“Tell her to stay in the car,” I yelled back, gesturing at Miranda as I drew my gun.
He yelled something to her and produced his own gun.
I sprinted up the walk and saw a light on through the front window. I felt Carter right on my heels.
I hit the front door with my shoulder at full speed, and it collapsed like cardboard. I went down with it and somersaulted into the living room.
There was a clatter in the kitchen, and when I looked up, Carolina was aiming her own gun at us.
FORTY-EIGHT
“Noah?” Carolina said, lowering the gun and looking at us like we’d lost our minds. “Carter? What are you doing?”
I got to my feet, the blood pulsing in my ears, and scanned the room. Everything looked fine.
“I’m not sure, Ms. B.,” Carter said, his gun still up. “Noah told me to meet him here. I followed him in.”
I kept my gun level, moving it back and forth. “You didn’t answer your phone.”
“I ran to the store,” she said, bewildered. “Noah, what is going on?”
I moved into the back of the house and checked the other rooms.
Was Keene screwing with me?
“He wasn’t here?” I asked when I came back out.
“Who?” Carolina asked, still looking at me like I was crazy.
“Keene.”
She blinked several times. “No. I was home all day. I ran to the store to get eggs. I haven’t seen him.”
“Did he call you?” I said, hearing the frustration in my voice. “No. There was nothing on the machine.”
Keene had made a point of mentioning Carolina at the airport. He wanted me to know he was watching me.
He knew every move I was making. Every place I’d been. Every person I’d talked to.
He’d used Carolina’s name. He hadn’t used Liz’s. But he knew.
FORTY-NINE
“Wellton!” I screamed into the phone as Carter and I flew down the freeway in his car. We’d left Miranda with my mother. “Tell me you know where she is.”
I’d called her home and her cell and the station. She was nowhere to be found. Wellton was my last shot.
“Braddock?” he said, confused. “What the hell—”
“Liz! Is she with you?”
“No, man. Haven’t seen her since this afternoon. She said—” “Get someone to her house! Now!”
“What’s going on?” he said, his tone sharper now, on alert.
“Just do it! Please.”
“I’m on it,” he said and clicked off.
I clutched the phone, feeling like it could shatter against the bones in my hand.
“Come on, come on,” I said, rocking back and forth in the passenger seat.
We were halfway over the bridge now, and Carter was doing ninety.
“She can handle herself, Noah,” he said, laying on the horn as we came up on the bumper of a truck. The truck moved over quickly, and Carter accelerated. “She’s a cop.”
“Why didn’t she answer?” I asked. “Why? Fuck!”
We came to the bottom of the bridge, and he swung the huge car to the right, the rear fishtailing behind us.
“Your mom was at the store,” he said, not sounding confident. “Maybe she’s out.”
His argument was rational. She could have been out anywhere without her phone. A five-minute trip to the store or the beach.
But it didn’t feel right.
He hit the brakes, and I was out of the car before it stopped in front of her place, tumbling to the wet street, the rain stinging my face. I jumped up and ran to the house.
No lights.
I hit her door the same way I’d hit Carolina’s and pain radiated through my shoulder. Liz’s much heavier door fought me a little more, but landed on the floor with a thud, and I stumbled in on top of it.
