10. June
JUNE
June pressed play again. The interview continued.
Victoria described her growing conviction that someone close to her father had taken over the family business.
She mentioned Carly Dillinger’s stolen jewelry in passing, the Strand heirloom set that her father and grandfather had spent years pursuing.
She described Cynthia’s missing crystal shoes, the real ones, stolen from a bank safe.
Gilbert pressed her gently about how she could be certain of any of it.
“Because my father always told me he’d leave a legacy, whether I wanted it or not,” Victoria replied quietly.
“And because when Cynthia’s shoes went missing, the last person to check them out of the safe was Alvin.
At first, we thought Alvin was the thief.
After all, his father and mine had been really good friends. ”
“Did Alvin steal the shoes?” Gilbert asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
“No.” Victoria shook her head. “Alvin thought he was taking them out to have them cleaned, which really alarmed Cynthia and me. Who cleaned the bejeweled costume-made crystal shoes that cost a small fortune?”
“Especially when they were stored in a vault,” Gilbert added, and Victoria nodded in agreement.
“That’s how we first noticed something was wrong with Alvin. His story kept changing. He said the postman had come to collect them to take them to the cleaners.”
“But that wasn’t the only strange thing he was doing, right?” Gilbert pushed on. “I know when I spoke to Cynthia, she mentioned some of this.”
“No, it wasn’t the only strange thing he was doing.
” Victoria’s eyes darkened with sadness.
“Alvin had started gambling. Heavily. We thought at first he had a gambling problem. Then we realized he was losing his memory. He’d developed early-onset dementia.
He didn’t want anyone to know. Least of all Nigel, who’d already found out about the gambling and was furious with him. ”
June watched Victoria’s face carefully. “It also didn’t help that Alvin was convinced the money he’d been spending on the gambling was invested.”
The pain there was unmistakable. Victoria had loved Cynthia. She had loved Alvin too, in a different way, as the neighbor and friend he’d been to her family for decades.
“Cynthia made Nigel’s suspicions that Alvin was abusing her worse when she fell after that and looked like she’d been beaten,” Victoria continued.
“The whole town thought Alvin had hit her. He hadn’t.
He’d had a blackout and knocked into her accidentally, and she’d fallen hard.
Nigel was furious and wouldn’t believe it was an accident.
He moved Cynthia out of the house. We decided the best option was to get Alvin to a clinic in Miami for proper assessment.
To keep things quiet, Cynthia told people it was because of her bipolar diagnosis. ”
“But really, Alvin was the patient,” Gilbert confirmed.
“Yes.” Victoria nodded. “That’s when we met you.
Cynthia and I had been watching your channel for months.
We recognized you in Miami at one of the places my grandfather used to move his stolen goods through.
We were there trying to find out if her crystal shoes had been sold.
” She smiled. “We knew immediately that you were the person who could help us figure out who was behind the recent thefts.” Her eyes darkened with emotion once again.
“Cynthia believed in signs and fate. She was convinced that meeting you there that day was a big sign and you were meant to help us.”
“I said I’d help in exchange for exclusive interviews about your family, Victoria, after we cracked the case,” Gilbert said.
“Yes,” Victoria confirmed softly. “Then the day after you got into town, Cynthia was killed.”
June paused the video again.
She pressed her fingers against her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, as relieving this was getting to her. When she was ready, she unpaused it, and the interview continued.
“Cynthia was on her way to meet me and you that morning,” Gilbert said, turning toward the camera. “Cynthia had called to say she’d figured out who the postman was. Alvin had remembered. He’d seen the person’s face, and he’d remembered. She was coming to tell us.”
“At the accident scene, Cynthia had told Shaun Parker, Travis Markham, and Dylon Jones that someone was trying to kill her,” Victoria added. “Those were the firefighters who cut her from the car after the crash.”
“Did you know that Cynthia had recorded Alvin telling her who the postman was?” Gilbert told Victoria.
“She said that in order to be safe, she was going to send her phone to Shaun as she was worried that the person Alvin had seen had noticed him looking at them. The person was already nervous as I was in town.”
“Yes, you did cause quite a stir arriving in Sandpiper Shores,” Victoria agreed with him. “I think we all watch your show here.”
“I found that nearly everyone in town was more than willing to talk to me,” Gilbert told her. “Your daughter didn’t like me much, though.”
“Of course she didn’t,” Victoria said with a small snort. “Sienna was suspicious of you and thought you were there to cause trouble for her beloved grandparents. Honestly, that girl romanticized what they did. She thought they were some sort of Robin Hood types.”
“So, Sienna knew what your parents and grandparents did on the side?” Gilbert asked.
“Yes, she did,” Victoria confirmed. “Clive didn’t, and neither does my husband.”
“That’s risky, isn’t it?” Gilbert said. “Your husband is the Police Chief.”
“Exactly,” Victoria said. “I’m not sure if we need to keep that in the segment. I don’t want Tom involved in this or for his career to get tarnished because of it either.”
“You don’t think he suspects?” Gilbert pushed.
“No.” Victoria shook her head, then skillfully moved the conversation on. “You said that Cynthia sent her phone to Shaun?”
“Yes, she asked me what she should do to keep the footage safe, and I suggested it,” Gilbert told her. “He’s also been backing up everything for me as a kind of insurance if anything happens to any of us.”
“That’s good. But, Gilbert, please be careful,” Victoria pressed.
“Whoever this is, they’ve already killed Cynthia.
They’ve started fires. There have been threats, and weird incidents, and I’m genuinely frightened for you.
For all of you. For Shaun, Travis, Dylon, Basil, Margo, and anyone who’s been helping. ”
“I’ve been in more dangerous situations,” Gilbert reassured her. “But you should be careful too. We don’t know what they’ll do next.”
Victoria nodded and glanced at her watch. “I’m sorry. I have to cut this short.”
“You did warn me you couldn’t give a lot of time today,” Gilbert replied with a small smile.
“Shaun has the phone now. It arrived the other day, and we are going to go over it together. He hasn’t opened the parcel yet as he’s at the fire station and doesn’t want to take it home where it could endanger Willa and his kids. ”
“Shaun is right not to do that,” Victoria said, standing and getting ready to leave.
The interview ended.
June sat back in her chair.
Any last thread of doubt she’d been holding on to about Victoria’s guilt had just quietly unraveled completely.
Victoria had been one of them. Victoria had been working with Gilbert, Shaun, and the firefighters from the beginning.
And someone had spent the past decade making sure no one ever found out.
June scrolled through the remaining files.
Her eyes caught on one labeled Cynthia — Final Call . Her heart began to beat faster.
She clicked it.
The audio began to play. The video was a little shaky as Cynthia held it to show Alvin.
“Alvin,” Cynthia was saying softly. “Who was the postman who fetched my crystal shoes?”
There was a long silence. Alvin frowned for a moment as he thought.
“The fire chief,” Alvin finally said, his voice clear and sure. “It was the fire chief. He and his Cinderella. The two of them. They were the postman.”
There was a small gasp from Cynthia, and her voice could be heard asking. “Alvin, are you sure?”
“Yes, honey, I’m sure,” Alvin said with a smile. “Remember how Cinderella always loved to try them on, and they were too big for her. They’re not anymore.”
The recording ended.
June stared at the screen wondering who the fire chief and Cinderella were . But by Cynthia’s reaction, she had known who it was.
She frowned and made a note in the legal pad she’d brought with her. Fire chief. Cinderella. Two people. She’d come back to that.
She kept scrolling through the files.
Then she saw the last one.
Shaun Parker — for June.
The date was three days before the cabin fire. The same day Shaun had mailed the Barbara Bass books to her house.
June’s throat closed.
She held her finger above the touchpad for a long moment before she could make herself click.
Shaun’s face filled the screen.
His face, her son-in-law’s face, the father of her grandchildren, the man who had loved her daughter with every breath he took, the same face she hadn’t seen in ten years except in photographs.
He was sitting in what looked like the back room of the fire station, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, his hair slightly damp like he’d just come off a shift and showered.
He looked pale.
His forehead was sweating. A faint tremor moved through his hand as he reached to adjust the camera, and June saw him wince, a brief, sharp twist of his mouth as the movement sent pain through him.
“Shaun.” June heard herself whisper his name out loud. Her finger reached out to the screen as she was already swiping at her cheeks.