Pretty Girls Dancing(69)
“Something like that,” she admitted.
“And you want proof he’s doing it,” Cole said slowly. “So you can . . . what? Turn him in for taking skanky pictures?”
She needed to find out whether he’d taken the pictures of Kelsey. And if he had, she wanted him investigated to see if he’d been involved with her sister’s disappearance. But she wasn’t going to explain any of this to Cole. Despite the favor he’d done her by obtaining the recording device, she had no reason to trust him. And Alyvia, for once, was keeping her mouth shut, as well.
“So you don’t want to tell me.” He lifted a shoulder, started lifting equipment out of the box. “That’s cool. But here’s the thing . . . he’s been using that empty lake house on Fuller Road. And since that party got busted there last month, the cops are doing a ton of drive-bys. Even Ferin stopped going there for a while, which hasn’t been good for his business.”
No one said anything for a moment. Then Cole shook the hair out of his eyes and pulled out his cell. “Janie, give me your number.”
Immediately wary, she asked, “Why?”
“Because I’ll hang out on the road across from the driveway. Pretend I’m on the phone or something. And if I see a cop, I’ll call you. Put your phone on vibrate.”
She looked at her friend. Alyvia shrugged, as if to say, why not? So Janie obeyed, even though she wasn’t certain she wanted to give him another way to contact her. Which made her a bitch because she was the one who’d asked him for a favor, and he hadn’t hesitated before agreeing to it. “Thanks for doing this.”
Cole nodded and finished punching the number into his phone before looking up again. “What time are you meeting him?”
“Five thirty.” They’d had to make it early so Alyvia’s story of a group-project meeting at the library would appease her foster parents.
“There’s no heat or electricity in the cabin, so he must be bringing in his own sources. I think you’ll be okay. He’s probably a perv, but with two of you there, you should be safe enough. And if you aren’t out after an hour, I’ll come to the door.”
“Hear that, Janie?” Alyvia took a last drag of their shared cigarette before grinding it out in the ashtray. “Our own personal white knight.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Because the words sounded rude even to her ears, she added, “But thanks.”
“Yeah.” He put his phone away and picked up two pieces of equipment. “Which one of you am I going to wire with this thing?”
“Pull your car up on the other side of the garage.” It was the only greeting that Newman gave when he came up to their vehicle. “It’ll be out of sight that way. Follow me. You can park next to mine.”
“Sort of bossy for a daytime school janitor,” Alyvia grumbled after Janie buzzed the window up again.
“He’s obviously been here before.” Janie waited for the man to pull ahead. The semicircle drive was unpaved, so it had been difficult to know if she was even on it as she’d crept up toward the house. The drive was hemmed with trees and overgrown brush, but without their leaves, they’d provide little cover. The house was far enough from the road, though, that it would take a good eye to see a car parked out front in the dark.
“Who hasn’t? In the summer, we usually head over by boats. Party on the little beach out back. That way if the cops show up, we can be halfway across the lake before they even get down to us.”
Janie pulled up alongside the man’s car. Once again Newman came over to her window. “I’m going to haul in equipment. Here.” He handed Janie a flashlight. “Once I get the door open, you can come in, but stay out of the way until I get things set up.”
She waited for him to go back to his vehicle and start unloading things from his trunk. Then she turned to Alyvia. “Let’s go over this one more time.”
Her friend threw herself back against the seat theatrically. “Again? Janie, we’ve practiced every scenario until my brain hurts. I know our stories.”
Fingers clenching and unclenching on the steering wheel, Janie drew in a breath. Then another. But deep breathing alone wasn’t going to quell her anxiety. Not this time. “Please.”
“Okay, fine.” As the man made his first trek to the front porch carrying a heavy suitcase in one hand, Alyvia launched into the stories they’d rehearsed and refined repeatedly since Janie had hatched this idea. The familiar lines provided a measure of calm that the breathing hadn’t. They’d thought of everything. Picking up the light, she looked at her friend. “Ready?”
Alyvia wasted no time once Newman had arranged the space to his satisfaction. “First, I want head shots. I’m going to send them to some modeling agencies. I heard there’s a big demand for alternative looks. You know, piercings, dyed hair, tats.” She beamed a big smile at him. “That’s right up my alley.”
The room they were in must have once been a den. Like the large space they’d entered once inside the door, it had a huge stone fireplace on one wall, but empty bookcases covered two of the others. The spotlights he’d brought were situated in a way that made Janie figure he was going to use the blank wall next to the door as a backdrop. She inched over to the fireplace and sat on the stone step before it, her fingers brushing over the pocket with the tiny recorder inside. Cole had seemed sort of disappointed when they determined there was no need for the earpiece and transmitter. Janie had a feeling that he just wanted to play with the equipment. They’d tried out the recorder, though, and it would suit their purposes just fine. She slipped a hand into her coat pocket. Switched it on.