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BEN WAS THROUGH THE door in an instant. “She’s doing it, then? We’re doing it?”
My phone buzzed with a new message from Cass. “clean the gun down. acetone. no prints.”
“Yes,” I said. And, “Acetone?”
“Nail polish remover. Like strong alcohol.”
“Got any?”
He shook his head.
I sighed. “I know where I can get some.”
“Your mom?”
“Yeah. I should have time to pop over and get it. Hang on!” I ran down to the car and rummaged in the passenger floorboard until I found the dirty sock with a gun in it, then back up the stairs with barely a gasp for air.
I took it to the kitchenette and peeled the sock off. The gun was so much heavier than it looked! The blood spatter had mostly been absorbed by the sock, but the stain left behind was dark brown against black metal.
I worked the slide like in movies and saw a bullet ready in the chamber. That made me nervous. I looked at Ben. “Do you know how to unload one of these?”
“Umm... kinda.”
“Figure it out. I’ll leave this with you and go get the nail polish remover. Take out all the bullets, including the one in the chamber.”
He held up a hand. “Won’t that... umm... leave the action locked open? So the bad guy can tell?”
“Will it?” I frowned.
He shrugged. “I think so. They’re always making lists of facts like that that writers need to know.”
“So? What’s the fact?”
He thought for a moment, then said, “I’ll look it up while you’re gone. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out.”
I worried a little. We were in way over our heads. But what else could we do? I ran down to my car and headed to the good part of town.
Tuesday night, Mom and Dad would either be at dinner (probably Outback Steakhouse) or up at the church. Tuesdays were always when Dad taught a community Greek class, so Mom always had something going on, too. A quilting group or the Breadmakers or somebody’s essential oils party.
The further north I drove, the more conspicuous I felt in my busted car. As I turned into my parents’ neighborhood, I felt the security cameras at the front gate tracking me. I felt every Ring doorbell watching me like a nosy neighbor. I could hear the suspicious, judgy posts going up on Next Door.
My parents would definitely find out I’d been here. With any luck, though, I hoped to be in and out and out on bail before they learned the details. No need to tangle them up in it.
I let myself in the front door and called out just in case. “Mom? Dad? Y ‘all here?” I headed for their bathroom.
But Dad stuck his head out the door to his room. “Sure, son. Need something?”
“I—” I froze. I didn’t have a plan for this.
He frowned, concerned, and came out to face me. “What’s wrong, Dave?”
“Why aren’t you at church? Don’t you have Greek class?”
He shook his head. “Canceled.”
“COVID?”
He nodded. “Brother Dantley’s mom had symptoms last week, and you know he takes her groceries every Thursday, and there aren’t any tests available here yet, so....”
“Out of an abundance of caution?” I guessed.
“Exactly. Elders are canceling almost everything.”
“And that’s good, right?”
He shrugged. “What’s it going to accomplish?”
I blinked, surprised, and he noticed. He focused on me. “What brings you here?”
“I need some nail polish remover. I can’t really answer questions, though.”
“That’s about the most suspicious thing you could have said.”
“I know, I just...”
He came down the hall, arms out, and pulled me into a big hug like I was still a little kid. It caught me unprepared.
“Dad...” I said, a sudden lump in my throat.
I needed to tell him everything. I needed to come clean and get his advice. We could figure this all out together.
But he got a glimpse past me out the door. “Hey, Dave? What the heck happened to my Toyota?”