Page 76 of Just Between Us

Odd . . .

His mouth trembled as he fumbled for words. “Oh, right. Yeah ... I’ll, uh ... I’ll have to finish that another time.” The light turned, and he started walking away. “Another time then.”

Utterly dismissed by the man, I stood in shock as he looked over his shoulder at me and hustled down Main Street in the direction of the lighthouse. Gone were the fuzzy feelings I had reveled in only moments before. I shook my head, determined to not let the strange interaction ruin the day.

I was on a mission.

JP’s rented corner office had been transformed. He finally moved in a desk for me, and if I wasn’t tangled up in Royal, I wasat the office, searching. After an hour of reading and digging, the office door opened and my boss walked in. I didn’t bother looking up.

“What the hell is that?” JP’s voice floated over my shoulder as I stood back, staring at my masterpiece with my hands on my hips.

I smiled at the elaborate board I had constructed. “Timelines. Evidence. Receipts.”

The oversize corkboard took up the majority of the wall space and had to be special ordered. I had considered the overnight shipping cost to be a King Equities justified business expense and refused to feel bad about it.

My work was gloriously color coded with photos, notes, and timelines. I even bought red string to denote things I suspected were connected. Post-it Notes were ruthlessly organized by color and highlighted the bits of information I was still looking into.

It was a beautiful, nerdy masterpiece.

JP stepped up beside me. “It looks like something from a seventies detective thriller.”

The bitchy tone in his voice indicated he likely meant it as an insult, but I only grinned. “Thank you.”

He scanned the board with his hands on his hips and exhaled. “What a fucking mess.”

There was a sad, resigned note to his voice, and I softened toward my grumpy boss. “So, what’s the end game here? Are you really planning to dismantle the entire business?”

His lips formed a hard line. “If I have to.”

I stayed quiet and nodded. I sympathized with the tough position he had found himself in. “I’ll do what I can.”

He looked at me and I knew he understood what I meant. I would do everything in my power to find the information he needed, while protecting the assets of King Equities. In business there were always ways to move money or reestablishconnections or rebrand, but if Russell King went down, he’d likely be taking the entire empire down with him.

My heart squeezed for JP and his siblings. I’m sure they never intended to be tangled in their father’s mess, but if things went south, they’d all have to deal with the fallout.

“Where’d you get that?” JP pointed at a picture of his mother—specifically, the ethereal drawing Royal had drawn that hung in his shop.

“Um, Royal gave me that.” I didn’t let my eyes slide to gauge his reaction. “It’s something he drew, so I took a picture of it and printed it out.”

I could feel his stare bore into the side of my face. “You two have been seeing a lot of each other lately.”

I hummed in vague acknowledgment but didn’t offer any additional details. I wasn’t ashamed of my relationship with Royal, even if I had hoped it would stay private. I had come to the conclusion that there was no use hiding it when we spent nearly every waking hour of our off time together.

JP harrumphed but didn’t press, and I exhaled a tiny breath of relief. He moved to his desk and shoved his shirtsleeves to his elbows before he hunched over his computer and began working.

I looked over my corkboard one last time.

I understood my role was to examine the business side of things, but no one had to know the lavender string was denoted for anything I could connect with the disappearance of Maryann King.

I pulled my rolling chair out from my desk and continued working. The beginning was the logical starting point, and it had been surprising to note that Bug had started documenting Russell’s meetings around the time of Maryann’s disappearance. I wondered whether that meant something or if Maryann leaving had spurred Bug to keep a closer eye on her brother.

Did she also suspect he had something to do with her disappearance?

Bug King was far too closed off to divulge anything to me, but I made a mental note to mention it to Royal.

By the afternoon, my eyes were bleary and my shoulders ached. Ink stained my fingertips, and my body needed a break. I stood, stretching my back and staring down at the mess I had made of my desk. The notebook was cracked open—I’d made a bookmark out of a discarded piece of printer paper—and it was tabbed with various colored Post-it Notes.

Timelines were running together, and the web Russell King had woven made less sense the longer I stared at it. “I’ll figure out how you did it,” I grumbled to the corkboard. “I just need the key.”

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