Page 94 of All the Little Truths

As if that hadn’t been enough, then came the call from the hospital, and with the case rushing toward a crescendo, this was just too much. Still, her neighbor was ill and likely not thinking clearly. She didn’t need Finley bursting in all pissed off. She took a breath and ordered herself to calm.

Finley studied the car in her neighbor’s driveway as she grew closer. Dark, almost black.Charcoal.

Like her father’s.

Finley froze midstep.

But why would her father’s car be here? She glanced back at her house. Had Matt asked him to stop by and check on the dog for some reason?

Surely not. The idea made no sense.

She started forward once more. The Lexus insignia confirmed the model was the same as her father’s. No denying the possibility any longer. Then again, her father wasn’t the only one who drove a charcoal Lexus. She paused at the passenger side window and cupped her hands around her eyes to peer inside.

The cup phone gadget she’d gotten him for his cell phone Christmas before last was in the console. The slim briefcase he carried lay on the passenger seat.

Her heart dropped into the vicinity of her feet.

Disbelief rushed through her. Why would her father be here?

The abrupt grind of an overhead door opening drew her attention to the detached garage. On instinct, Finley hunkered down far enough for the Lexus to conceal her presence. She watched through the windows as the old Buick sputtered and then lurched out of the garage, coming to a hard stop in front of the Lexus.

Feeling as if she were watching a movie, Finley stared at the scene. The driver’s side door opened, and a gray head rose above the roof of the vehicle. The man straightened to his full height and closed the door.

Dad.

Finley’s jaw dropped. No matter that she knew the Lexus was his ... to see him ... here ... was wrong somehow.

“This is not a very good idea,” he said, looking toward the open garage.

Finley blinked, shifted her gaze to the garage, beyond the open overhead door.

Her neighbor, dressed in the jeans and mustard-colored sweatshirt she’d been wearing when Finley found her facedown in her yard, stood there as barefoot as the day she was born.

What the hell were they doing? And where, for the love of God, were her shoes?

Roberts said something Finley didn’t catch, and her father hurried into the garage, and the door promptly started to lower. He hadn’t turned around. Hadn’t noticed Finley. Neither had Roberts. Of course they wouldn’t. She was well hidden.

What. In. The. Hell?

The door closed fully.

Finley straightened and walked closer, her movements feeling oddly jerky. Her heart pounded harder with each step. This was wrong on so many levels. She paused at the side walk-through door. She had gone in that way only once. There was a key. All she had to do was go to the house and get it. But what would she say when she confronted her father?

Reminding herself to breathe, Finley took a moment to consider the question. This was her father—a man she loved, respected ... this could not be as bad as it looked. Then there was her neighbor, a woman who had saved Finley’s life on perhaps more than one occasion.

But they were both lying about ... so damned many things!

As if rising from a fog, Finley suddenly became aware of the dog barking inside the house. She glanced that way. Had she heard the arrival of a vehicle? Or the garage door opening? Maybe she wanted out or fed ...

Ignoring the barking dog, Finley crossed the yard and got the key from beneath the concrete turtle in the flower bed by the front porch. She and Matt had decided to use the hiding place so that whoever arrived home first would have access to the key.

Bracing for Spot’s attempts to escape, Finley unlocked the back door but only opened it far enough to reach inside and get the garage key. The little fur ball stuck her head out, but Finley scooted her back inside with her foot. Once she had the door closed again, she hurried back to the garage. Breathless and hands shaking, she pressed her ear there and listened. No sound on the other side. What were they doing in there? There were no boxes or any damned thing else in the building.

The bigger question was why move the car?

Was something hidden under the car? Something her neighbor needed badly enough to run away from the hospital without proper authorization? Ridiculous. There had to be some other reason. But why would she call Finley’s father to bring her home? Had she made him believe she had been released just to get a ride?

How did she even know Finley’s father?

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