She’d gotten into the habit of trying to leave one outfit for the weekend or work in case she decided to stay last minute.
“I’m hungry,” Adele said.
Crap, it was way past dinner. “Why don’t we go get some food. It’s too late to cook and I’m not sure there is anything we can do tonight.”
“Probably not,” she said.
“Do what?” Adele asked.
“Nothing,” he said, not wanting his daughter to know what was going on.
They’d gone to dinner, then went back to his place, got ready for bed and hadn’t heard a word all night. When they were in bed, Ava asked, “Do you think they will get her?”
“I don’t see why not unless she is running. Colleen didn’t seem to think that since she said she’d talked to her the other day.”
“I can’t believe if she did this if she is that cocky to stay in the area and not think she’d be caught.”
“Who knows what goes through people’s heads,” he said.
“You’re right. I’m exhausted though. Let’s try to get some sleep.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her, the two of them drifting off.
The next morning Ava was drinking her coffee when her phone went off with a text. It was Jarrett asking if she could talk, so she called him right away. “What do you have?” she asked.
“The State Police just arrived at Tracy’s apartment for questioning. She crumbled pretty fast and said she did it.”
“You’re kidding me,” she said. “That easy? Did she say why?”
“No. After she said she did it, she then wanted a lawyer when they arrested her. It was almost like she didn’t think it was going to happen. She’s not talking.”
“Oh, she’ll talk,” Ava said. “I’m going there to find out why she did this.”
She hung up the phone and told Seth. “I’m going with you.”
“Where are we going?” Adele asked when she came into the kitchen rubbing sleep from her eyes.
“You’re going to school,” Seth said.
She caught his look and knew to drop it, but she wasn’t waiting for a ferry either and made a call to Eli’s brother Egan to see if she could get a flight to Cape Cod. Unfortunately, once she hung up with him, she realized it wasn’t going to work.
“That was worth a shot, but we could get over quicker on the ferry than waiting for Egan to be available and then getting a car.”
“Excuse me if I’m trying not to laugh that you can just call up a helicopter when you want.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ve never done that before and this isn’t an emergency. If we were going to Boston, it would have been easier. There are cars there we could use at any given point and that is where Egan is going this morning.”
“Cars?” he asked.
“Never mind. There is so much you don’t know about the family, but I’ll fill you in later. Just know when it’s needed everyone is there for the other.”
“So I’m starting to realize.”
Three hours later, Adele was at school, and she and Seth were walking into the State Police barracks where Tracy was being held. Having to wait for the ferry and then drive had been a pain, but that was life on the island.
Tracy was asked if she’d be willing to talk to Ava and agreed. Her attorney had advised that Ava might be a help in a plea case since she was the victim.
“How many people did you do this to?” she asked right away.
Tracy’s eyes were red from crying, but where she felt sympathy for Colleen, she felt none for the woman that tried to ruin her life.
“No one else. Just you.”
“Why me?” she asked. “What did I ever do to you?”
“Nothing,” Tracy said. “That’s the point. You never wanted to do anything with me when I asked. You were friendly but never wanted to be friends.”
That was what this was about? “I don’t hang out with anyone in the office.”
“Because you’re better than everyone else.”
“I’ve never said or thought that,” she argued.
“You don’t have to say it. It’s just assumed that all Bonds feel it. Proof is the fact that your life didn’t stop from what happened. You still got a nice house, a job. You’re living your life like nothing happened.”
“Not because I think I’m better than anyone else,” she said. “My family has been there to support me.” Then she realized she didn’t have to explain anything to Tracy. To anyone.
“Forty thousand is nothing to someone like you. You were getting it wiped away. I just wanted to be like you. I wanted to know what it was like to have money like that. To do what I wanted. Then I got fired and it ended up being a need more than a want.”
“A need?” she said. “But your purchases didn’t make sense. They were all over the place.”
“I bought anything I could to not have it tracked. Then I sold it on eBay. No one could trace it that way.”
“But you made one mistake,” Ava said. “Your greed kept those cards local. You didn’t think that my family would support me and thought that amount of money was nothing to me, but what you did was wrong every day of the week and we wouldn’t stop for that reason alone.”
“They said Colleen threw me under the bus,” Tracy said. “I thought she was my friend.”
“She didn’t throw you under the bus. She did not want to be charged for your crime,” Ava said. There was no use talking to this woman. “I’m done. I can move on now, but can you?”
“My lawyer said you can help reduce a sentence for me,” Tracy said.
“No. You made your bed. You can lie in it.”
Ava turned and walked out, found Seth where he’d been waiting for her and then told him everything that transpired. “Am I an awful person saying that to her?”
“No,” he said. “You aren’t. You did the same thing I would have.
