Chapter 16 Holt #2
“Someone they’re about to expose,” Holt said.
The words fell into the room with awful certainty.
June nodded once, her face pale now with the force of the realization.
“What we have to figure out is who. And whether that connects to ten years ago.” Her words once again echoed Holt’s thoughts.
“Or,” Holt said quietly, “to a cat burglar.”
Neither of them moved after that.
The office around them seemed suddenly smaller. The boxes, the files, the unfinished shelves all receded under the weight of the new possibility.
Judy. Lacey. Margo.
Not just random victims crossing the path of an investigation.
Not just collateral damage around a mystery.
Possibly part of a hidden line running under the entire thing.
June stood and moved around the desk to look at the screen with him. She was standing close, and she touched the file she’d put on the desk in front of him. Close enough that if he moved even slightly, his hand would brush hers again, where she gripped the edge of the file.
He looked at her.
She looked back.
So much of what had always existed between them sat in that silence. History, loss, trust, and the unbearable familiarity of knowing how easily one wrong word might change everything.
He wanted, with an abruptness that startled him, to reach out and smooth the crease between her brows.
To tell her she was brilliant. To tell her she had just done what she had always done best, which was to see through noise into structure.
To tell her he had never stopped thinking about her in the quiet moments when he had nothing to occupy his mind.
Or he saw someone with her hair color or a physique that matched hers in a crowd.
Or how many times through the years he wanted to pick up a phone and call her, just to hear her voice.
Holt swallowed as another memory flashed through his mind.
One that ripped through him with such a force, he had to stop himself from gasping as the guilt felt like a punch in the gut.
A memory that had almost landed him at her door a few times, but he’d always stopped himself.
His excuse was that he’d put her through enough pain and betrayal after having chosen his career over the life they’d originally planned.
But deep down, Holt had always known that wasn’t the only reason he’d never allowed himself to face her and say he was sorry.
He couldn’t bear to see even more hurt and betrayal in her eyes as he’d seen the night he’d walked out of their marriage.
Holt forced the feeling away and clamped his jaw, and instead of saying the words that needed to be said, because really, now was not the time, he said the only thing that belonged to the moment. “We need to be very careful here and tread lightly.”
“I know.” June’s fingers tightened slightly on the folder as she lifted it. “I’ll take a photocopy of this page if you can screenshot the record on the laptop. I don’t want to send it to either of us, so there’s no trace we were on the laptop.”
Holt looked back down at the page on the screen and nodded, pulling out his phone to take a snapshot, then stared at the screen while June went to get a copy of the page. His mind raced.
The channel. Judy. Margo. Lacey. Mexico. Hidden Truths. Gilbert. The cat burglar. The fires ten years ago. The fires now. The bracelet. The fake set. Tom. Victoria. There were still too many lines, too many intersections, and suddenly far too many reasons someone might want people silenced.
Holt exhaled slowly.
The case had just widened again.
And this time, it felt as if they had stumbled onto the edge of something much more deliberate than any of them had yet admitted out loud.
“I have to wonder, and even more so now,” June’s voice pulled Holt out of his reverie as he turned to see her walk into the room. She handed him the sheet, which he took. “I think you should hold onto this.”
He nodded, folded it, and shoved it into his pocket. “You were wondering?”
“About the pink letter addressed to Lucy and me,” June told him, packing the file back into the folder and closing the box. “Why single Lucy and me out?” She sighed and lifted her shoulders slightly. “At first, I thought it was Victoria because of Tom and you.”
“I know,” Holt said, agreeing with her. “I still think Victoria is somehow involved. We can’t rule out the scratches on her hands.”
“Or on Alfred’s hand,” June reminded him. “I can’t see Alfred trying to abduct Judy.” She snorted, and amusement flashed in her eyes. “Under that stiff posture and snooty bravado is an old softy.”
“I wouldn’t rule him out because of that,” Holt told her. “He’s been loyal to the Morrison family all his life.”
“I know,” June said with a nod. “I realize that.” She glanced at him curiously. “How do we find out if it’s their DNA beneath Judy’s fingernails?”
“Very carefully,” Holt warned. “I’d say maybe even extremely so.” His brows lifted. “Like what we’re discussing here does not leave this room.” He counted off on his fingers. “Because Tom is a suspect, so is his wife, Victoria, and we can’t rule out their children, Sienna and Clive, either.”
“Can I see the YouTube channel?” June asked him.
Holt nodded and quickly called it up on the laptop. He found one from ten years ago. “This is the last YouTube video from Gilbert.”
They pulled up chairs and sat close. Holt tried his best to ignore the warmth he could feel radiating off her. They were so close.
“There is nothing letting on what he was working on for the next show,” June noted.
“I know,” Holt said. “Then there is this one that started nearly a year after Gilbert died.”
They watched it. The show started with a tribute to Gilbert Fry and then introduced JJ Collins, who was taking over the legendary work Gilbert had done in exposing crime, corruption, fraud, and blatant cheating.
“JJ Collins?” June glanced at him inquiringly. “That name does sound familiar.”
“I have no idea,” Holt told her. “I can’t get a match for anyone remotely related to Judy.”
“We have a wider net now,” June pointed out. “We need to dig into Margo and Lacey’s backgrounds, too.”
Holt nodded in agreement. They skimmed through a few of the newer videos. June made him stop and rewind a few when the new female avatar joined the show.
“Wait!” June said, her eyes widening. “That phrase, try to keep smiling,” she glanced at Holt. “Lacey always says that.”
“So we can assume the second avatar that joined the show was Lacey,” Holt noted, and June nodded.
They listened to a few of the newer ones after the Mexico one and the most recent one from three weeks ago.
“Does that sound different to you?” June looked at him with a frown. “The way the male and first female avatar sounds. The way they word things.”
“What are you saying?” Holt asked.
“I think there are more than just three people hosting this show,” June told him. “They use the same avatars, but they aren’t the same people, even though the voices are the same.” She looked at the screen. “Play that newest video again, please.”
He did, and June’s eyes widened, her back stiffened, and she turned to him. “There aren’t just three presenters in this show. I’d say at a guess there were six.”
It suddenly dawned on Holt who she meant, and his brows shot up as it sank in. “No way!”
“I’m afraid so,” June said with a nod. “We’ve been lied to, and I know just how we’re going to get the truth.”