Then her eyes widened.
“The first recent fire,” June said, looking up. “The first one that was officially treated as arson.” Holt already knew where she was going. “It was near the same place as the first fire ten years ago,” she finished.
“Yes.” He nodded once. “Nearly right on top of that spot.”
“The red gas cans are another similarity,” June pointed out, writing again. “They were found in both the recent fires and the ones ten years ago.”
“I think this time they want Willa, Margo, and Rad to back off, ” Holt told her his thoughts on that. “In particular, though, Margo for some reason.”
June’s head came up. “She is being targeted more than Rad and Willa.”
“Yes.” Holt nodded. “It does seem odd. Willa and Rad, at least up until now, haven’t had anything as bad as what has happened to Margo.” His brow creased. “Judy possibly knows something about what happened ten years ago, and getting a job here in Sandpiper Shores helps her to investigate it.”
“Then someone else finds out she is Gilbert’s sister and suspects.” June tapped her notepad. “So they try to get rid of her.”
She wrote that down too.
“I’ve been trying to contact Nigel for days now with no reply.” Holt leaned his elbows on the table. “I want to know what he can tell me and what led him to believe the case was closed when Willa said it was strange that he’d done it.” His brow furrowed deeper. “She said he suspected Gilbert had been set up and then suddenly accepted that Gilbert was the culprit, and the case was closed.”
June mirrored him by putting her elbows on the table and leaning in without seeming to notice she had done so.
“I can remember how angry Nigel had been after the fire,” June told him. “The whole town was. But Nigel was determined to find out what had happened.”
“I checked the channel,” Holt said. “You know, Gilbert Fry’s YouTube Channel, Hidden Truths.”
“Oh?” June’s brows rose curiously. “And?”
“Do you know it’s still running?” Holt told her.
June blinked. “No. I’m not much of a YouTube person.”
“Neither am I,” Holt admitted. “But I looked. Someone continued Gilbert’s work. Expanded it. Corruption, abuse, fraud, scandals. They used voice-over at first, then it switched to two presenters using AI avatars. The AI avatars were a male and a female.”
June’s eyes sharpened. “Do you think it’s Judy? It could’ve been her and her husband.”
“I did think it was her when I learned she was Gilbert’s sister.” Holt paused. “I started digging. A lot of the places Judy has worked as a wildlife vet line up with locations on the channel. Not all of them. But a lot.”
He watched as June was writing again.
“She must’ve carried it on for her brother,” June stated, her eyes darkening in thought. “Although I’m not sure about her husband. I think he was an investment banker or something like that and not a vet.”
Holt shrugged. “You don’t have to be in the same place to make a YouTube video,” he pointed out. “But I think the second avatar only came on after her husband had died.”
“Oh!” June looked at him in surprise. “So she must’ve gotten another YouTube presenter.”
“About a year ago,” Holt continued, “another avatar, also female, joined the show. She mostly covered stories around Florida.”
“So, Judy must’ve been expanding the show,” June reasoned. “Do you remember any of the places you couldn’t place Judy?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “A few months ago, there was footage out of Mexico exposing an art thief.”
“Where in Mexico?” June asked.
He named the town. For several seconds, June just stared at him as if he’d thrown a glass of ice water at her.
“Are you sure?” June asked him, and he nodded. “You said a few months ago. Would that have been around April?”
Again, Holt nodded. “Yes. Why?”
