“Well, it seems someone figured out at least who Judy, Lacey, and Margo were,” June said.
Holt turned back to the table. “Tell us about when you decided to start looking into what Gilbert Fry was investigating ten years ago.” Then he looked back at his mother. “Mother, do you want to start us off as well?”
“I had no idea that was what they were doing,” Mina admitted. “I had a hunch they were investigating what happened ten years ago, yes. But not that they were trying to figure out what Gilbert himself had been investigating.”
“How could you not think the two things would overlap?” Holt asked skeptically.
“Because when Willa and Margo questioned me about what I remembered from ten years ago, they weren’t asking about Gilbert,” Mina answered. “They were asking about Cynthia Frost.”
“I want the complete truth now.” Holt turned toward Willa. “Start at the beginning and tell me what made you reopen the investigation.”
Willa sat up a little straighter. “As soon as we learned the keeper of that case, Nigel Frost, was leaving, Margo and I decided it would make a good Hidden Truths segment to clear Gilbert Fry’s name once and for all.”
“And to finally get the truth about what really happened to my fiancé, Willa’s husband, and their two colleagues,” Margofinished. “We’ve always believed justice was never properly served.”
Rad set his coffee down and looked first at his father, then at June.
“Dad, June, first, we never meant to deceive you. Not in the way this probably looks.” He drew in a breath. “We were trying to figure out who really killed the five people in that cabin ten years ago.”
“We weren’t necessarily trying to find out why,” Ace added. “Our whole motto with taking over the channel with Judy and Lacey was that we were pursuing truth and justice, but not if it put any of us in direct danger.”
“Only reopening this case knocked you right into the danger zone,” June said.
“Yes,” Rad agreed. “We were hoping that we could just clear Gilbert’s name and find out who really set that fire ten years ago.”
“We all agreed that once we knew who really set it,” Margo stated, “we were going to hand the case over to the FBI to figure out the why.”
“By the FBI, you mean me,” Holt guessed and turned to Rad. “So my invitation to spend the summer here with you and Tyler after my case was finished was really to hand me a ten-year-old cold case.”
“No!” Rad said and then quickly corrected himself. “Tyler and I wanted you here for the summer.” He glanced at his grandmother, and she lifted her eyebrows with a clear message in her eyes—this was not the time for full confessions.“But, nomatter when we finally solved this case, we were going to hand it to you, yes.”
“Only things spiralled out of control rather quickly when we started to ask questions around town,” Margo told Holt and June.
“That’s when the incidents started to happen,” Rad explained. “And we knew that we’d rattled someone’s cage.”
“Why didn’t you stop then?” Holt asked.
“Would you have?” Rad threw the question back at his father.
“I have an entire team of FBI agents at my disposal,” Holt pointed out. “That’s the point when you should’ve got me involved, not waited until things spiraled out of control and people started to get hurt.”
“Bringing a team of FBI agents into town would’ve scared them off and left us right back at square one,” Margo counted, then her eyes narrowed accusingly. “In fact, the first real escalation into a fire and the bigger incidents started just after you arrived in town.”
Everyone’s eyes widened as the point hit home and Rad’s chest filled with such pride at Margo’s brave stand and genius observation that his hands itched to pull her to him and kiss her for her startling revelation.
20
HOLT
“Fair enough,” Holt said, nodding as he stared at Margo. She was right, and he’d thought about that too. “That’s a good point.”
“Did anyone outside of the four of you know about the investigation?” June asked, quickly de-escalating a debate between Margo and Holt.
“Lacey and Judy,” Margo answered.
“Before we continue,” June said. “Where does Lucy fit into all this? Was she involved? Does she even know about your YouTube channel and your investigation?”
“My mother doesn’t know anything,” Margo said, her eyes portraying a clear message.Leave my mother out of this.“I think she knows that we were looking into what happened ten years ago again. But that’s all.”
