Chapter 11 Rad
RAD
On the drive to the station, Rad’s mind kept hopping tracks. The bracelet. The safe. Sienna’s whispered explanation. The fact that she had trusted him instead of going to her father. The even bigger fact that she clearly trusted her mother even less.
When he pulled into the lot, he grabbed only his keys and headed inside.
He nearly ran into Chief Morrison in the corridor.
“Where have you been?” Tom Morrison stopped, glanced at him once, then at the clock on the wall.
“Out on a noise complaint call,” Rad lied, keeping his tone easy.
Tom nodded.
“Any updates on the fire?” Tom asked him.
“Not yet. We’re still waiting on some forensics and a little more information, but I’m working more closely with my father and June now. We’re getting closer.” Rad gave him a tight smile.
“Good, good.” Tom checked his watch and sighed. “I’ve got a meeting with the mayor. Keep me updated.”
“I will.” Rad gave a small salute as Tom walked past him.
Rad stood still for a second after he was gone, then let out a quiet breath and headed for evidence storage.
He signed out a standard latent print kit, an evidence camera, scale markers, swabs, powder, lifting tape, envelopes, and a small flashlight. Enough to document what he could without turning her private panic into a precinct event.
On the way back through the hall, he paused outside his father’s office.
It was empty, and June was not there either.
Rad stood a moment longer, then patted the envelope in his pocket and kept going. He couldn’t exactly open it in the middle of the station without inviting questions, and right now, questions were the one thing he didn’t need.
So Rad took the kit out to his car, got inside, shut the door, and only then pulled out the envelope.
There were photographs inside.
He went through them one by one.
His brows lifted.
Then lifted again.
“How many sets of jewelry do these people have?” Rad muttered.
The pieces looked old, valuable, and heavy with family history. Not all to his taste, but he was not the target market for diamond tiaras and heirloom necklaces. Then Rad found the bracelet.
There it was.
White gold. Distinctive. Matching exactly the one found at Teacups.
And with it, a necklace, ring, and earrings.
Rad sat back against the seat and exhaled slowly.
There were other photographs too. Watches. More jewelry. Several items that looked antique and wildly expensive. Then he unfolded the itemized list.
His eyes widened.
“One hundred thousand dollars in cash?” Who the heck kept that much cash in a safe?
Rad scanned lower.
There were several negotiable bond certificates. A group of high-end watches. Other smaller items. Then, near the bottom, something that made him stop and blink.
A pair of crystal pumps with diamonds.
He stared at the line, then flipped to the matching photo.
“Good grief,” Rad said softly. “Who does she think she is, Cinderella?” First, she’d pictured herself as Goldilocks in the forest, and then she’d gotten a pair of glass slippers.
He looked at the shoes a second longer.
“They must be so uncomfortable.” Rad shuddered. He couldn’t imagine why women would torture their feet like that.
Then he shook his head, slid the list back into the envelope, and noticed a piece of paper had fallen onto the floor. He reached down and lifted it. As he unfolded it, his brows lifted.
People who know about the safe and its contents:
Rad’s eyebrows lifted. There were six names on the list.
“Didn’t Sienna say only two people knew about it?” Rad asked no one in particular.
Rad could understand why four of them were on the list, and the fifth one was reasonable as well. But the sixth name? Well, that didn’t make sense at all, but it might tie a piece of the puzzle together… somehow.
Rad shoved the list back into the envelope, started the car, and headed back to the Morrisons’.
When he got back to the mansion, Sienna was waiting again. This time, she didn’t come out to drag him anywhere, but she met him at the side entrance to the pool house with enough tension in her shoulders to make it clear she had been watching for him.
“You didn’t tell anyone, did you?” was the first thing Sienna asked him.
“No,” Rad said. “I got the kit and went over your list.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Okay.”
Inside, he set his equipment down on the floor of the main bedroom and got to work.
He started with photographs. Exterior door.
Entry hall. Hallway. Bedroom. Closet. Close-ups of the damaged hinges, the torn frame, and the wall cavity where the safe had been mounted.
He took overall shots, detail shots, shots with scale markers, and more than once had to ask Sienna to step back because she kept hovering too close.
“Sorry,” Sienna muttered once.
“You hovering makes me nervous.” He glanced up. “And you’re getting in the way.”
“It’s my house.” Sienna went back into snooty mode for a few seconds.
“It’s my crime scene.” Rad’s brows rose as his trumped hers in importance at that moment.
That quieted her for a few minutes, and she gave him some breathing room.
Rad dusted the door handle, the closet trim, the jagged inner edges of the damaged wall, and the bedroom window locks, though nothing suggested entry that way.
He checked the floor for impressions and found only partial smudges that could have been left by anyone who lived in or serviced the house.
He swabbed one splintered section where it appeared the skin might have brushed rough wood during removal.
The safe was not small. Whoever took it had either come prepared with tools and time or known exactly what they were doing.
Likely both. Rad glanced out the glass doors. He’d have to walk a path through the yard into the woods.
His phone rang just as he was crouched beside the closet baseboard, checking for scrape patterns.
He glanced at the screen.
It was Margo.
Rad’s heart did a stupid little flip he would have denied under oath.
“Hi.” He stood and answered at once.
“Hi.” Margo’s voice was softer than usual, but steadier than it had been since the fire. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” Rad said automatically, then corrected himself because she always seemed to hear the truth anyway. “A bit hoarse still, but fine. How are you feeling?”
There was a pause.
“Better.” Margo’s voice also sounded a little rough still.
“Have you gone back to Teacups?” He leaned one shoulder against the wall, turning slightly away from Sienna.
“No,” Margo answered him. “And you?”
“No,” Rad told her, feeling like he was sixteen and having a very awkward phone call with a girl he had a crush on.
“Have you spoken to your father or June at the police station yet?” Margo moved the conversation away from the trap they were falling into.
“No. I haven’t seen my father since breakfast.” Rad frowned, worry slicing through him. “Why? Has something happened?”
“June and your father will explain it later this afternoon,” Margo said. “Can you make a meeting at the Sandpiper Inn? I’m setting up the meeting room for a briefing on the fires, incidents, and accidents.”
“Sure. What time?” Rad’s eyes narrowed.
“About four-thirty,” Margo told him.
“I can be there.” Rad picked up his notebook and jotted it down. “Do I need to bring anything?”
“No. Just come with whatever information you can offer to the case.” Margo sounded like she was walking and working as she spoke. He could hear objects being moved and put down in the background.
Rad’s mind briefly flipped to the envelope still in his car and the information he’d just gotten from Sienna about the jewelry. “All right.”
“Well,” Margo said, and he could hear the faint movement of things being shifted in the background, “I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“See you then.” They hung up.
He finished the scene work as efficiently as he could.
A few partial prints looked usable. Not many.
The damage to the wall told him the thief had worked with force but not recklessly.
There was no pointless destruction, no scattered drawers, no amateur mess.
Whoever had done it knew what they wanted and where it was.
This also indicated it was one of those six names on the list.
“Sienna, did any of the cleaning crew know what was in this closet?” Rad asked her.
“No.” Sienna shook her head. “It was always closed. I rarely open it.”
When he finally stripped off the gloves, Sienna straightened from where she had been standing by the window.
“I’ve finished,” he told her.
“And?” Sienna’s brows lifted in expectation as if he’d been able to solve it just by taking evidence.
“And now I need to see if I can find out if the thief really did go through the glass door and then into the woods.” Rad looked at her. “Was this glass door open?”
“No.” Sienna shook her head again. “But it was unlocked, and I keep it locked unless I’m using it.”
“So then it’s feasible they used it,” Rad stated and glanced at the forest. “Well, it looks like I’m off to the woods today to find a thief.”
“I’ll come with you,” Sienna offered. “I know the forest very well, and you don’t, so please don’t argue.”
Rad looked at her for a long second, then gave a reluctant nod.
“Fine. But you stay behind me if we find anything.” It was better than getting lost in the woods.
Sienna quickly slipped off her sandals and stepped into a pair of sneakers by the door. Rad waited while she changed out of the sandals she had been wearing, his gaze drifting toward the back garden.
From inside, the route looked deceptively simple. A stretch of trimmed lawn. A line of shrubs. Then the darker edge of the woods beyond.
Outside, the heat pressed down harder, thick with Florida damp and the faint green smell of growing things. Rad stepped onto the stone patio first and paused while Sienna locked the pool house behind them.
“Show me exactly where you think someone would’ve gone,” he said.