39. Let It Go

39

LET IT GO

T he following Friday, Van was in his office at home and pushed away from his desk. It'd been a slow week, but he was learning rapidly about the businesses he'd inherited.

He was learning more about himself in the process too.

He'd spent days going through everything his father had said in his head and finally decided he had to let it go.

There was no reason to dwell on any of it.

When his phone rang, he saw it was Jarrett Bond.

"Hi," he said. "Got anything new?"

"Landon Dickson has a history of vandalism," Jarrett said. "We've got video of him getting off the ferry on Saturday morning and then leaving Sunday morning. He was with a group and they rented a house for the night."

"Partying again?" he asked, remembering the name from that rowdy noise incident at his hotel. That didn't make him guilty, but it was twice now the guy was in a group of people. First in the hotel months ago and second on the island.

"There was a noise complaint," Jarrett said. "Which is why it was hard for him to deny having been here and he knew it."

"I know you asked him if he was at my house or Kelsey's," he said. "What was his answer?"

"He admitted to doing that to Kelsey's house," Jarrett said. "He swears it wasn't him that broke into your house."

"Why admit one and not the other?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I thought the same thing," Jarrett said. "He was adamant that he only did the one. Said he was put up to it for making everything that happened at the hotel in October go away. The disturbing of the peace and being thrown out."

"Oh really?" he asked. "And who put him up to it? Or did the cat find his tongue and now he's got a lawyer too?"

"No, he sang like a bird on the first day of spring," Jarrett said, laughing. "Someone named Carl Mason."

"Shit," he said. "That's the security guard from one of my hotels. Kelsey got in his face over his inability to do his job a few months ago."

Jarrett snickered. "She's got some balls on her."

"Yeah, she does," he said. And he realized he loved that about her.

No one would push her around.

No one could pull something over on her. Ever.

She'd believe what she wanted to believe and voiced it on top of it.

He needed that in his life more than he ever thought he did.

He wouldn't change a damn thing about her and was sorry for anyone who tried to make her think she wasn't good enough to be who she was.

"I'm charging him with vandalism," Jarrett said. "It's just a misdemeanor. You're going to have to deal with Carl. He didn't do anything and all Landon said was he was pushed. He didn't use the word blackmailed. We can look into it more, but you know..."

"This is small shit and everyone is overworked and underpaid," he said. "Got it. Been there and done that."

There was no real damage done other than people's peace of mind. It was one of those things he hated about working in law enforcement.

He hung up with Jarrett and was going to send a text to Christian and then decided not to.

He'd deal with this himself.

Christian had been fine for a bit now. Not sucking up, but not butting heads either.

Van wasn't sure what the turnaround was, but in this case, it was an attack on him personally. Or his girlfriend. He was pretty sure Kyle was going to want in on this, so he'd let his business partner know too.

Kyle was in Boston today doing business. Van knew that and wouldn't bug him just yet.

He went up to one of the spare rooms where he'd put his mother's furniture. He wasn't sure why he did. It just felt good to have it in the house.

He ran his hand over the dark wood, the curves.

"Van!" he heard. "You in the house?"

"Upstairs," he yelled. He heard Kelsey coming up the stairs and turned. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd stop over on lunch to surprise you. I didn't expect you up here. What's going on?"

"Just thinking."

"Looking at something of your mother's while you do it?" she asked, moving over to hug him. Yeah, he needed this.

"Something like that. Jarrett just called me."

He filled her in on what happened with Landon and Carl. "What an asshole," she said. "I was light on him too."

He laughed. "Guess it doesn't always pay to throw your weight around."

She grunted. "I wasn't throwing my weight around. I will admit I should have let you deal with it. But they didn't believe you were who you were."

"I get it," he said. "Again, I've told you before that diffusing things is better than escalating."

"Yep, and this time it came back to bite me in the rump."

"I bet you're used to that," he said.

"I've had it happen a time or two," she said. "We won't go over that again."

"No reason to," he said. "We all learn from our mistakes."

"We do," she said. "Or try to. You know, they don't make furniture like this anymore. It's really pretty. You should put it somewhere you can see it more."

She moved over and opened the drawers and got to the third one.

"What's in there?" he asked when she pulled out a pile.

"Pictures," she said. "Really old pictures. I wonder why Barry didn't tell you about this."

"No clue," he said. "He told me everything else. Unless he just figured at this point I'd find things out in time to add to what was important."

"Or he forgot they were in here," she said. "Do you know what they are?"

"Looks like pictures of my mother as a kid. My grandparents too."

"That's the island," she said. "I know that beach and it's the lighthouse."

"Oh yeah," he said, flipping through. "It's kind of neat how it looked years ago."

"Why does that house look familiar?" she asked when there was a picture of his mother standing in front of a porch by herself smiling in a dress. It was a black-and-white picture.

"It does, doesn't it?" he asked. "Wait, I've seen this before."

He ran down to his office where there were more pictures and pulled them out until he found a few other ones that were given to him in the third envelope.

"That's the same house," she said. "At least it looks it because your mother is wearing the same outfit. Outside and inside."

"It's the house my grandfather owns. The one that was broken into months ago," he said.

"It is," she said. He'd taken her by all the properties he owned on a drive one day while they were on his motorcycle.

He sat in his chair. "My father said he thought the house that would be left to me would be the small cottage that my mother spent time in on this island as a kid. It had to be that house."

"My father would know if Barry lived in that at some point or not," she said. "We can find out. He's only owned this house for about fifteen years or so. I didn't know where he lived before, but it was on the island."

Van hadn't realized that but should have, knowing his grandfather didn't have this kind of money the whole time.

"I don't think it makes a difference. But what does matter is that this is all tied to me. Think about it. The first house broken into was Barry's. Now this one. Take your house out of it. We know who did it."

"You said you don't believe in coincidence though," she pointed out.

"This one time I'm going to think it," he said. "Focusing on the two houses. Someone goes in and is looking around, but they don't find what they are looking for. The first one, the person insisted it wasn't them."

"You don't believe it, right?" she asked.

"Again, we were fixated on the fact that Miles knew Sarah but again..."

"Coincidence," she said. "This is a small area in the scheme of things."

"It is," he said. "So the common thread is me. Or rather Barry. Maybe Miles was hired and when he didn't find what he was looking for, whoever hired him came here next. No need to break in because they could get in on their own. The question is, who would be able to do it?"

"Christian," she said. "Right? He's said more than once that he was close with Barry. Is it possible he'd have a key here? I don't know that."

"It makes sense," he said. "I need to bother your father."

"He'd want you to do it," she said. "If you don't call him then I'm going to."

He picked up his phone and called Kyle. He was going to break Christian's face himself if he found out the guy was breaking into his properties.

"Hi, Van. Is everything okay?"

"Sorry to bother you," he said. "I'll explain more later, but do you know if Christian would have ever had access to Barry's house? Any reason he could have a key or codes?"

"I don't think so," Kyle said. "Rosalind is the only one that had a key or access to Barry's house years ago. I totally forgot that he had a bird that she'd take care of when he was out of town."

"Thanks," he said. He turned to look at Kelsey. "Your father said only Rosalind ever had a key or codes to get in to take care of a bird. I know your father did too."

"I can't see Rosalind doing any of this. She worked for my father long before Barry came into the picture. She's a widow now and her kids are grown. She used to cook for Barry and give him food and cookies. They got along great. There is no way."

"We won't know until we find out," he said.

"I think we need to go talk to her now."

"We?" he asked. "Don't you have to go back to work?"

"Nope. I want to play detective too."

He learned there was no telling her no, so they left together and went to Kyle's office.

"Hi, Van," Rosalind said. "Kyle isn't here. It's nice to see you, Kelsey. You don't come to visit often.

"I know," he said. "I just got off the phone with Kyle. Do you have a minute to talk in private?"

Kelsey was almost vibrating next to him.

"Sure," Rosalind said when she got up and walked into Kyle's office.

"Why are you being so nice?" Kelsey whispered to him.

"Stop," he said. "I'm not accusing anyone of anything yet."

"What's going on?" Rosalind asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No. I just didn't want to do this where others could hear."

"Okay," Rosalind said.

"Kyle said you had a key to Barry's house. My house now. Do you still have it?"

Rosalind frowned. "I do. I forgot all about it. I haven't used it in years. He gave it to me in case something happened to the house while he was off the island."

"Can you show it to me?" he asked.

She went to her desk and pulled open a drawer and then another. "It's not here," Rosalind said, frowning. "I don't think I gave it to Kyle. I don't remember. Is there a problem?"

"Who else would have access to your desk?"

"Anyone," Rosalind said.

"Who knew you had that key?" he asked.

"I think only Kyle." Rosalind thought a moment. "Oh and Christian. He was here one day when I had to run over. Barry had called me and asked if I could go get his mail. He was being held up. I left to get it when Christian was here and then came back. That was a few months before Barry passed."

"Thanks," he said. "So you knew Barry's alarm code too?"

"I did. I had it written down." Rosalind opened her drawer. "It's right here where the key should have been. Stupid I know, but I wouldn't have remembered it. I didn't worry or think anyone here would do anything with it."

"Don't get upset, Rosalind," Kelsey said. "Thank you for remembering. Can you keep this between us?"

"I can't even tell your father?" Rosalind asked.

"You can," Kelsey said. Van gave her a look, but he remembered Rosalind didn't work for him.

"Can you wait? We are going to call Kyle ourselves. But don't let anyone else know about this, please. I'd appreciate it."

"No problem," Rosalind said. "You know, you're a little like Barry. He'd get like this too. Tell me not to let anyone know something other than Kyle until he was ready."

"Was Christian one of those people not told things?" Kelsey asked.

"He was," Rosalind said.

"I thought Barry and Christian were close," he said.

"In Christian's eyes. They were early on, but Barry got cold toward Christian two years ago. Not sure why. He'd never say and they worked fine together after that. I just figured it was a fight over work. It would happen."

"Thanks," Van said. He and Kelsey left.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling Christian and asking him to meet with me on Monday at my house. I work from home. No reason he can't come to me. I'm his boss."

She laughed. "It's nice being the boss, isn't it?"

"I guess so," he said.

"What's the next step?" she asked, rubbing her hands together. "I want to be here for it."

"I need to talk to your father and my lawyer."

"Let's call them," she said.

"Kelsey, I appreciate it. I really do, but I need to deal with this myself."

"Nope," she said. "You don't. I'm taking Monday off and I'm planting my butt in the house. Even if it's just for support."

He squinted one eye at her. She'd do that too.