Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
B eing back in Portland was like waking up on the side of a highway after having the best night of your life. The fog was thick and the traffic was terrible.
Kevin had agreed to meet them at her small office at noon, and it took a little over an hour to get from the airport to downtown.
This time there was no limo, just her old Subaru that had over two hundred thousand miles on it. She’d thought about trading it in, but every time she got sticker shock and backed out.
When she parked at the small shopping center, Abe leaned forward and whistled.
“Beck Investigations.” He read the sign hanging over the door.
She shrugged. “It’s not flashy or catchy, just…”
“You,” he finished for her, making her smile.
“Yeah. We have a few minutes before Kevin should be here.” She got out and unlocked the front door and then froze.
Abe must have sensed something was wrong because he pushed past her and stepped inside.
She flipped on the lights and assessed the damage.
The small office had been ransacked.
Papers were scattered across the floor like confetti.
The filing cabinet drawers hung open, their contents pulled out and tossed around.
Her cork-board had been ripped from the wall, and the mini fridge had been left open, its contents dripping onto the linoleum.
Her desk was the worst of it. Every drawer was ripped open, and her laptop was gone, along with the battered leather notebook she used for field notes.
“Damn,” Abe muttered, stepping over a stack of files. “Someone was looking for something.”
Dylan’s pulse throbbed in her ears as she slowly stepped inside, her shoes crunching over a broken coffee mug.
She took it all in, her space violated. Her sanctuary stripped bare.
The drawer where she kept the locked file folder on Kara’s case was still slightly ajar, the lock twisted like it had been forced open.
“No,” she breathed, rushing to it. Sure enough, the folder was gone. “They took it. Everything physical I had on Kara.”
Abe knelt beside her, resting a steady hand on her back. “This wasn’t random then.”
Her heart ached with a mix of anger and fear. “My laptop had encrypted files… but the folder… my notes, interviews, printouts, anyone could read that. This wasn’t just someone trying to scare me. They wanted to erase… everything.”
A loud knock at the door startled them both.
Kevin stood outside, his hands in his hoodie pockets and a confused look on his face.
“What the hell happened?” Kevin asked, stepping inside and glancing around.
“You tell us,” Dylan said. “Whoever did this appears to have only taken what I had on your sister’s case.”
His eyes swept the room, settling briefly on the broken drawer. “Shit. You think this is about Kara?”
Dylan nodded slowly. “Yes, seeing as it appears that they only took her files and nothing else.”
Kevin’s jaw clenched.
“Guess you were getting close to something,” Abe said, his arms folded. “It appears you arrived just in time to answer some questions.”
“Here,” Dylan said, straightening a chair and pushing the pile of paperwork on the floor aside. “Sit. Talk.”
Kevin glanced at him and he motioned. “We’re done hiding behind half-truths. It’s time you came clean with everything.”
Kevin looked between them, then sat down.
“I didn’t tell you everything, and I didn’t tell the cops, that night, a few other parts.
” He shook his head and looked down at his fingers.
“I didn’t want to until I was sure… After Kara died, I didn’t disappear because I was guilty or anything. I checked myself into rehab.”
Dylan nodded. “For drinking?”
Kevin gave a humorless smile. “Hard. I was a wreck. I’d been drinking too much for months, even before Kara died, but after.
.. I couldn’t cope. I needed help, and I knew I wouldn’t get it if I didn’t do something.
So I checked myself in and went dark. I was away for almost a year.
Then, I was in and out for a few more years. ”
Abe frowned. “You told the cops you were home that night. The night of the accident.”
“I was,” Kevin said. “Alone. Watching the game and drinking myself stupid. I wasn’t lying, but I wasn’t… helpful either. I didn’t remember most of that night until recently. I’ve been piecing it back together.”
“Go on,” Abe said, leaning on the edge of her desk, folding his arms over his chest.
“Kara… stopped by my place after dropping you off. I lived in the same townhouses, just down two units, remember?”
Dylan felt Abe tense as he nodded.
“And?” she asked, waiting.
“And she confided in me that she was thinking of leaving you. She said you’d found out that she was cheating.
She told me she smoothed things out with you, but I was pissed at her for cheating,” he said to Abe.
“I was drunk, too drunk.” He sighed. “We fought. I said things, she said things, she left angry.” He closed his eyes.
“Shit, the last thing I said to her was ‘fuck off.’”
“Who else was she sleeping with?” Abe asked dryly.
“I don’t know. She was very secretive. I knew about a week before… before that night.” He shifted.
Abe wanted to ask why he hadn’t told him, but he kept his mouth shut as the hurt sank in.
“How did you find out?” Dylan asked.
Kevin glanced over at her. “I saw them together.”
“Then you do know who,” Abe interrupted.
“No.” He shook his head a few times. “They were in her parked car. I knew it wasn’t you because you were in Georgia recording. We’d just talked on the phone an hour earlier.”
“Where?” Dylan asked.
“Outside my place,” Kevin answered.
“Why was she with someone else outside of your place?” Abe asked.
Kevin shrugged. “I didn’t ask. Kara… did whatever she wanted. Always had. I tried to shield her, protect her, but she was…”
“Kara,” Abe finished and went quiet.
“You lived in the same townhouses as Abe did back then?” Dylan asked.
“A few other people we knew back then lived in those places too,” Kevin said, catching on. “We’d all hung out a lot and when Abe moved in, we all sort of followed.” He shrugged.
“Who else?” She sat behind her desk and found a piece of paper to jot down the names as they both listed them off.
“Do either of you suspect any of them to be the driver?” she asked.
Both men were quiet.
“One,” they both said at the same time.
“One person had reason to keep a relationship quiet. To make Kara stay with me until after my album released.” He shifted to stand behind her and pointed at the name. “Tony. I was his first real big client.”
“Abe made him who he is today,” Kevin said quietly.
“What’s our next move?” Kevin asked.
Dylan looked up at him. “My next move is to find proof. Yours is to head back to Pride,” she said to Abe, “and feed horses and watch your friend’s lighthouse.” She pointed to Kevin. “Yours is to go back home or to work or whatever and stay sober.”
Then she bent down and picked up a stack of papers and started cleaning up.
After Kevin left, Abe helped her clean up and then sat across from her when she pulled out her travel laptop. She was thankful for some of the backups she had on it.
“You should keep all your files on the cloud,” Abe suggested.
“Can’t. Privacy concerns,” she mumbled as she typed up the notes from the meeting. She looked around at her now clean office and sighed loudly. “After today, though, I guess I’ll look into a secure server.”
“Isn’t the headquarters for Internet Security out of Pride?” Abe asked.
She stilled and then laughed. “Yes, of course.” She pulled out her phone and searched for Josh William’s number, then dialed it.
“Good morning, Dylan. How is my favorite PI today?” Josh answered cheerfully.
“Good.” She smiled and leaned back to dive into a very long conversation. By the time she hung up, her remaining laptop was fully locked down to protect what little digital data she had left.
“Why I didn’t think to contact Josh when I opened for business last year is a mystery,” she said when they had stopped for dinner on their way to her apartment.
“One I’m sure you will solve,” he joked as he took her hand.
When had she gone from being super nervous around him to being so comfortable? Her eyes ran over his face, and she realized that instead of seeing the famous singer she’d crushed on for years, she now saw the man that she loved with every fiber of her being.
Dylan unlocked the door to her apartment and stepped aside to let Abe in first. “Home sweet postage stamp,” she joked.
The small studio apartment was cozy and tidy, every inch of space put to good use.
A full-sized bed was neatly made in one corner with a navy comforter and two throw pillows stacked like it was staged for a magazine shoot.
A compact couch faced the mounted TV, and the kitchenette along the far wall boasted a spotless sink, a two-burner stove, and a coffee maker that probably saw more use than anything else in the place.
Abe glanced around, smiling. “It’s very you.”
She dropped her bag by the door and slipped off her shoes. “Meaning what?”
“Efficient. Clean. Deceptively low-key but probably hiding a hundred useful things.”
She grinned. “Flattery will get you more bed space.”
He chuckled and kicked off his boots. “I’ll take it.”
While she settled in at her desk and opened her laptop to start rebuilding some of the files lost in the break-in, Abe took a few calls in the corner, his deep voice low and professional.
Something about studio sessions, album release windows, and a possible guest appearance at an awards show.
She tried not to eavesdrop but caught that he mentioned postponing everything until after his commitment watching Max’s place.
Hearing him talk about leaving and going back to his normal life made her stomach flutter in a way she didn’t fully trust yet.
After an hour of quiet work, she finally shut her laptop and rubbed her eyes. “I can’t look at another encrypted folder tonight.”