Page 53 of Building What's Meant to Be

“No!” I say more loudly than I mean to.

Buck taps his finger with the air. “No, because of her involvement with Puma? Christina knew she recognized her.”

“Can we trust her?” Bo asks.

“I think Taylor can answer that,” Nash grumbles.

I straighten. “Tinsley doesn’t have the best track record among us.” I nod at Taylor. “And in the past, she may have been a bit over the top. But yes, I think we can trust her.”

Taylor snorts. “Why her, Aiden? There are millions of women in the world and you had to pick her?”

I’m about to explain myself, which amounts to a rumbling within, an attraction that is hard to fathom and goes well beyond the physical when Nash asks, “Why us?”

“Remember how Bo and Buck caught Streckle at the Estate? Nash stood by Mikey when he didn’t have to. Taylor stepped in when William Taylor hassled Mae. When Cassian intervened after Stoll, Silas, and Pickering threatened our shores? You guys always do what’s right even if it isn’t easy. What I do is always hard. I want to save Butterbury and stop whatever Stoll and his cronies are doing.”

“And what’s that?”

“I don’t know exactly. For the first time through this whole case, I’m stumped,” I admit.

“Seems to me that there is a fly in the buttermilk,” Cassian says.

“Maybe multiple,” I add.

Twinky flicks her tail as if agreeing.

“Sure is. But I know this cat has something to do with it. Stoll got a piece of mail from Gannon, Louella Belle’s brother. A week later, the mayor took a trip to Atlanta. When he came back, he had this cat in his car. Found her in a cage in the garage. Brought her here.”

“Concerning,” Bo says, presumably about the connection to Louella Belle’s brother.

“Strange,” Nash adds.

Like a team of agents in a secret room with maps and schematics, hanging swipeable glass computer screens, and an array of dangerous gadgets Q from James Bond would be proud of, the guys and I outline what we know, starting with Hydro-pro and concluding with the most recent interaction with the Governor and Gatlin in Cassian’s driveway.

He explains, “Pickering and Stoll tried to shut down production of Designed to Last over supposed tax evasion. They wanted my grandparents’ property because it offers access to the saltmarshes where they’d intended to position the enemy so they could bring our sub and navy fleet down under the guise of military testing gone awry.”

“Then why isn’t Pickering in jail? All of them?” Taylor asks.

“Despite Captain Dufour’s influence, my testimony, and Stoll’s history, Pickering covered their tracks. There will be an appeal case, but for now, they’re clear,” Cassian answers.

“For now,” I emphasize. The truth is close. I can feel it. I pet Twinky. “Stoll is bound to get sloppy. That’s the problem with secrets and lies. The truth always reveals itself like the sun after a storm while the lie requires fuel to continue to burn.”

“Poetic. What else don’t I know about you?” Taylor asks.

That I’m falling for Tinsley?

I show them the security footage I’d been reviewing. “Have a look at this. I’ve watched him come and go repeatedly. Then, I noticed something different about the last time he was at the town hall.” I pause the recording. “Stoll is wearing a different shirt.”

“These are all different days though. That’s not unusual.”

“It’s a different style shirt,” I clarify.

The guys lean in.

“It’s a Hawaiian shirt,” I say.

“Casual Friday at the office?” Nash suggests.

“This was from last week. No one has seen Stoll in town since.”

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