Page 90 of You're the Reason

Her parents were right, her students would understand. But it was all happening too fast. She couldn’t leave. Not like this. Her gaze flicked to the ceiling. Maybe she should just go up and knock on the door.

“Don’t bother, he’s in jail.” Her dad’s harsh words jerked her back to the moment. “Where he belongs.”

“What are you talking about?”

He pulled up his phone and then turned it toward her. “I thought you would have heard about last night.”

The video was dark, grainy, and a little shaky. But she’d recognize those shoulders anywhere. But it didn’t make sense. With the way his arms were spread on the car and the lights of the cruiser, it seemed as if they were arresting him. She’d never seen the car he was standing over in her life.

“If rumors can be believed, he was arrested for car theft, reckless driving, drug possession, and open containers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they can file more once they get his drug test back.”

None of this made sense. “But yesterday?—”

“It only takes one hit to pull a drug addict back down the rabbit hole. You know that from your brother. And from what we heard, he had access to a large amount of cash recently.”

Yeah, her cash.

“We tried to warn you about him.”

She’d known he was upset when he left, but she just didn’t see how that would turn into a stolen car, a drug bust, and driving recklessly into the square. But if Gabe had taught her anything, it was that the obvious connection often wasn’t anything more than just falling off the wagon.

Everything was crumbling down around her. It couldn’t be. This was supposed to be different. Seth was supposed to be different.

Another knock rattled the front door just before Jon Kensington walked in. With a dark scowl on his normally warm face, and the fact that Leah wasn’t with him, she guessed he wasn’t here for the performance either.

Jon stopped next to her and her parents. He greeted each of them before focusing on Grace. “Can I have a moment?”

“We need to go.” Her mother stepped forward, but Grace held her hand up.

If this was about Seth, she had to hear it. She nodded at Jon and walked to the far side of the room with him. She lowered her voice then showed the video to Jon. “Is it about this?”

He narrowed his eyes on the poor quality video. “I hadn’t seen this yet.”

Jon closed his eyes, and bile rose in her mouth at the defeat on his face. He drew a slow breath and opened his eyes. “Seth said that after you broke up the fight between him and Gabe you grabbed the stuff Seth had with him. What was there?”

“His keys were hanging in the door of his car and his phone was on the ground. And a water bottle on his car.”

“You didn’t see a cash box?”

“That old blue one he has? No, it wasn’t there. I would have noticed that.”

“Did you see anyone else around?”

“No, and I looked because I wanted help breaking them apart.” Grace eyed him for a moment. “Did he say I could verify the cash box had been there? There has to be an explanation.”

“I want to think so too, but the cash is gone and then...” He motioned to the video, then ran his hand roughly through his hair. “The empty cash box was found in the car with everything else.”

“Do you know what he was charged with?”

“Car theft and possession. I’m still trying to figure out the timing of it all. But before I go to talk to Hammond, I wanted to ask you about the cash box.”

“I wish I could say I saw it, but I just didn’t. Do you think he used it to buy the drugs?”

“He had about four grand of a variety of drugs on him. But he’d only claimed to get about two from the festival event. So I am not sure?—”

“It was mine.”

“What?”

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