Chapter 33

Savannah nodded. "Time period?"

"Between 300 and 100 BC." Dominga's voice gained confidence. "Its provenance locates it in Mexico."

The students chattered excitedly on the way out, and Savannah grabbed her purse and hurried to her car in the falling dusk. She paused to check Simon's whereabouts. The app she'd put on his phone showed him still in the building where Hez worked. Was this a day he met with Will, Jane's son, for tutoring? If so, she had a little time. She could zip to the library, then gather Simon. Maybe Hez would agree to join them for dinner. She had chicken out for alfredo, and it was one of Hez's favorite recipes she made. She told herself she only wanted him to join them so they could discuss what to do about Simon, but she wasn't so delusional that she didn't recognize the rationalization for what it was.

The librarian, a woman in her thirties, greeted her when she reached the desk. "Can I help you find something?"

Savannah extended her phone. "I know this will seem like a strange request, but have you seen this boy?"

Savannah tensed. "Was there a particular time period he asked about?"

The woman's brown eyes held curiosity. "He was particularly interested in 2012 to 2014. He printed off a page of engagement announcements."

Savannah shot a text to Hez. On Simon's tail. Stand by. I might need help.

He stood at a partially open window, and when she called his name, he glanced her way before he shoved the pane up the rest of the way. He threw himself inside before she reached him, and she grabbed at his ankle but missed. She dove inside the house after him, and the fall to the hardwood floor knocked the breath out of her for a minute.

"Simon Legare, what do you think you're doing? We are leaving now." She grabbed his arm, and he jerked it away.

Savannah had no idea how she'd get Jess to open up to her son, but her heart broke at the torment in Simon's blue eyes. He let her embrace him, and as she held him, she spotted a jade statue on top of Erik's desk. Her mind cataloged it as an Olmec figure. When Simon stepped back, she moved past him to pick up the piece. Jade was always a pleasure to hold, but even as her fingers registered the patina on the surface, she spotted a provenance letter on TGU letterhead. It identified the piece as part of the TGU collection and was signed by Professor Wilson Fremont on behalf of the Tupelo Grove University History Department. There was no Professor Wilson Fremont.

"Aunt Savannah?"

***

Hez's phone buzzed with a text from Savannah—something about being on Simon's tail. What was she on his tail about this time? Simon had been behaving himself all day, as far as Hez could tell. The kid had been sitting in Hez's office, quietly playing on his phone for the past few hours, and he didn't complain when Hez parked him in a dingy empty room so they could meet with Bruno. Hez made a mental note to check with her later, but he had more important things to think about right now. If Bruno was right, this could give him the evidence he needed to exonerate Jess. "Great news! Tell me about it."

"Keystroke logger—that would have recorded her passwords, right?"

Hez's phone buzzed again, but he ignored it. "Are you absolutely positive it happened after that?"

"Yup. She backed up her laptop to the cloud every night. The last backup happened at 2:00 a.m. on October 16. That backup had the logger but no spreadsheet. The copy of her hard drive you gave me had the spreadsheet but no logger. Ergo, someone removed the logger and added the spreadsheet after the backup. QED," Bruno added with a flourish of his Red Bull can.

He needed to warn her when she came to get Simon.

***

Her tongue didn't want to unravel the circumstances of how she came to be standing in his home office, and she had to get out of here and call the police. Erik was the person behind everything that had happened, and she struggled to tamp down the fear souring her tongue. "I—I can explain."

Simon, blue eyes alert and eager, took a step toward him. "You have to be Erik Andersen, right? You were engaged to my mum."

Savannah winced at the pathos vibrating in Simon's voice, and she wanted to scream at her sister for what she'd done to this little boy. All of Jess's secrets had knotted into a tangled mess that just might destroy all of them. This man had orchestrated everything and had framed Jess for murders she didn't commit. He wouldn't allow his hard work to unravel now.

"I only found out about Simon myself last week."

His shoulders tensed, and his lips flattened. He reached out and closed the door before she could reach it. "I think there are some things we need to discuss."

Savannah's gut clenched, and she pulled Simon against her. Please come, Hez.