Page 137 of A Forgotten Mistake

“Who is answering his call? Dammit,” he grumbles as he rushes up to the car. The closer he gets, the more Liam sinks until I can’t even see him through the front windshield.

“Liam! I know you’re in the car!” Michaels shouts. People are looking at us while Michaels beats on Liam’s window.

We’re close enough now that I can hear Liam talking. “Hi, is this the police? There’s a bald man outside of my car who is threatening my life. Please send help as soon as possible,” Liam says as Michaels gives him an exasperated look. “I repeat, bald and angry. My life is at risk. The love of my life is outside of the vehicle with the man. Please advise.”

I’m trying my hardest not to grin as I question how Liam is able to keep his job.

Michaels is jabbing his finger into the window now, which can’t be pleasant. “Hang up! You better hang up that phone!”

“You won’t help me because you’re afraid of being fired? You would let mediejust so you could keep your job? See if I ever let my Gabriel share a pie with you again,” Liam says.

I look in to where the man of my dreams has crammed himself on the floor as he eyes a glowering Michaels who is peering through the window. I grab for the door handle, but it’s clearly locked.

“Liam, let me in so we can go home,” I say. “Like good boys, just as Michaels asked.”

He timidly reaches up to unlock the door so I can get in.

“Gabriel, get in the car quickly. Don’t look at him. He can’t hurt you if you don’t look at him,” Liam tells me as I get in.

He quickly climbs off the floor and gets in his seat. “Michaels, it was a true pleasure. Let me know what you find because I will be at home in my bed, most likely naked because I sleep in the nude. Gabriel will be wrapped around me like a koala bear ina tree. Preferably also naked. Michaels, where are you going? I was getting to the good part! And he’s gone. Do you think he fell for it?”

“Do I think he believes you’re not going to show up somewhere he explicitly told you not to? No… no I don’t,” I say.

“Damn. Well, I tried.”

He grins at me before he stares at his phone. “Now I just have to find someone willing to cough up the location. We’ll give them a little bit and try again.”

Liam waits long enough that Michaels should have alerted others of the location before giving Robinson a call. “Robinson, my friend. My buddy, my pal who wants to keep his job and not go to prison for assaulting my dearly beloved Gabriel.”

“It’s off in Wester Swamp. They’re parking at the east exit near the butterfly trail,” Robinson blurts out.

“You really are the best man ever to blackmail,” Liam says with a pleased look before hanging up. “Gabriel, when we get to the scene, you’re going to put the idea in someone’s head that the rock near the tree looks odd. There are some markings in the tree—scratches. Don’t find it yourself; get someone else to identify it so no one questions whether I directed you to it. Got it?”

“Okay,” I say. “What’s there?”

“A box that will destroy Abby’s story. We’ll give them a little time to get digging. Are you hungry?”

“Not in the slightest. I’m in a state of anxious turmoil,” I whine.

“You know what will fix that? Ice cream,” Liam says as he reaches over and takes my hand. He gives it such a gentle squeeze. “It’s all going to be fine. I promise.”

I’m not so certain. “If it’s not… what do we do? Will you run? Please run.”

“They’re not going to find anything that points to me, so you don’t even have to worry. Let’s get you some ice cream that will wash awayallllllof your worries. And then I’ll take you to show you my beautiful masterpiece.”

When we arrive at the swamp, the area is bustling with police activity… just as Robinson had informed us. The only issue is that Michaels is there with his arms folded. He’s already pointing at Liam and cursing him before we even put the car in park. I pop out of the car, and since he’s so fixated on pinning Liam down with a stare, he seems okay to let me go even if he won’t let Liam out. Leaving Liam to Michaels’ torture, I follow the path to the scene and find the crew already hard at work excavating the spot. We had waited until we were confident they were well underway to even make an appearance, aware we wouldn’t be allowed to hang around for long before Michaels shooed Liam off.

I walk over as someone alerts the rest that they’ve found something in the hole they’ve dug in the spot Abby had directed them to.

I hesitate because didn’t Liam say he moved the body? What could be there to find?

Walking closer, I see them documenting some fabric they dug up. It wasn’t buried very deep, but deep enough that erosion hadn’t disturbed it. Liam hadn’t warned me about that, but maybe he forgot because he’d been so fixated on the box?

I look around the scene, but there are a lot of rocks, aren’t there? How the hell am I supposed to decipher which one? I look for the tree with markings, but there are also a lot of trees.

No, no, this is Liam. If he set this up, he’d want to make it easy enough to identify, but not too easy. So what’s different about the rocks?

I look at each of them until I find that the wear on one is not quite right.

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