Shadow's Flame by Mary Stone

Author:Mary Stone [Stone, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

21

Hanging up the phone, Rebecca finished the notes she’d been jotting down. A heavy rustling at the door made her raise her head. Rhonda, carrying a box wider than she was, turned and twisted through the door.

Rebecca stood up, ready to offer help, but Rhonda shook her head. Then she dropped the box on the desk with a huff.

“You, uh, done with your phone calls?” Rhonda dropped into the guest chair closest to the door.

Rebecca raised an eyebrow and sank back into her chair again, checking her notes. “Yeah, Cole Fairbank’s insurance agent was happy to supply us all the information I needed. Addison called months ago, shortly after the hurricane, to update their insurance information. They lowered their deductible to something more reasonable, raised the coverage amount, and detailed all the things that were on the boat in case of a total loss.”

“Which is right out of the insurance coverage handbook they send out after a big event to try and get you to spend more money.” Rhonda popped the top off the box, showing rows of well-worn folders.

“Exactly. The agent even said that Addison mostly went with what was recommended to her. He remembered because it was such an easy conversation. Addison didn’t try to negotiate, just asked pertinent questions and supplied him with everything he needed. He said it was one of the ‘easiest endorsements for an increase to an existing policy that he’d ever gone through.’ And she did it for both of their boats.”

Rhonda paused with one hand in the box. “Cole has more than one?”

“Yep. The second one is older and smaller, but almost as decked out as the one that burned.”

“I don’t remember a second boat from Frost’s report.” Rhonda dropped a handful of files onto her lap.

“It’s in there. But they were worried they’d struggle to make ends meet with it since the second boat is much smaller and can’t take the larger groups out.” Rebecca wished Rhonda would let her handle the case and just focus on her reason for being there. “What’s all this you’ve got here?” She thumped a finger against the box set on her desk.

“This is what you told me I should look into. Old cases from before your time. I’m going to look for patterns to the crimes he did try to file but were tossed out of court. There’s a serious problem here if a county sheriff can’t trust the chain of evidence to be handled properly. A bigger problem if he was right not to trust them. And a much, much bigger problem if I find names in common on all the cases that did get tossed.”

A slither of worry wormed through Rebecca’s stomach. “Well, you’re going to find a lot of repeated names for the officer in charge. Before I took over there was only Hudson, Locke, and Frost working.” She tilted her head toward the box. “Their names along with Wallace’s and possibly Greg Abner’s are going to be all over those cases.

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