Chapter 8
JUNE
By the time they stepped out of Harvey’s repair shop, the Florida sun felt too bright for the conversation they had just had.
June paused on the sidewalk for a second, letting the warmth hit her face while she watched Margo.
Harvey’s words still seemed to hang in the air around them, invisible and heavy.
The bracelet. Sienna. Victoria. The truck.
The terrible new possibility that whoever had orchestrated the crash and the confusion around it might not have been after Lucy, Lacey, or June at all. They might have been after Margo.
Margo stood with her purse tucked tight beneath one arm, her expression composed in the way people got when they were holding themselves together by sheer will.
Her face had lost some color, and there was a stillness to her that made June uneasy.
Margo was not usually still. She was warm hands, quick smiles, dry comments, and steady motion.
Seeing her like this unsettled June more than she wanted to admit.
“Are you okay?” June asked quietly.
Margo glanced at her and gave a small nod that did not fool June for a second.
“I’m fine,” Margo lied, and June knew it as she lifted one brow.
“Really?” June remarked.
“All right. Fine is probably generous. I just need a little time to clear my head.” Margo let out a breath that might have become a laugh on another day.
“Go back to the inn. Get everyone together for a meeting when you feel up to it.” Holt, standing on Margo’s other side, kept his voice even.
“That’s what I was thinking. We can use the conference room at the Sandpiper Inn. It’s private, and I can control the surroundings and who comes in and out.” Margo straightened slightly, as if the practical instruction had helped her get a firmer grip on herself.
“That makes sense.” June nodded.
“The sooner we do it, the better,” Holt said.
“This afternoon, then. If everyone can make it.” Margo looked between them.
“I agree,” Holt told her. “The sooner, the better.”
For a moment, Margo looked as though she might say more. Instead, she gave a short nod, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’ll go and start letting everyone you said needed to be there know,” Margo told them. “Just to clarify, it’s you two, me, Rad, Willa, and Harvey.” She glanced between them again. “You’re not sure about Ace, so I’ll keep him on the no list for now.”
“I thought we were going to get Carmen and Zane involved as well?” June asked Holt.
“Yes,” Holt agreed with a nod and turned to Margo. “We need Carmen and Zane there as well.”
“What about Chief Mori…” Margo stopped and pursed her lips. “Of course, now I know why he’s taken a back seat to all the car investigations and fires. Because his son and now his daughter may be involved.”
“Margo…” June started.
“Tom doesn’t know about the bracelet of Sienna’s involvement,” Holt finished June’s sentence, and his look said it all.
“Of course, I won’t say a word,” Margo promised and glanced back at the auto repair shop.
“And I can tell you again, neither will Harvey. He may be head over heels in love with Sienna and Clive’s good friend, but he also knows what it means to not impede an investigation.
Goodness knows he’s been through a few with his father in his time. ”
“I know,” Holt stated. “I knew Harvey’s father. We grew up here in Sandpiper Shores together. Harvey is more like his uncle, who was instrumental in ending his brother’s criminal car theft empire.”
“But for all Harvey’s father’s flaws, he was still a good father, unlike a certain mother we all know and frown upon,” Margo said and nodded across the street where Victoria’s car was parked.
“She’s doing her usual order at the store for the yacht club.
I’m not sure who is going to take over running that place when she finally takes her coffin and leaves Sandpiper Shores. ”
“Margo!” June said, unable to hide her smile.
“You know she’s moving to Miami, right?” Margo pointed out looking at June.
“Yes,” June said, frowning as she remembered. “I think I did hear that somewhere. Luckily, Miami is a big place.”
“Just be careful,” Holt warned, something flashing in his eyes. “Victoria can be as sweet and charming as anyone when she needs something and she’s moving to a city where she doesn’t know a lot of people. But she knows you are there and how prominent your family is in Miami.”
That jolted June as she hadn’t thought about that and really didn’t need the likes of Victoria trying to break into June’s limited social circle in her hometown.
“Don’t worry, I’m not in Victoria’s social league,” June told them, and her gaze settled worryingly on Margo once again. “Margo, you don’t have to get everyone together and host this meeting today if you’d rather not. You’ve already been through enough without this revelation on your mind.”
“No, really, it’s fine. Right now, I need something useful to do.” Margo gave her a look that was part gratitude and part stubbornness.
June understood that. Too well.
Holt seemed to understand it too, because his expression softened, even if only a little.
“Then do that. Just don’t push yourself too hard.” He gave her an encouraging smile.
“I’ll try not to.” Margo looked at June once more, then at Holt, and drew in a steadying breath. “I’ll see you both later at the Sandpiper Inn. What about around four-thirty this afternoon?”
“Perfect,” June answered before Holt could.
They said their goodbyes, and Margo turned and headed toward her car.
June watched her go. Margo’s walk was steady, but there was something brittle under it, something June felt in her own chest. She waited until Margo had pulled out and driven away before she looked back at Holt.
“Do you think she’s right?” June turned and looked at Holt, who stood towering over her.
He didn’t ask her what she meant. He simply slid his hands into the pockets of his jacket and looked in the direction Margo had gone.
“It’s feasible,” he said after a moment. “But feasible isn’t proof. Right now we’ve got theory, pattern, and timing. We don’t have anything concrete.”
June folded her arms lightly, thinking it through again and hating that the shape of it still refused to settle into anything clean.
“None of it fits neatly.” Frustration clawed at her.
“No.” Holt’s mouth flattened. “It doesn’t.”
One minute, it had seemed as if Lucy and June were the obvious targets.
Then Lacey had ended up trapped in a fire.
Then Margo had nearly died in Teacups. Now Judy lay in a coma, and the lines between victim, witness, and intended target had turned into a knot with no clear signs of how to untangle it.
June glanced toward the street, though there was nothing to see except ordinary traffic, a couple walking past with iced drinks, and a gull strutting along the curb like it owned the town.
Sandpiper Shores looked exactly as it always had on the surface. Bright water. Breezy storefronts. Sun-washed sidewalks. Flower boxes. Tourists. Locals. The kind of small town people imagined when they talked about safety, family, and second chances.
But right now, underneath it, something poisonous kept moving.
“I need to check whether Lacey can have visitors later,” June murmured, more to herself than to Holt. “If she can, I want to stop by.”
“That’s a good idea.” Holt nodded. “No one has been able to speak to her since she was found unconscious in the forest.”
“Except for Dean,” June told him. “Have you asked Dean to speak to her for you?”
“I didn’t want to impose,” Holt admitted.
“I can ask Dean for you,” June said.
“Or you could just both ask me now,” Dean’s voice had them turn to see him stepping onto the sidewalk beside them.
“Sorry, June, I didn’t mean to make you jump.
I saw the two of you across from the store and thought I’d stop by to see how everything was going.
I’ve been out of touch with everything.”
“How is Lacey?” June asked.
“Getting better,” Dean said. “Her memory is still fuzzy, and she hasn’t said anything more about who attacked her because she doesn’t seem to remember.
Lucy explained that the head injury appears to have wiped out her memory of what happened right around the attack.
She might get pieces of it back, but there’s no guarantee, and Lucy doesn’t want anyone pressing her. ”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Holt said, and June could see the flash of resignation in his eyes, realizing the one person who may have seen their attacker would be able to help them. “Please send her my love and let her know my family and I are thinking about her.”
“Please send her the same message from us as well,” June told him. “I was going to ask Lucy if I could see Lacey today.”
“I’ll tell Lacey,” Dean assured them. “Lucy is still being very selective about who gets to see Lacey because she doesn’t want her getting stressed out.
” His eyes flashed with concern, and his voice lowered slightly.
“Early this morning, Lacey had a panic attack and didn’t know why.
She said she felt as though the danger was right in front of her, but whatever she was remembering wouldn’t come fully into focus. ”
“Oh, no,” June said, her heart squeezing. “That must be so frightening for her. Especially someone as independent and in control of things like Lacey always is.”
“It’s not the first one she’s had since the attack, either,” Dean told them. “Between Noah, his wife, Lucy, and me, we take turns to ensure one of us is at her side all the time. Lacey won’t admit it, but she gets very anxious when left alone now.”
“Oh, Dean…” June’s heart filled with compassion for what her friend must be going through.
“Please, I know I’m not being much help right now,” Dean told them. “But please, we need to get this mystery resolved and whoever is behind this locked up as soon as we can.”
“We know,” Holt told him, and patted his arm. “We’re getting closer.”
“Let me know if you need my help,” Dean told them. “And if you don’t mind keeping me updated?”
“We will,” Holt promised him.
Dean glanced at his wristwatch. “I’d better get back to the hospital.”
They said their goodbyes and Dean left.
“I guess that answered that question,” Holt said as they watched Dean walk to his car.
“My heart breaks for Lacey,” June said. “We really do need to get this mystery solved.”
“Agreed,” Holt said as he started toward the station, and she fell into step beside him.
For a few moments, they walked in silence, each too deep in thought to fill it. June appreciated that about Holt. Silence with him had never felt empty. It simply gave room for thought.
The police station was only a short distance away, but June barely noticed the walk. Her mind kept circling the same things over and over again. This case or cases, if the fires and accidents weren’t connected, were like hitting a brick wall as far as motive or suspect was concerned.
June glanced back to where Victoria’s car was still parked near the grocery store.
Was she the one sitting at the center of all this?
She’d certainly know the routines of everyone in the town as well as the ins and outs of it.
But the motives were pretty slim. Jealousy over…
what? It didn’t add up. June could understand if Victoria wanted June out of town because of Holt, and the woman did dislike Lucy and Lacey; she always had.
June could understand her being territorial over Tom, Victoria’s ex-husband, but Margo?
Or Judy? Okay, maybe with Margo, Victoria could be hitting back because of Lucy’s renewed relationship with Tom.
The two of them were high school sweethearts, set to get married, until his parents put a stop to it.
Then Victoria’s parents and Tom’s parents had forced a marriage between the two of them.
Could bitterness and jealousy really be the motive for all this?
Then what about the bracelet? How had that come to be in the Morrisons’ possession?
Who had taken the jewelry set? Was it Victoria or… She glanced at Holt.
June knew he didn’t want to think about it, as he and Tom had been boyhood friends, but they had to keep it as a possibility that Tom could have taken the set as well. But still, how did this all connect to everything that had happened recently? Nothing lined up in a way June trusted.
“I wish Judy were conscious,” Holt said suddenly as they reached the station steps. “I’ve got a feeling she knows a lot more about what’s going on here than we do.”
“Especially now that we know the one other person that may have been able to help us can’t.” June reached for the door. “Let’s hope Rad’s contact can find something concrete on Judy’s devices.”
Holt nodded once, and they went inside.