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TWENTY-SIX

The next morning, I rent a car.

Even though I told her she didn’t have to, Wendy gave me the cash value of the rental, but I’ll be using my credit card to rent the car. I don’t want this rental to be connected to her in any way.

Of course, there’s a reasonable chance that Douglas Garrick will suspect that I have something to do with his wife’s disappearance. But I will never, ever give her away. Even if he tortures me, which I honestly wouldn’t put past him. A man who could do that to his wife’s face is capable of anything.

“Hello, welcome to Happy Car Rental,” a girl at the front desk chirps, who doesn’t look old enough to rent a car herself. “How can I help you?”

“I reserved a gray Ford Focus,” I tell her. “I put in the reservation online.”

The girl types my information into the computer while I drum my fingers on the desk. As I stand at the counter, I can’t help but notice a prickly feeling in the back of my neck. Like somebody’s watching me. Again.

I turn around. The store front of the rental car place is all picture windows from ground to ceiling, so somebody could easily be looking in. I almost expect to see a man with his face pressed against the glass, staring at me. But there’s nobody.

I shiver involuntarily. According to Mrs. Randall, Xavier Marin is in jail. No bail, she told me—she’s evicted him. So why do I still get the sensation like somebody’s watching me? And this isn’t the first time. I have felt this way at least half a dozen times since Xavier was arrested.

The truth is, I don’t know who has been watching me all this time. What if it really is Douglas Garrick who has been following me around town? It doesn’t quite make sense, because I felt these eyes behind me even before I started working for him. But I can’t discount the possibility. He’s the one I saw when I was at that outdoor restaurant.

What if Douglas knows exactly what we’re up to? What if he’s out there, watching ?

“So I’ve got your car,” the girl says. “It’s the red Hyundai.”

“No,” I say impatiently. “I put in a reservation for a gray Ford Focus.” Being anonymous and not drawing attention to ourselves is key. I learned that from Enzo.

“I don’t know what to tell you. It says red Hyundai here. We don’t have a gray Ford Focus in our inventory right now.”

“This is unbelievable. I put in a reservation, and you don’t even have the thing I reserved?”

She shrugs helplessly. This isn’t even the first time this has happened to me. What is the point of placing a reservation if they just give away the thing you reserved? “I don’t want a red car,” I say tightly. “How about a gray Hyundai?”

She shakes her head. “We’re low on sedans. I can rent you a gray Honda CRV.”

I spend a moment debating whether an SUV would stand out more than a red sedan. Finally, I agree to the red Hyundai. Truthfully, I just want to get out of here. The purpose of this trip is to get Wendy out of town, but I don’t think it would be so bad getting out of town myself.