Chapter 18 Margo
MARGO
No one in the kitchen moved. It was like they were all rooted to the floor.
“Look at what’s happened to Lacey and Judy,” June said. Then her eyes settled on Margo. “And you,” she added. “How many close calls have you had now, Margo?”
Margo didn't answer. She couldn't. Because the answer had become too large and too ugly to say aloud comfortably.
“Instead of stepping back,” Holt said, “instead of stopping or at least telling us the full truth, you four kept going.”
June pulled out her phone, found the clip again, and hit play.
The sound of an unreleased Hidden Truths episode filled the kitchen.
But the voices hadn’t been altered this time.
The voices were the narrators' true voices.
Voices that matched the four of them in the kitchen as they promised the viewers that the next episode would be the one that the viewers had been waiting for, for the past ten years.
The truth about what had happened in Sandpiper Shores that fateful day.
Margo felt sick.
When the clip ended, she looked straight at Harvey.
“How could you?” Margo hissed at him, needing the lash out at someone as their stupidity at tempting danger slapped them all in the face.
His face tightened. “June and Holt had already figured it out,” Harvey defended his actions. “I told you that promo wasn’t a good idea.”
“Harvey,” Willa said in disbelief. “Really!”
“I did warn you. More than once, they would figure it out,” Harvey told them. “And they did. What did you want me to do?”
“Buy us a bit more time?” Ace glared at him. “We knew a bit more after the meeting yesterday.”
“This was getting out of hand,” Harvey declared.
“To be honest, and I don’t care how angry any of you are with me right now.
” He held up his hand and stood his ground.
“I’m glad they did because I, for one, don’t want to lose any of you.
You’re my friends, and I probably would’ve gone to June and Holt if one more incident like what happened to Dr. Peltz or Dr. Vernon had happened. ”
Margo believed him. That was the worst part.
Quiet, loyal Harvey had been trying to steer them toward sense for a while now, and all of them had kept going because they thought they had more time.
More control. More room to finish what they had started before the adults in their lives came in and made them stop.
“Leave Harvey alone,” Holt said. “This isn’t on him.”
That shut down the impulse to blame him because there was no getting around the truth of it. Harvey had not written scripts, created videos, followed old threads, or decided to keep major things from people who should have known.
The four of them had.
“I can understand why Willa and Margo,” June glanced at Ace, “and even you, Ace, would be so vested in trying to figure out what happened to your friend and loved ones ten years ago.” Her eyes softened a little.
“We all thought there was more to what happened. I know it’s a very emotional time with the memorial fast approaching… ”
“But that’s no excuse for being so reckless,” Holt added. “Or lying to the two people you duped into helping you figure out if what was going on recently had anything to do with what happened ten years ago, while the four of you continued investigating the past.”
“Harvey!” Four voices accused again.
“That was not me,” Harvey stated, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “That, they also figured out.” He turned, and a look of sheer admiration and a bit of hero worship flashed in Harvey’s eyes as he looked at June and Holt. “That’s what you get when you involve the A team.”
“Mom, Holt, trust me, we didn’t want to get either of you involved in what we were investigating,” Willa told them. “But when we realized there might be a bit of a pattern…”
“We changed plans a bit…” Margo picked up from Willa. “We couldn’t go to Captain Morrison. Then he would’ve known we’d reopened the case from ten years ago.”
“A case that he just let Nigel Frost shut down,” Willa continued. “No explanation and we all knew that Nigel wasn’t being honest with us.”
“Yes, he was the one who had believed there was far more to what had happened to his mother, and then all the incidents that followed once Gilbert came to town,” Margo told them.
“After the fire… the fire at Gilbert’s cabin, Nigel was even more convinced something was amiss.
He told me that he didn’t believe that Gilbert was the one who started that fire.
He thought that Gilbert was the main target of the fire. ”
“There was a spare key that had been found near Gilbert’s cabin,” Willa picked up the story again. “A key that at first Nigel said was the key to Gilbert’s cabin.”
“But suddenly it was just a key,” Rad stepped in. “I checked in the evidence locker, and it was gone. In fact, there was not much in the evidence box but a pair of sneakers and some other things they’d found in Gilbert’s rental car.”
“No phone, or laptop, or any type of recording equipment,” Willa told them. “That in itself was strange considering Gilbert was supposedly making content for his show.”
“Judy…” Margo cleared her throat as three pairs of eyes landed on her. “Uh…. Judy, when we asked her, said that she’d looked and couldn’t find her brother’s equipment anywhere. She’d even gone to his apartment. There were no signs of his recording equipment.”
“Maybe he had a studio?” June offered.
“We checked,” Rad answered. “Nothing listed under his name.”
“What about under JJ Collins?” June asked.
“Oh, you know about that too?” Ace said, looking sheepish. “That was me. It’s a great-grandparent's name I used. We got permission from Judy to continue Gilbert’s channel.”
“Wait, what?” June and Holt said in unison. “It’s been the three or four of you all along?”
“Yes, and then Rad joined,” Margo told them. “About a week after he arrived here.”
“Yes, Lacey suggested we ask him as he had access to the police station and files we couldn’t get,” Willa said with a nod.
“Hold on,” Holt stepped in. “You’re all going on at a mile a minute.” He held up his hand. “How are Lacey and Judy involved in this?”
“They’ve been feeding us content from the places they were visiting,” Ace replied.
“But they’ve never hosted any of the programs?” Holt asked.
“They did in the beginning,” Margo told them. “But it’s mainly been us.”
“We’ve tried to make it out as if it’s more than just us,” Ace told them. “Especially because of the content we’ve been creating. We reckoned if we remained incognito, it would be less dangerous for us.”
“How is that working out for any of you?” Holt asked, not amused.
“Do Lacey and Judy know what you’re investigating now?” June asked.
“Yes,” all four answered in unison.
“Are they helping with the investigation?” Holt asked.
“Yes,” all four answered in unison again.
“I’m only going to ask this once,” Holt warned them. “And if any of you are lying to me…”
They all stared at him, nodding. “Did any of you know about a cat burglar that used to operate in the Sandpiper Shores area over forty years ago?”
“No!” A chorus echoed through the kitchen.
“A cat burglar?” Willa repeated her eyes wide. “Seriously. There was a cat burglar? Here in Sandpiper Shores?”
“Yes,” Holt said with a nod.
“Thats kinda cool,” Ace piped up, then stopped, his eyes widening. “Wait a moment…” he raised his hands, and his eyes narrowed, then widened again in realization once more. “The bracelet…” He snapped his fingers. “Was that part of some sort of jewelry theft?”
“What?” Margo spluttered, her eyes flying to Ace and then June and Holt. “Is it?”
“We’re asking the questions,” Holt told her, calmly. “And before we go any further with any of yours, you’ll answer ours and then tell us everything you know and what you have uncovered about ten years ago.”
“You think Gilbert was investigating that?” Willa ignored Holt’s warning and honed in on her mother. “Actually, that would make a lot of sense.”
“What would?” Holt asked.
“It would make a lot more sense as to why Gilbert Fry would be here than what we thought,” Margo quickly answered for Willa.
“We thought he was chasing an arsonist.” She swallowed and glanced at Willa, who gave her a slight nod.
“Judy told us that when she asked Gilbert why he was adamant about coming to Sandpiper Shores with them for that summer, he’d told her he was chasing someone who’d evaded the law for far too long.
That this time they weren’t going to burn down the evidence. ”
“Okay, I can see why you’d be looking for an arsonist,,” June said, holding up her hands.
“It looks like we have a lot to talk about.” Her eyes shifted between all of them.
“And this time, you’re all going to tell us the truth.
No more lies or holding back.” Her eyes narrowed a little more. “And we mean, the whole truth.”
Margo stood frozen to the spot as she saw in June’s eyes that they knew more than they were letting on, and that this interrogation they were about to get was merely them verifying that and filling in the blanks.
She blew out a long breath and looked at the coffee pot as it finished dripping.
The soft domestic sound cut strangely through everything else.
“I’m making coffee,” Margo told them. “And breakfast.” It came out sounding more practical than she felt, but she pressed on. “Why don’t we do this over breakfast? Everyone will think more clearly after coffee.”
There was a small chorus of reluctant agreement.
“I am starving,” Ace admitted. “Even more so now than when I arrived.”
“That sounds good,” June accepted and glanced at Holt.
“Yes, I could do with some coffee and something to eat,” Holt agreed with June. Margo couldn’t help but notice the warm smile he gave June before his gaze turned hard again when he looked up. “Thank you, Margo. What can we do to help?”
“Nothing,” Margo told them. “Go take a seat at the dining room table.”
“We’ll set it,” Ace and Rad offered.