“Alfred?” Holt and June said in astounded unison.
“Yes,” Sienna confirmed, and then backtracked. “I mean no. I don’t know if Alfred was involved in stealing the safe, as the cameras were down at the time of the theft.” She glanced from Holt to June. “But the footage on the security camera from the garage showed Alfred loading it into the trunk of my mother’s car.”
“When was this footage taken?” Holt asked.
“The night the storm started,” Sienna replied.
June wrote the date and time on her notepad without comment.
Sienna looked at the desk for a moment. Fresh tears spilled, and she pressed her lips together, composing herself with visible effort.
“There’s more,” Sienna said.
“Go ahead,” Holt told her.
“My grandfather, my mother’s father, told me once when I went to visit him in prison...” Sienna stopped. She pulled the sleeves further over her hands. “He told me my mother had a problem with stealing. That it started when she was young, before she married my father. My grandfather said she got into trouble with Alvin Frost when they were younger. That they got involved in something connected to Tony Vincent.” Her eyes met Holt’s briefly. “You know, Harvey’s father.” She cleared her throat. “Grandfather said it was his fault because he was never home. That he hadn’t seen what was happening until it was too late.”
June kept her expression neutral and her pen moving steadily across the notepad.
“He told you all of this when you visited him?” Holt asked.
“Yes,” Sienna said. “He also wrote me a letter telling me about it before he died.” She reached into the pocket of her sweater and drew out an envelope and a flash drive. She palmed the drive in one hand while looking at the envelope in the other hand for a while. “This arrived for me by special delivery about a month after he passed away.”
She put it on the desk and pushed it toward Holt, who looked at the envelope without touching it, then pulled a pair of latex gloves from his desk drawer and put them on.
June leaned forward slightly.
The envelope bore the stamp and return marking of a correctional facility.
“Before you read it,” Sienna said quickly, “I need to tell you something else first.” She looked at the envelope. “It’s something I should have told Rad when he came to the house about the break-in.”
Holt and June both waited.
“When my safe went missing,” Sienna began, and June’s pen stilled on the page without any visible reaction, “I called Rad because I didn’t know what else to do.” She looked at Holt steadily. “I told him I was keeping the safe for my father. That it was his things I was protecting during the divorce.” A long pause followed. “That wasn’t true.”
June set her pen down very carefully.
“I was keeping it for my mother,” Sienna admitted. “She asked me to look after it years ago. She said it contained family heirlooms and jewelry she didn’t want declared as assets during the divorce proceedings.” Sienna’s voice didn’t waver, but herfingers were white against the sweater hem. “I lied to Rad because I was scared. My mother has a juvenile record for theft. I was worried that if anyone found out the safe had been stolen and that it contained jewelry, everyone would assume she’d taken it. Or that I’d helped her.” She swallowed carefully. “And I didn’t want to believe she’d actually done it. She’s still my mother.”
The room settled into silence for a moment.
“So when Rad asked who you were protecting the safe for,” June said carefully, “you told him it was your father’s in order to protect your mother.”
“Yes,” Sienna said. “I know it was wrong. I understand that now.”
June picked her pen back up. Something was sitting oddly at the back of her mind, that same nagging quality that had been there for days. Sienna’s explanation was logical and entirely believable. The feeling didn’t go away regardless. She noted it quietly and let it sit where it was.
“If the safe belonged to your mother,” June asked, keeping her tone light and conversational, “why would your mother steal it back from you?” Her brow furrowed. “Why not just ask you for it?”
Sienna looked at her. A flash of something crossed her face, there and gone too quickly to read clearly.
“I honestly don’t know,” Sienna said, with a small shake of her head. “Maybe she thought she could claim insurance on it.” She pulled out the small flash drive in her hand. She placed it carefully on the desk beside the envelope. “Here. You can see for yourself.”
Holt looked at the flash drive. “What’s on it?”
Sienna said. “The full security footage of Alfred loading the safe into her car. My mother standing there directing him. They loaded suitcases into the trunk, then both of them got into the car afterward and drove away.” Her eyes were dry now, the tears gone as quickly as they had come. “It’s all there.”
Holt picked up the envelope first. He opened it, pulled out the letter, and carefully unfolded the pages to read it in silence. June watched his face. Her brow lifted curiously when he sat back and gave a low whistle.
