Chapter 4
Chapter Four
WEST
“ A very,” Harvey said, “I’m so sorry.” The glance he shot me was heavy with guilt and a little chagrin. “It was stolen.”
Not what I expected Harvey to say. And somehow, not entirely a surprise. Fuck. Why couldn’t anything ever be simple? But this was?—
“Weird,” Avery said. “What do you mean it was stolen?” she asked, and for once, I didn’t mind sitting back and letting someone else lead the charge on the questioning. I was curious what she’d be able to get out of Harvey that I might not.
His glance flicked to me again, and when he saw I wasn’t going to interrupt, reluctantly, he looked back to Avery and let out a sigh. “I had it in my desk. Someone broke in. And when I came in, it was gone.”
“When?” Avery challenged.
“A few weeks ago, I didn’t write the date down.”
At that, I was done letting Avery take the lead. “Harvey, you had another break-in, and you didn’t call me? ”
Harvey looked down at his desk, then up at me. “I’m sorry. I just... I know Hawk and Griffen wanted that fancy security system here, but I keep forgetting to set it. This is Sawyers Bend. What do I need a security system for? All these years, I’ve never had one.”
“All these years, you’ve never had multiple break-ins,” I reminded him.
“I know, I know, I know.” He sounded like a broken record.
Harvey shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry to disappoint you.
I should have known better. It’s just...
Well, when I forgot to set the alarm, there had only been the one break-in, and that was related to whatever was going on with Quinn and Hawk.
Didn’t seem like it had anything to do with me, and I just..
.” He looked down at his feet and shrugged a shoulder before looking back at me, all sheepish remorse.
“I’ve gone a lot of years not locking my door, son.
The idea of doing that, plus setting an alarm, just slips my mind. ”
I could practically hear Avery’s teeth grinding together, but she didn’t say anything. Not yet.
“Fine,” I conceded. I knew enough people in Sawyers Bend, especially the old-timers, who couldn’t get their heads around locking their doors, much less setting security alarms. “But that doesn’t explain why you didn’t call to report a theft.”
Harvey looked around the office for a moment, making me wonder if he was looking for escape or hoping someone would appear to rescue him from my questioning.
“Do either of you want coffee? Tea?” he asked, brightly .
“No,” Avery said sharply. “I want to know how you let the necklace get stolen and why you didn’t tell any of us. You knew it was important.” Her voice cut off, and she swallowed hard.
I didn’t believe the necklace had anything to do with Prentice’s murder, but it was all they had to go on. I set a hand on Avery’s shoulder, half expecting her to shrug it off, but she leaned into me just a fraction, her gaze hard on Harvey’s face.
“I should have called,” he said, talking mostly to me.
“I should have reported the theft. I understand that. It’s just..
.” He let out another huff of breath. “Honey.” He looked at Avery.
“It’s just a necklace. Your father was murdered in his office, not in the cabin, probably because of a business deal.
And it’s been making me nervous, you girls are so obsessed with finding the woman who owned that necklace.
You’re only going to stir up trouble that could get you hurt.
When I came into my office and found the necklace had been stolen, I thought maybe it was for the best.”
A sound rumbled from Avery’s throat that was suspiciously like a growl. “Are you kidding me, Harvey?” she said. “Seriously? You got robbed, and you didn’t do anything about it because you hoped we’d be quiet and let it go?”
“That’s about it,” he admitted. “Though now I’m seeing that wasn’t such a great plan.”
Avery shook her head and stormed past me. I caught her by the elbow, handing her the keys to the SUV.
“Wait for me,” I said. “I’ll be right there.”I hoped giving her the keys was the right idea. I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to steal my police issued SUV, but I couldn’t entirely rule it out as an option.
We watched her leave, and Harvey sighed. “That girl’s always been too headstrong for her own good. She does brew a good beer, though.”
“That she does,” I agreed. “And she’s not wrong. You knew that necklace was important to them.”
“Do you really think it’s evidence?” Harvey asked.
Once, I might have told him exactly what I thought, but I had learned a lot in the last few years on the job.
Since Prentice Sawyer had died, I didn’t trust anyone.
It didn’t matter that we were a small town filled with mostly good people.
Everyone had their breaking point, had the one thing that would get them to do something they never would otherwise.
No one was innocent. Not completely. Even Harvey, the trusted Sawyer family lawyer.
“Harvey, you have to understand how this looks. You knew someone had broken in once. You didn’t secure your office.
And now you’re telling me the one piece of evidence we had that might point to the identity of the mystery woman the Sawyers have been looking for is now gone.
Gone because you removed it from my property room and left it in an unlocked drawer in your unlocked office. ”
“Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so great.” Harvey looked to the door Avery had closed behind her, maybe wishing again for rescue.
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “I need a better timeline on when the theft occurred. Don’t give me this bullshit that you don’t know the date.
I understand that you’re trying to divert Avery, and good luck with that.
You’ve known her as long as I have. She’s not easily distracted when she sinks her teeth in.
If she were, she wouldn’t have her brewery. ”
“Let me pull up my calendar,” Harvey said in defeat. He was too much the attorney not to have noted the date. I followed his fingers as he flipped through the appointment book on his desk. Nearly five weeks before.
Fuck . Whatever trail we might have would be stone cold. There were cameras on Harvey’s building. I’d talk to Hawk and see what he could pull, but I wasn’t feeling hopeful. Even Hawk didn’t hold on to footage forever.
“What are you going to do?” Harvey asked.
“About what?”
“About the necklace and the girls looking into all this.”
“What do you suggest I do?” I asked, already knowing what he’d say.
“Tell them to let it go,” Harvey said, his voice sharp.
“I should have reported the theft, I know that, but I hoped that if the necklace went away, they would drop it. This is a ticking bomb. You and I both know Ford is innocent. Whoever manufactured the evidence that forced you to put him in prison also supplied the alibi that got him back out.”
I nodded. I didn’t need Harvey to tell me that.
“And you and I both know,” Harvey went on, “that the reason they got Ford out of prison was because they couldn’t take him out inside.”
I gave a sharp nod. That was my guess as well.
Not long before video evidence of his alibi appeared in a pawnshop, someone had tried to assassinate Ford Sawyer in prison.
The guards had stopped the attempt. And now Ford was out—a far easier target than he had been in prison.
For now, he was sticking close to home, letting Hawk and Griffen’s tight security keep him safe, but he wouldn’t let himself be caged forever.
As soon as he got restless, it would be open season on Ford Sawyer.
I hadn’t figured out the why of it all. My best guess was that Ford knew something—maybe something he didn’t know he knew.
A part of me wondered if it was possible Ford had been the target all along.
If not the primary target, a secondary one?
Had whoever showed up at the house and assassinated Prentice Sawyer planned to go after Ford next?
The not knowing would drive me mad if I thought about it too much.
I had a town to protect—a town filled with people who weren’t Sawyers.
“You know this is dangerous,” Harvey said, leaning in, his eyes on the door Avery had exited through only a few minutes before. “We don’t know who’s behind this. We don’t know what they want or who they’ll go after next. The girls shouldn’t be poking around. Quinn was kidnapped and Sterling?—”
“None of that had anything to do with Prentice,” I said. The details weren’t Harvey’s business, but I knew that with one hundred percent certainty. “No one’s come directly at the family in a while. What makes you so sure the girls are in danger?”
Harvey leaned back, looked down at his desk. “It just seemed safer if it all went away.”
“Safer for who?” I pressed. “For the girls or for you?”
Harvey just shook his head, refusing to meet my eyes. My gut didn’t like any of this. I wouldn’t have said I trusted Harvey with my life, but I’d never thought of him as one of the bad guys. Now I wasn’t so sure.
“I’m going to talk to Hawk and see what the security team can pull from the date of the break-in here.” I watched his face carefully, but there was no reaction, no request that I just let it go and not investigate. “I’ll keep you posted,” I said and turned for the door.
Harvey let me go without a farewell.
I nodded at Louise on my way out, glad to see my SUV was still where I’d left it, Avery in the passenger seat, her arms crossed over her chest, fuming quietly until I got in.
“I never thought I’d say this,” she said, “but I don’t trust Harvey. Am I off base here, or was that really odd?”