“There you are,” Nancy said as she entered and set an empty tray on the counter. “I was wondering where you’d gotten to. How are you feeling?” Her concerned gaze swept across Brianna’s face.
“I’m okay,” Brianna answered. “You’ve been doing all the work.”
“It helps me to stay busy,” Nancy said with a sad but determined smile. “Everyone is gone except our old friends Bud and Laurie. We’re going to have some tea. Do you want to join us?”
Brianna didn’t think she could take one more second of polite conversation. “Actually, I think I’ll go to my house and get a start on the unpacking.” While Rick and Nancy would have preferred to have her and Lucas live with them, Brianna had drawn the line at sharing a house with her in-laws. She loved them dearly, but there had to be some boundaries, so she’d rented a small house on Drake’s Way just a few blocks away.
“Are you sure you want to do that now?” Nancy asked. “I thought you’d wait until tomorrow. Maybe I should come with you. Rick can keep an eye on Lucas. You don’t want to tackle those boxes by yourself.”
“I appreciate the offer, but please stay here with your friends. I’d like to take a walk around the neighborhood, get my bearings. You can bring Lucas over whenever you’re done here. Or I can come back and get him.”
Nancy gave her a concerned look. “Are you sure you want to be alone, Brianna? It’s been a difficult day.”
She couldn’t think of anything better than being alone. She needed some time to herself to drop the brave smile and just take a breath. “I’ll be fine.”
Nancy hesitated, pursing her lips. “Brianna, you’re not thinking about talking to Jason Marlow again, are you?”
A tingle ran down her spine at the unexpected question. Seeing Jason at the cemetery had rattled her. He’d gone from being a dim shadow in her mind to a living, breathing reminder of everything she’d lost. Talking to him again was not high on her list. He unsettled her on a lot of levels. There was something about the way he looked at her . . . the way he’d always looked at her.
“Brianna?”
She realized Nancy was still waiting for an answer. “I don’t have any plans to speak to Jason. He’d be the last person who would want to help us find the truth. He thinks he already knows it.”
“I appreciate your desire to continue fighting for Derek,” Nancy said slowly. “We’ve all spent a lot of time and money trying to prove his innocence, but every possible lead has always led to crushing disappointment, and I don’t know if I can do it anymore.” She drew in a deep breath. “Derek is gone, and he’s not coming back. My concern now is for you and Lucas to be happy here. If you start asking a lot of questions, I’m afraid the nasty gossip will start up again. It was hard on Rick and me when Derek was convicted, and I don’t want to live through it again. I want Lucas to go to school without hearing friends talk about his father and for you to have the opportunity to meet other women your age without Derek’s crime hanging over your head. I want us all to live a normal life, to be free of the past.”
“I don’t think that my asking questions will get people talking; I’m sure they already are,” she said, a little surprised by Nancy’s attitude. She would have thought that her mother-in-law would want her to continue the fight. “And how can we be free if we don’t know the truth?”
Nancy gave a helpless shake of her head. “I doubt we’ll ever find it. Can’t it be enough to know that we tried?”
It wouldn’t be enough for Brianna, because deep down, she knew that it wasn’t just about proving Derek’s innocence; she had to prove to herself that she’d made the right decision in marrying him and standing by him all these years. But she wasn’t going to share that with Nancy, who’d never had a single doubt about her son.
She put her hand on her mother-in-law’s arm. “You don’t have to try anymore. The past five years, I let you and Rick carry the burden. I was so busy trying to keep my head above water and raise Lucas on my own that I couldn’t take anything else on. But I’m here now, back where it all started, and I need to know I did everything I could to find out what happened at the museum that night.” She paused. “Rick said that there’s a new chief of police now.”
“Joe Silveira,” Nancy replied with a nod. “He’s been here about eight months. We thought about talking to him, but Derek was resigned to letting the clock run out until he was released.” Her eyes filled with tears as she bit down on her bottom lip. “Derek was starting to smile again, the last couple of months. He was looking forward instead of back. We all were.”
Nancy’s words brought a new wave of pain, and Brianna drew in a shaky breath. No matter how often she tried to escape the past, it kept calling her back. “That’s why I have to give this one last try. Maybe a new chief of police will be willing to take another look at the case. We could use a fresh perspective, especially from someone who didn’t grow up here and wasn’t in the department five years ago.”
“I never thought Jason or any of the other boys who grew up with Derek would turn on him the way they did,” Nancy said bitterly. “Jason and Derek were as close as brothers. He was part of the family.” She squared her shoulders. “Do what you have to do, Brianna, but don’t let your guard down with Jason. He won’t let you overturn his case without a fight.”
“I’m not worried about Jason. But before I do anything else, I need to unpack and put some beds together so Lucas and I have somewhere to sleep tonight.”
“You can always stay here another night.” The doorbell rang, and an odd expression flitted through Nancy’s eyes as they heard Rick’s voice, followed by the sound of barking. “Oh, dear,” she muttered.
Brianna frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Nancy glanced over at the calendar hanging on the wall. “I forgot it was today.”
“Forgot what?”
“Derek asked us to do something for him. He wanted to get Lucas a present that would be waiting when he was released.”
An uneasy feeling ran through Brianna, maybe because Nancy had never looked as guilty as she did now. “What kind of present?”
Before Nancy could reply, Lucas ran into the kitchen, his face lit with excitement. “Mommy, guess what Grandpa and Grandma got me?”
The sound of barking told Brianna all she needed to know. “You didn’t,” she said, as Lucas grabbed her hand and pulled her into the living room.
Rick had a squirmy black dog in his arms and a sheepish expression on his face. “I forgot it was today,” he told Nancy, who had followed them into the living room.
“So did I,” Nancy said.
“Can I hold him?” Lucas asked.
Rick hesitated and then handed the frantically excited puppy to Lucas. Lucas couldn’t hang on to the dog, and the two went down together in a mix of barks and giggles.
“We’re going to go,” Laurie said hastily, giving her husband, Bud, a pointed look. “Let you all sort this out.”
Brianna barely registered the neighbors’ departure, too caught up in disbelief. Lucas had been asking for a dog for months, and she’d promised him they’d talk about it when his dad came home. Apparently, Derek had made his own plans to surprise his son.
The black Labrador was awfully cute, but the timing wasn’t great. She would have preferred to get settled into their house before considering a pet.
“Derek had a black Lab,” Nancy told her. “The last time we visited him, two weeks before he died, he said that he wanted to get Lucas a dog. We agreed to set it up for him with some friends of ours who breed dogs.”
“After Derek died, I forgot all about it,” Rick said.
“I can keep him, can’t I, Mommy?” Lucas asked, his arms tightening around the puppy, which was enthusiastically licking his face. “I’ll feed him and play with him all the time.”
“I guess so,” she said. There was no way she could erase the happiest smile Lucas had worn in months.
“We’ll help you,” Nancy said.
“We’ve got a head
start on supplies,” Rick added, motioning to the crate and the bag of dog food. “He didn’t come empty-handed.”
“What should we name him, Mommy?” Lucas asked.
“I’ll let you pick. In the meantime, I’ll go to our house and get our beds set up and clear some space for the three of us.”
“I’ll come with you,” Nancy said.
“No, that’s okay. I need a few minutes to myself.”
“I’m sorry we sprang this on you.” Rick offered her a rueful smile.
“It will be fine.” And as she watched Lucas playing with his new best friend, she started to believe it would be. This was what she wanted for her son: normal, happy family moments. It was why she’d risked coming to Angel’s Bay. There were shadows here, but there was also a lot of love. And she didn’t want Lucas to grow up lonely, the way she had.
“I wish Derek could see this,” Nancy murmured, her gaze on the child and the puppy. She glanced back at Brianna. “His last gift to his son. I think it was a good one.”
“I think it was, too.”
Jason headed to the police station after leaving Colin’s house. He wasn’t on duty, but he wanted to speak to the chief before Brianna did.
Joe Silveira was just getting off the phone when Jason entered his office. In his late thirties, the chief had dark hair, dark eyes, and an unshakably cool manner. He’d spent years working vice in Los Angeles and brought a wealth of experience to this job. Jason had enormous respect for his boss, and they had a good working relationship, but they hadn’t moved close to a friendship. Joe was approachable yet distant, the kind of man Jason doubted anyone knew very well.
“What can I do for you, Marlow?” Joe asked, giving him a thoughtful look.
“I wanted to give you a heads-up on a situation that might be developing.”
“Let me guess: Derek Kane. I heard you were at the funeral today. Was that a good idea?”
“Probably not.”
Joe picked up a thick file from the top of his desk. “I took a look through this earlier. Interesting case. Local boy turns art thief, assaults security guard, lifts three priceless paintings from the museum, and along the way runs into his best friend—you—thereby placing him at the scene of the crime.”
“You’re up to speed.” Jason took a seat across from Joe. He wasn’t surprised; the chief made it his business to know what was going on in Angel’s Bay.
“The town has been talking about nothing else since the Kanes decided to bury their son in the local cemetery.” Joe paused. “So what can you tell me that’s not in the file?”
“I can tell you that Derek’s widow, Brianna Kane, is convinced that her husband was framed, and she’s determined to prove it.”
“Are you worried?”
“I don’t think I made a mistake. I dealt with the facts I had. I wasn’t the only one on the case, and I wasn’t Derek’s only friend in the department. Everyone knew him. Most people liked him.”
Joe stared at him for a long moment. “You were in a difficult position, having to arrest a friend. I’m sure you were torn between wanting to be right and wanting to be wrong.”
“I was right,” Jason said.
“Then that should make it easier.”
“You’d think so,” he said with a small sigh. He had no reason to second-guess anything he’d done, but Brianna’s stubborn belief in Derek’s innocence was playing on his mind.
“From what I read, you conducted a thorough investigation. Unfortunately, you didn’t have a lot of hard evidence to go on, and the paintings in question were never recovered.” Joe pulled three photographs from the file and spread them across the desk. “The Three Faces of Eve by renowned artist Victor Delgado. I don’t know much about art, but these look pretty good.”
Jason’s stomach clenched. It had been many years since he’d studied the photographs of the stolen paintings. The artist was one of the founders of Angel’s Bay, having survived a shipwreck off the coast. He’d painted the portraits in memory of his lost love, Eve. In one painting, Eve was a sweet, saintly angel with a halo of heavenly light glowing behind her. There was innocence and wonder in her violet-blue eyes. Behind her was a beautiful landscape with a sandy beach and a light blue sky, the blurred colors creating a dreamlike appearance.
The second portrayed Eve as a sexy, wicked siren beckoning to her lover from where she reposed on a red velvet couch. Her bodice fell off her shoulders, revealing lush breasts, her dark red hair flowing into the background of hot reds, menacing blacks, and fiery oranges.
In the last portrait, Eve appeared frightened and confused as she was swept off the deck of a ship into a stormy sea, her desperate hands reaching out for rescue. There were fine lines in Eve’s face, in her hands, as if she were breaking apart in front of the man who loved her.
There was passion and power in the paintings, and desperation bordering on maniacal. Town legend said that Delgado had gone crazy trying to capture the soul of the woman he’d lost. He’d been haunted by her spirit, and she’d mocked him for getting her wrong over and over again.
Jason was only looking at photographs, but he could still feel the pull of the art. It was difficult to look away. He had the bizarre notion that Eve was trying to tell him something. Like maybe where she was . . .
“I wish to hell I could find the paintings,” he told Joe. “I spent a lot of time looking for them, but I couldn’t catch a lead. Not one of the local artists could point me in the direction of a potential buyer, someone who might have commissioned Derek to steal them. No one ever heard a whisper about their whereabouts. I figured Derek probably stashed them somewhere, letting them cool off until he got out of prison.”
“Do you think he was working alone?”
“He never gave up another name. But I always thought he had to have help.”
“If he did, they’ve stayed very quiet.”
“They have. And they were certainly willing to let Derek rot in prison. I have to believe that Derek’s silence was born of fear. He preferred to serve time rather than implicate someone else, even if that might have meant mitigating his sentence.”
“But he did have a private investigator and an attorney working on an appeal.”
“He did,” Jason agreed. “No one came up with any new information. The P.I. told me frankly that he didn’t think Derek was being completely up-front with him. Maybe he was going through the motions so he wouldn’t have to admit his guilt to his wife or to his parents.”
“If he hadn’t assaulted the guard, he might have gotten away with the theft, or at the very least served a lot less time,” Joe said.
“It was a bad mistake,” Jason said with a nod.
“When I was reading through the report, I was struck by the fact that the paintings had only recently been donated to the museum by Derek’s grandfather, Wyatt Kane.”
“Along with Steve and Gloria Markham,” Jason said. “The paintings were lost for a hundred and fifty years; they were believed to have been stolen by Victor Delgado’s brother, Ramón, who was also in love with Eve. At least, that was one theory. Another was that Eve’s family stole the paintings. She’d run out on the wealthy and highly respected Winstons to jump onboard a ship with a poor Hispanic artist. Her family couldn’t get her back, but they could destroy the art that represented her desertion.”
“So Derek Kane’s grandfather finds the paintings in a small shop in Mexico and brings them back to Angel’s Bay. Ironic that his grandson would wind up stealing them.”
“Derek claimed that was exactly why he wouldn’t have done it. He knew the paintings meant something to his grandfather, to all the local artists who have been obsessed with Delgado’s work for years.”
“But you didn’t believe him.”
“Derek had a lot of issues with Wyatt. I could see revenge being a motive—wanting to take something away from Wyatt that he’d spent years trying to find. There was bad blood between them.”
“That makes sense. Art theft always s
eems to have a personal motive. It’s never just about the money.” Joe paused. “So what can you tell me about Brianna Kane?”
“She’s extremely loyal.” Jason stood up. He got angry every time he thought about Brianna marrying Derek after his conviction. Why had she been so willing to tie herself to a criminal? Judging by the age of her son, it was possible she’d been pregnant, but still, surely she’d had other options.
“You need to stay out of this,” Joe said, his gaze serious.
“If the case is going to be reopened, I want to be involved.”
“It won’t be reopened unless there’s new information. Right now I just want to hear what Mrs. Kane has to say.”
“She’ll say I sent an innocent man to jail.”
“But you didn’t, right? So you have nothing to prove. Try to remember that. It will make your life a lot easier.” Joe cleared his throat. “I also need you to get your head out of the past. With the Harvest Festival starting in a few days, the hotels and inns are at capacity, and we’re down a few officers—not a good combination.”
“I’ll do whatever you need.”
“Good. By the way, have you spoken to Colin lately? How’s he doing?”
“He’s frustrated and impatient to get back to normal.”
“Tell him not to rush. He’s got a job here whenever he’s a hundred percent—if he still wants it. What he went through would make anyone reconsider their career choice.”
“He has no qualms about returning to work. He doesn’t remember the shooting, so maybe that helps.”
“Maybe. Unfortunately, those kinds of memories tend to work their way out at some point,” Joe said.
Jason’s phone started to vibrate, and his father’s number flashed across the screen, sending an uneasy feeling down his spine. His father had been dodging his calls the past few weeks, which usually meant only one thing—another woman was about to enter their lives. “My dad,” he said to Joe. “I should get this.”
In Shelter Cove Page 3
