Page 52

CHAPTER 52

T hey ended the phone call with Miranda, then glanced at each other.

“I have a feeling if more people from her past would talk, we’d hear more stories like this,” Olive said.

“I’m inclined to agree.” Nova nodded.

“However, it’s like Jason said last night, lying itself isn’t a crime.”

“But defrauding people of money is,” Jason added.

Olive let out a deep breath. “As much as I would love to sit here and talk about this more, we only have an hour until Rebecca comes home from the hospital. I want to check out her house before she gets back.”

Jason’s eyes widened with alarm. “What do you hope to accomplish by doing that?”

“I want to see her medicine bottles. See what she’s supposedly taking. She has all this medical equipment in her home, but the truth is anybody can order a lot of that stuff online. Those pictures she posted and the videos where she has an IV hooked up to her and oxygen . . . those are all things that can be staged. And I heard she has a hospital bed in her home. That would make her ruse even easier.”

“I can block the cameras when you go inside, just in case someone is watching,” Nova said. “I’d like to do that from the hotel, however. I have other work I need to do—like continuing to look into Rebecca’s finances and running that license plate.”

“Makes sense.” Olive glanced at the time again. “I think we’ll have just enough time to drop you off and then to get me back to the house. I should be able to slip in and out pretty quickly.”

“And me?” Jason asked.

“I’ll need you to be my lookout just in case anyone comes home early.”

“I can do that.”

“Great. Then we need to get on the road.”

Olive halfway expected the motorcycle man to appear again, following them as they left this property. But he didn’t.

Still, this property had her intrigued. She wanted to know what was going on here. But now wasn’t the time to find out.

They had just enough time to drop Nova off and then get to Rebecca’s place.

Jason pulled to a stop across the street and down a few houses.

It looked like no one was home.

“Call me if you see anything suspicious,” Olive murmured.

“I will.” Jason’s voice sounded sincere and filled with concern. “Be careful.”

Her throat went dry when she realized his voice had dropped to that deeper level, the way it always did when he talked about being concerned for her.

She didn’t want to feel touched by the subtle change, but she did.

“I will be.” Her voice sounded entirely too hoarse for her comfort. She needed to keep a tighter rein on her emotions—something that always felt harder when Jason was around.

“You know how to pick the lock?”

“I do. I’m pretty good at it.” Probably because while other parents were teaching their kids to do laundry or properly wash dishes, her dad was teaching her how to pick locks. Said it might be a good skill to have one day.

And now here she was.

Like father, like daughter.

Just like the note that she’d found on her old house said.

With one more glance at Jason, she hurried across the street. In thirty seconds, she’d let herself into the house and closed the door.

She was nearly certain no one had seen her.

Olive paused just inside the door and glanced around the home. She needed to find that medicine, take a picture of the bottles, and get out of here.

She hurried through the living room, searching as she walked for any medicine bottles. She hadn’t seen any medicine bottles in this room when they did the interview.

She paused in the kitchen and quickly searched the cabinets.

She still didn’t see any medicine.

Next, she headed to Rebecca’s bedroom.

When she stepped into the room, she paused. A hospital bed was shoved into the corner, and a regular king-sized bed filled the middle of the space.

Olive supposed that wasn’t suspicious within itself. But if this disease was fake, then Rebecca truly had gone to the extreme.

Snapping from her thoughts, she headed to the dresser.

Sure enough, uncountable orange and white medicine bottles stood like a miniature city there.

Working as quickly as possible, Olive began to take pictures with her phone.

Just as she snapped the last one, her phone buzzed.

She glanced at the screen and saw a text from Jason:

Someone just pulled into the driveway and is heading inside. Get out now.