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“All right, then. The two of you want to come with me? I’m sure Manny has better things to do.”
“Nope,” Manny said brusquely. “I’m coming and they’re with me.”
Mr. Lott’s smile didn’t dim. “As you wish. Let’s go. I’ll follow you. We’ll let your mother decide what needs to be done about the blood. If she wants to call the police, we’ll do that. At a minimum, though, the window should be shut and the door fixed.”
“I’ll take care of the window,” Carlos offered. Shouldering his own backpack, he went to do that, then met them at the stairs and followed them outside.
Mr. Lott got into his BMW, and Xavier, Carlos, and Manny piled into Manny’s rusted-out junker.
“I don’t like this,” Manny said again.
“Something new?” Xavier asked. “Or the same old?”
“He was watching you when you packed your bag. Like... I don’t know. It was weird.”
“Okay.” Xavier didn’t know what to do about Manny’s concerns, but he was listening. “What do you think we should do?”
“I don’t know,” Manny said grimly. He handed his burner phone over the seat. “Call your mother. Tell her what happened. Let her tell us what she thinks we should do, just like the lawyer said.”
“I don’t know her phone number,” Xavier admitted after staring at the burner’s keypad for several seconds.
“I’ve got it in my phone.” Carlos found the number and showed it to him.
“I hope she answers,” Xavier muttered. “It’s a strange number.”
But she did, after only one ring. “Hello? Who is this?” she demanded suspiciously. “If you’re calling about my car’s warranty, you can go straight to Hades.”
Her voice rolled over him, and his eyes filled with tears. “Mom,” he said hoarsely.
“Xavier?” Fear filled her voice. “What’s wrong? Why are you calling from this number?”
He blinked, sending the tears down his face. “It’s...” He had to clear his throat. “Mama. Something happened last night. Carlos and I were going to sleep and...” His voice broke.
“Xavier? Xavier!” his mother shouted.
“What’s happening?” another female voice asked. “Is everything okay?”
“I don’t know,” his mother said frantically. “Xavier?”
Carlos took the phone from his hand and put it on speaker. “Mrs. M? It’s Carlos. We’re okay.”
“Oh my God,” she said on a rush of air, her voice tinny coming out of the burner phone’s crappy speaker. “What happened?”
“Someone broke into your house,” Carlos explained. “And... well... we got out. Through the window upstairs.”
“The one in the spare room?” she asked. “You all used to scare me silly climbing in and out of that window.”
“You knew?” Xavier asked.
“Of course she knew,” Manny drawled from the front seat. “They always know.”
“Who’s that?” his mother asked.
“My brother Manny,” Carlos told her. “He’s driving us. We wanted to meet up with you.”
“And we have a visitor,” Xavier added. “I called that lawyer.”
She went quiet for several heartbeats. “Which lawyer?”
