like a fixer in one of those mafia movies."

I grab her wrist, my heart thumping fast. "Lainey, I think Nicole's in trouble. We have to get to her. Now."

I pull my phone out of my pocket with shaky fingers, see the missed calls from Lainey, and use my fingerprint to unlock it. The first thing I do is shoot off a text to Nicole on the off-chance she's able to answer—

Where are you? I'll come get you.

The next thing I do is call Declan. Maybe my first thought should be to summon the police, but they're the ones who discounted the possibility that Dick's death could be anything but a drunk guy taking a spill down a flight of poorly made steps. Besides, this is a small town, and everyone seems to know Rex—who are they going to believe? A New Yorker who was Dick the dick's daughter, or one of their own?

Declan picks up on the second ring. "Everything okay?"

"No, actually," I say, my voice breathy, and I explain what just happened and my suspicions about Rex.

"I'm on my way," Declan says. "I'll text Damien, too, and you call the police. Stay at the house and lock the door."

"She's my sister," I object. "I can't just leave her there without doing anything. If it were me, she'd batter the door down." She'd shown me that. We may not have grown up together, but that didn't matter to Nicole. She'd claimed me, and I wanted to prove that I'd claimed her too, dammit.

"Claire, stay in the house," he says, his tone gruff and desperate. "Damien and I have both dealt with dangerous people before. Let us deal with this. Stay at home. Please."

It's the please that does it. The please and the realization that he's right. What would Lainey and I realistically be able to do? I carry around a rape whistle and mace in my purse, and I know Lainey does too, so we'd be able to do something, but Rex is taller than us and a man who works with his body. He'd easily be able to overpower both of us, probably even if we attacked him at the same time.

And he also told me he goes deer hunting. That means he almost certainly has a gun somewhere…

More sweat breaks out across my body at that thought, because I don't want Nicole, or Declan, or Damien to be in danger. I couldn't stand it if any of them got hurt.

"Okay," I say flatly. "Okay."

"Promise me, Claire," he says. "I need to hear you promise me."

"I promise. Declan…I'm scared."

He swears under his breath. I hear a sound on the other end of the line, like something being dropped to the ground. I can imagine him throwing his hand trowel. "I want to be with you so badly right now. I hate that I don't have eyes on you. But I swear to God, I won't let anything happen to either of you. I'd die before I let anyone hurt you."

My heart swells. I believe him. If it's in his power, he'll do anything to protect us. If it's in his power.

"What about Rosie? You're not going to bring her, are you?"

"No, I'm not bringing her," he says firmly, and I can hear her say something in the background. I'm guessing she's arguing the point, but he'll get his way on this one. He wouldn't let anyone hurt her either. "I'll call you as soon as we have her."

I like the way he says it, like it's going to happen, not just that it might. It's a reassurance he can't give, but I'm still hungry for it. A month ago, I didn't know Nicole was alive. Now, she's entered the small circle of people I'd do anything for, and I can't stand the thought of anything happening to her.

"Goodbye," I say. "Do whatever you need to do to be safe. I mean it. Don't hesitate."

I can feel his smile. "Look at you. Just over three weeks in Marshall, and you're turning into leather jacket Sandra Dee on me."

I feel a pulse of uncertainty. "You don't like leather jacket Sandra Dee."

"Turns out I have a thing for both versions," he says, and my heart feels gooey and large. "Stay safe, Claire."

Then he clicks off, leaving me with my gooey heart and a new worry—that something horrible might happen, and I'll lose both of them. All I'll be left with from this life-transforming month is a house that's more or less falling down and a lockbox of money that my biological father won from gambling on Christmas wreaths and people's lives.

I lower the phone as Lainey watches me.Her feet are filthy from the trek up the hill, and she just got done with a twelve hour drive with stops, but she looks ready to ride into battle.

"We're not going," I tell her.

I swear to God, she deflates.

"I'm going to call the police, though, and Declan's going over there with Damien."

She nods, twisting her mouth to the side. "They're probably better equipped to deal with this situation. But it would feel kind of anticlimactic to hide in here. Wrong, too."

"I'm going to make that call."

I check my messages first. Nothing from Nicole. Nothing further from Declan. A recipe for gluten-free cupcakes with tofu frosting from my father.

Then I call the local police station. The officer who finally picks up actually laughs when I tell him why I believe Rex might be a danger to Nicole.

"I'd reckon he's the only one who's in danger," he says dismissively. "Rex wouldn't hurt a fly, but your sister, boy…" That's when he makes his big mistake and laughs.

Fury lights in my gut, catching on all the other dismissals I've buried down there over the years. I'm not feeling at all nice when I say, "Listen, sir, if you want to keep your job and avoid getting sued, you will send a squad car to check on my sister. If I find out you haven't, and something happens to my sister, then guilt isn't the only thing that will plague you. I will do everything in my power to ensure you never work another day in your life."

"As a police officer?"

"As anything. Have I made myself clear?"

It's all bluster, obviously, but I learned from the best. How many dressing downs have I gotten from Agnes, in front of half the office. How many have I heard her give to other people?

How many have I written into her speeches?

Enough to give a damn good one, if I do say so myself.

There's a pause, my phone giving a soft buzz that tells me there's an incoming message, then he says, "Yes, ma'am," his voice suddenly all politeness. "I will personally see to it."

"You do that."

When I hang up, Lainey beams at me. "You slayed!"

"A text came in," I say urgently, shifting my phone so I can check the screen.

My heart gives a frantic thump as I check out the notifications on my screen. It's from Nicole.

I click through and frown at the screen.

Can you wait to come home, actually? I have a birthday surprise for you, but I need time to set it up.

I glance up at Lainey, horror rippling through me. "This is bad."

"Why?" she asks, peering at the screen. Her brow puckers. "Isn't this good news? I mean, your birthday's not for four and half months, but she's only known you for a few weeks, so—"

I can see it click for her, same as it did for me. Faster for me, because I know Nicole better, and that message is way too nice to have come from her. "Oh, you don't think it's from her."

"No, and I think she told him it was my birthday to send me a message. He's bringing her here."