Thicker Than Water by Megan Collins

Author:Megan Collins [Collins, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

SIENNA

Two hours after leaving the hospital, I’m at my desk, making a spreadsheet of suspects.

I’ve typed in all the customer names from the gutter machine, and I’ve googled them one by one, scouring for any red flags. I’m not even sure what a red flag would look like, or why someone getting a discount from Gavin would want to kill him, but I promised Julia I would prove Jason’s innocence, and the only place I can think to start is the last place we left off, when we were still trying to prove it together.

Despite the hour—middle of the afternoon, sun flooding my bedroom—I slurp my second coffee. I may have slept at Wyatt’s last night, but my body, knowing I wasn’t supposed to be there, kept me on the cusp of waking, a sleep too shallow for the mental sharpness I need now. I click my nails on my mug—a custom one Julia gave me: Liquid Motatoes, pure nonsense to anyone but us—and try to focus on my spreadsheet. Instead, I glance at my phone.

I’m surprised she hasn’t texted yet. I thought, at the very least, she’d ask what my plan is. I even decided to do my research from home, drinking my own bad coffee instead of hunkering down at a café, just in case Julia changed her mind and dropped by to help. And where the hell is Lou right now? Each time I look at my phone, I check for his name, too. When I left Jason’s hospital room, I thought I’d find Lou in the hall, arguing with Beck about the warrant, but the only person I saw was that stupid guard, smirking at me like there was something I didn’t know.

I force my gaze back to my spreadsheet. Like the names Julia recognized, Linear and Zigoris, most of the customers from Gavin’s notebook are businesses, not homeowners. At first that struck me as strange—homeowners are Integrity Plus’s bread and butter—but maybe businesses are a better target for this kind of scheme; the jobs themselves might be bigger, the owners more likely to be able to pay in cash.

It’s only once I google deeper, skimming pages of search results, that I find another link between some of Gavin’s customers: a website on which three of them appear. I didn’t think anything of the company’s name at the top of the site—Higher Home Improvement—until the third time it popped up in my search, but now I pore over the page, Higher Home’s testimonies section, and each time I read the name, it chimes in my mind as one I’ve heard before.

Higher Home Improvement bent over backwards to get us great service at the best price, says the owner of one business from Gavin’s notebook. Higher Home Improvement was an unprecedented pleasure to work with, says another.

Higher Home Improvement. I squint at the screen, and when I navigate to the homepage, I understand why the name is so familiar. The page is dominated by an orange

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