Chapter 14 June #2
“You know that we can’t bring her in at the moment?” Holt pointed out. “She swore Rad to secrecy about this, and he needs to keep investigating it. If we do bring it in, it will spook her, and she could withdraw the case.”
“We can still bring her in about the bracelet,” June said. “We did find it at a crime scene, and it has been identified as hers.”
“I did think about that,” Holt admitted.
“I was going to, until Rad told me about her break-in. I’d rather find out about all the jewels and items in the safe as well as who stole them right now.
” He picked up the wine glass and sat back with it.
“As that could lead us to who dropped it or planted the bracelet in Teacups.”
They fell into silence after that, but it was no longer the comfortable sort.
Of course, Holt was right, and June knew it, although she hated to admit it, he sometimes kept a level head when she got too emotionally involved in a case.
This is one of the reasons she didn’t go into law enforcement.
June had thought about it. She loved solving cases and helping people.
But her passionate nature would’ve been her undoing in that job.
June wanted answers, and she knew there was a bigger picture here with the safe, but Sienna had all but accused Tom of being a cat burglar.
Okay, there could be other ways he could’ve come into possession of the jewelry set.
Maybe one of the reasons the jewels never appeared anywhere on the market or with a collector was that the actual cat burglar sold them quietly to the Morrison family.
Maybe Tom or his parents didn’t even know who the jewels belonged to.
Sure, the Cat Burglar would’ve known the jewels weren’t the original and could’ve sold them to the Morrisons as a copy of the Strand jewels.
Her eyes widened, and she pulled out her notepad and pen from her purse, jotting down her thoughts.
“What are you thinking?” Holt asked, slightly amused that she still had the habit of doing that.
As June jotted down her thoughts, she told Holt about them.
“That’s a good and plausible theory,” Holt told her. “One worth keeping in our mind. But the only flaw in it is, why didn’t they ever show the jewelry?”
“Well, didn’t Sienna just tell Rad that she was hiding the treasures for her father?
” June pointed out. “When the jewels went missing, Tom and Victoria were already engaged. Your mother and your uncle also never went public with the jewels going missing. Why would Tom think anything sinister about buying a very good copy of the set? Maybe he did it thinking that one day he’d actually be able to give it to the woman he really loved.
Or he kept them hidden, waiting for Victoria to prove that she wasn’t just after the Morrison fortune to bail her crooked father out. ”
“My first thought when my mother mentioned a cat burglar…” Holt stopped and put the glass back on the table, leaning in again and lowering his voice, “—was Victoria’s father.
Look what the man did to Victoria’s mother’s family fortune, and then to try to replenish, he organized that elaborate pyramid scheme, which collapsed her mother’s family company altogether. ”
“You think Victoria’s father was the cat burglar?” June realized as she leaned closer once again, her mind ticking over with possibilities. “That would actually make a lot of sense and be worth looking into.”
“He did travel a lot,” Holt added. “His photo and trophies for gymnastics, track, and shooting are also still displayed at the Sandpiper Shores high school.”
“Now, he’s more the cat burglar type than Tom,” June agreed. “And it’s worth looking into.”
“You’re right,” Holt said. “But that lands us back at square one. How does the bracelet connect to the fire at Teacups, if at all?”
“And does it have anything to do with an old, unsuccessful FBI sting operation from years before that?” June added. “Or is this connected to ten years ago? Is anything that’s happening around here connected to ten years ago, or are we just seeing patterns where none exist to explain it all?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Holt agreed. “I keep wondering if the ten-year memorial has us seeing patterns that aren’t there.”
That was food for thought as they fell back into silence, each mulling over what they had just discussed.
June tried to eat. She really did. But the food had gone flat on her tongue, and every new thought made the last one worse.
Tom. Victoria. Sienna. The bracelet. The fake set.
The real set. The cat burglar. The old FBI trap.
The current fires. The accidents. Margo.
Judy. The upcoming memorial. How did everything fit together?
Why was that bracelet even at Teacups? Holt was right.
Where Margo had found it, there was no way forensics would’ve missed it.
Was everything that was happening connected to ten years ago, or was it something new?
Another vindictive dark force that was stealing through Sandpiper Shores.
Then another thought hit her so fast that she sat up straighter.
“Holt.” She set down her fork and dabbed her mouth with the napkin, though her hand had begun to shake very slightly. He looked up at once. “What if ten years ago that was the story Gilbert Fry was chasing?”
Holt’s eyes widened. He put down his knife and fork.
“What if he found out about the cat burglar?” June said, thinking aloud now, almost breathless with it.
Holt stared at her. “Or…” her heart racing now as the stronger possibility opened beneath it, “what if he found out who the cat burglar was?”
That landed between them like a match dropped on dry grass.