Bad to the Bone by Roberts Ally

Author:Roberts, Ally
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AR Publishing
Published: 2019-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

“You’re sure?”

We were walking toward the beach, away from Tate’s house. He’d changed shirts, donning an olive-colored t-shirt that almost matched the color of his eyes.

“No, but I will be in a few minutes,” he answered.

Ten minutes later, our feet hit the sand. Tate marched out to his empty storage shed with me on his heels. I should have taken him up on the offer of water, I realized, because I felt as though I’d just slogged through a marathon being held in a hot bowl of soup. The humidity was oppressive and the heat had sapped almost all of my energy.

It wasn’t slowing Tate down, though. He opened the door to the storage shed and stepped inside. I wisely stayed on the beach because, despite the searing heat from the sun overhead, the shed felt like a pressure cooker that had just been released; I could tell from the heat emanating from the open door.

Tate came back out holding a lock.

“What’s that?”

“The lock to the shed,” he said. “The police found it up in the dunes. I guess whoever broke in tossed it up there.”

This was news to me.

He walked around to the side, where the shadows from the shed offered some brief shade. This time, I followed him. He crouched down and, after sliding through the assortment of keys, found the tiny silver one he’d identified back at his house. He inserted the key into the lock and turned it.

The lock unlatched.

I looked from the lock to Tate. His expression was unreadable.

The implications were clear. If the keys belonged to Clark, this was a piece of the puzzle we couldn’t ignore. Especially since he wanted the business back.

Tate leaned against the wall of the shed and closed his eyes.

“You know what this means, right?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as gentle as possible.

His eyes opened. “What?”

“Clark did it. He stole your stuff.”

He said nothing.

I pushed my hair off my forehead, grimacing at the dampness it left behind on my palm. I so needed a shower. “Do you want me to call Chief Ritter or do you want to do it? Or maybe Detective Simcoe?” As much as I hated the circumstances for Tate, I wouldn’t hesitate to call Simcoe with the news…and throw in a little gloating as I announced I’d found the thief.

Tate raised his hand. “Hold on. It just…it doesn’t make any sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?”

Tate had the keys in his hand and he stared down at them. “Why would he steal everything? He wanted to buy the business, not ruin it.”

“Maybe this was his way of getting you to sell,” I suggested. “You know, to make you feel like it wasn’t worth your while to build it back up and get it running again.”

Tate didn’t look convinced. “Maybe.”

He didn’t sound convinced, either.

“What? You don’t think he could?”

He thought for a moment. “No,” he finally said. “I don’t think Clark would do that. He’s been like a father to me. An annoying father sometimes,

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