Page 118 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“I’ll be back,” he said.

He drove to the location and, by the time he got there, a black sedan was in the driveway and a man was on the front porch.

He got out of his truck and said, “Van Harlowe. I was the nine-one-one operator. This is my house.”

The guy came off the porch, his badge on his hip. “Jarrett Bond. So you’re the one dating Kelsey. I recognized the name. Mac told me about you. Ex-detective, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me.” He should have figured the news would travel fast on the island. He’d heard it enough, but not many had come up to him about dating Kelsey.

No one at work at least.

He kept to himself, but Kelsey had told him her mother was telling people.

“I hadn’t realized this was your place,” Jarrett said.

“I hadn’t either until the call was done. Did you find anything?”

“I just got here,” Jarrett said. “I went looking for the van but didn’t see it. There is no Amore Island Cleaners that I’m aware of. My guess is it was a wrap on the van to cover something. I drove around and didn’t see any sign of it. I can have them keep an eye out at the docks, but that’s not always easy either. We’ve got cameras there. We’ll know if a white van tries to leave and can look into it.”

“Better than nothing,” he said. “Any sign of a break-in?”

“Yes,” Jarrett said. “Messy too. They weren’t waiting around to try to pick it but just broke it.”

“Great,” he said. “I’ll get it fixed today for the renters. I should try to call them too. I’ll have my property manager reach out.”

“You’re not going to be able to tell if anything was taken?” Jarrett asked.

“No,” he said. “I won’t. Let me call my property manager now. I guess the renters are on vacation. Great way to ruin it for them.”

They opened the front door and walked in, flipping the lights. “Doesn’t look like there is anything out of place here,” Jarrett said.

They moved through the small house. Something about it looked familiar, but he could not place what it was. By the time they were done going through both floors it didn’t appear as if anything was taken.

“The renters are going to call me,” he said when he got a text. His phone rang next. “Hello, this is Van Harlowe.”

“Hi. This is Thomas Lawson. I just heard that our house was broken into. How bad is it? Is there any damage? What was taken?”

“I’m in the house right now with the State Police. It doesn’t appear that anything was disturbed, but the front lock was broken. I’ll get it repaired today. Can you tell me if you think there is anything someone would want?”

Jarrett cleared his throat and put his hand out for the cell phone. He had to remember he wasn’t a detective anymore.

He pulled it away from his ear and hit the speaker button.

“We don’t have anything anyone would want,” a woman’s voice said. He assumed it was Sarah. “We live a simple life. We don’t even have cash in the house. I guess we weren’t meant to take this trip. We just got to the Poconos yesterday, but we’ll come home today.”

He wanted to tell them not to, but it wasn’t his decision.

“This is Investigator Bond. It’s your choice to return,” Jarrett said. “The case will be open until you do and we can look through for anything missing.”

“We’ll be home,” Thomas said. “We’d never be able to enjoy ourselves knowing what happened.”

They talked a few more minutes and he hung up. “I feel like shit for them,” Van said.

“Nothing you can do about it,” Jarrett said.

“Not much more I can do here,” he said. “Other than fix the lock for them. I’ll get the stuff for it now.”

He left after that and went to the hardware store and then returned. He told Thomas and Sarah to come to his office if they were on the island before three. Otherwise he’d meet them at their house when he was out of work.

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