Page 141 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“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.

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