Page 29 of 3rd Tango
“You ready?” Matt asks from behind the wheel of my minivan.
My parents’ street is dark, lit only by the quaint lamps that sporadically dot the parkways. Zero traffic from either direction.
Before tonight, I hadn’t realized it was an absolute welcoming committee for burglars—or worse. After we complete this, I’m writing a letter to the town council insisting on better lighting. Our parents are getting older and although Cedarwood Cove is safe, you never know.
From the passenger seat, a line of pricklies marches straight up my neck. What the hell am I doing? This was my idea, one I was excited about, but I’ve had all day to consider it and too much thinking tends to make me squirrelly. I’m an artist for God’s sakes and I’m about to commit a felony.
Sure, it’s only a fourth degree in Maryland—I checked—but it could earn us three years and I have no intention of becoming someone’s prison bitch. That, I couldn’t handle.
Charlie?
She’d carve someone’s eye out with a toilet paper shiv and become boss.
Me?
Toast.
When I don’t answer, Matt glances at me. “Meg?”
I nod. “As much as I can be, I guess. Charlie?”
“Yep.”
Of course she is. She’s always ready.
Matt eases up on the gas pedal as he nears the corner. “I’ll drop you here and circle the block.” He points out the windshield. “I’ll park in front of that house.”
The Jenkinsons’ home.
“That’s good,” Charlie responds. “They’re old and go to bed at nine. You won’t have any pain in the ass nosey-bodies wondering what you’re doing.”
“Well, aside from Mom,” I add because she loves nothing more than sitting in her front window at night and spying on her quirky neighbor.
“Don’t worry about her,” Charlie says as if she’s reading a damned grocery list. “I told her if she saw anything suspicious at Gayle’s not to call the cops.”
I whip around and gawk at my sister. “You told her?”
“Uh, yeah.”
The holier-than-thou voice. Excellent.
“Hey.” She waggles her hand. “You know how she is. If she saw anything, she’d call 911, then we’d all have to explain why we’re breaking into our neighbor’s garage. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
I see the logic, but…Mom? Really? “I thought she had a migraine.”
“She did. She slept all day and feels better.”
Which meant, she’d be up half the night trying to get her cycle back on track. And when Mom couldn’t sleep, she got busy.
Watching Gayle.
“Damn.”
Charlie, always one to relish being right, tugs her black skull cap over her head, tucking her ponytail up inside it. “You can thank me later when the cops don’t throw us in the clink.”
Oh, ha, ha.
In front of the Jenkinsons’, Matt pulls to the side of the road. “Go. Make it fast. No snooping around. Both cars are in the driveway. They’re probably sleeping.” He glances toward the house. “The place isn’t that big and it’s old. Paper thin walls probably. If you’re in there too long, they’ll hear you.”
