Con Artist Legacy

Chapter Nineteen: The Disguise

Chapter Nineteen: The Disguise 

The car ride back into town was a silent one; each of us lost in our own thoughts.

By the look of desire in Matthews’s eyes, I assumed he was fantasying about the treasure and what he’d do with his cut of the ‘recovery’ money. Meanwhile, I was scheming of ways to seriously delay the upcoming meeting with my grandmother or perhaps even prevent it.

“I’m hungry,” I said, at last disrupting the moment.

“Again?”

“What do you mean again? It’s lunch-time already.”  I spoke, pointing towards the red numbers on his dashboard, flashing a giant three.

It took some artful convincing on my part, but he eventually agreed to stop by the house to mooch-off some food. Everyone in the Reynaldi family took their mealtimes very seriously (especially lunch), and we wouldn’t be able to find my grandmother at home anyway…or so I led him to believe.

I could tell he wasn’t too pleased with the change in plans.  It’d been a long day of questioning random people and driving around aimlessly (mostly my fault). We’d little to show for it, and the lack of proof was obviously making him antsy.

Hopefully he’d leave soon.

Taking advantage of his already agitated state, I made some very loud phone calls to track the progress made on my uncle’s headstone. I observed as Matthews’s grip on the steering wheel tighten, and his jaw locked.

He was purposely trying to block me out now, so I rapidly typed-out a coded text message to my grandmother, warning her that I was coming and that I wasn’t alone. The little ping after the message was sent snapped Matthews from his little daydream, and he glanced over suspiciously. 

“What are you up too?”

“Playing a game,” I answered, holding my phone up to his face.

He didn’t look convinced, but it didn’t matter to me. Ignoring his gaze, I continued to play the game. Every so often, it would emit some random sound, which at least seemed to pacify him.

I smiled inwardly, having won the round. That morning, I’d noticed how carefully he still observed me, especially when he thought I wasn’t looking. Apparently his notes didn’t contain enough information, or he just didn’t trust me.

Either way, I knew I had to force him to stop paying attention long enough for me to send my message, or else the warning wouldn’t have been very effective.

And even though I’d failed at preventing a meeting with my grandmother, he’d also slipped up and he knew it. I caught him sneakily peeking at my phone periodically, but otherwise the remainder of the trip proved uneventful.

We pulled into the driveway fifteen minutes after three, and my stomach grumbled as if on cue. I hurried out of the car and rushed towards the front door.

“Half an hour, Stone.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Becks’s car was still in the driveway, so I walked through the house carefully, trying to avoid the unpleasantness of meeting him. Luckily for me, he wasn’t in the kitchen…but unfortunately my mother was. 

She sat at the kitchen counter still in her bathrobe, lazily eating some soup. I tried to ease my way out undetected, but she spotted me and waved me over. Her eyes had that crazy look about them, and I knew better than to disobey her. Resigned, I helped myself to some food from all the steaming pots before taking the stool next to her.