“It is,” June agreed with him, adding, “but not impossible. It could’ve happened.”
They looked at each other across the desk.
“I just keep hearing my mother’s voice in my head the day we all sat around the conference table at the Sandpiper Inn.” Holt blew out a breath.
“I know,” June said again, in exactly the same tone as before. “Your mother was adamant that we can’t trust Sienna.”
“Which either means Sienna is genuinely frightened and finally telling the truth,” Holt said.
“Or she’s giving us exactly what she wants us to have,” June finished.
The office held the silence for a moment.
Holt reached for his phone. They could sit here all afternoon turning it over and arriving at the same place, or they could move. Right now, moving was what the situation required.
“We need to find Victoria,” Holt said. “And the Frosts.” He pulled up Tom’s number. “And it’s time to bring Tom in for questioning, no more waiting.”
“Do you want me to do anything while you call him?” June asked.
“Yes,” Holt told her. “I need you to take me to the Morrison residence after I’ve spoken to Tom. We’ll ask him to meet us there.”
June nodded and gathered her notepad and pen into her bag without another word.
Holt dialed.
Two hours later, Holt pulled up outside the Morrison mansion with June in the passenger seat beside him. Tom’s car was already in the driveway, which meant he’d driven straight fromGainesville the moment Holt had called him. That tracked. Whatever Tom Morrison’s failings were, indifference to his family was not among them.
Tom was standing on the front steps when they got out of the car. He looked like a man who had driven two hours with nothing but his own thoughts for company, and the thoughts had not been kind ones. His tie was loosened, and his jacket was over one arm. His face carried the particular, tightly controlled worry of someone trying to hold themselves steady while everything in them was tilting.
“Holt,” Tom said as they reached the steps. “What’s the emergency? Where is everyone? I’ve been trying to reach Victoria and Sienna since you called, and neither of them is answering.”
“Sienna is at the station,” Holt told him. “She’s giving a statement.”
Tom stared at him. “A statement about what?”
“Let’s go inside,” Holt said. “We need to talk to you, Tom.”
Tom nodded and led them into the house.
The house had a different quality inside without the usual staff moving through it. It was large, well-furnished, and completely still. The stillness had a quality to it that wasn’t simply absence. It was more like a held breath.
Tom led them through to the front living room and turned to face them. “Can I offer you both something? I’m not sure where Mrs. Clark or Alfred have gotten to, but I can find my way around my own kitchen.”
“I’m fine, thank you,” Holt said.
“Nothing for me either, thank you, Tom,” June replied.
“Sit down,” Holt told him. “Please.”
Tom looked at him sharply but took a seat in an armchair across from the sofa Holt and June sat on.
The worry on his face had deepened into something closer to dread, which was the appropriate response when your oldest friend told you to sit down in your own living room, while your ex-wife and daughter were unreachable.
June settled beside Holt with her notepad open.
“Did you know that Sienna had a safe installed in her pool house?” Holt asked.
Tom blinked. Whatever question he’d been bracing for, that wasn’t it.
