18. Margot
CHAPTER 18
Margot
“ R epeat the riddle,” Lance says.
“‘Roses are red, violets are blue, wherever I go, you’re coming too. By the seashore, by the seaside, I’ll be forgotten, swept away by the tide.’” Jaxson is pacing back and forth, trying his best to keep his tone level, but I can see his fear.
It’s written all over his face. All over all of our faces.
I’m sitting in the lighthouse while Lance is standing before a dry-erase board, writing down the riddle Lanetti relayed to Jaxson. Elijah has headphones on and is still combing through the B&B’s exterior security footage, while Silas sits on a desk, staring at the riddle.
Jaxson keeps pacing.
He’d wanted to take me to Michael’s first, drop me off then come here, but with how shaken he was, I insisted on driving us here. My brother and Reyna are dropping Matty off with my parents, then coming straight over here as soon as he’s settled.
“Wherever I go, you’re coming too. Is that referring to you finding her?” I ask.
“That would be my bet,” Lance replies. “How did this guy work before?”
“It’s not the same person,” Jaxson says, stopping and placing both hands on the back of a chair. “My former partner confirmed that Morah’s still in prison and no one has visited him since he was convicted.”
“So a copycat.” Silas continues staring straight ahead. “That means he could be a wildcard.”
“He already proved that by letting Lanetti go, then grabbing her again.” Jaxson straightens and crosses his arms.
“You think he let her go on purpose?”
Jaxson nods. “It was a game. A way to show us what he’s capable of.”
“I don’t see anything we can use,” Elijah says as he removes his headphones. He looks up, his gaze traveling over everyone in the room. “Sorry, I didn’t hear anything else. What happened?”
“We’re about to dive headfirst into one of the most difficult cases of my career. You said there’s nothing we can use?”
He shakes his head. “A couple stills of the guy as he was slipping out of the B&B. He did climb out of the window.”
“How did he get in? ”
“Looks like your apartment,” he tells me.
My blood chills. “What?”
“Because he came in when the alarm was disabled, we didn’t get a proximity alert. It looks like whoever it was entered through your bedroom window.”
“My bedroom? He was in my bedroom?” The room around me begins to spin as panic sets in. “I feel sick.” Bile burns in my throat.
Jaxson crosses over and stands beside me, then presses a hand to my upper back where he starts rubbing slow circles. “You and Matty are safe,” he reminds me. “That’s what matters.”
My mind is reeling, going over the events of the evening while trying to figure out just how someone managed to get in through my bedroom window. I always check to make sure it’s locked. Literally every single night before I go to bed. Which means they had to have come in at a time earlier in the day and unlocked it. All without me knowing. Matty. Matty had been home. They could have hurt him.
The room spins faster and faster.
I look up at Jaxson. “The pipes. What if someone loosened them to distract me so they could get upstairs?”
Jaxson’s gaze darkens.
“What pipes?” Lance asks.
“The pipes in Matty’s bathroom were leaking. I was distracted while I tried to get the water to stop pouring out. What if they used that to sneak upstairs?”
“But I came from upstairs, and I didn’t see anyone. ”
“It’s entirely possible that they managed to get up before you saw them, though. It was at least five minutes before you got downstairs. It had to be.” I try to recall feeling like anything was off, but I’d been so occupied with my nerves over the night as well as the pipes that I probably would’ve missed an entire drumline if they’d played through the B&B. “And whoever it is must have gotten into my apartment through the front. They had to have. I don’t see how they got in through my bedroom window when I lock it every single night.”
“We didn’t see anyone on the cameras,” Elijah insists. “Just your registered guests, and nothing popped as out of the ordinary with any of them. We ran backgrounds,” he adds.
I can’t even get into how violated that would likely make my guests feel if they knew about it, because right now my top priority is trying to make sure Matty is secure.
“Is it possible Matty unlocked the window?” Lance asks.
“No, I—” I groan and cover my face. “It was me. I did open the window before church. It was so nice out, and I wanted to get some fresh air into the apartment. I must have forgotten to lock it.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It is my fault,” I snap at Jaxson. “Whoever set my B&B on fire got in because I forgot to lock my window. They had direct access to my son because of my carelessness.” My eyes fill, and I suck in a breath. How stupid could I be?
The door opens, and Michael steps in, Reyna at his side. My brother’s dark gaze, so like my own, finds me, and I rush forward, feeling like a terrified little girl again who’d had a nightmare and went to her big brother for help.
He wraps his arms around me, and I hold on to him, breathing in his familiar scent.
Jaxson makes me feel safe.
But my big brother will always feel like home.
“It’s okay, sis. Matty is with Mom and Dad, and we’ll catch this guy, okay? Both of them,” he adds, and I know that he’s speaking about whoever took Lanetti.
Sniffling, I pull away, then take a deep breath and steady my emotions. “Okay.”
“Catch me up on what we’ve got,” Michael says, then leans back against the desk as Reyna moves to my side and wraps an arm around my waist.
“Hey, sweetie, can I come in?” My mom cracks the door to my childhood bedroom, then peeks inside.
“Sure thing.” I set my pen aside and turn to face her in the desk chair that’s been mine since my freshman year of high school.
My mom walks into the room, then takes a seat on the edge of my bed. “Matty and Dad are outside working in the shop.”
I smile, so happy that they’re bonding. It wasn’t too long ago that my dad, a former cop now bound to a wheelchair, would do nothing but sit in front of the television, depressed and wishing he’d died rather than been injured. “That’s good.”
“Yeah. It’s nice to see them together. Matty looks a lot like your father did when he was younger. Same as Michael.”
“Our genes run strong,” I reply.
My mom chuckles. “How are you holding up?”
“Not great. I barely had enough money to keep the doors open as it was, and now with the fire—I’m just not sure I can afford to reopen.” I fight back the tears threatening to spill. Crying will do me no good. I know that, but I still cried my eyes out in the shower earlier. I haven’t even begun to consider how I’m going to pay Jaxson back too.
All in all, I am grateful no one was hurt in the fire, but I’m not sure how I’m going to climb out of this one.
“God will see you through, baby girl. He always will.”
“Maybe this B&B isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing.” I run my hands over my face.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just—it’s been an uphill battle, Mom. It ruined my marriage?—”
“No. It didn’t ruin your marriage,” my mom interrupts. “Chad ruined your marriage because he couldn’t be faithful.” The anger on her face is potent, which is honestly amusing given the fact that my mom is one of the most even-tempered people I’ve ever met .
“It wasn’t until the B&B that we started having problems.”
“This life tests us all. He failed. You didn’t. The B&B had nothing to do with it.” She runs her hands over the skirt of her dress, smoothing out the light blue fabric.
“Either way, I just don’t see how I reopen. I have to reimburse everyone who’s been displaced and handle the fact that their personal belongings either have water and smoke damage or were destroyed altogether. Then I’ll have to pay the deductible and any additional out of pocket expenses the insurance won’t cover, somehow pay the bills while it’s in repair—” I close my eyes as the walls start to close in on me again.
My mom’s hand covers mine, so I open my eyes to see that she’s now kneeling in front of me. “It’ll all work out, baby. Don’t lose sight of your dreams.”
“What if it doesn’t? I have nothing else, Mom. I have no husband to help cover bills, which means I’ll have to get a full-time job, but I don’t have any actual skills. I went from school straight to being a mom.” Fear shreds me apart. What will I do? How will Matty get into college? I’ll likely need every penny I’ve saved for him just to get us a place to live.
“You hush right now, Margot Anderson. You are the smartest, most talented woman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I will not hear you talk poorly on yourself just because you’ve hit a speed bump. You hear me? ”
“A road bump? My entire business—and home, by the way—nearly burned completely to the ground.”
“That doesn’t mean you get to say terrible things about yourself, young lady.”
I let out a laugh. Leave it to my mom to put things into perspective. The woman has never met an obstacle that took her down. “You’re right.”
“I know I am. You and Matty will stay here until your B&B is repaired, and then you’ll be right back on your feet. Your dad and I can help with the bills.”
“No, Mom. You guys are not going to help with that.”
“Yes, we are. In fact, your father already called the bank this morning and paid your mortgage on the place for the next six months.”
“Six months?” I choke on the words. “What? Why?”
“Because you’re our daughter, Margot, and there’s not a thing we won’t do for you.” She stands and takes a seat back on the bed.
“You guys can’t afford that, Mom. Seriously. I’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t have to do it all on your own. And yes, we can. We’ve been squirreling money away for decades. Take the help, honey.” She smiles softly at me.
“That was for retirement. Not this.”
“Honey, trust me that things will be okay.” She squeezes my hand. “And if you can’t trust my words, trust in God. He’s never let you down, and He’s certainly not going to stop now.” She arches a brow. “Why don’t you tell me about how things are going with that gorgeous detective?”
“What?” The conversation change, has me confused.
“Don’t treat me like a fool, Margot. I see the way he looks at you. And more importantly, the way you look at him.”
“We’re just friends.” My cheeks heat, though, because even with everything going on, my thoughts drift to our near-kiss. “I do like him, though. I just don’t see how it would work.”
“Which part?”
“Matty needs me. He needs stability.”
“And you don’t think Jaxson could provide that?” Her tone tells me that she does.
“I do, I just don’t want to risk starting something and having him get attached. Besides, Jaxson is one of Michael’s best friends.”
“Which makes me like him even more. Your brother is an excellent judge of character. He never did like Chad.”
“Fair enough.” I laugh. “Still, Jaxson may not even be interested in taking us on in that way. It’s one thing to date, it’s another to take on a child, too.”
“The man has been living at your B&B in a tiny apartment when we both know he could have bought an actual house.”
“Mom.”
“Am I wrong?” She arches a brow again, and I shake my head.
“You’re not wrong. But he’s been able to save money staying with me, so I imagine that was some of the draw.” Again, I leave out his financial help because if I tell her, she’s going to read way more into it than there is.
“I very much doubt that.” She stands. “Now, I have to go cook, but I wanted to forewarn you that I have every intention of inviting him over for dinner since he’s currently staying with your brother and Reyna.”
The smile that graces my face comes out of nowhere, as do the butterflies that flutter to life in my stomach.
My mother grins. “That’s what I thought.”