Chapter 13 Holt
HOLT
Five days had passed since Sienna Morrison had walked into his office with a flash drive, a letter, and a confession about lying to Rad.
Five days of forensic teams, late nights, phone calls that went nowhere, and the slow, grinding work of building a case out of evidence that kept producing more questions than it answered.
Five days of Victoria Morrison’s name sitting at the center of everything like a stone dropped into still water, the ripples of it reaching further than any of them had anticipated.
Holt stood at the front of the Sandpiper Inn’s boardroom and looked at the people gathered around the table.
The room was fuller than it had been at the last meeting. Willa sat beside Ace near the middle of the table with Harvey on the other side of her. Rad was between Margo and Holt’s mother, Mina. Tom sat between Dean and Lucy with Carmen on Lucy’s other side next to Zane.
Lacey was not there, and Lucy had been clear on that.
Lacey’s recovery was progressing, but she still had no memory of the attack.
Lucy had no intention of changing that situation by putting her sister in a room where everything they were about to discuss would be laid out in detail. Holt had agreed without argument.
Judy was in and out of consciousness at the hospital. She’d said nothing more since June’s visit.
The boards were back out, brought up from the storage room where Margo had been keeping them locked since the first meeting.
Holt had added all the new threads and confirmations to them, running alongside the original columns.
Looking at it all together now, he could see in the faces around the table the same thing he’d felt standing in Victoria Morrison’s home office with the hidden panel open in front of him.
It was bigger than any of them had thought.
“I’ll start with what the forensic teams found at the Morrison property,” Holt began. He kept his voice measured. “Then I’ll move to what it means for both the current case and for what happened ten years ago.”
The room settled into the particular, attentive quiet of people who’d been waiting a long time for answers.
“In Victoria Morrison’s home office,” Holt continued, “the forensic team found a hidden panel behind a section of built-in shelving. Inside the panel, they found a collection of documents. Blueprints. Floor plans. Handwritten notes. Photographs.” He paused.
“The documents date back to when Victoria would have been around fifteen years old at the time they were first compiled.”
Margo’s pen slowed on the page. She looked up.
“We also found two journals,” Holt continued.
“The first belonged to Victoria’s grandfather.
It documents every theft he carried out over the course of his career as a professional thief.
It documents what he took, where he disposed of it, and what it was worth.
” He looked around the table. “You’ll remember from the letter Sienna brought in that her grandfather referred to his father as the Night Raider. The journal confirms it.”
Willa was very still across the table.
“The second journal belonged to Victoria,” Holt told them.
“She began writing in it around the same time she started compiling those documents. A year after she began dating Alvin Frost.” He looked at Tom briefly.
“We believe Victoria made a decision at around fifteen years of age to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps. ”
Tom’s expression didn’t change, but the muscle along his jaw tightened.
“The FBI had been tracking two cat burglars for years,” Holt continued.
“Operating separately enough to appear unconnected, but linked by method, by target profile, and by the specific type of items they stole. One was known as the Shadow. The other was known as the Specter.” He let that settle for a moment.
“We now believe those two identities belonged to the same person, Victoria. She would alternate between them to confuse the investigation. It worked for a very long time.”
Carmen let out a breath that wasn’t quite a word.
“Victoria stole my late sister Carly’s jewelry set,” Holt said. The words were steady. He’d had five days to practice saying them. “The heirloom set that went missing from my sister’s room the week she died. Victoria was in the house that day. She had access to that room.”
June was watching him from across the table. He didn’t look at her directly.
“She also stole something else that day,” Holt continued. “Cynthia Frost’s crystal-jeweled slippers. At first, it was another fake pair that my mother had made for Cynthia, who was also cooperating with the FBI to catch the thief.”
Dean looked up sharply from the far end of the table. “The crystal slippers Cynthia wore to the Miss Sandpiper Shores pageant?”
“Yes,” Mina confirmed. “Those slippers.”
“Victoria also had a genius way of getting her stolen goods out of the country,” Holt explained. “Tony Vincent would hide them in the panels of his stolen cars that would be shipped out of the country.”
“So it’s true then,” Tom said, his eyes darkening with anger. “Victoria was involved with Tony’s business and was a thief.”
“Like the report I gave you explained,” Holt said, his voice dropping slightly. “Until we actually catch Victoria…”
“Yes, I know,” Tom said. “But you have the hard evidence of her journal.”
“Still, we need to hear from Victoria,” June reminded Tom with a compassionate smile.
“We also know from the journal that Victoria was the one who turned Tony in,” Holt tells them. “You see, we also learned through her journal that Alvin was stealing and replacing Cynthia’s expensive real jewelry with high-end knock-offs to fund his gambling habit.”
“Let me guess,” Tom said. “With the help of my ex-wife?”
“I’m afraid that’s what it looks like,” Holt confirmed. “We don’t know the extent of Alvin’s involvement, though.”
“In Victoria’s journal, she stated she was finally ready to move the family heirloom set,” June continued for Holt. “Only when she went to Tony did he refuse. He said he was going legitimate, so Victoria set him up and then called the FBI.”
“What a cow!” Mina drawled.
“But Victoria hated Tony,” Tom said in disbelief. “How did I not see any of this going on right under my nose?”
“You were her perfect cover,” Holt said.
“Unbelievable,” Tom hissed angrily. “When we get hold of her…”
“We have to give her a fair chance to explain,” Holt said patiently.
“Or we could shove her in a car and roll her down a bank,” Margo suggested.
“I’m with Margo,” Mina, Lucy, and Willa said in unison.
“That will get her to confess,” Margo said.
“Or kill her,” June pointed out. “Then no one gets justice.”
“We’re good with that,” Willa and Margo said in unison again.
“We know from Victoria’s journal that she used the visit with Cynthia to the mental health clinic in Miami to see someone who could help her move the real crystal slippers and my sister’s jewels,” Holt continued the case briefing.
“Thats where we’ve found a timeline overlap for her and Gilbert.
He was doing an expose on people who fenced stolen goods. ”
“Victoria journaled that Gilbert met with Cynthia to let her know he’d seen Victoria with the crystal shoes and jewelry set,” June picked up the case.
“He followed Cynthia and Victoria back to Sandpiper Shores after Cynthia must have told him about the cat burglar the FBI were trying to catch in Sandpiper Shores.”
“So, they figured out that either Victoria knew who it was or she was the cat burglar,” Margo guessed.
“Yes,” Holt confirmed with a nod. “We think they were working on it together, or so Victoria thought. She knew she had to get rid of Cynthia, who knew Victoria was involved, and Gilbert.”
“But then four other people got involved,” Willa guessed, her voice hoarse with emotion.
“She had to get rid of all of them as she didn’t know what Cynthia or Gilbert had told them,” Holt said, trying to break the news as gently as he could.
“Because she was working with Alvin, she spared his son and told Nigel that if he continued with the case, his father would go to prison.” He drew in a breath.
“We have since learned that Alvin has stage four cancer and not long to live.”
“That’s why Nigel closed the case and moved his father to Miami,” Willa hissed. “That traitor.”
“It wasn’t only because of Alvin,” June told her daughter gently.
“Nigel did it because Victoria also threatened you, the kids, Ace, and Margo. People who had become family to him.” Her eyes glowed with compassion.
“And you, Harvey. Victoria writes rather scathingly, actually, how Nigel was a sucker for his friends and was almost more afraid for them than he was for his own father.”
“So Nigel gate kept that case in order to keep Victoria from going after any of you,” June told them. “He had stuff on her, and she had stuff on his father.”
“A stale mate,” Ace added.
“Something like that,” Holt said.
“So you think Nigel disappeared with his father because he knew we’d look into the case as soon as he left?” Willa asked Holt.
“I’m not sure,” Holt replied. “But I’ll ask him that when we find him.”
Nobody spoke.
Dean was looking at the table in front of him with the expression of a man who had suspected the truth for ten years and was finding that having it confirmed was not the relief he’d imagined it would be.
“So it was Victoria who…” Margo said, tears springing to her eyes. “Who did that terrible thing ten years ago?”
“We believe so,” Holt said with a nod.
“How could I not have seen it?” Tom hissed, and Holt felt for the man. “I lived with her.” His brow creased. “I knew she was cold and manipulating…” He ran a hand through his hair. “But it takes a certain kind of person to do something like she did ten years ago.”
“Tom, this isn’t your fault,” June insisted. “People like Victoria hide who they truly are really well.”