Chapter 18
Twenty minutes later, Julia stood on the sidewalk, her arms tight around her waist, staring at the house that had replaced the one she’d grown up in. The extravagant faux French chateau was twice the size of her old house and took up almost the entire lot.
“Big house,” Nico said, no inflection in his voice.
“Yeah,” she said on a sharp exhale. “Hillman City was an upscale neighborhood when we lived here. Looks like it’s gotten even more exclusive.”
Her gaze touched on the place behind the house where the block-long tangle of trees and bushes used to be. Their old playground had been replaced by several equally big houses. “We had a lot of fun in that tiny patch of wildness,” she said, a ball of tears forming in her throat.
Nico curled his arm around her shoulders and squeezed, then let his arm drop away. “I can’t imagine losing your whole family like that. There one moment. Gone the next.”
Julia stared at her shoes. “I wish they were still here,” she said, knowing she sounded wistful. “My mom would be so excited and proud that I started Madeline’s. And I’d like to think that my father would have eventually accepted my career, even if it wasn’t what he wanted me to do.
“Jeff?” She sighed. “He’d be forty-two. Maybe growing up would have softened him. Made him a nicer person. He’d probably be married by now, maybe have a kid or two. I might’ve been an aunt.” She bit down on the inside of her lip to keep the tears at bay.
“C’mon,” Nico said, touching her shoulder. “We have an appointment with Detective Gorowski at the police station.”
“I know,” Julia said quietly. “I’ve been watching the time.” She got into the passenger side of her car, and Nico slid into the driver’s seat. As he pulled away from the curb, she noticed him glancing in the rear-view mirror. But she didn’t turn around to look. Her old life in Hillman City was nothing but ashes and memories.
* * *
Two hours later, they walked out of the police station into a cool day and got back into Julia’s car. She’d been subdued this morning. She had to be shaken by everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours -- Carole’s arrest, their lovemaking, the trip to the site of her old home. He hated that she’d gone silent and pliant. But he wouldn’t take back the night before, even if he could. The memory of their single night together was burned into his memory.
Their visit to the police station had produced a bit of good news -- the detective in charge of the investigation of the fire that had killed Julia’s family was still on the job. He was in another district now, but Detective Gorowski had given them Detective Petersen’s phone number. She’d give him a call and set up an appointment to talk.
As he drove, Nico glanced at Julia and found her staring out the windshield, her expression hard to read. Detective Gorowski had taken her statement and told her that Carole would be charged with felony theft and breaking and entering. The fact that she’d made a spare key for the restaurant, used it after she’d been fired, and had the combination for Julia’s safe were circumstances that made the state’s attorney set her bail higher than normal for theft. Nico hoped she couldn’t afford to pay it. With Carole in jail, there was one less person he needed to worry about.
Julia had said she wouldn’t press charges against Andra and Ruth if she got her money back from them.
His phone rang, and he glanced at the screen. Mel.
He pushed the button on the dashboard to activate the Bluetooth connection and said, “Hey, Mel. I’m in the car with Julia, and you’re on speakerphone.”
“Good,” she said. “You can both hear my news at once. Saves you from repeating it. We’ve gotten a match with our facial recognition software. The guy in Flynn’s pictures is Kent Dawson. He’s a Canadian who moved to Seattle twelve years ago to open a branch of his business, TechInnovate. He’s in computer and system security, not too different from Zoe. He’s been moderately successful. He has around ten million in assets that we could find, and his business is worth probably double that. Dawson became an American citizen several years ago.
“I talked to Zoe because I figured she’d know him. She assured me she does, and I’ll let you get the details from her. Since Flynn followed Madeline’s hostess to Dawson’s house, we have to suspect he’s somehow connected to Julia’s incidents. He certainly would have the skills to bug Julia’s computers. Or maybe he’s not connected at all, and it’s a coincidence that your former hostess’s boyfriend in a tech expert.”
“That’s a pretty big coincidence,” Nico said.
“I agree,” Mel said. “We have to pay attention to Dawson. Turn over all the rocks. The hostess? I ran her through the facial recognition software and got nothing more than her name. No arrest record. Has lived in Seattle most of her life. I’ll keep digging, though. Call if you need anything else.”
“We could use a forensic accountant,” Nico said. “I want to know how much Carole, Ruth and Andra actually stole from Julia. Try to recover it.”
“I’ll talk to my accountant in Helena,” Mel said. “Lainey is working on a masters in forensic accounting. I’m guessing she’d love to tackle it.”
“Thanks,” Nico said. “The more information we have, the better we can solve the problem.”
“I’ll get on that and get back to you once I know what information Lainey needs.”
“Thanks, Mel.”
“Take care, Nico,” his boss said, then hung up.
As he turned off his phone, Julia said, “I never saw the picture of Dawson. May I see it?”
“Of course.” He slowed for a red light. As soon as the car wasn’t moving, he grabbed his phone from the cup holder and opened up the set of photos that Flynn had taken. “These were taken at his house when Carole went there last night after she was fired.”
Julia frowned as she scrolled through the pictures. She paused at one and stared at it for a long moment, then scrolled to the next one.