Ricky didn’t go into his mom’s office—there wasn’t a closet or anything to hide in—but he turned across from the office into the bathroom and closed the door, not all the way, because he didn’t want them to hear the latch. There was a linen closet in the bathroom and he crawled down, curling into a tight ball on the floor. He couldn’t get the door completely closed, but the light wasn’t on and unless someone was looking for him, he didn’t think anyone could see him.

Please please please.

He hugged his knees to stop shaking.

The short man who was doing most of the talking went directly to his mother’s office. Ricky couldn’t hear everything he said, but he caught enough to scare him.

“It’ll look like they left. With the messages Denise was sending, it’s clear the bitch was thinking about it.”

“What if someone finds out?”

That voice sounded familiar. Why? Did he know these people? He’d only seen the short guy with the mustache outside, and he’d never seen him before, but this voice … tall, skinny … Ricky couldn’t place it. But he’d heard it. Maybe on the phone with his mom. Then why had the guy looked familiar?

“Then we’re fucked. There’s too much money at stake and I’m sure as hell not going to prison. You know what they do to cops in prison? Well, that’s no fucking lie.”

A cop? This was a policeman? Going through his mother’s office?

They talked more, but Ricky couldn’t make it out until the familiar voice said, “What about the little kid? You can’t be serious about hunting him down. He’s a kid. No one was supposed to die.”

Ricky froze. He didn’t dare breathe.

“Don’t get cold feet now. You know what Denise planned to do. You said you’d take care of it, but you didn’t.”

“Look, she wasn’t going to go to the police. She was just freaked. She was going to leave the country, not talk to anyone!”

“But she didn’t leave when she was supposed to! You know what that tells me? Her husband talked her out of it. If she actually talked to the DA, she would have spilled everything. Is that what you want? Do you want to go to prison? Do you want to lose everything that we’ve built? I’m sorry it went down the way it did, but it’s almost over. We lay low, everything will work out.”

“But Ricky…”

They knew his name. They knew his name and they hurt his mom and dad and were going to hurt him.