Page 20 of Steal My Heart

“Calm down,” Gran said. “Let Hilliard get us out of here, and then we can talk it all through.” She leaned back, and Hilliard started the car and drove slowly back to the main road. Hilliard made the turn back to Fort Bragg and pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. Brian wasn’t hungry, but Gran probably was.

Brian was still steaming and wanted some answers. “So what gives?” he pressed as soon as they stopped.

“Okay. The burglary took place between twelve thirty and about three, when Violet got home from the ladies’ group meeting. You and Gramps appeared on tape about one seventeen and then appeared once more a little before two. The prosecutor will argue that you could have gotten back to Mendo and broken into the place before she got home, especially since you would have known the schedule because of your grandmother. It’s stretching it, so we could argue how preposterous that is. What we found is great. It isn’t a slam dunk, but it’s close.”

“Okay,” Brian said, his insides still churning, but at least he felt better. “So what’s next? We try to find out who really did it?”

“No. We try to see if we can find the receipt for the purchase your grandfather made. Do you think that’s possible? It looked like he kept the receipt.”

“And after we went to Point Cabrillo, we got something to eat at Noyo River Grill. Gramps insisted on paying since I did all the driving, but you know him, he always paid cash.”

“And he probably shoved the receipt in his pocket.”

“Chester always did that. I was forever cleaning his daily crap out of his pockets.”

Hilliard continued, “Do you still have the clothes he was wearing? Don’t worry if you haven’t. I’d expect that you would have gone through his things.”

Gran looked so fragile as she shook her head. “I have some of his things in a box upstairs under the bed. I couldn’t throw out everything. It was like letting him go all over again. But I only kept mementos of our time together, not receipts.”

“It’s okay, Gran. We can look through that when we get back.” Sometimes his life felt like he was taking two steps forward and one step back. “And if it isn’t there?”

“Then we’ll look at other ways of narrowing down the timeline.” Hilliard opened the door and got out. “Let’s go have some lunch and celebrate a little. We found something big, and the rest is narrowing things down.”

“DO YOUthink it’s possible that the receipt is still in the house?” Brian asked once they got back home and Gran lay down for a nap.

“I don’t know. It depends on what Beverly kept. But either way, the video we found proves your story was true from the beginning, and it puts you at Point Cabrillo well inside the time that the burglary took place. If a jury had seen this evidence the first time around, you would not have been convicted, and the police would have been forced to look at other suspects.”

Hilliard had stopped by his house to grab his laptop before bringing them to Gran’s, so he plugged in the drive and downloaded the video to his computer. He brought it up and scrolled through it once more, finding where Brian and Gramps entered and then where they came in once more. “I’m just making detailed timeline notes. I want to build as much detailas I possibly can to see where the holes are.” He continued watching and smiled.

“Look, isn’t that your grandfather yet again? Right there.” Hilliard brought the video in closer. It got a little blurry, but Gramps and his cane could be made out. “What was he doing?”

“I don’t know.” They replayed it.

“He’s unwrapping a candy of some sort. Yeah, he’s eating something.”

“I bet he came back inside because I was out wandering the cliffs looking for sea lions and he needed to be out of the sun.” It was that simple, and that also meant they didn’t leave the lighthouse until after two o’clock.

“That makes it even tighter.” Hilliard made more notes and then continued the video, but there was nothing more to see.

Brian sat next to him as Hilliard continued working. “Okay. Beverly said the ladies’ group meets at twelve thirty and that they are done by three. If that’s the case, then getting to the lighthouse before one thirty would mean that you would have to have done the deed, picked up your grandfather, gotten him in the car, driven down to the lighthouse, and gotten down that road with all the people out for a Sunday stroll, parked, and had your grandfather out of the car and into the gift shop in less than an hour. I would doubt that. And even that would mean pushing it hard, especially with your grandfather using a cane.”

“Gramps didn’t move fast—Gran can vouch for that. You can see in the video that each step was measured.”

“True. So that leaves you getting him in the car, driving back, and dropping him off. You could do that in half an hour if you put him right in the car and took him home, because there’s less walking and you just had to get him in the car. No fussing and stuff. So that would leave a half hour or so for you to do the deed. Even that’s stretching it, considering what we’re talking about, but it’s possible, I suppose. I’ve seen lawyers make morepreposterous leaps stick. But this does verify your story, and it incriminates the police who botched the investigation.” Hilliard sat back. “You said that you had a late lunch after you left in Fort Bragg, so let’s look at that to button this up.”

“But what do we do otherwise?” Brian asked.

“We get Gran to talk to some of the ladies at church. She can tell them that we’ve found evidence that proves you didn’t do the burglary and that we can motion to have the conviction vacated. With new findings, it’s unlikely the DA would retry the case, and I can petition to have the conviction expunged. That will spread through her circles like wildfire, especially if Beverly has an I-told-you-so attitude. After a couple of days, the truth will be everywhere, including making it to the actual thieves.”

“Okay.”

“Also, be sure to lock your truck, and if you have any sort of alarm, set it. I wouldn’t put it past the thief to try to throw suspicion back on you. The truck trick worked before, so they could try again. Take pictures of the truck at night, all that sort of thing. In the morning, if you find anything, call me and then the police.” He closed his laptop. “Once the rumor has a chance to spread, you and I will pay Violet a visit.” He crossed his arms over his chest, smiling smugly.

“She won’t let me in the house.”

Hilliard lightly stoked his cheek. “She will when she sees the video.” He leaned closer. “I always knew you could never hurt anyone, and now we have proof, and we’re going to make sure everyone knows it.”

Brian closed his eyes, holding Hilliard’s hand. “But what if the thief comes after me or Gran?” He could take care of himself, but Gran was another matter. “It’s always possible. They thought they got away with it, and now there will be people looking around again. It could stir up a hornet’s nest.”

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