“Nope,” Sierra said a moment later. “Too easy. Give me all the clues you can think of. Your sister’s birthday, her phone number, street address, nickname?”
“Our grandmother called her Terrible Tanya, that’s where her email address came from,” Letty said. She supplied three combinations of the other ideas the girl requested, but nothing worked.
“Crap,” Sierra said. “We can’t try another password, or we’ll getlocked out of her account. We’ll give it forty-eight hours and try again. In the meantime, think about other possibilities like her husband’s birthday? Or their anniversary?”
“I’m not sure of either one, but they weren’t married, and they were definitely not on friendly terms,” Letty said. “So it probably doesn’t matter.”
“Street where you grew up? Your high school mascot?” Sierra asked. “Any pets?”
“No. Tanya was allergic to cats. We had a beagle when we were kids, named Snoopy, but Evan thought dogs were dirty. He didn’t allow pets in any of his properties.”
“Wow, what a creep,” Sierra said. “Hey, what about an old boyfriend?”
Isabelle overheard the suggestion and sniggered. “Would you use Farber’s name as your password?”
“Shut it,” Sierra said. “Farbs is dead to me.”
“Tomorrow let’s try Declan, or Rooney, or both,” Letty said.
“Sorry,” Sierra said, closing her laptop. She picked up the nanny cam and examined it again. “Would it be okay if I took this and showed it to one of my friends from school?”
Letty hesitated.
“Never mind,” Sierra said. She took her phone from a pocket of the backpack and began photographing the camera. “He might not even know anything about nanny cams, but I’ll show him these pictures anyway.”
“Thanks,” Letty said. “In the meantime, I’ll keep trying to think of other possibilities for the password.”
“Cool.” Sierra hitched her backpack over her shoulder and looked around the motel room. “Do you guys actually live here? I mean, like Isabelle and her mom do?”
“For now.”
“That’s so awesome. We live in a boring old house that looks exactly like everybody else’s in the world,” Sierra said. “I always wanted to be like those Boxcar Children, you know? Live in an oldcaboose or something, out in the woods, with just a dog and a bunch of junk you find at the dump.”
“Yeah, just as long as the caboose had Wi-Fi and a microwave and cable,” Isabelle retorted. “You’re so crazy, Sierra.” She stood up and ruffled Maya’s hair. “Okay, Maya Papaya, gotta go now. See you later, alligator.”
Maya rolled over and flashed the babysitter a conspiratorial grin. “After a while, you big fat crocodile!”
24
AVA LOOKED OUT THE PLATE-GLASSwindow of the motel office and sighed. Letty followed her gaze. It was Monday morning and Sheila Bronson and her daughter were loading luggage into the cargo hold of a silver minivan.
“I sure hate to see them go like this,” Ava said. “Sheila is worried sick about making that long drive home so soon after Harry got out of the hospital.”
“You’d think their daughter could help her talk sense into him,” Letty said.
“No. Once a man that age has his mind made up, you can’t talk him out of nothin’.”
SheilaBronson leaned up against the registration desk. Her face was pink and slick with perspiration. “I guess that’s it then,” she said, placing the key with the plastic tag on the glass-topped counter. “I’m sorry to leave you in the lurch like this, Ava. Harry wanted me to ask you to refund us for the six weeks’ rent left for our unit, but I told him no. It’s his own damn fault we’re leaving early.”
Ava grasped Sheila’s hand in hers. “I appreciate that. You all take care driving home, and let us know how things are going after Harry sees his regular doctor up there. We’ll all be thinking about you.”
A horn beeped from outside. Sheila swiped at a tear rolling down her cheek. “I better get going before he gives himself another heart attack.”
“Bye, Sheila,” Letty said, going around the counter to hug the older woman, who squeezed her tightly.
Fiveminutes later, Merwin Maples was standing at the registration desk. “Ava, since the Bronsons have moved out, Trudi and I want their old unit. Trudi’s already started packing up our stuff, so as soon as you get Anita in there to clean it, we can be ready to move over there.”
“Sorry, Merwin, but the Bronsons’ unit is already spoken for,” Ava said pleasantly.
