Page 115 of Resting Beach Face
The bastards had spray-painted a big X on two of the walls and damaged the sheetrock on a third. There was half an X painted on the kitchen wall as well—the one I’d originally wanted to knock out between the two rooms.
Declan was mourning the broken light fixtures over the counter, but I was stuck on that half an X.
“Why only half an X?” I mused. “There’s room for the whole X here.”
Gray nodded. “Yeah, my guess is something scared them off. Maybe someone came in late last night?”
“We were back relatively early,” I said. “The Jacksons were already in for the night.”
Declan snapped his fingers. “I’ve got a couple in their twenties. They hit the party scene over in Swallow Beach. They probably came home between two and three in the morning.”
“Maybe the vandals saw their headlights and cut out then,” I said. “If they came by boat, they’d have an easy getaway with the docks behind the property.”
“It’s usually just bored kids,” Declan said. “They could have taken off on foot.”
“Wait, didn’t you say you put up a camera to discourage them?”
“Obviously didn’t deter them,” he grumbled.
“No, but?—”
“Where’s the camera?” Gray asked.
We all rushed back to the front entrance, where Declan had kept the little Google camera set up. We found the smashed remains of it a few feet away.
“There goes that idea,” Gray said.
“Doesn’t it stream somewhere, though?” I asked. “Would you have footage in the cloud?”
Declan shook his head. “I get alerts to my phone and none came in. The battery must have died, or else they managed to turn it off or trash it without setting off an alert.”
“Damn. That doesn’t give you much to go on with the sheriff,” I said.
“No,” Declan agreed. “There’s really nothing they can do. I’ll make a report, but if the insurance won’t cover it, I’ll have to eat the costs.”
“I’ll call in at the resort so I can help Gray clean up. I’ll get Kat over here too. She’s got too much time on her hands with that boy hanging around.”
Declan shook his head. “I can’t ask you to miss work. This is my problem.”
“Ourproblem,” I said, moving over to kiss his cheek. “And right now, you’ve got a B&B to run. Breakfast won’t make itself.”
Declan groaned. “I can’t believe I forgot.”
“Go deal with breakfast, call the police, call your insurance,” I said. “We’ll get photos of everything and send them to you, okay? Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”
“Thank you, love. You’re really the best.”
I smiled teasingly. “Even when I insist on seeing the glass half full?”
His lips quirked. “I suppose I can tolerate it.”
“That’s the spirit!”
Declan headed back toward the main house. Behind me, Gray swore and kicked a rock. The rock was thick and solid, mired in the ground, so it didn’t move. Gray swore louder, hopping on his other foot, and grabbing for his injured toe.
I shot him a look. “Really, man?”
“Shut up,” he grumbled as he limped toward the porch and sat down hard. “It’s been a shitty day.”
