by Diane Capri
I looked up, and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. Casey was surrounded by plush toys. Bears, horses, dogs, cats, and more. I spotted a unicorn and an octopus. Hundreds of them piled on shelves all around the storage unit.
“What are you doing here?” Casey demanded.
“Ah…” was all I could get out.
He came over and snatched the stuffed crab from my hand. “You have to be careful with him. He’s worth a lot of money.”
“I’m not sure what to say,” I replied.
“Did you follow me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought…because I’m not sure what I thought, to be honest.” I looked around some more and splayed my hands. “What is all this?”
“My Beanie Baby collection.”
“I heard you on the phone at the hotel talking about money.” I took a step toward one of the shelves, trying to take in the massive number of plush animals on the shelves.
“I was talking to a buyer.” He held up the crab. “For this guy. The buyer will pay ten grand for him.”
I turned and gaped at him. “You’re kidding.”
“I am not.” He glared at me. “I sold Peace Bear for seven thousand, Millennium Mint Bear for five thousand, and two rabbits—Hippity and Hoppity—for six thousand each.”
“Wow. I had no idea.” I reached for a cute dog, but Casey slapped my hand.
“Don’t touch them.”
It was then I noticed he was wearing gloves.
I looked up and spotted a blue bear in a glass case. I pointed to it. “How much is that one worth?”
“Right now, she’s worth about seventy-five thousand. But I’m holding her until the market reaches about a hundred thousand.”
I shook my head, but now the quick payoff of his mother’s medical expenses made sense. “You’ve been selling these to pay your mom’s bills.”
He nodded, and his eyes narrowed. “But how did you know about mom’s bills?”
“Social media. You’d be surprised what you can find out about a person.”
He sighed. “I hate parting with them, to be honest. Mom bought them all for me when I was a kid.”
“That’s a lot of stuffed animals.”
“I was a sickly kid. I didn’t get outside much. My mom bought them to be my friends.” He picked up one of the cats, brought it up to his face, and smelled it.
“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “Wow, I couldn’t have been more wrong about you.”
“What did you think I was doing? Selling drugs or something?” He put both hands on his hips and glared. “And why were you following me, anyway?”
“I thought you’d sold information about me to the man who broke into my suite recently.” I turned and looked at him. Might as well face the truth.
He scowled as if I had honestly offended him. The expression was totally different from the faux offense he displayed when he knew he was being a jerk. “I can’t believe you’d think I would do that. We don’t particularly like each other, but you’re calling me a thief and a criminal.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry.” I sighed. “It’s been a rough few days.”
He came over and handed me the little gray striped cat he’d been holding. “Here.”
“Ah, I thought I shouldn’t touch any.”
“Oh, this one isn’t worth anything. I heard you’ve been missing your cats. You can have her.”
I took the toy and smiled, feeling touched by the odd offering. “Thanks, Casey.”
“Just don’t tell anyone about this.” He gestured to the hundreds of Beanie Babies. “I’ve heard of people getting robbed and murdered for them.”
“I won’t.” I put the little cat into my purse, along with the pepper spray I still held. My cell phone buzzed, and I looked at it. It was a text from Ginny.
Where the hell are you?
“It’s Ginny, wondering where we are,” I said. “Can I catch a ride with you back to the hotel? I rode one of the bikes here, and I’m not sure I can ride it back up the hill. It was enough trouble to ride down.”
Chapter 18
The next morning, I woke up to the chiming bells of my phone’s ring tone. Groggy, I flopped an arm toward my bedside table and fumbled for the phone. I dropped it onto the floor and then had to lean over the bed to grab it. I managed to answer before the call went to voice mail.
“Hello?” I said without opening my eyes.
“Why am I looking at security footage of you breaking into All Goods Storage last night?” Sheriff Jackson. Man, that guy gets around.
I rolled onto my back. “Well, I really wasn’t breaking in. I was sort of with someone.”
“Andi,” he replied in that tone he often used that was half-warning and half-exasperation. I imagined he was either rubbing a hand over his chin or running it through his hair. “What the hell?”
“Are you going to charge me with breaking and entering or something?”
He sighed. “No, but stop pressing your luck.”
“I was following a lead, but it didn’t pan out.”
“You are a civilian. You shouldn’t be following leads of any kind.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of telling me that?” I smiled to myself, hoping he heard it in my voice.
He chuckled, and it made my belly tighten. “Yes, I do get tired of it.”
As a private citizen, I could investigate anything I wanted. We both knew that. Of course, breaking and entering was a crime. So there was that. “Did you check out the registrations at the marina? Anybody named Ivan?”
“No Ivan listed anywhere.”
I sighed. It had been a reach anyway. It wasn’t like he’d register under his own name.
Sheriff Jackson said, “I checked the other hotels, inns, and even the bed-and-breakfast places. None of them have anybody named Ivan registered now, and none had anybody named Ivan registered any time this year. It’s not a common name, apparently.”
“He’s not a figment of my imagination.”
Sheriff Jackson inhaled and exhaled for a long time before he said, “I know.”
I checked the time. It was early, but if I didn’t get my butt in gear, I would miss my tee time. “I’ve got to go.”
“All right. Have a good day,” he replied. “No shenanigans.”
“Did you really say ‘shenanigans’?” I laughed.
He disconnected.
I made it to the course on time, and we all teed off. I crossed my fingers and made a quick wish for the game to finish up uneventfully. The last thing I needed was to be digging more evidence out of sand traps.
When Lane and I were out of earshot of Eric and Justin, I leaned over to him. “Are you going to be home this evening?”
His eyebrows went up, probably thinking I was hitting on him until he remembered our previous conversation. “Yeah. Should be.”
“I’ll bring pizza and beer.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The rest of the game, I thought about Jeremy, wondering what he’d gotten himself involved in. More than embezzlement, for sure. None of our clients would murder him for stealing their money. The firm’s insurance would pay the money back. He supposedly had big gambling debts. Maybe he owed some bad people a lot of money. The insurance wasn’t likely to repay that kind of debt. I was hoping whatever was on his SIM card would reveal all.
After the golfing was over and my other duties were complete, I commandeered a golf cart and headed down to the village. I picked up a large pepperoni pizza and a six-pack of beer on the way and knocked on Lane’s door. He lived in a townhouse in one of the newer neighborhoods that I’d never been to before. Despite the island’s relatively small size, there were quite a few places I hadn’t seen.
The door was opened by a handsome elderly man with a gorgeous head of white hair. He smiled. “Hello, dear.”
“Hi. I’m Andi. Is Lane here?”
He turned his head and shouted, “Lane! Your girlfriend
is here!”
“Oh, I’m not his—”
Lane came running. “Thanks, Pops.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the house and through the living room to the stairs leading down to the basement.
Once we were in his apartment, for lack of a better word, I set the pizza and beer down onto a table. “Is that your grandpa?”
“No,” he said as he flipped open the cardboard box and grabbed a slice of pizza. “That’s Ed. He’s my roommate.”
“But you called him Pops.” I looked around for a place to sit. Every spot seemed to be covered with clothes, books, or video-game cases and controllers.
“It’s just what I call him. He likes it.” He shoved some clothes off a chair and gestured for me to sit. “When I first got the job at the Park, I didn’t have a place to stay, and rent was way too high for me on my own. I think it was Nancy who told me Ed needed someone to live with him, pay some rent, and look after the place.”
I grabbed a slice of pizza and sat. “That’s pretty cool. Smart, too. You’re probably saving a lot of money.”
He nodded. “I do all right.” He folded the slice in half and shoved it into his mouth. While chewing, he went over to the desk set against one wall. There were two monitors on it, a keyboard, a mouse, and an assortment of other electronics I couldn’t name. “Let’s see your SIM card.”
I grabbed my purse, took out my wallet, and handed Lane the tiny plastic card in the baggie. He took a smartphone from his desk, popped open the card tray, and slid the card into.
“It’s password protected,” I said.
He powered up the phone, and the password screen flashed on. He plucked a cord from a desk drawer, connected it to the phone, and then plugged it into the side of one of his computers.
An icon with the words “New Device” popped up on his screen. He right-clicked on it, and a list of options was offered to open the information on the device. Lane clicked on something labeled “trikart.” The second that happened it seemed like a million pop-up windows started to explode on the screen. His hands were like lightning on the keyboard and mouse, clicking buttons and typing words. I didn’t know what was going on.
“The software is reading the encryption and trying to find a way in,” he said by way of explanation. “It might take a bit.”
“How long’s a bit?”
“Twenty minutes to four hours. It’s hard to say. Depends on how serious the encryption is.”
“I can’t hang out here for four hours. I have to attend the big gala tonight at the hotel.” I checked the time. The gala started at eight, so I had maybe two hours to play with before I had to get back, get dressed, and look presentable. The last thing I wanted to do was worry Ginny and Lois about whether I would arrive at all.
Lane gestured to the TV. “We could play some video games.”
I looked at him, realizing just how young he was. I glanced at his other computer monitor. “Can I use that, while this is going on?”
“Oh yeah, for sure.”
I pulled up a chair to the other computer and typed in the remote web address for the hotel. I had access to the system, and I had used the remote access to the hotel computer before from my suite. It felt a little weird logging on from Lane’s computer, but I wasn’t doing anything illegal.
The login screen popped up, and I typed in my user ID and password. After a few more clicks, I had access to all the registrations and check-ins and check-outs at the hotel for the past few years. I wasn’t sure if the man who’d introduced himself to me as Ivan had stayed at the Park, but I could definitely check to see if he had and whether we had a last name for him.
I typed in the dates for the Flower Festival and typed in the name Ivan. There couldn’t possibly be a whole bunch of Ivans who had stayed at the hotel. During the relevant dates, no one using Ivan as a first name showed up in the system. I shouldn’t have been surprised. He likely had stayed at another hotel on the island or even one of the B&Bs.
He might have stayed on a boat. Maybe that was why he had run toward the marina. He could have had a boat docked there. Boats docked there were required to register, similar to staying in a hotel. Registrants had to provide a full name, legal address, and form of photo ID.
Just as I was pulling out my cell phone to call the sheriff, Lane clapped his hands together in excitement.
“We’re in.”
“Now what?” I asked as I rolled my chair closer to his.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, and then he was dragging files across the screen with the mouse. “Looks like some accounting spreadsheets.” He clicked on the first file.
A spreadsheet opened. It looked like a simple cash account ledger. Name, the amount of money coming in, and the money being paid out. These were individuals—Jones, Singer, Cassell, Hassad, Matsu. I recognized some of the names as clients of my old law firm, Alcott, Chambers & Rucker.
Then the amounts: $10,000 in, $70,000 out, $50,000 in, $80,000 out. Where the money was going, I couldn’t tell. Jeremy might have had an offshore account in Switzerland or the Caymans. The types of accounts we’d often suggest to our clients to secure their wealth. There were other numbers in the ledger, and they could’ve been account numbers, but I couldn’t know for sure.
There were a lot of other files, random entries over the past five years. I asked Lane to click on the next file. There were different names listed and fewer of them. A third file had only two names, Jones and Sorrentino.
It was a nightmare simply looking at all of it. My stomach churned from seeing the actual evidence of Jeremy’s crimes in front of me. After I’d heard that Jeremy had been arrested, I’d often hoped the charges were false, that he was innocent. But deep down, I’d known all the things they’d told me were true. The firm’s partners would never have reacted the way they had if there had been even a shred of falsity to the claims.
Seeing everything laid out, names and numbers, made my head spin. I pushed my chair away and stood up to pace the room. It felt like I might be sick. Lane must’ve seen my distress, because he pushed a bottle of water into my hands.
“I take it this is not information you wanted to see.”
I shook my head. “You can’t tell anyone you saw this. And I mean no one, Lane.”
He nodded. “I won’t.”
“Can you print this all off for me? Then wipe it from your computer?”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
I sat on the sofa, on top of the clothes stacked there. “I’m just going to sit for a minute while you do that.”
Thirty minutes later, I had a stack of fifty pages in a manila envelope. I headed back to the golf cart I’d borrowed from the hotel. I had watched Lane as he wiped the information from his computer and gave me back the SIM card. I made him promise for the millionth time to not talk to anyone about this. After seeing what was on the card, I felt nervous about getting Lane involved, too. The information was dangerous. Jeremy had been killed over it.
After I went through everything, I planned to hand it all over to the sheriff. He could forward it to the FBI. I just hoped it was enough to take me off the suspect list.
I slid into the cart, started it, and pulled away from Lane’s house. After a block, I noticed another cart behind mine. I wasn’t sure where it had come from. I hadn’t noticed any carts turning onto the road behind me. I turned left, and the second cart followed. Then I turned right, and it followed.
On the next turn, I sped up. I expected the cart to speed up behind me, but it didn’t. I made another left turn, pulled over, and saw the second cart drive by at the regular speed limit. I didn’t recognize the cart or the driver.
My heart pounded in my chest. Closing my eyes, I leaned against the steering wheel. After taking in a few deep breaths and letting them out to calm myself, I put the cart in gear and drove onto the road.
My hands were shaking by the time I pulled into the hotel’s lot. I parked and got out of the cart. As I was crossing the lot, I n
oticed another cart parked nearby. It looked very similar to the one that I’d seen following me. I walked over and checked it out. I didn’t know what I was expecting to find. A sign that read “I’m following Andi Steele because I killed Jeremy Rucker” would’ve been helpful.
“What are you doing?”
The voice startled me, and I propelled forward and hit my forehead against the roof of the cart. Turning, I rubbed at my forehead to see Daniel half-smiling/half-frowning at me.
“Nothing.”
“Why were you looking into that cart?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about buying a cart. I was just checking out how roomy it was up front.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re feeding me a line of crap?” Daniel asked, cocking his head.
“I don’t know.” But I laughed. “Are you here for the gala?”
He nodded. “I’m early, but I’m meeting with Lindsey beforehand.”
He meant Mayor Lindsey Hamilton. “Cool.”
We walked into the hotel together, and he gave me a side-eye. “Why do I get the feeling you’re avoiding my texts? I’ve sent several since that night.”
“I’m not avoiding you. I actually drowned my phone.” I showed him my replacement.
“How did you do that?”
“Don’t ask. It’s a long, wet story.”
He chuckled. “Okay, I won’t pry.” He grabbed my hand. “I’ll see you later? There’s supposed to be music at this thing, so I hope you’ll save me a dance or two.”
“Of course.”
He leaned down to press a kiss to my lips. It was quick, and I didn’t respond. When he pulled back, I could see the hurt on his face.
I was in some kind of deep trouble. I couldn’t let him be pushed into danger he hadn’t signed up for. I was protecting him by pushing him away. But it was more than that. Kissing Daniel would’ve sent the wrong message. I’d tried to avoid my feelings for Luke Jackson, but they kept creeping up. When this was all over, I would tell Luke how I felt about him, even if I ended up moving to Hong Kong. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. It would probably end up a disaster. But I was quickly becoming accustomed to disasters.
