Page 62 of Out of the Shadows
Margo stepped into the room. “Bingo, Laura, you win the grand prize,” she said to the group. “Just got off the phone with Mom, who finally tracked down Thornton’s partner, Victor Hedge. Thornton was killed in his home when he surprised a burglar. The jewelry box arrived the day after he was killed, and Hedge signed for it, but he was so distraught about the murder, he put it in John’s filing cabinet and forgot about it. Lorraine, the legal secretary, was right about Hedge starting to have memory issues. He said he thought he had taken over the storage lease after Lorraine set it up, but then looked at his bank records while talking to Mom and realized he hadn’t been paying for it.”
Jack considered. “Charlie heard that you think Aberdeen killed Thornton for the jewels... I know where he’s going.”
“To sell them?” Logan said.
“No. Charlie may have said he is the rightful owner, and he may believe it, but Laura, everything you’ve told me about Charlie—and you too, Logan—is that even when he makes mistakes, he will always try to do the right thing.”
“He’s taking them to the family,” Laura said.
“Thinking that it’ll protect you. Unfortunately, Aberdeen doesn’t know this.”
“I’m on it,” Margo said. “Jack?”
“I need to stay here,” he said. “We don’t know where he’s going to go next, but if he can’t find Charlie, I think he comes here. It’s the only place he knows, and now that the police are looking for him, he’s desperate. Take Luisa with you for backup, just in case.”
“Roger that,” Margo said and pulled out her cell phone and called Tess. “I need the address for John Thornton’s kids.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Jack has a crush on Laura,” Luisa said practically the minute Margo drove away.
“Good,” Margo said. “I like her.”
“He’s known her for two days.”
“So?”
“I think it takes longer to know if someone is right for you.”
Margo shrugged. “It’s not like he’s proposing marriage after two days.”
Margo always knew pretty quick if she was interested in someone. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t.
She glanced at Luisa. Was she having relationship problems? She’d left the Marines a year ago and now was going to college. Margo really didn’t know her little sister. Not only was Margo eight years older, but Luisa had been eleven when Margo enlisted in the Army. When Margo returned, she had her own place and Luisa was a senior in high school. Then her sister enlisted in the Marines and Margo rarely saw her for years.
They had a lot in common, however. Margo needed to spend more time with her.
“Thinking of anyone specific?” Margo asked.
“No,” Luisa said.
“Did you, um, date anyone when you were in service?”
Luisa smiled slightly but didn’t say anything.
Margo’s phone buzzed and Luisa picked it up. “Tess sent the addresses of the Thornton kids. John Junior lives in Phoenix, actually not too far from Mom and Dad. The sister lives in Queen’s Creek.” Which was more than an hour’s drive.
“Junior,” Luisa and Margo said simultaneously.
Margo pulled up in front of John Thornton, Jr.’s house in Sunnyslope, only a short five-minute drive from where they’d grown up and where their mom still lived. It was an older home that needed some work, but in a neighborhood of equally old homes that were in various stages of updating.
“His truck isn’t here,” Margo said. “I don’t think he would have gone to Queen’s Creek, but maybe.”
“Or he’s selling the jewels, like Logan said.”
Luisa might be right. But they went to the door anyway and Margo rang the bell.
A young teenager answered. “Hi.”
