Becket stood. “I’m checking outside again.”
He stepped out with his hand near his holster, ready but not raised.
Harmony rubbed her arms. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want any of this to touch you.”
“I already told you, I’m in this with you.”
She released a fragile breath.
“And I’m not leaving,” I added just for confirmation.
She looked at me with the expression of someone who was not used to being believed, and it settled something inside me that had been restless since the day she returned. Becket came back a moment later with tension in his jaw. “Everything looks okay out there.”
“I found the camera earlier,” I said and took it out of my pocket and passed it to my brother.
“I’ll add it to the evidence bag,” he said. “You’re not staying here tonight,” Becket said. “Either of you.”
“I’m not taking her to the main house. Too many people. Whatever this is, I don’t want the rest of our family involved,” I said to Becket.
Becket nodded. “Then we bring security here. I’ll place a cruiser at the orchard entrance. And I’ll come around after my shift.”
Harmony swallowed. “Becket, thank you.”
For a moment his expression softened. “You’re family. Whether you realize it yet or not.”
After he left, the cabin grew quiet again.
Harmony looked exhausted in a way that went beyond physical strain. It was as if the weight she had carried alone for years was finally showing itself.
I sat beside her and opened my arms. “Come here.”
She hesitated for only a second before leaning into me. Her head settled against my shoulder like it belonged there. For a few minutes, we simply breathed together. I tried to calm my ownracing thoughts, but the more I held her, the more determined I became.
“Sunshine,” I murmured. “Did Tremblay ever meet your father, or anyone connected to him?”
“No,” she said. “He was never part of that world.”
“But he works for the Laurentian Community Trust,” I said. “And they handle funding for half the counties around here. Marcel mentioned once the Trust brushed too close to questionable financial networks. Nothing he could prove, but enough to raise suspicion.”
Harmony stiffened. “Eric, why would he mention that?”
“Only in passing,” I said. “It was years ago. And he kept it off the record.”
Harmony went still for a moment.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“My mom used to say Marcel made enemies in every circle he touched, even outside the criminal world,” she whispered. “She said one day they would turn on him. The sheriff’s file said she must have learned something she was never meant to hear,” she said, referring to her mom.
That made a cold shiver run down my spine because if Marcel was responsible for killing the mother of his children, then he had no rules to live by at all.
“Tremblay is a techy kind of guy. I wonder what he would know,” I stated. “Problem is, asking any questions might cause him to run or who knows what else. We don’t want to tip off the wrong people with any information we may have. Even if it isn’t much.”
Her voice grew smaller. “What if whoever this Vesper is knows something about my mom’s death?” She blinked. “It’s foolish of me to think that.”
“I know what it feels like to live with unanswered questions, it isn’t foolish at all. You never got closure.” I squeezed her hand.
Rosalie had clearly been a woman who had been trying to protect her daughter, without letting Harmony know how much danger surrounded them. A woman who died in a car that had been tampered with. A cold ache spread through my chest.
