Chapter 12 Holt
HOLT
By the time Holt and Rad reached the conference room at the Sandpiper Inn, Holt had gone over the structure of the meeting so many times in his head that he could already see the boards laid out in neat columns.
What he couldn’t do was predict how the people in the room were going to take it once they saw everything put together in one place.
That was the problem with cases like this. When the pieces were scattered, people could still pretend they were isolated events. A bad fire. A strange accident. A threatening note. A missing piece of evidence. Put them all together, and the pattern became far harder to ignore.
Rad reached for the conference room door first and opened it.
The soft hum of conversation inside stopped for a beat when they stepped in.
Holt took in the room at once.
June sat at the long conference table nearest the front with a legal pad open in front of her and a mug of coffee at her right hand.
Willa stood beside the refreshments table, helping Margo set out the last of the cups, plates, and napkins.
Carmen sat with her arms folded, one ankle crossed over the other, her expression already guarded in the way it always was when she expected something unpleasant.
Zane was beside her with a notebook open and a pen ready.
Harvey was at the front of the room, wheeling in a third whiteboard exactly as Holt and Rad entered.
“There you go,” Harvey said as he angled the board into place. “That's the last one, as you ordered.”
“Thank you, Harvey,” Holt thanked him with a nod.
“All the pens are there,” Harvey told him, pointing to the pens neatly lined up on the desk in front of the boards. “I got all the colors I could find.”
“Those are fine.” Holt glanced to where Harvey had pointed and quickly moved the boards slightly to give him space.
June stood and moved towards him.
“Do you need my help with anything?” June asked.
“No, it looks like everything’s handled.
” Holt smiled despite the weight pressing at the back of his mind as he was about to hold back some information about the jewelry and what he’d found out from his mother.
But then again, there was no connection to that investigation at the moment.
Other than how and why the bracelet was in Teacups.
He pulled the folder from under his arm and placed it in front of him as Rad set his own file down beside them and sat opposite June.
Margo, with Willa’s help, adjusted the refreshments one last time, then turned toward the table. Holt noticed the shadows beneath her eyes and the forced steadiness in her movements. She looked composed, but only because she had set her jaw and decided she was going to stay that way.
He understood that kind of discipline.
“All right,” Holt said. “Get coffee, get water, get whatever sugar you need before this starts, while I fill the boards.”
“Do you need help, Dad?” Rad asked.
“No, thanks, son,” Holt said. “I have this already set out in my mind.”
While they settled, Holt glanced at the selection of marker pens and checked them quickly.
Red. Green. Blue. Brown. Black. Purple. Orange.
Holt turned to the center board first.
At the top, in black pen, he wrote in block capitals:
CURRENT INVESTIGATIONS
Then he paused for a second, considering the layout.
Holt had originally planned too many categories. That would only make the board look like a chaos map from a television crime show, and all that would do was lose people. He needed it clear, simple, and direct. Enough structure to guide the room, not enough to drown it.
Holt drew five strong vertical lines, dividing the board into six columns.
In blue, at the top of the first column, he wrote:
INCIDENTS
Then, beneath it in black, he began writing.
1. Windows at the cottage broken. Margo.
2. Tires slashed. Willa and Rad.
3. File cabinets pushed over. Rad.
4. Locked in police files room. Rad.
5. Collapsing shelf in office. Likely aimed at Rad. Tom injured instead.
6. Stolen or missing evidence from police lockup.
7. Lured to the burnt-out cabin in the forest. Lacey. Intended target likely Lucy and June.
8. Security cameras at Henderson Farm parking area vandalized and down for several days.
9. Stolen truck. Belongs to Lucy. Taken from Harvey’s repair shop.
10. Dr. Judy Vernon kidnapped from Cedar Key beach parking area. Smartwatch believed to be hers found there.
11. Judy Vernon’s hotel room searched. Devices left behind.
12. Cedar Key Inn reported Judy checked out by phone at 8:30 p.m. the night before she was found. Night clerk said she sounded strange, as if she had a cold.
13. Lucy’s truck found on outskirts of Gainesville. Completely wrecked and missing bumpers.
14. Duplicate truck found hidden under tarp about five to seven miles from Hollow Pond, opposite side of road from where Judy was found.
15. Duplicate truck stripped of identifying marks. Missing bumpers from Lucy’s truck attached to it.
By then, the room had gone quiet enough that he could hear Margo set down a spoon.
Holt wasn’t finished yet so he moved to the second column and, in orange, wrote:
THREATS
Under that heading, again in black, he listed:
1. Threatening note on Willa’s windshield. Told to leave the ten-years-ago investigation alone.
2. Threatening note left on Teacups’ door for Margo. Local always better.
3. Pink letter meant for Lucy and June. Ended up with Lacey. “Maybe it’s time we met face to face.” Included phone number.
4. Note shoved into Holt’s pocket. Told to back off unless they wanted to hurt him.
5. Note on Rad’s windshield. Warning him to leave town and back off the investigation.
6. Note on Harvey’s windshield. Warning that this was not his fight and next time his car would do more than break down.
Holt moved to the third column and wrote in red:
FIRES
1. Ember Lake and Memorial Campground fire. Appears to have started from an illegal campsite. Red gas can found near abandoned site. No major injuries.
2. Henderson Farm fire. Started in the back fruit fields. Jumped to reserve behind the farm. Red gas can found. No major injuries.
3. Original vet office fire. A gas canister was thrown into the front entrance. Entrance barricaded from the outside. Fire also started at the rear exit. Another gas canister was thrown into the bathrooms. Lacey and Margo were inside at the time. Neither was badly injured.
4. Teacups fire. We initially thought it was caused by a faulty plate on the stove. Accelerant found. Not an accident. Margo was trapped inside. Child rescued through the bathroom window. Rad went in after Margo. Both were hospitalized with significant smoke inhalation.
At the fourth column, he used green and wrote:
ACCIDENTS / VEHICLES
1. Lacey Peltz run off road. Hit twice at rear by following vehicle. Vehicle rolled down embankment. Lacey not badly hurt and called it in. Truck belonged to Lucy Tanner.
2. Judy Vernon’s blue sedan hit at Henderson Farm while parked. Hit-and-run. No recording because cameras were down. Henderson sent sedan to repair shop in Gainesville and arranged rental car for Judy.
3. Tyler driving with Mina in empty lot near beach by lighthouse hit parking barrier pole. Front-end damage to Mina’s blue Lincoln. Checked and verified.
4. Judy Vernon found unconscious in passenger seat of rental car at Hollow Pond. No clear signs at pond that another vehicle was involved there.
5. Duplicate truck:
a. Rear markings consistent with being the vehicle that hit Lacey’s truck twice. Blue paint transfer present.
b. Additional rear impact mark suggests third bump, also with same blue paint transfer.
c. Front bumper had earlier knock from Margo hitting stone barrier at yacht club during deliveries. Also had newer scuff marks with paint transfer matching Judy Vernon’s rental car. Rental car not yet fully processed.
Then he moved to the fifth column and wrote in purple:
INJURED / FATALITIES
1. Smoke inhalation from fires: Lacey, Margo, June, Rad.
2. Lacey. Blunt-force trauma to back of head when lured to burnt-out cabin at Ember Lake and Memorial Campground. Memory loss around attack.
3. Judy Vernon. Chloroform traces indicate she was likely rendered unconscious during kidnapping.
4. Judy Vernon. Blunt-force trauma to back of head likely before rental car went down embankment at Hollow Pond. Currently in a coma.
Finally, in brown, he wrote the sixth heading:
OTHER / NOTES
1. Gas canisters used at vet office were military grade.
2. Whoever stole evidence from police lockup had full access and moved in and out unnoticed.
3. Red gas cans used in three recent fires are the same common type used in the fires ten years ago.
4. Person setting fires knows exactly what they are doing. Could be firefighter or someone with substantial fire knowledge.
5. Person causing accidents knew victim routines and how to intercept them.
6. At first we thought Lacey was the target in the accidents and vet fire. Pink letter suggests Lucy and June were intended targets, with Lacey caught by mistaken identity.
7. Bracelet found at Teacups under cooker where fire started. Unknown if planted or dropped before or after fire.
8. Blue sedans with recent front-end damage: Mina Dillinger, Judy Vernon, Clive Morrison.
a. Judy bought hers some time ago. Clive got his recently.
b. Ruled out as hitting Lacey: Mina Dillinger, Judy Vernon.
c. Not ruled out: Clive Morrison. Car towed to junkyard outside Sandpiper Shores with rush-crush order signed by Victoria Morrison.
d. Victoria, not Clive, was driving the car when it sustained front-end damage.
9. Lucy believes Judy Vernon fought back during kidnapping. Skin cells recovered from beneath Judy’s fingernails have been sent off for comparison.
10. Victoria Morrison and Alfred Smythe both have scratches on tops of hands.
11. Direct line from Morrisons’ back garden to Ember Lake and Memorial Campground, specifically toward the burnt-out cabin.