Page 82 of Forgotten Promise

“I get it.” John stood, hands in his pockets. Casual, nonthreatening. He frowned, as if he’d just thought of something. “But didn’t we find your truck in the parking lot today?”

“I loaned my cousin my truck,” Liam said, dejected. “I’ve been driving my wife’s car.”

“When did he borrow it?”

“A week, week and a half ago.”

“And he’s had it all this time?”

Liam nodded, looking miserable.

“But your truck, it’s the one with a sticker pass on the window. A pass that gives the vehicle access to this hotel’s parking lot.”

“I…I kept the sticker on that truck because I was coming back,” Liam stammered. “I was coming back to do the finishing work—”

“That makes sense, but, Liam, you have to realize that if Mark was driving your truck, he could just drive it right into the hotel because security would see the sticker and let him through.”

“I…I didn’t think that he’d…”

“And it’s your truck we searched. Your toolbox where we found some of the contents of that storage room.” John dropped into his chair, elbows on the table. “Because it’s a storage room, but not for mops and toilet paper. The Iona family stored valuables there. And you knew that because you saw what was in there, didn’t you?”

“No. No!”

“You saw, but you weren’t going to take anything.”

“Yes! I didn’t take anything.”

“You’re not a thief.”

“No, no, I’m not.”

“And you didn’t actually see your cousin steal the gold bars.”

“I didn’t see him take anything,” Liam said vehemently, not reacting to the mention of gold bars. Yep, he’d seen what was in there.

“But you suspected what he’d do, didn’t you, Liam? You know your cousin is an asshole. Know he’d rather steal than work.”

Liam opened his mouth, but no words came out. He closed his eyes, braced his hands on the table.

“When he asked to borrow your truck, you knew what he’d do. Knew he was stealing all that gold you’d both seen.”

Liam didn’t look up.

“What I want to know is, did you know about the bomb?”

At that, Liam’s head jerked up. “The what?”

John put the detonator Luca had taken from Mark’s pocket on the table. “The room you saw…that’s just storage. But there’s a vault. I’m betting you could tell, from what you saw in the ceiling.”

“No.” Liam’s voice was firm, if shocked. “I mean it. I don’t know about any vault. Or a bomb.”

John believed him but pointed at the detonator. “Do you know what this is?”

Liam nodded. “Only because we did a couple days on demolition during training. I’ve never seen one in real life. You have to believe me.” Liam swallowed. “Did…did Mark hurt anyone?”

“No, but it was close.” John sat back in his chair. “Let’s go over it again.”

John was fairly certain he had the whole picture. Mark, who’d been a suspect in several robberies on the East Coast after dropping out of college, had seen his cousin Liam’s job at one of Waikiki’s oldest and most expensive hotels as an opportunity. He’d bullied his cousin into bringing him to work, hoping to find something to steal, either from the hotel itself or one of the wealthy guests.

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