Page 142 of Resting Beach Face
I exhaled noisily. “That’s great news. Thank you.”
Cash leaned in closer, and I angled the phone so he could hear the other side of the conversation too.
“Once we told Bruce what we found, he was more forthcoming. Says he was hired to do the vandalism. The theft was just for his own benefit. His business took a hit from a new competitor across the lake. He’s been struggling.”
“Hired by who?” I asked. “There’s no one around here who’d benefit from it. The resort is my only competition, and they’re doing great.”
Not to mention Skylar would never do that anyway.
“Bruce didn’t have many details,” Sheriff Minnis said. “He answered an online ad placed by a company named Second City Acquisitions. They arranged everything via email. Have you heard of the company?”
“Nothing comes to mind,” I said.
“It could be a false name to hide the identity of the perp, but if you can think of any connections at all…”
“Second City is a nickname for Chicago,” I said slowly. “I got an offer from some developers based there. They wanted to teardown the B&B and put up condos. I turned them down. But I researched them thoroughly after everything that happened with those shady guys and the resort. They go by the name 360 Views, and they have projects all over the world. I don’t see why they’d want the B&B badly enough to resort to criminal acts.”
“It’s worth checking out anyway,” Sheriff Minnis said. “We’ll give you a call to let you know when you can retrieve your stolen property. This is almost over.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” I hesitated. “What will happen to Bruce?”
“Well, I don’t know. He’s cooperating, so most likely the district attorney will offer him a more lenient deal. Restitution to pay for the damages, probation, maybe a little jail time. It won’t be too long, most likely. I know that may not be much comfort?—”
“No, it’s more than enough. Sounds like Bruce fell on hard times. I just want this to end so we can all move on.”
“I understand,” he said. “I’ll let you get back to your day. If you can think of anyone else who’d want to target you, let us know. We’ll look into 360 Views to be sure they’re not involved.”
“Thank you.”
I hit Disconnect, frowning to myself. Something wasn’t adding up. Yes, 360 was in Chicago and they’d offered me a development deal, but I’d had no contact with them. Every step of our deal had been negotiated through Nate.
My heart stuttered.
He wouldn’t…
“Declan?” Cash asked. “What is it?”
I swallowed hard, remembering the suspicions that had tried to form before tiredness got the best of me. They were back now, far too clear to ignore.
“I think…” I shook my head, unable to say it out loud. “I need to make another call.”
“Okay,” Cash said gently. “Do you want me to leave or…”
I latched onto his wrist. “Stay, please. I’m going to put it on speaker phone, just in case… Well, just in case. Don’t say anything though. Just listen, okay, and confirm for me I’m not being paranoid.”
“Okay, sure. Who are we calling?”
“An old friend in Chicago.”
I brought up Nate’s contact and hit Call. I was pretty confident he’d answer because after his apology text—which came not long after The Roost vandalism—he’d called twice to justcheck in. He hadn’t pushed for the development deal, not after our first fight, but he’d dropped hints it would be there when I was ready.
Nate didn’t give up easily, so I wasn’t surprised he was like a dog with a bone. But he’d seemed to accept that he couldn’t force my hand.
Or maybe he’d just decided to force it another way?
The phone rang twice.
“Hey, Declan!” Nate sounded happy to hear from me. “How’s it going out there in the boondocks?”
