The Tell Tail Heart

by Cate Conte

  “Weird? Not at all,” I lied. “Why would it be?”

  Jade shrugged, gestured vaguely with her hand. “I don’t know, you and Craig … I know it’s old news, but I just wanted to make sure we were cool. Are we cool?”

  I glanced at the house, willing Officer Hartless and Craig to return. No sign of them yet. “Of course,” I said, hoping it was true. I mean, why wouldn’t it be? I had a great boyfriend. And I had no interest in Craig. Our relationship was in the past. Way in the past. I was glad we could still be friends, that was all. And I was happy he’d found someone, if he and Jade were really dating. “We’re cool.”

  “Good,” Jade said.

  “Good,” I said.

  We lapsed into an awkward silence. “It’s a bad night for a date, though,” I said, indicating the rain hammering around us. Every now and then a gust of wind jostled the car.

  “Yeah, it’s not ideal,” she said. “But it was the only night I had enough coverage at the bar. Although Craig might have to go back to work later, with all the weather-related stuff going on.”

  “Bummer,” I said. “I’m sorry to, uh, interrupt.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Jade said. “I heard your boyfriend is out of town.”

  I nodded. “And of course he can’t get back.”

  “Bummer,” Jade said.

  “Yeah.”

  Another awkward silence. Just when I thought they were never coming back, I heard the front door slam. At the same time, Grandpa’s truck careened into the driveway, pulling up next to the police cruiser. He hopped out of the truck, moving faster than I’d seen him move in a long time, and rushed over to us. I got out of the car to meet him, pulling my hood tight around my head.

  “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  “Grandpa. I called the police.” I motioned to Hartless and Craig, who’d joined us.

  “I can see that. What happened?”

  “Looks like someone tried to break in, Chief,” Officer Hartless said. “The side porch door is busted.”

  Grandpa motioned for the two of them to follow him. “What’d you find?” I heard him ask them.

  I threw up my hands. “Really? I’m the one who found the problem and called it in.”

  Jade grinned. “How come you didn’t become a cop?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You love to stick your nose in all kinds of things. And I mean that in the nicest possible way,” she added. “Why don’t you do it for a living?”

  I couldn’t figure out if that was a compliment or not. I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t like to take orders, I guess. It’s why I work for myself. Plus, I don’t think I’d enjoy being shot at.”

  “I get that,” she said. “At least, the working for myself part.”

  My phone rang, interrupting the bonding moment. I pulled it out, hopeful it was Lucas, but it was my mother. Shoot. I was supposed to be there by now and in all the insanity I’d forgotten to call her and tell her I was delayed.

  “Where are you?” she asked when I answered.

  “I’m still at home.” I turned away a bit so Jade wouldn’t hear the whole conversation. “Mom, I don’t want you to worry. Everything’s under control. But someone tried to break into the house when I was leaving.”

  She gasped. “What? Are you sure? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Grandpa’s here, and the police. I’ll explain later.”

  “Do you want Dad and me to come over? We can bring you back here tonight. We don’t mind!”

  So much for not worrying. My other line beeped. Ethan. Now what? “Let me see how this goes and I’ll call you back soon, okay, Mom?” I hung up without waiting for an answer. “Ethan?”

  “I think Val’s in trouble,” he said without preamble.

  Chapter 49

  I sat straight up, immediately on alert. “What do you mean, in trouble?”

  Jade’s head whipped around to look at me.

  “I mean, I’m here at the yacht club and her car is here, but there’s no sign of her. The place is unlocked, so I went in and her purse is here, but there’s no one here.”

  I hadn’t heard Ethan upset in a long time, so this was throwing me off. “Wait. Ethan, are you sure? She’s probably with Ava-Rose.”

  “No. Ava-Rose’s street is flooded and she’s at home. I just called her, too. She hasn’t heard from Val since this afternoon.”

  That was weird. My sister was the most dependable person I knew, next to my dad. And Lucas. And when it came to Ethan, she’d never stand him up.

  “I’ll be right there,” I said.

  “What’s wrong?” Jade asked.

  “My sister isn’t where she’s supposed to be. I need to go there. I think she’s gotten herself in trouble.”

  “Wait, hold on,” Jade said. “Craig should go, too. We’ll all go. Where are we going?”

  “To the yacht club,” I said. “My sister was poking around out there because something might have been going on. And it could’ve backfired. We have to go now!”

  “It sounds like she’s been hanging around you too much,” Jade said, but she nodded. “Go. I’ll text Craig to meet us there when he’s done.”

  I looked at her. “Really?”

  “Go!”

  I handed JJ to her, hit the gas, and shot down the street. Jade laughed out loud as she grabbed for the dash. “I can definitely say this is the most interesting date I’ve been on in a while.”

  Once we’d turned onto the main road and she could sit up straight, she fired off a text to Craig. His response was nearly instantaneous. “He’s kind of mad,” she said, trying to hold back the grin. “Saw us take off and figured we were up to no good. His words, not mine.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I waved it off. “He’s always mad.”

  “He’s right behind us.”

  I hit the gas harder. When I turned onto the street, Ethan was waiting by the front door. He was drenched, as if he’d been standing outside all this time.

  “They’re in there. I heard voices,” he said, and I could hear the frantic notes in his voice. “And there’s another car here.”

  “Where?”

  He pointed toward the little side street where Ava-Rose had hidden the other night. I was about to go check it out when the cruiser pulled up, lights flashing, followed by Grandpa’s truck. Officer Hartless and Craig were out of the car and heading to the door the second it stopped.

  “Go back in the car!” Craig hissed at us. He only glared at me, though. I guessed he thought I was a bad influence on his new girlfriend.

  “No,” I hissed back. “My sister is in there.”

  “And we’re here to get her.” Grandpa joined us in the doorway. “Back in the car. All of you. Now,” he said, but his tone left no room for argument.

  We went back to my car, watching as whatever this was unfolded in front of us. Craig tried the door. Locked. He banged on it, shouted something. He and Hartless conferred. I saw her reach for her radio. Maybe to call for backup? Or a SWAT team to bust down the door?

  “This is crazy,” I muttered. My cell rang. I reached for it, my eyes widening when I realized it was Val. Or her number, anyway.

  “Val? Are you okay?”

  “I am. Listen. Tell them I’m going to come out. We’re going to come out. But they need to back off and give us some space, okay?”

  “Who’s us? Val. What is going on in there? We’re all frantic out here—”

  “Maddie. Tell them,” she said, and hung up.

  “What happened? Is she okay?” Ethan demanded.

  “Yeah. Stay here.” I got out of the car and ran up to Grandpa.

  “Madalyn. Go back to—”

  “Val just called,” I said. “She said they’re coming out.”

  “They?” Craig interrupted. “Who’s they?”

  “I don’t know, but she asked you all to back off.” I held up my hands. “I’m just the messenger.”

  We all stood back a few steps, not
really sure what was going to happen when the door opened. I counted in my head, trying to take my mind off how incredibly soaking wet I was. It was an agonizingly slow count to 95, but that’s where I made it before the door swung open. Val stood in the doorway.

  “I have Dr. Drake,” she said. “He’s coming out, and he needs you all to listen to what he has to say.”

  Chapter 50

  “So, that was kind of wild,” I said later to Ethan.

  We were back home—I’d never made it to my mother’s, and so far we’d spared her the story of Val’s evening—and I’d taken a hot shower, blow-dried my hair, and wrapped myself in a fleecy blanket. I still felt like I might never get warm again. Val had gone straight to her room, promising the whole story after she’d gotten some rest. But from the abridged version she’d told us, she’d basically caught Drake on the phone arranging to trade a shipment of replicas from the club for cash.

  And somehow, she’d gotten him to confess that he’d been desperately trying to figure out a way to pay his son’s hospital bills, because the insurance he had as a self-employed person had maxed out.

  I couldn’t help but feel guilty. We’d all been villainizing a man who, sure, was acting unethically in a number of ways, but who really had been trying to do the best for his family. I thought about that phone number I’d never gotten around to calling. I wonder if I would’ve gotten in touch with the dealer if I had.

  “You think? I can’t believe she did that. She could’ve gotten hurt. Killed!” Ethan paced the kitchen, more agitated than I’d ever seen him. Wow. He must really be in love. “Did you tell her to do that?”

  “Me? How is this my fault? I told her not to do any of it! Why am I always getting blamed for everything?”

  “Well, this snooping. It’s something you would do.”

  “Ethan. Val was getting pressure from Ava-Rose to figure out if this guy was up to something. I had nothing to do with this. I swear.”

  The truth was, I’d been terrified, too. That Drake had done something to my sister, who had absolutely no experience—and no business, in my opinion—playing Nancy Drew. I, at least, had some experience in that realm. And I’d always taken an interest in, and learned from, Grandpa as much as he would let me.

  But the real headline was that Drake hadn’t killed Jason Holt. Apparently their covert meeting had transpired when the vet’s wife told him Holt was on the island and how famous he was becoming. Drake thought he might be able to get Holt to do some publicity for him or at least get him to come to his practice and pretend to be using it. Holt had politely declined, which had angered the desperate Drake, who was looking for any way to boost his bottom line.

  After they’d parted ways at the yacht club, Drake had gotten in the car and gone the opposite direction from where Holt had walked off into the night, heading to the hospital. A traffic cam had caught him sitting at a red light around the exact time Holt would’ve been hit.

  So that took him off the suspect list. But I still didn’t feel any closer to figuring it all out. Images of Thea Colman, Zach McConnell, and Lexie Holt swam through my overtaxed brain. Which one of them was lying? Which one hated Jason Holt enough to kill him? And why?

  Chapter 51

  After all the excitement between the break-in and Val’s evening, I couldn’t sleep at all. And now that we knew Drake was out of the picture as far as suspects go, I was hypersensitive to who could’ve run Jason Holt down.

  Maybe I should have gone to stay at my mother’s, because even though Grandpa, Val, and Ethan were all in the house, I felt like every noise I heard was potentially something bad or someone coming back for … something. But I knew I’d have been more of a wreck if I weren’t here, because I’d be worried about my charges. If someone tried any means possible to get in, it was also possible the cats could get let out. So here I was, in my bed with JJ, cringing at every creak in the house. Which was a lot, because, well, it was an old house.

  At least we still had power. It had flickered a few times but thankfully stayed on during this whole thing. Others on the island hadn’t been so lucky. The rain had picked up again, beating on our roof like a drum. Normally I would have found the sound comforting, but tonight it set me on edge.

  I rolled over and checked my clock. Two thirty. Could the time pass any more slowly? I thought about texting Lucas, but I didn’t want to wake him. And if I told him about the break-in, he’d probably freak out, and there was nothing he could do from the mainland. I flopped back down and considered the events of the night. In my mind, there were two options for what would possess someone to break in here. Either it was Thea trying to steal JJ or someone was looking for Jason Holt’s missing notebook. Would Zach McConnell have come back and broken in to try to find it? Had he picked up on my lie? Or was it Lexie Holt?

  Or had someone else caught wind of Holt leaving his work here and wanted to grab it to sell on eBay? I realized that my conspiracy theories might be just that and this could all be a coincidence. Crazier things have happened when people stalked celebrities.

  I needed to find that notebook. It might or might not be what McConnell had come here for, but it was a reasonable starting place.

  It had to be in this house. Had to be. I knew Grandpa. If something was evidence or even potential evidence, he was all over it. If he had realized the value of the notebook and wanted to keep it to himself for a while, he would’ve put it somewhere for safekeeping. And he would trust that his family wouldn’t mess with his stuff to look for it.

  Normally I would never consider such a thing, but I felt like I had no choice. He’d totally left me out of his sleuthing, and I had a right to know.

  I flung the covers off me, startling JJ, and pulled on my fuzzy slippers and a sweatshirt. I stepped out into the hall and listened. The house was silent. Ethan and Val’s door was shut. I tiptoed down to the second floor and checked Grandpa’s room. The door was ajar, so I crept over and peered in. He was in bed, asleep, snoring softly. Excellent. Grandpa slept well, so as long as I didn’t make too much noise, he wouldn’t hear me prowling around downstairs. I pulled the door as close to shut as I could without making any noise.

  I crept downstairs into the living room and checked in on the cats. They were all asleep. A couple of them opened an eye to peer at me from their various perches, but none of them found me interesting enough to fully wake up for. I went to check out the side porch door. Grandpa and Craig had put the door back together as much as possible for the night, and Grandpa had run out to the hardware store and gotten an extra dead bolt for the inside door. Craig had promised to come back today and help him install a new storm door. Nice of him. He didn’t have to worry about what was happening here. But I supposed he would always feel like he should help Grandpa.

  I was worried about all the cafe supplies I kept out on the porch in the meantime. I didn’t need soggy cat litter. But that was the least of my problems right now.

  I went into the cafe and stood near the table Holt had worked at all those weeks. It looked like a regular table. I didn’t get any bad vibes off it or anything. I checked the lost and found box one more time, but I didn’t have hope the notebook would have magically reappeared. One never knew, though, so I did look.

  I knew I was simply putting off the inevitable. I had to check Grandpa’s office downstairs. His presence at that trailer at the beach had thrown me, and it was killing me to not know what was happening or how he was involved. I trusted my grandpa with my life, and I knew that whatever he did, he did with the best of intentions, but I still wanted to know sooner rather than later what the heck was going on. All of it was weird.

  Taking a deep breath, I shut off all the lights behind me and ventured downstairs as quietly as possible. I felt like I was the intruder now. I thought it was kind of funny that Grandpa didn’t get his first man cave until his seventies, but he’d definitely done it up right. The main room was his TV/pool/card game room, and then he had a little office off to the side. The office wa
s where I was headed tonight.

  Once, when I was about six, I went near Grandpa’s desk. It had been in a different spot then, but it was still off-limits because, as I learned later, he kept one of his guns in a secret compartment behind one of the drawers. At six years old, I didn’t know this, but I’d always been told in no uncertain terms to stay away from the desk. The one time I ventured near it, Grandpa got very upset with me and slapped my hand. It was a minimal punishment for sure, but until then I’d never been in trouble with Grandpa once. It was the only time I remember him being upset with me, and it stuck with me. I never wanted to make him angry again.

  For the most part, I’d succeeded. Grandpa and I were very close, and we rarely had disagreements. This past summer, when he’d started working as a “private investigator,” we’d clashed a bit—mostly when he kept me out of the loop on something I really wanted to be in the know about. But fights? Not us.

  If he caught wind of me in his office going through his stuff, though, I suspected things would be different.

  But it was a chance I needed to take.

  I took a deep breath and crept down the final few stairs into his lair, closing the door behind me.

  Chapter 52

  I paused behind the closed door, listening for any sounds. Nothing. I slipped through Grandpa’s man-cave room with the couch and the giant TV and into his office. I hadn’t actually been in here in a while, and my six-year-old self broke a sweat at the thought of what I was about to do. I stopped and looked around. It was neat. Tidy. Not too much lying out on top of the desk. I remembered Grandpa’s desk at the police department and it was nothing like this. Although he certainly would have less on his plate these days, even with this mysterious private-eye business he’d been involved in since the summer. Which he still didn’t talk about very much, despite the many times I’d asked. But I wasn’t holding a grudge or anything.

  I started with the two bookcases lining the wall behind his desk. Which was no easy task because Grandpa had a lot of books, double and triple stacked. I checked behind all of the stacks. No notebook or suspicious file of papers, but I did find my long-lost copy of J. D. Salinger’s Nine Stories.