34. Accepted His Inheritance

34

ACCEPTED HIS INHERITANCE

" T hanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays," Kelsey said the following Friday night. The holiday was next week.

Van had worked his last shift yesterday and was officially unemployed.

Not really.

He had a job.

He had businesses.

He got a monthly "stipend" deposited each month and had since he'd accepted his inheritance.

It just didn't feel like a paycheck to him even though it was a shit ton more than he made as a detective working crazy overtime.

He got monthly rent from multiple properties he hadn't touched either. His property manager was getting paid out of that money that Kyle was handling.

He supposed he needed to look at that too. Did he need to pay someone to do what he could be doing right now?

His properties were rented out. Everyone seemed happy. There were no issues that he knew of and he could handle collecting the rent.

Another thing to add to his list of ongoing worries and thoughts.

"I'm surprised your mother is cooking and not Duke," he said. He'd spent the last decade alone for holidays.

He didn't think much of them coming up until Kelsey mentioned last week she expected them to spend it together.

He guessed he didn't have much of a choice when it was put that way.

It's not like he had work as an excuse.

"Don't say that in front of her. If you think I can lose my temper, you haven't seen who I learned it from," she said, giving a mock shiver.

"Why?" he asked.

"My mother hates it when we act like she can't cook. She reminds everyone she taught Duke. She really did. It's just Duke is a natural. But he's working anyway. He'll work eleven until five. I think they are closing at six that night and the last meals they are serving are at five. My mother will cook and we'll eat around six. Hadley's is closed so she won't be working."

"Do you make anything to bring?" he asked.

"I'll bring snacks," she said. "I know it's not traditional, but I used to bring cookies. Hadley is a baker and she does that, so no reason for me to bring sweets. My mother does the meal and me snacks. Easy snacks. Unless you have anything up your sleeve?"

"Nope," he said. "But I'll help any way I can."

"You always do," she said. "But it's just us. No one else. My grandparents all passed years ago. My mother has a sister, but she doesn't live around here. Even if they did, they don't like coming to the island. When we had Thanksgiving in Boston, my aunt and uncle would come with my cousins, but it's been years."

"You like it here more than Boston?" he asked.

"Absolutely. I had fun there. I want to say there is a better chance of finding a mate there, but look at this. I found one on the island."

It was the grin on her face. "I think it's more I found you."

"However you want to think of that," she said. "I'm not arguing."

They were at his house. She got out of work and picked up Frankie and then came over to stay for the weekend. He didn't even have to worry about working on Sunday now.

Tomorrow the two of them were going to clean out some of the items from the storage unit. He decided to put some in the house.

Maybe the touch of antique would help things from being so sterile.

Or it could be more that he was starting to feel like he wanted a piece of his grandfather here.

There'd been a few things he'd found that were his mother's. A dresser that had been in her room. It probably had no monetary value other than it was sentimental.

No way a man could hold onto those things if he wiped his hands of his daughter or didn't want to try.

"What do you want for dinner?" he asked.

She laughed. "You always do that. Change the subject on me when I say things like that about our relationship."

"Dinner?" he asked, winking at her.

"How about I cook?" she said. "I don't want to eat out. We do that too much."

"I hardly ever eat out," he said. "You're the one getting meals from your brother several times a week."

"Don't be jealous. I could call and order from him and go get it. Do you want to do that?"

He saw the hopeful look on her face. "Only if we pay. I don't like you doing that and getting things free. Or you can, but I don't like it for me."

"Fine," she said. "We'll pay. What do you want? Another steak?"

"Will he do that as takeout? Won't it be cold by the time it gets here?"

"I'm sure it will be fine, but why don't we get something Italian? That travels well."

She pulled up the menu on her phone and handed it over, then she placed the order.

"You just want Frankie to get some dinner too," he said.

The puppy was chasing a ball around the house. Frankie didn't seem to mind going from house to house. As long as the puppy was sleeping with its master at night, he didn't seem to care.

"Frankie likes Duke's food too. It's not going to take long. It's ten minutes away so I'll leave in fifteen minutes. You can stay with Frankie if you want."

"Sure," he said.

"How about a movie tonight?" she asked.

"We can do that," he said. "Want to watch it in the movie room downstairs?"

"I do," she said. "That's why I asked. We haven't done that yet. We know you've got plenty of snacks. Maybe I'll leave now and stop to get some candy. Can't watch a movie without popcorn and M&M's. You don't have that in the house."

She grabbed her keys and was out the door before he could say anything else.

"Just you and me, Frankie."

The dog brought over the ball and he picked it up to toss it down the hall.

He heard his phone go off with a text and noticed it was from Jarrett Bond to call him when he had a minute.

He figured now was as good of a time as any.

"Hey, Van," Jarrett said. "Not interrupting anything, am I?"

"No," he said. "Did you find anything out?"

"We got a hit on the van leaving the island a few days ago. A white van that matched the description. No lettering on it, but we ran the plates and came back with someone with arrests but no records. He always walks. He's denying it was him when I went to talk to him yesterday, but he's lying. We've got him on camera."

"What was he doing on the island?" he asked.

"That was the thing. He said he wasn't on the island. Swears it's a mistake. We thought we'd give him a day to change his story. We told him we knew it was him. Mentioned there were cameras at the docks and that is how we found him."

"What is your thought?"

"My thought is he's not a thief. Not like breaking and entering. He's gotten some shoplifting charges, but they were dropped. Drug possession. Disturbing the peace. Likes to get in fights. Nothing sticks."

"It makes no sense to me," he said. "Does he have money? Is he lawyering up?"

"He's got a lawyer to get him out but not sure where the money is coming from. This guy is unemployed. I did talk to your renters. Sarah did know him. Said they went to school together and dated for a few weeks. One of those silly things in middle school. Nothing more."

"That makes no sense unless he was carrying a torch for her and this was a scare tactic."

"I don't know," Jarrett said.

"What did Sarah think of it?"

"She was rattled, but said she's had no communication with him since they graduated high school. They are from Plymouth. Neither Sarah nor Thomas is on any social media. Nothing links them as having any communication in years."

"Okay," he said. "Thanks for letting me know."

"I think that is why he's playing dumb," Jarrett said. "I'm just not sure why yet."

"Let me know if you find something else," he said.

"Will do," Jarrett said and hung up.

He tossed his phone on the counter and went to get a beer. There had to be more to this than met the eye, but until they could get the guy to talk, not much could be done.

When his phone went off again, he walked over drinking his beer and saw the text from his father.

He had to look twice to make sure he wasn't imagining it.

He wasn't.

His father wanted to know how he was doing. He'd heard that Van didn't go back on the force.

He wanted to laugh over that. He'd been on the island for almost six months at this point and his father was just finding out that he never returned to his job.

He wasn't sure what to say. Or if his father even knew where he was.

For now he wasn't going to answer the man that was at the center of all his hatred.