On the screen was a text message from someone named “Kyle – Cousin”:

“Have you hidden the goods well? Be careful, if the dog sniffs it out, you’ll di.e.”

I put down the phone, my hands shaking.

It turned out that Max wasn’t “crazy”. He was trying to protect me.

That night, I pretended not to know anything and cooked dinner as usual.

When Mark was fast asleep, I called the police.
They told me to calm down and open the door so they could break in.

Around midnight, sirens blared outside.

Headlights lit up the living room.
Mark jumped up, panicked:

“What’s going on?!”