Page 140 of The Five Year Lie

“Oh, damn.” Woody’s face falls. “All right. Time for a family vacation. It’s high season, but we can probably still find you a cottage in the UP. Or somewhere else remote where you can hide for a few weeks.”

“But then what?” I have to ask. “We can’t just hide forever.” They both turn and stare at me, and I realize that’s exactly whatDrew’s been doing. For years. “It’s no life for a child,” I say slowly. “We have to end this.”

Drew—no, Jay turns to me with soft eyes. “I know, baby. But Zarkey and your uncle are in bed with a lot of law enforcement. So we need a strategy that’stight. Which means I need some time to strategize.”

“Oh.”

“But wewillend this. I thought I couldn’t throw Ray under the bus, because...” He stops.

“Because why?” I ask. “You could have blown the whole company up from a safe distance. But you didn’t.”

“I didn’t,” he repeats, his serious gaze fixed on me. “You’re right.”

“Was that because you thought Ray would come for you?”

“Something like that.” He rubs the back of his neck, and I wait for him to explain further.

But he doesn’t. “Like what?” I press.

He shrugs. “I didn’t make it out of Maine with the evidence I needed. And a halfway accusation wasn’t going to be enough.”

That isn’t a very satisfying answer. But that’s all he gives me.

There are plans to make, so we offer Buzz a movie on Jay’s TV.

Tickled at meeting a man named Woody, he picksToy Story. “You guys could watch it with me.”

When Jay answers, his expression is as sad as I’ve ever seen it. “Someday we’ll watch all four of them in a row,” he says. “But we have some work to do now, okay?”

Buzz is asleep in front of the TV not fifteen minutes later.

Woody and Jay bring a laptop out onto the porch. “So how’d you find us?” Woody asks me. “I thought our tracks were buried pretty deep.”

“They are. But Iguessed. His old computer password was Harrietta. And I’d heard all about his best friend in Michigan.”

Woody laughs, shaking his head. “You are terrifying. In a good way. I hope the bad guys don’t put that together.”

“I’m worried that they can,” Jay says quietly. “It’s possible that Ray—or Zarkey—knows exactly where I am. They might have known for years. Let’s not be sitting ducks if they decide I need to be silenced. We’re going to have to rig up the perimeter.”

Woody nods sagely. “Let’s get to it.”

For two hours, I watch the two men hang motion sensors and cameras around the edges of the property. Jay owns three acres that he bought off Woody—whose real name is David Carter.

“You’ve done this before?” I ask, as they cooperate with nothing more than the odd word or grunt.

“Yeah,” Jay says, unspooling an extension cord.

“I can’t believe—after all you’ve seen—thatcamerasare your big solution.”

“Rich, isn’t it?” The beard alters his smile, but the blue eyes are exactly how I remember them. “Except I don’t use cloud cameras. My data stays on my network. And usually we’re only violating the privacy of a white-tailed deer.”

When Buzz wakes up from his impromptu nap and comes outside to investigate, that’s exactly what Jay tells him—that they’re setting up wildlife cameras. “If we’re lucky, we’ll see a bear,” he says. Then he reaches down and puts one hand on Buzz’s head, stroking his soft hair.

I can’t look away. Watching them together makes me ache. I never thought I’d see this. I never even dared to hope.

“Is it almost dinnertime?” Buzz asks suddenly, snapping me out of my reverie.

“Sure, baby. Soon.”