What Have You Done(51)

Were you this angry when you killed Kerri?

“No,” Liam said aloud as the thought vanished as quickly as it had come. “No.”

He took a final breath and sat up, glancing into his rearview mirror in order to pull back out onto the street. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was going or where he’d end up, but he knew he had to get out of there. His mind was still spinning from what had just happened with Vanessa. Her emotions frightened him.

And that’s when he saw Vanessa’s car pulling out of the driveway.

It maneuvered its way out onto the road and drove off in the opposite direction, its red taillights outlining the sedan as it cruised to the intersection, then turned left. Liam immediately whipped his car around and followed. Where was she going now?

He knew as it grew darker outside the night would give him the cover he’d need; however, the sun was still setting, which made him vulnerable to being spotted. He kept a safe distance between his car and Vanessa’s. Tailing someone hadn’t been part of his training as a forensics tech, so he relied on common sense and the movies he’d watched with his brother where Sean would point out when the Hollywood director had gotten police procedures right and when they were laughably wrong. The safest way to play it would be to stay a few cars behind and track her as best he could from there. If she turned, he’d speed up to find out where she was heading and then fall back again. If she stopped, he’d drive past her or turn onto another street. That was the best plan he could come up with.

He followed her as she turned onto Route 42 North and took position in the left lane about four car lengths back. A truck in front of him helped disguise his position while, at the same time, he was able to keep his eyes on her car. It wasn’t until she turned off 42 and onto Interstate 295 North that he had an idea of where she was going.

Sean’s house.

Liam thought about the bracelet he’d found on his brother’s boat and Vanessa’s reaction when he’d told her where he’d gotten it from. Did Sean have more secrets than he was letting on? He tried to recall the other times they’d all been together. So many times. Had either of them acted strange, or were there signs he’d been missing all along?

A laugh burst forth. He couldn’t help it. He was being foolish. This was nothing more than Sean being there for the family like he always was. Sean was the one who’d helped him reconcile with Vanessa after they’d decided to try to make things work. Sean had been the one to sit them both down and walk through the steps it would take to get their lives together. He’d been there for Liam more times than he could count. Why wouldn’t he do the same for Vanessa? Of course he would. Sean was the patriarch of the family, the leader who everyone else followed without question. And in this instance, Sean was the shoulder Vanessa could lean on when she needed to talk. After the fight they’d just had, he was certain she’d have plenty to say.

Liam pulled off the road and parked on the street adjacent to his brother’s house. He watched as Vanessa drove into Sean’s driveway, climbed out of her car, and ran up the front steps to the door. She rang the bell and then looked around while she waited, but there was no way she’d be able to see him. He was hidden behind a set of hedges from one of the neighbors’ houses and within the shadow of the streetlights that were popping to life.

The front door opened, and Sean appeared. He and Vanessa exchanged words Liam couldn’t hear, and then Sean reached out and gently brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen across her face, tucking it behind her ear. She let him do it, and when he was done, she reached up and placed her hands on his chest, lightly pushing him inside. The door closed behind them.

Liam stepped out of the car. He wasn’t exactly sure what he’d just seen. What was going on? The way they’d looked at each other. The way they’d touched. There was something there. He couldn’t interpret it as anything else. Vanessa had looked at him like that once. And now…

He stopped when he got to the edge of Sean’s driveway and bent down behind a cluster of pine trees. He tried to see inside from where he was, but the house was perched on an incline, and he couldn’t make out anything past the front end of the porch. Moving without knowing exactly where he was going, Liam ran up the front yard and over to the side of the house. He peered through each of the windows. There was nothing to see. All of the shades had been drawn. He pressed his head against the glass to see if he could hear anything, but there was only silence.

What are you doing?

He ran around to the front of the house and carefully climbed the wooden steps onto the porch. He bent down to look through the window next to the front door. There was no curtain, but the hallway inside was empty. Where were they?

“Liam?”

Liam jumped and spun around, almost falling over the railing on the opposite side of the porch. Sean was standing down below on the gravel path that led to the garage, looking at him.

“Jesus! You scared me.”

Sean walked up the front steps. “What are you doing here?”

“Vanessa and I had this huge fight.”

“Yeah, I know. She’s inside.”

“I followed her here.”

“You followed her?”

Liam shrugged. “I left, and then I saw her leave, and I wanted to know where she was going.”

“She wanted to talk,” Sean replied. “She comes to me every once in a while when things are a little shaky with you two.”