Page 25 of Little Buried Secrets

“When you realized the shoe you found was Margot’s … well, first off, you should have left it there. You’ve tainted a potential crime scene. And second, why didn’t you call the police to report your findings?”

He crossed his arms and sighed. “Call them and say what? I’m out here by myself with no alibi, and I just so happened to find my ex-girlfriend’s shoe. Do you think they would buy it? I wouldn’t if I were them.”

His response seemed a bit suspicious to me, and based on the look on Giovanni’s face, he agreed.

If Sebastian had nothing to hide, admitting he’d found Margot’s shoe wouldn’t matter.

“What was your plan?” I asked. “Were you going to take the shoe home and not tell anyone about it?”

He threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know. I don’t have a plan. I should have called the cops, okay?”

“You do realize it’s too late now, right?” I said. “I’ll have to call it in.”

“Fine, call it in. You can tell them you found it. There’s no reason to involve me.”

“Not happening. You are involved.”

“Who cares who found it? What difference does it make?”

The kid had a lot to learn about how things worked—about how I worked.

“It’s better to be honest from the start,” I said.

He wiped his nose and said, “I guess you’re okay if they arrest me, then? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“What makes you think you’ll be arrested?”

“Aside from the bike they found, the shoe is the only other evidence they’ll have. They’ll lock me up. I know they will.”

“As long as you’re telling the truth, you have nothing to worry about,” I said.

“You don’t know that.”

Except I did.

His parents were loaded. If Foley so much as hinted about arresting Sebastian, his parents would make plenty of noise.

“I’m sure your parents have a great lawyer,” I said.

“They do.”

“Is there anything else I need to know, anything at all?” I asked. “If there is, now’s the time to tell me.”

“I’ve answered all of your questions, haven’t I?”

“You answered my questions because you had no other choice.”

He shot a glance at Giovanni and said, “Yeah … well, your bodyguard threatened me.”

Giovanni tipped his head back and laughed. “Bodyguard to the famous Detective Georgiana Germaine. It has a nice ring to it.”

I shook my head and slipped my backpack off my shoulder. I unzipped it and riffled inside for a pair of gloves and a large Ziploc bag. Doing what I could not to touch more of the shoe than I had to, I dropped it inside the bag and slipped it into my backpack. Then I turned toward Sebastian, offering him my hand.

“Come on,” I said. “It’s time for you to show us where you found the shoe.”

CHAPTER 11

Given Sebastian’s trip-and-fall over the log earlier, I wasn’t sure how well he’d be able to walk. It turned out he was fine. Just a few minor scrapes and a potential bruise that would manifest later. He’d found Margot’s tennis shoe beside a large boulder nestled beneath a grove of towering pine trees. As I walked around the boulder, I called Foley, telling him what had been found and where we were. I used my phone to drop him a pin to our exact location, and while we were on the call, he rounded up Whitlock and a couple of others and said he’d be on his way in no time.

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