“I get the impression you need to be like the tires on this M3 here,” continued Zed. Spencer looked at him quizzically.

“Low profile,” explained Zed. “So, we can do that. My wife’s cousin, Youssef, he is, how can I put this nicely? I can’t. He’s a goddamned oxygen thief. He is the most useless motherfucker I know. He will never hold a job. So, here is my idea, my friend. I pay your money to Youssef. You let him keep, say ten percent and . . .”

He trailed off. “Ah, I see you follow me. Tell me how this is sounding to a man who wishes not to be found?”

Spencer smiled.

Take the right steps and things fall into place.

Chris wasn’t a fool, so Spencer came clean, sort of: the people Spencer had been working for, they weren’t to be messed with. The night Spencer had come home covered in blood and smelling of gas? They’d done that. Just because he’d made a stupid little mistake on a delivery. If Chris went back, they’d probably have some kid watching his place and next thing there’d be a knock at the door of the apartment they were renting down here in Toledo. All Chris had to do was forget Detroit for a while and help them all get settled. And that meant keeping Abby together. Spencer reluctantly agreed to thirty minutes a day on Facebook, but supervised. No Snapchat or Instagram. Abby didn’t like that. Facebook was for old people after all but it was clearly the best she was going to get.

Spencer phoned Abby’s school to tell them they’d moved out of state, just to stop any missing child alarms going off. He did the same with CPS. That hadn’t gone quite so smoothly. Without asking to be, he was put through to Lonnie, who was still down as his case officer. She refused to speak to him, promptly transferring him to Caitlyn. When Caitlyn started asking questions Spencer couldn’t field, he hung up and blocked the number.

He and Chris set a plan in motion for getting CPS off their asses. Spencer would change their name back in the UK by deed poll. They’d have to visit a British embassy somewhere for passports once the change was finalized. When that day came, Spencer decided, he’d book them a vacation.

They paid the family next door to piggyback their Wi-Fi and they changed their phones to prepaid plans that didn’t need billing addresses.

Chris had long mastered the art of VPNs so they had Netflix and the sports and movie channels. And Chris seemed to have more time to enjoy them. Even before they’d left Detroit, he’d become preoccupied with automating his business. And all the while, sales of Thermo Booster Burn climbed. With that, and with what Spencer had saved, money wasn’t a problem.