“Because the FBI got word that the main target for the thief was the Strand set,” Holt informed him.
“So they let the thief steal the jewels?” Rad looked incredulously at his father.
“They let the thief steal a very expensive knock-off of the set,” Holt told him. “But after it was stolen, it disappeared and never emerged again.”
“Because it was still right here in Sandpiper Shores,” Rad guessed, and his father nodded. “Along with the cat burglar.”
“I’m guessing so,” Holt told him. “So my question to you is, did Sienna tell you which side of the family the heirlooms were on? Or who she was hiding them for? Because they may very well be the very thief.”
“Yes.” Rad nodded. “But you’re not going to like the answer.”
“Right now, son,” Holt said. “I’m not liking anything about this investigation. So hit me with it.”
“Sienna is keeping the items in the safe hidden for her father, Chief Tom Morrison,” Rad told him.
12
HOLT
By the time Holt and Rad reached the conference room at the Sandpiper Inn, Holt had gone over the structure of the meeting so many times in his head that he could already see the boards laid out in neat columns.
What he couldn’t do was predict how the people in the room were going to take it once they saw everything put together in one place.
That was the problem with cases like this. When the pieces were scattered, people could still pretend they were isolated events. A bad fire. A strange accident. A threatening note. A missing piece of evidence. Put them all together, and the pattern became far harder to ignore.
Rad reached for the conference room door first and opened it.
The soft hum of conversation inside stopped for a beat when they stepped in.
Holt took in the room at once.
June sat at the long conference table nearest the front with a legal pad open in front of her and a mug of coffee at her right hand. Willa stood beside the refreshments table, helping Margo set out the last of the cups, plates, and napkins. Carmen sat with her arms folded, one ankle crossed over the other, her expression already guarded in the way it always was when she expected something unpleasant. Zane was beside her with a notebook open and a pen ready. Harvey was at the front of the room, wheeling in a third whiteboard exactly as Holt and Rad entered.
“There you go,” Harvey said as he angled the board into place. “That's the last one, as you ordered.”
“Thank you, Harvey,” Holt thanked him with a nod.
“All the pens are there,” Harvey told him, pointing to the pens neatly lined up on the desk in front of the boards. “I got all the colors I could find.”
“Those are fine.” Holt glanced to where Harvey had pointed and quickly moved the boards slightly to give him space.
June stood and moved towards him.
“Do you need my help with anything?” June asked.
“No, it looks like everything’s handled.” Holt smiled despite the weight pressing at the back of his mind as he was about to hold back some information about the jewelry and what he’d found out from his mother. But then again, there was no connection to that investigation at the moment. Other than how and why the bracelet was in Teacups.
He pulled the folder from under his arm and placed it in front of him as Rad set his own file down beside them and sat opposite June.
Margo, with Willa’s help, adjusted the refreshments one last time, then turned toward the table. Holt noticed the shadows beneath her eyes and the forced steadiness in her movements. She looked composed, but only because she had set her jaw and decided she was going to stay that way.
He understood that kind of discipline.
“All right,” Holt said. “Get coffee, get water, get whatever sugar you need before this starts, while I fill the boards.”
“Do you need help, Dad?” Rad asked.
“No, thanks, son,” Holt said. “I have this already set out in my mind.”
