Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
As I followed Finn into the parking lot of the Stonecross Sheriff's Department, I immediately noticed three men standing near a black pickup truck.
When I got out of my car, their raised voices carried across the lot, and even from a distance, I could see the tension radiating from their bodies.
It was Sheriff Tom Holloway, his son, Cole, and his brother, Jeff.
Finn slowed, holding up a hand as I moved toward him, and we watched from a distance as the scene escalated.
"I am done bailing you out of trouble!" Tom shouted, his face flushed red with anger. He stepped closer to Cole, invading his space. "You hear me? Done!"
"Good!" Cole shot back, not backing down despite his father looming over him. "I'm done with you and your lies!"
"I'm not the liar. You are!" Tom's voice was raw, furious. "Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie!"
"Tom, come on—" Jeff tried to step between them, his hands raised placatingly. "This isn't helping anything. Cole is your son."
"Stay out of this, Jeff!" Tom snapped. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about."
"Don't yell at him," Cole shouted. "He's the only one who sees you for who you really are." Cole shoved past his father, heading for his own truck. Tom grabbed Cole's arm, yanking him back.
"We're not done—"
"Yes, we are!" Cole jerked free, almost knocking his father over with the violence of his movement.
He jumped into his truck and sped away as Tom stood there, his chest heaving, his fists clenched at his sides.
Jeff shook his head slowly, something cold settling into his expression. "You drive everyone away, don't you?"
Tom whirled on him. "This is not on me. I've done everything for that kid, bailed him out of every problem he's ever had. Same as I've done for you."
"That's the story you tell yourself, that you're the hero, and the rest of us are shit.
But you're the reason everyone has to leave.
It's always because of you." Jeff walked toward his gray Jeep, keys already in his hand.
"You've been doing this your whole life, Tom.
Pretending you're the hero, when you're anything but. "
"Jeff—"
But Jeff wasn't listening to anything else his brother had to say. He got into his Jeep and pulled out with another squeal of tires.
Tom stood there for a moment, his shoulders rigid, before turning toward the building. That's when he saw Finn and me standing by our cars, clearly having witnessed the entire exchange.
His face, already red with anger, darkened further as we moved toward him. "What do you two want?"
"We need to talk to you about Nathan Carmichael," Finn said. "He apparently overdosed."
"Yeah, I'm aware. Cork Harbor PD is investigating. Looks like a suicide attempt."
"Or someone wanted to shut him up," Finn suggested.
"You getting him riled up now, too?" the sheriff asked me.
Before I could answer, Finn said, "Cassidy has nothing to do with this. I told you yesterday about what happened on Nathan's boat, the ring, Tessa, a possible drugging, and you said you were going to look into it."
"Didn’t have a chance," the sheriff said. "But I'm planning to drive up there this afternoon and see what's going on. But it's either an accident or a suicide attempt. Nobody shoved pills down his throat."
"Well, glad to see you're keeping an open mind," Finn drawled.
Anger flared again in Tom's eyes. He definitely did not like his opinion being doubted in any way. "I always do," he snapped, then walked past us toward his cruiser without another word.
"Do you think he's going to tell the police in Cork Harbor what we told him about the ring and Tessa?" I asked.
"Hard to say. Our best bet is Nathan wakes up from all this and tells us what happened."
"I agree. What do you think about that scene with the Holloway men?"
"Not surprising. Tom can't stand it when people don't do exactly what he wants. And Jeff and Cole usually do the opposite."
"It was interesting that he told his son he was done bailing him out of trouble. What trouble is Cole in?"
Finn stared back at me through narrowed eyes. "Cole doesn't have anything to do with what's been happening at the inn."
"When Tyler and I went to see Nathan the other day, I could have sworn I saw Cole near the dock in Cork Harbor."
"Well, he works for Jeff, and they run charters to Cork Harbor."
"That's true."
"Look, Cole isn't a bad kid. I've known him his whole life."
"Seems like you just said the same thing about Nathan. Just because you've known someone a long time doesn't mean you actually know who they are now."
He frowned. "I must admit I've never seen Cole get physically angry before, and that bothered me. He's going to New York with my sister. I need to talk to Sophie about it."
"Maybe she can tell you what's going on with Cole and his father, because it feels like it's been brewing for a while. Every time I've seen them together, there's an underlying anger that's undeniable."
"I've seen it, too, but I guess I've just gotten so used to Tom's volatility, his temper, his arrogance that I don't question it, and I should be questioning it.
I should be questioning everything. You're not the first person to come through town wanting to know what happened to Natalie Warren.
Her brother was here, a private investigator, and in the beginning, there was press coverage, too, but Tom stuck to his story, and so did Ellen, and we all believed their version of events.
Same thing happened with Jessica Trent. It was a sad story—a woman rents a boat and never comes back.
But it just seemed like she made a bad decision, misjudged her abilities to sail that particular weather and current. It wasn't that difficult to believe."
"I've noticed how often Tom and my grandmother spout off plausible explanations, never questioning or changing their tune, and I can see why they seem believable."
"It took two outsiders to shake things up," he said with a small smile. "You and Tessa did that."
"I want to do more than shake things up; I want to get answers."
"So do I. And once we start talking to people together, it won't just be outsiders looking for the truth. I think I can get people to put pressure on the sheriff to reopen the investigation into Natalie's disappearance."
"That would be amazing, Finn." This was what I had needed: someone from Stonecross to join my side. "Tessa was right about you. She thought you could help us, and you're doing just that."
"Better late than never, right?"
I nodded, and as our gazes met an odd tingle ran down my spine. It felt like things were getting personal, but I couldn't mistake his help, his friendship, for something more. We were like ships passing in the night. I'd be gone in a few days.
"So," he began. "I should talk to my sister. What are you going to do?"
"I need to check in with Tessa and go back to the inn and speak to my grandmother. I'll tell her what happened with Nathan and see if that opens up a new conversation, but I'm not particularly confident that it will. She's a tough nut to crack."
"I can see that. You two share that trait. You're both very determined."
"Unfortunately, our determination is putting us on opposite sides. I don't know what role she plays in any of this. And that scares me. I want her to be innocent, because she's my grandmother, but it's hard to believe she is."
He nodded in understanding. "I get it. But if anyone can get her to crack even a little bit, it's probably you."
"I'm going to try. Will you text me if you get any more information?"
"Only if you promise to do the same."
"I will, and thank you, Finn. Thanks for joining my side."
"One other thing," he said as I was about to leave.
"What's that?"
"Your friend, Tyler."
"What about him?"
"Where is he? What's he doing? And how is he connected to Jessica?"
I thought about the secret Tyler had shared with me and wondered how to answer Finn's question without breaking that confidence. "He told me she's a friend, someone who doesn't have family to look for her, so he's the one doing it."
"Is that the whole story?" Finn challenged. "There's something about him that bothers me. He's been lurking around town for the past two weeks but never really asking questions, never really stating his concerns, just hovering, eavesdropping, always around but never right in the middle of things."
"He said he was afraid that announcing his intention would only close the channels of communication. The town closes down when outsiders have questions. It's the way I felt, too. That's why we started working together."
"He was there last night when you ran off the road."
"I was on the phone with him when I realized I was being followed. That's how he knew where I was, how he got there so fast."
"Interesting."
There was nothing but suspicion in that short word. "What? You don't trust him?"
"Do you?"
I thought about that. "I guess I don't really trust anyone. But he hasn’t given me any reason to doubt him. And he wants what I want—to find out what happened to Natalie and Jessica."
"Where is he now?"
"He went to Cork Harbor to see if he could find any businesses with security cameras pointed toward the road that Jessica might have walked if she'd climbed away from that boat wreck."
He straightened, a new gleam in his eyes. "So he's in Cork Harbor? Has he been there all day?"
"Uh, I think he's been there a while." I could see by Finn's expression exactly where his mind was going. "You're wondering if he talked to Nathan again."
"You said the two of you went to see Nathan. Maybe he went back."
"He didn't mention it. I just spoke to him on our way over here. I told him about Nathan. He was as shocked as I was. If he'd spoken to Nathan, he would have told me. But I don't think he did because he thought Nathan was a dead end."
Finn nodded. "You're probably right. But be careful around that guy, Cassidy."