Hidden (Nicole Jones #1)(51)

‘Now?’

It is four a.m.

‘Yes. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.’

‘It has to do with that laptop, right?’

‘That’s right. I just need to see what’s going on with it, and then I’ll leave you alone.’

‘Right now?’

‘Please, Jeanine.’

‘OK, OK. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’ I hear the irritation in her voice, but I know she will come.

It will take her about ten minutes once she gets in the car. I am just a couple of blocks away, but I don’t have the patience to wait here. I pick up my backpack and go out the back door into the night.

There is no sound except the shuffle of my feet on the pavement.

I cut through the little alley that runs between the spa and a house that has a string of brightly colored buoys hanging on the small white picket fence. Jeanine has always wanted to buy this house, to live in it herself, rather than on the other side of the island.

I touch the fence, just for an instant, as though the buoys can give me some sort of strength. I then turn toward the back door of the spa, the one that will lead into that little room where the laptop sits.

I tense when I hear the footsteps approach. It’s too early for Jeanine. I brace myself.

Ian steps out from the other side of the building. ‘I need your help, Tina.’

My heart starts to pound, but I ignore it, glaring at him. ‘What are you doing here?’ My whisper is louder than it should be, and it carries on the still air.

‘Shush,’ he says, putting a finger to his lips. He isn’t as put together as he usually is; his hair is tousled and his clothes are dirty. He looks as though he has slept on the beach. He probably has. He does not have keys to a bike shop or friends who can let him into spas.

‘Where have you been?’ I hiss.

He shakes his head. ‘I wish you hadn’t talk to the cops. You could’ve just cleaned that shit up at your house and kept your mouth shut.’

I feel the same way, but I don’t want him to know that. ‘It was the right thing to do, Ian.’

He sneers at me. ‘And you’re all about doing the right thing, aren’t you, Nicole?’ He spits out my name.

I ignore him. ‘So did you shoot Carmine, Ian? With the gun you let Veronica see?’ It is a stab in the dark, but I see in his expression that I am right in my suspicion that he is not innocent in this.

‘It was either him or me. I didn’t want it to be me.’

‘Whose idea was it to steal from Tony, Ian? Was it my father’s or was it yours?’ It is the first time I have confronted him about this.

‘He told me Tony couldn’t say anything because his money was dirty,’ Ian said. He snorts. ‘Guess he didn’t figure the Feds would be all over his shit because stealing from a bunch of rich *s was worse than stealing from a scumbag mobster.’

‘Was the whole job just a cover-up for stealing from Tony?’

‘It wasn’t that personal. Except maybe—’ He stops.

‘Maybe what?’

‘He wanted to see what you could do. It was personal like that.’

My father wanted to see if it was in my genes. The stealing. I didn’t disappoint him.

‘You gave me the list of account numbers,’ I say. ‘You knew exactly who we were stealing from. Where did you get those numbers anyway?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘I think it does.’

‘I think if it did, then you would’ve asked me back then, isn’t that right? It doesn’t really matter now. That’s not our problem.’

He is right on one hand, but on the other, I do think it’s our problem. But I can also tell from the tightness of his jaw and tone of voice that I am not going to get it out of him. Not right now, anyway.

‘Tony’s looking for both of us now,’ Ian is saying. ‘Carmine’s dead, but he’ll send someone else. He wants his money. Just tell me where it is, and I’ll get it to him and we’ll leave you alone.’

‘I don’t have it. I told you.’ I pause. ‘Why does it matter anymore, anyway? I mean, Tony’s got money. However much we stole from him fifteen years ago, well, it’s probably just a drop in the bucket, right?’

He shakes his head. ‘It’s the principle, Tina. He got shown up. And then your father ripped him off. He got your father back, but now he wants you, too.’

I sigh. ‘I still don’t see—’

His eyes get darker with his anger. ‘You may think that this is some sort of game, Tina, but it’s for real. I’m asking real nice. I know you’ve been online, I know you’ve probably hidden it, but you have to tell me where it is, for both our sakes.’ I see now that his anger is laced with fear.

‘I know this isn’t a game. I have been online, that’s true, but I haven’t done anything with any money, because there isn’t any. Not anymore. I told you that. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s been going on while I’ve been here.’ I pause, then say, ‘I understand that you’re dead. That they found your body on the houseboat. You killed yourself.’

He gives a short snort. ‘I had to get away somehow. You can’t blame me, since you pulled your own disappearing act.’ He pauses. ‘You’ve been right here. All along. And no one has ever known?’