Don't Look for Me(81)

“But you were convicted,” Nic said, finishing the story for him.

Kurt nodded. “The chief backed Reyes. His pet project. His prodigy. The son he never had. Who the hell knows. Doesn’t matter. Reyes is a con man, Nic.”

“I’m sorry. I really am. But what does this have to do with Edith Bickman? Reyes was the one who made me suspect that she was lying. He found a hole in her story about being in New York.”

Kurt looked up and crossed his arms, like he was preparing to tell her something she wasn’t going to like.

“I went to see her to find out what the hell she was doing. She was a decent girl, but she had an infatuation with Reyes, and he knew she needed money. Always. Had a mountain of debt from college and now nursing school. She said he called her a few days after the search ended. Said he knew where your mother was hiding but that he couldn’t collect the reward money because he was a cop, and it was his job to find her. He said it would be easy—she would call you with the story about the truck. He said you were the only one who would come back and try to find her—it had to be you. Then he would help you find your mother, your father would pay her the million bucks, and they would split it.”

“So Reyes did give her my number,” Nic said, remembering what Mrs. Urbansky had told her father, and how Reyes had put that lie in Edith’s mouth the morning they’d met.

Nic couldn’t help it, but this almost made her giddy. “Then she is hiding somewhere? Reyes knows? I don’t care about him or the money—this means my mother is safe!”

But Kurt’s face did not lighten. “Wait—there’s more. Whatever Reyes said to her in front of you, the holes he pointed out in her story, they were all meant to keep you here, to keep you frantically looking for your mother.”

Nic suddenly knew exactly what he was saying. “No, you’re right—if he knew where she was, why take the chance that she would leave? Why not let me find her the first day?”

“I don’t know. But he wanted you here. He wanted you to stay.”

“And he wanted to set up Watkins,” Nic said now, fitting two of the pieces together. “I think he broke Watkins’s taillight. Forged an invoice for the replacement parts because Watkins didn’t get it repaired in town like Reyes thought he would. Maybe he wants his job.”

“I don’t know, Nic. That’s strange that he would betray the chief. And why you? Why did it have to be you?”

Nic drew a quick breath, her hands crossing at her chest. “I know why.”

She thought about those photos from the summer camp yearbook. Her resemblance to Daisy Hollander. Reyes being the one to drive her out of town. And his growing obsession with her after she let him into her life.

“Nic? What is it?” Kurt asked.

She turned suddenly. “I have to go,” she said. Kurt followed her to the door.

“Wait,” he said. “Where are you going?”

“I have to check something out.”

He grabbed her arm. “I am sorry,” he said. “I should have come right to you after I spoke to Edith.”

Nic stopped, turned. “It’s okay. But I have to go,” she said again.

“Wait—there’s one last thing,” Kurt said. “Edith never saw your mother. But the thing she knew about your mother’s purse—Reyes told her to say that. How did he know?”

Nic realized then what must have happened. The only explanation. “Reyes knew because he saw my mother that night.”

She pulled away from Kurt Kent, and raced back to her mother’s car, down Hastings Pass to the inn. And the fence. And the hole that someone had started to make.





47


Day seventeen





Alice does not get the key. Instead, she sits in the kitchen with Mick for hours, it seems. I hear him moan and choke. I hear her sob. I think I have miscalculated. I think that now I am surely going to die.

But then another sound. A car.

I race from where I stand by the grate and look out the small hole in the wood. I see another police car. Another police officer. This one wears short sleeves and patches. He walks to the front porch and I think, call out! Call for help! But then I wonder—Mick is a cop. What if they’re in this together?

I return to the grate when I hear the shuffling. Mick is on his feet, and he drags Alice toward me. He is pale, his shirt covered in sweat and vomit. But he has survived the poison. This will not end well.

He says nothing because the doorbell has rung and now the new cop is knocking. He calls out a name.

“Reyes? You in there?”

Mick has a name. Reyes.

He is worried. I can see it on his face. Worried and weakened by the cyanide.

The cop again—

“Reyes—come on. I see your car out here.…” A pause as he listens outside the door. And then—

“I spoke to the owners. I know you take care of this place. Listen—it doesn’t matter, okay? You’ve been working on the side for them. Right? Moonlighting? Doing security here and at the gas station? I’ve seen the utility bills—buddy? Are you in there? You been living in there when you’re not supposed to be? It’s okay, we can work it out. We can work everything out.”

When the cop falls silent again, Mick, Reyes, the man—he opens the grate with the key that he wears on his belt. He shoves Alice inside the room with me, and locks it shut.