Page 199 of Buried Too Deep

“She gave me back the key, so she can’t have gotten in,” Cora said, remembering the sound of the key clanking on her kitchen table when Tandy had tossed it away. “She probably went for a walk until we got back. I’ll text her to meet me.”

Cora did so, then got out of the SUV. “I want this Kevlar off my body.”

“Cora, wait,” Val snapped, grabbing her arm. “Me first, remember?”

“Sorry,” Cora muttered. Val was right, of course.

Phin fell into step beside her, his arm around her shoulders. “Let her do her job, okay?”

“I know. I guess I’m feeling relieved because this is finally over.”

Clancy had everything he needed to charge Alan, Sage, and Patrick.

But Cora still didn’t know which one had killed her father. Both had had motive. Please don’t be Patrick. Please.

Val entered the house first, Phin holding Cora back on the porch as Val headed up the stairs to clear each room. But then Cora saw someone sitting at her kitchen table in the dark, barely visible past the foyer archway. Someone with a familiar ponytail.

“Tandy?” She pulled free of Phin’s hold and ran to her friend.

Realizing too late that Tandy’s hands were tied and her mouth was covered in tape.

Even in the semidarkness, Cora could see the helpless fear in Tandy’s eyes.

Cora went still as something cold and hard pressed against her head.

“You couldn’t let it go,” Alan Beauchamp whispered. “You just couldn’t let it go. I tried to help you. To give you something safer to investigate. But you didn’t take my help.”

Cora didn’t move a muscle. Phin was behind her somewhere, as was Val. They’re going to be so mad at me, she thought.

They’d be right. I’m so stupid.

Without moving her head, she looked to her right. A key sat on the table, shining in the dim light from the streetlamps coming in the kitchen window. That explained how Tandy had gotten in, but not how she’d gotten the key.

She’d sworn she’d made no copies, and Cora had believed her.

“What do you want?” Cora asked, her voice shaking.

“I wanted you to stop poking into things that weren’t your business. Now I want you to get me out of here.”

“Out of my house?” Cora asked.

Alan laughed, an unpleasant sound. “No, out of the country. You’re coming with me, Cora.”

“And then you’ll let me go?” she asked, knowing that he wouldn’t.

“Of course. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want out.”

Lies. All lies. “Did you kill my father?” The question was out of her mouth before she’d even planned to ask it. She winced when he shoved the gun harder into her temple.

“You have one job. That’s to get me out of town. You’re going to drive me to Mexico.”

“Why would I do that?” she asked quietly.

“Because I will kill your friend here if you don’t. Believe me.”

Tandy made a noise, muffled by the tape over her mouth.

“I believe you,” Cora said. “You’ve killed already. Medford Hughes and his wife. Minnie Edwards. Sanjay Prakash. The college kids who wrecked when you were running from Medford’s murder. How do you sleep at night?”

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