AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Simon looked up from his phone. “Is something wrong, Uncle Hez?”
Hez gestured at the monitor on his desk. “They somehow got into my computer and deleted everything I had on your mom’s case, plus a bunch of other stuff.”
“Does your phone unlock with facial recognition?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have remote access for your computer?”
“Yes.”
“And you let your phone remember your passwords?”
“Yes.”
“Then all they had to do was hold your phone up to your face to unlock it and they could get into everything, right? From there they could wipe everything, including your iCloud backup.”
“Yep.” Hez nodded slowly as he thought it through. “You’re a smart kid, Simon.”
The boy smiled at the compliment. “One of my mates used that trick to get into his mum’s Amazon account. He nicked her phone while she was taking a nap, put it in front of her face, and ordered a VR headset for himself at school. We all had great fun with it until she got the bill.”
Hez chuckled. “She must’ve been furious.”
Simon nodded. “She took away his phone, his Switch, and his tablet. She even made the poor bloke wear one of those GPS trackers—the kind people put on dogs—for the rest of the term so she knew where he was every second, even when he went to the loo.”
“Here in the States, we might call that ‘cruel and unusual punishment’—though after last night, I can think of someone who could use one of those trackers.”
Simon looked at his shoes. “I just . . . I want to help.”
“Which is the exact opposite of what you did yesterday. Aunt Savannah said you’d be the death of her, and that was almost literally true last night. I’m surprised any of us woke up this morning.”
Simon’s reply was barely audible. “I know.”
“We’ll involve you whenever it’s safe, but you have to trust us.” Hez stood, drawing a warning tweak from his head. “Speaking of which, let’s take a little walk. There’s something I want to check.”
The crisp air cleared Hez’s head a little, and he enjoyed Simon’s inquisitive chatter as they walked across campus. The one positive result of his nephew’s penchant for running away was that there was no longer much point in keeping him hidden. He had already introduced himself to everyone who might want to harm him or use him for leverage. So there was no longer any reason not to show the boy the buildings named after his ancestors or spend a few minutes watching football practice, which Simon found fascinating, especially since Will Dixon was on the field.
Half an hour later, they arrived at their destination: the history department warehouse. Hez opened the door, using his university key card, and took Simon back to the room housing the Willard Treasure. As he’d expected, the extra boxes from Savannah’s pictures were gone. He checked the security log and found that someone had entered the warehouse overnight using her key card.
The pieces finally fell into place. He sighed and turned to Simon. “I know why we’re alive, kid.”
Simon frowned up at him. “What do you mean?”
“Beckett and his friends didn’t have to kill us to keep us quiet. All they needed to do was get rid of the evidence we’d discovered. Once they did that, killing us would have been counterproductive because it would have gotten the police involved, and honest officers might have been assigned to the case. As things stand now, all we have is a wild and completely unprovable story. After last night, we don’t have a single shred of evidence that Beckett, your dad, or any of their friends broke a single law. It was the perfect crime.”
And Beckett had the perfect patsy for his murders. If Hez didn’t come up with some new evidence soon, Jess would spend the rest of her life behind bars—if she was lucky. If she wasn’t, Hez would be defending his first death penalty appeal.
* * *
Savannah stood and examined the ground around her family grave plot. Last night had been terrifying, and she was still trying to wrap her head around what happened. They’d awakened in the old part of the Legare cemetery. There had to be a reason they’d been dropped here. She hadn’t been able to sleep after they’d walked back, and coming to the cemetery again only ratcheted up her tension. Even the trees rustling overhead and the soothing sound of a wind chime a few graves over grated on her raw nerves.
She’d left Simon with Hez. If anything had happened to him yesterday, it would have been her fault. He was her responsibility, and she knew he had a habit of running into danger, but she had somehow let him escape. Again. She shuddered at the thought of living with that kind of guilt. Hez had carried that weight, and she hadn’t lifted a finger to help him.
The more she saw of the new Hez, the more she regretted signing those divorce papers. He seemed settled and content about it, but something inside her soul shriveled at the thought of going through with it. She’d rationalized what she thought was best instead of asking God what she should do. And he was impressing the need for truth on her heart.
What would Hez say if she told him she’d changed her mind? And how did she even bring it up?
The crunch of feet on the oyster-shell pathway alerted her, and she turned to see Beckett approaching. She refused to show fear and stood to face him. What was he doing here, of all places? She said nothing as he walked toward her.
