Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“ T hings just don’t add up,” Sam said the next morning as they discussed the case in his office. Wyatt, Kevin, and Jo stood on one side of Sam’s desk. Sam had swiveled around in his chair, and they were all looking at the corkboard. Lucy lay in the sun under the window. Major had decided to join them, too, and was lounging in the doorway.

Wyatt nodded. “Kevin and I did a deep dive into Alex’s social media. There’s nothing on there that would indicate any enemies.”

Jo nodded, her fingers wrapped around a steaming mug of coffee. “The people at the campaign didn’t know of anyone that would want to hurt him either.”

“The woman at the assisted-living facility said he was a doting grandson. Always visiting, making sure Frank had the best care,” Kevin added.

Sam leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowed. “It has to go back to the robbery. Now that we know about that investigation, I think we need to consider that the robbery might have served as a cover-up for that.”

“And things were going along just fine and staying covered up until Frank’s death,” Jo said.

“Alex must have had the money prior to that. He was paying for that top-notch assisted-living facility for months before Frank passed. That’s not cheap,” Kevin said.

Sam rubbed his chin, his mind whirring with possibilities. “What if Frank confessed to something on his deathbed? Told Alex about the real reason for the robbery?”

Sam spun around in his chair. “Maybe Alex got greedy. If Frank told Alex something about the robbery that he could use for blackmail, he might have been messing with the wrong person.”

Jo nodded slowly. “It’s a possibility. But who is the wrong person?”

Sam shrugged. “The investigation involved a bank loan to Convale.”

Jo snorted. “Plenty of suspects there.”

They all stared at the board for a few beats, then Jo spoke again. “So what did you get out of Beryl? Anything interesting?”

Sam shook his head, a hint of frustration in his eyes. “Not really. She seemed evasive, especially when I questioned her about Victor.”

Jo snorted. “Beryl? Evasive? There’s a shock.”

“Truth,” Sam agreed with a wry smile.

Kevin leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “But how could Beryl possibly be involved in all this? She wasn’t even around when the robbery happened.”

“Who knows? She’s involved in lots of things, and now that she’s hooked up with Victor, I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them were up to something,” Jo said.

“It’s a long shot,” Sam said. “We need to find more about Frank and that robbery. It’s too bad it was so long ago. None of us were around back then.”

“We should talk to Harry again,” Jo said, tapping her finger against her mug. “He was around back then, and he’s had a while to think about this. Maybe he remembers something else.”

Sam nodded thoughtfully. “Good idea. He might have some insights we missed.”

“And we need to find out who Alex met in that bar,” Kevin added urgently. “That was potentially the last person to see him.”

Wyatt frowned, his brow furrowed. “Why did he never come out? That’s the real question.”

Jo set her mug down on Sam’s desk. “I checked on that. They have no interior surveillance cameras, but they do have a back door.”

“Why would someone take him out the back?” Kevin asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Because they didn’t want to be seen,” Sam said grimly.

Jo crouched to pet Lucy, who flapped an ear and sighed. “We need to talk to Amelia too. I have a funny feeling she might be avoiding us.”

Sam nodded. “Which means she has something to hide.”

“And given what we’ve discovered with her record as a stalker, she might be more adept at lying, avoiding, and hiding things than she looks,” Wyatt added.

Jo nodded. “She was in that bar the night Alex died. Maybe she was a part of what happened to him, or maybe she saw something.”

“Either way, we need to find out. Looks like we’ll have to pay another visit to Marnie’s headquarters, and if Amelia isn’t there, we might have to surprise her at home.” Sam took out his phone. “In the meantime, I’ll give Harry a call and see if I can get him in here.”