Page 33 of Alonzo

“Clay. The one who comes to see me. The one you asked Belinda to talk to about how one goes about being a private investigator?”

Shit.

“Yeah. Him. Well, that question of yours was very interesting. But I’ll get to that in a minute. See, Clay and I aren’t just friends. I mean, we are. We went to school together. He’s my best friend, actually. But we’ve been watching this town for the last six years. We know what’s up. We started looking into you the minute you showed up out of nowhere.” He points at me. “But the FBI is very thorough. Your new background is grade-A shit. So we didn’t have anything to go on until you asked Belinda about how one becomes a PI in Colorado. Then we were off and running. And do you know what we found, Tara?”

I swallow hard. “What did you find?”

“A missing PI in California. Name of Phoebe Covington. Do you have a twin, Tara?”

I lean forward and hiss, “What the fuck do you want?”

“Easy.” He chuckles. “I’m not gonna out you. I’m on your side.”

“You don’t even know what my side is, Vann.”

“I don’t need to know. If they put you here, you’re on the right side.” He pauses. “At least I think so.”

I look around for our waitress. “Where is my fucking drink?”

“I haven’t told Belinda I know yet. I don’t want to scare her.”

I huff at him. “No, you just want to scare me.”

“Are you scared?”

“Yes. Yeah, I’m scared. People don’t upend their lives by spilling all their secrets to the Feds, testify in court to try to put a bunch of very dangerous people away for life, and then just… move on with their new name, OK? It was a big fucking deal. People are looking for me, Vann. One very dangerous man, to be specific. That trial didn’t go as planned. And if he finds me…” I lean back in my chair and sigh. “Well, I’m sure you can imagine what happens after that.”

He’s silent for a moment. Then our drinks arrive. Vann exchanges a few polite, charming quips with the waitress. He probably dated her too. But when she leaves, he picks right back up where he left off, pointing at me again. “You fucked up. That’s why I’m telling you this. You fucked up when you asked about the PI shit, Tara. If I can figure it out, others can too. That’s all I wanted to say.”

He leans back in his chair too. Crosses his arms like he’s done. And waits.

I don’t know what to say.

“Don’t do it.”

“Don’t do what?” I ask.

“Don’t look back. You can’t look back. You made it. You’re here. You’ve got a whole new life. I checked you out very thoroughly. I looked at everything, Tara. And I found nothing and moved on. Until you looked back. People are out there just waiting for you to do something stupid. Waiting for you to make a mistake. You got a second chance. Don’t throw it all away just because it’s easier to remember the good times and forget about the bad ones. You’re a well-dressed book nerd now. Just… go with it.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s just… it’s not that easy.”

“Belinda is doing just fine. She has embraced her second chance. And if you fuck up your new life, you take her, and everyone else in this town who came here to start over, down with you. Once they find one of you, they’ll find them all.” He places his hands on the table and leans forward, his blue eyes staring straight into mine. “This is bigger than you. So before you give up what they gave you and go back to the shit-show of a life you left behind, you better think good and hard about that. Because I won’t let you take Belinda down with you.”

He leans back again. Crosses his arms again. And waits.

“What do you want me to say?”

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I looked into that guy you’re”—he does air quotes—“‘dating.’”

“What? You don’t even know his name.”

“Don’t I?”

“Do you?”