Page 71 of Loving Trent
Ryan returns with new papers and smiles. “That’s because I’m good at what I do.” He hands the papers to Uncle Joey and sits back down. Ryan is a numbers guy. He owns his very own accounting firm. That’s how he and Uncle Joey met. Uncle Joey hired him to help him get his financial records in order to get a loan from the bank. Over multiple dinners disguised as business, they fell in love, and then when Uncle Joey couldn’t get a loan from the bank Ryan offered to become a silent partner… The rest is history as they say. They’ve been together in secret for six years but not anymore.
“That you are, Cupid,” Uncle Joey says, and I gag out loud at the nickname. He ignores me and starts talking about the whole reason I’m here. “Like I said, small amounts at first, and it stayed like that up until the night of the fire. After that, the thief got bolder and started taking more.”
“Okay,” I say, that makes sense, because that’s when Shawn first noticed he had money missing.
“We went through all of Shawn’s employees past and present,” Ryan says, pointing to a stack of papers to his left. “We were able to clear all but two, as we told Shawn, but last night we found out who it was.”
“Who—”
Ryan holds up his hand, and my mouth snaps shut. “But we found out why, which is more important right now.” I nod for him to continue because I don’t think he wants me to interrupt him again.
“Carl Tinsel,” Uncle Joey says, handing me a folder. “He’s a dishwasher hired two weeks before the first small amount of money went missing. He’s twenty-one, lives with his mom, who is sick, takes care of his younger sister, and is putting himself through college. Which means that he would have a motive to steal money from Shawn. He is drowning in debt and could be desperate.”
“Nathan Van,” Ryan says, placing another folder on top of the other one. “The night manager. He has been working at the restaurant since the beginning. He’s thirty, lives alone, single, and from what we found, clean as a whistle.”
“Then why suspect Nathan?” I ask, clearly thinking it’s Carl they have been looking for.
“Because the shifts where the receipts from the register and the cash count don’t add up are always when he’s working. I’d explain how the person did all of this, but it gets complicated, and I don’t think you want to hear it. So, I’ll get to the point,” Ryan says, waving his hand in the air clearly in his element.
“I’d appreciate it.” I place the folders on the floor and run my hands through my hair.
“It’s Nathan,” Uncle Joey says.
Before I ask how they know Ryan speaks up, “I said that from what we found, he is clean as a whistle, but something wasn’t sitting right with us. So, we called Demon in. First, let me explain how we ruled out Carl. If he was stealing from Shawn, then his life would be getting better, right?” Ryan cocks his head when I don’t answer him.
“Yeah.” I nod, and he continues.
“But that’s not the case. According to everyone we spoke to and our research, he’s still in debt. He has made small payments to the credit card companies, but nothing big. He is months behind on their rent, and to get groceries he goes to the local churches and food banks.”
“So, it’s not him,” I say firmly, moving his folder away, leaving only Nathan’s.
“Yep,” Uncle Joey says, reaching forward and opening Nathan’s folder. “Now, Nathan, on the other hand. When the money started going missing, he was addicted to online gambling, which could have spurred him on, but that’s not what we think is going on.”
“Not at all,” Ryan says, putting his laptop on the papers in the folder Uncle Joey just opened.
My eyes widen, the muscle in my jaw twitches, and my fingernails bite into my palm as I fist my hands. “What the fuck is that?” I ask, pointing at the computer screen. Which is filled with a picture of someone’s walls plastered with images of Shawn.
“That is Nathan’s bedroom wall,” Ryan states calmly, as if that will help me not blow my top. Uncle Joey lays a hand on my shoulder, knowing I need him to keep me here, to keep me in control. As if he can sense that the rage and need to punish Nathan for what he has done is clawing at my sanity. “Demon found it when he broke in. There’s more,” Ryan says, and he clicks a button, and the picture changes.
“That’s—”
“Steven, Shawn’s ex. Yeah, it turns out that Nathan is obsessed with Shawn. According to Nathan’s journal app on his phone, he tried to shoot his shot with Shawn a year ago, but Shawn turned him down. Nathan said that Shawn told him he only saw him as a friend and nothing more. A week later, the first bit of money went missing. He called it his revenge,” Uncle Joey says, cutting me off.
“How does Steven come into this? I broke that fucker’s wrist and told him to leave town. Which he did,” I snarl and fight the urge to punch something. I obviously didn’t look hard enough when I went searching for him, and the picture of him sucking face with Nathan is proof of that. If this has continued to happen because of me, I’ll never forgive myself.
“Nathan met Steven before Shawn did. Together, they hatched a plan to put Steven in Shawn’s life and get as much money out of him as possible. According to text messages, the end goal was for Shawn to put Steven on his accounts. When he did that, Steven would drain them before he, and Nathan tookoff. Nathan had access to the money at the restaurant and would do the same there. The night of the fire, when Shawn broke it off with Steven, it made them mad. Therefore, they started stealing more money,” Ryan says, but there is something he’s leaving out, and the way my stomach turns means I won’t like this.
“What else are you not saying?” I stare straight at Ryan, but when he looks at Uncle Joey with a pleading look, I turn my attention to him.
“Text messages suggest that the fire wasn’t accidental.” Uncle Joey, the room… hell, everything fades as a red mist takes over my vision, and the sound of my blood pumping through me drowns out the noise around us. The cage unleashes inside of me, and there isn’t any turning back. Nathan and Steven’s days are on a countdown, and it’s in the single digits.
“They’re dead.” The threat comes out as a whisper to my ears, but I don’t think that’s the truth. Uncle Joey shakes my shoulders, and I blink the mist away. “How did they do it?”
“According to the text they snuck in using the code that Shawn had given Steven when they started dating. He went to the second floor and started the fire. They wanted Shawn scared for as long as possible, which is why they didn’t set it on the third floor,” Ryan answers my question.
“But the inspector said that?—”
“The inspector who is Nathan’s brother,” Uncle Joey says, removing his hand to pick up a piece of paper, cutting me off. “They’re half-brothers who didn’t really get along, but the day after the fire, there was a deposit of five thousand dollars into Nathan’s brother’s account and a withdrawal from Nathan’s.”
