Her mom nodded.

Laurel hesitated. “You acted funny while he was here. You were all happy and agreed with everything he said.”

She shrugged. “I suppose I put on my business face. I just don’t want anything to happen to mess up this sale. Mr. Barnes has offered enough to cover all the medical bills, and we’d have some left over too.” She sighed. “I don’t know what he knows, but I want to sell while the price is high.”

“But you signed everything he put in front of you,” Laurel continued. “You didn’t even read it.”

Her mom nodded forlornly. “I know. But there’s just no time. I want to take advantage of this offer while it’s on the table. If I hesitate again, he may decide we’re too wishy-washy and yank the offer completely.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Laurel said. “But—”

“No more, please, Laurel. I cannot argue with you right now.” She took Laurel’s hand. “You have to trust that I am doing the best I can. Okay?”

Laurel nodded reluctantly.

Her mom rose from the floor and wiped the last trace of tears from her face.

She pulled Laurel to her feet and hugged her. “We’ll get through this,” she promised. “No matter what happens, we’ll find a way.”

As they entered her dad’s room again, Laurel’s eyes went to the chair where Barnes had been sitting. It was unlike her to dislike someone so much without knowing him. But even the thought of sitting in the chair where Barnes had sat made her skin crawl. She walked over to the table and picked up his business card.

JEREMIAH BARNES, REALTOR.

Underneath was a local address.

It looked legitimate enough, but Laurel wasn’t satisfied. She slipped the card into her back pocket and walked over to stand next to David. “Hungry, David?”

Laurel said, eyeing him meaningfully.

He missed it entirely. “Not really.”

She stepped closer and grabbed a fistful of the back of his shirt. “Mom, I’m going to take David and buy him some dinner. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

Her mom looked up, a little startled. “It’s after nine.”

“David’s hungry,” she said.

“Starving,” David agreed, smiling.

“And he did drive me down here on a school night,” Laurel added.

Laurel’s mom looked at them doubtfully for a few seconds, then turned her attention back to her sleeping husband. “Don’t try the cafeteria food,” she warned.

“Why are we doing this again?” David asked after they’d driven around for almost an hour looking for the right part of town.

“David, there’s something wrong with that guy. I can feel it.”

“Yeah, but sneaking to his office and peeking in the windows? That’s a little much.”

“Well, what do you expect me to do? Call up and ask him if he’d like to tell me why he creeped me out so badly? That’ll work,” Laurel muttered.

“So what are you going to tell the cops when they arrest us?” David asked sarcastically.

“Oh, come on,” Laurel said. “It’s dark. We’re just going to circle the office, peek into a few windows, and make sure everything looks legit.” She paused. “And if they happen to have left a window open, well, that’s not my fault.”

“You are so nuts.”

“Maybe, but you’re here with me.”

David rolled his eyes.

“This is Sea Cliff,” Laurel said suddenly. “Turn your lights off.”

David sighed but pulled over and killed the lights. In stealth mode, they crept to the end of the cul-de-sac and stopped in front of a dilapidated house that looked like it had been built in the early 1900s.

“That’s it,” Laurel whispered, squinting at the business card and the numbers on the curb.

David peered up at the imposing structure. “This doesn’t look like any realestate office I’ve ever seen. It looks abandoned.”

“Less chance we’ll get caught, then. Come on.”

David pulled his jacket tighter as they crept around the side of the house and started peeking in the windows. It was dark and the moon was new, but Laurel still felt exposed in her light blue T-shirt. She wished she hadn’t left her black jacket in the car. But if she went back now, she might not have the nerve to return.

The house was an enormous, sprawling structure with slightly newer additions sprouting off from the main building like random appendages. Laurel and David peered into the windows and saw a few bulky, shadowy shapes in the dark rooms—“Old furniture,” David assured her—but the house was mostly empty.

“There’s no way he’s actually doing business here,” David said. “Why would he put this address on the business card?”

“Because he’s hiding something,” Laurel whispered back. “I knew it.”

“Laurel, don’t you think we’re in a little over our heads here? We should go back to the hospital and call the police.”

“And tell them what? That a realtor has a fake address on his business card?

That’s no crime.”

“Let’s tell your mom, then.”

Laurel shook her head. “She’s desperate to sell. And you saw her with this Barnes guy. It was like he had her in a trance. She just smiled and agreed with everything he said. I’ve never seen her do that before. And that stuff she signed, who knows what it was!” Laurel peered around the corner of a particularly crooked addition and waved at David. “I see a light.”