Disco Bomb

Chapter 4

May 11th, 2017. 10:00 PM

I figured that the best way to get Jack's attention was to go over to his apartment and talk to him in person, both because I wanted to see him and because my phone screen cracked. I'd spent almost a month living with him in his apartment, and I'd kept the spare key he gave me. My only worry was that he could be sleeping and I'd have to wake him up.

When I got there, the lights were off. His neighbor, a man in his late forties whom I discovered tended to keep to himself, gave me a frown when I opened the apartment door. "Didn't you move out?"

"Yes."

"He's not in there."

"He'll probably be back soon. I'll wait as long as it takes." I closed the door behind me and turned on the lights. The apartment looked almost exactly the same as it had the last time I'd seen it, except for the absence of my stuff and the addition of a new picture on the wall.

I sat down on the second bed in the bedroom, the one I'd used when I moved in. The day's events suddenly weighed down on me, including how little sleep I'd gotten last night. It wouldn't hurt to take a quick nap while I was waiting.



"Wake up."

I yawned and buried my face in the pillow, cursing my stupid alarm clock. All I needed was five more minutes of sleep. Five more. I hardly registered my clock suddenly adapting a familiar male voice.

"Good morning, beautiful."

I jolted awake and sat up straight as if I'd been struck by lightning. It took me a minute to realize that I wasn't in my own house, but in Jack's apartment. "What?!"

Jack laughed from the kitchen. "I thought that might work. What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you. I thought I'd take a quick nap while I waited."

"Look outside. That was way longer than a nap."

I looked out the window. The sky was blue. The clouds were gone. I could hear morning traffic buzzing outside. "You let me sleep?"

"Eh." Jack shrugged and came in with two cups of coffee, one of which he gave to me before sitting down across from me. "You looked like you needed it. I was too jet-lagged myself to bother."

I took a sip of coffee. "Jet-lagged? Wait, where the hell were you?"

"Florida. Specifically, Miami."

He'd been on vacation this whole time? The Chief of Police, on vacation, while my family's in danger? "I needed to talk to you. Did Brandon tell you what happened?"

He shook his head, one eyebrow raised. "No. I just got back last night. What happened?"

I told him everything, from Ross's injury to the mysterious phone conversation to me being a suspect. "I think they're connected."

"You think someone's trying to get to your family? Or to you?" Jack put down his coffee. "That reminds me. I had the news on just now."

"And?"

"Ross's incident might not be connected to Danielle's disappearance. Right about the same time, the AutoExplore car dealer blew up completely. Those two have got to be related."

I sighed and finished my drink, thinking. "Ross mentioned a bag with C4 and a silver phone flying at him from over the fence. AutoExplore isn't too far away from my house."

"So they tried disposing of the evidence. I'll need traffic cams, known technical persons, license plates, all employees at the dealer, DNA--"

"Wait." I leaned closer. "What is this "I" I'm hearing?"

Jack groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Carmen, I've told you a million times, you're not getting involved."

I grabbed his hands and pried them away from his face. "And you've stopped me exactly zero times."