Page 78 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

The mischievous smile on his face said otherwise, but I let it go. I would simply pummel him into the ground if he said anything out of line.

Soon, the sheriff came back with a folder with papers haphazardly stuffed inside. He placed it down on the table and slid it over to us. “That’s everything we know.” His tone wasn’t at all happy with the recent turn of events.

Sean smiled at him regardless, probably just to antagonize him. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

I immediately pulled open the folder, and some stray papers fell to the floor. It was a very thin folder, meaning they knew very little.

We began sifting through it, glancing at pictures taken from the crime scene. It showed the old man lying behind the counter, his body in a straight line. Someone likely moved it. Sean immediately took out his cell phone and began taking pictures, probably to send over to his team back in New York.

“Pretty gruesome stuff,” Sean commented.

“Yeah,” I said, staring at it with distaste. I’d seen the pictures before. They’d shoved it under my face, hoping to spark some kind of reaction that would attest to my guilt, but all I felt was disgust. The man had been beaten within an inch of his life, his entire face swollen and unrecognizable.

How the fuck could a human being do that to an old man?

“Looks like a crime of passion to me,” Sean commented, and I had to agree, nodding.

“Someone was angry at him,” I concluded. “The stolen money was only a cover-up. Someone was definitely very angry at him, which then led them to do this.”

“Agreed,” Sean said.

“No pictures,” Evan said, and Sean and I both glanced at him. I cocked my eyebrow, and he backed down, staying quiet.

After staring at the picture for long enough, I noticed an odd piece of object at the edge of the picture. It looked shiny but barely identifiable.

“Sean, give me your phone for a second,” I requested. He had one of those fancy phones with cameras that took images in high definition.

Sean handed it over to me without a word. I took a picture and then zoomed in closer and closer. It was a pendant of some kind, an elephant pendant. It seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen it before.

I put it out of my mind, then continued reading through the files, trying to see if there was anything that would clue me in. At some point, Allie called to find out how things were going. I told her we were still at it, ignoring Sean’s attempts to be heard over the phone. We continued for what felt like hours before rubbing our eyes tiredly.

“I don’t know if we’ll find anything else here, boss,” Sean finally said, sounding exhausted.

Before I could answer, the phone rang again. I instantly picked it up because it was Allie.

“Marcus!” Allie’s voice was in a panic. My heart instantly dropped. “Oh my God, Marcus!”

“What? What is it?”

“They have him!” she cried. “They took our son.”

TWENTY-NINE

ALLIE

“What we need to do,” my dad suggested, “is to make an announcement in the papers. Tell them that they had it all wrong those years ago!”

“That won’t help, Dad,” I said tiredly for the third time. I was starting to feel a little like a broken record. I glanced at my sister, who lounged on the couch, and she gave me an apologetic shrug.

Athena had been the one to tell my dad about the people in town’s strange treatment toward us. At first, he thought it was because of the resort. That they were mad it was shutting down. He thought perhaps the town would start freezing us out because he’d lost them their bestseller. My dad had looked so forlorn about the whole thing that I just had to tell him the truth, making him promise to keep it a secret.

Of course, that would be impossible, knowing my dad.

The news had him incensed so much that he’d instantly called a family meeting, inviting my brother over.

And now he was determined to go to the papers with it, to somehow change everyone’s minds by telling them how wrong they were. As if that has ever worked in the history of time.

I was only able to calm him down by telling him that Marcus didn’t want anyone to know yet. Still, my father was adamant. I instantly regretted telling him anything, but I didn’t want him to blame himself for the current situation. Lord knew there was already enough guilt resting on my shoulders.

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