Chapter 16: Dev's Truck

Sawyer's POV

Lorna was waiting in the yard lot at six in the morning with two coffees and no makeup on.

"He sleeps on a boat at Lakeview," she said. "A thirty-foot cabin cruiser he rents by the week. I know the slip."

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because I'd like one thing about my brother to be a surprise."

I did not laugh, but I took the coffee.

I had left Stevie asleep in the cabin with a note on the pillow.

*Gone to see about the slips. Back for Poppy at ten. Don't open the door to anyone but me.*

She would be angry about the last line.

I had decided I could live with that.

The Lakeview marina was twelve minutes down the shore, on the far side of the breakwater.

The boat was called the Second Wind.

Dev sat in the cockpit in a bathrobe, drinking from a mug.

He saw us come down the dock and raised it.

"Family reunion."

"Get inside," I said.

"I like it fine out here."

Lorna went past me and stepped over the rail onto his deck.

She put out her hand, palm up.

"The envelope, Dev."

"What envelope?"

"The one you keep wherever you keep the money. Give it to me, or I tell the sheriff where the ninety thousand went."

"You took it too."

"Then it's a short story, and I'll tell it well."

He looked at her, and for the first time I saw him weigh it.

He went below.

He came back up with a bank envelope, soft at the corners, and held it against his chest.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Five Years Gone, She Walked Back In, So I Walked Out from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.