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“Yeah. It turns out Cindy Thompson’s dad, the state senator, wanted all copies of the video that she made. She must have told her dad that I sent one to my phone.”
“How’d you find that out?”
“Before turning the kidnapper over to the sheriff, Kai decided to have a little chat with him and get some answers.”
“I’m really, really liking this guy,” Steve reiterated. “So, what does he do for a living?”
“He’s retired military.”
“Why’d he retire in Jasper Creek?”
“That’s the problem. I’m not sure that he has.”
“What do you mean, you’re not sure? Where does he live?” Steve continued with his questioning. Apparently, Sue hadn’t been keeping him up to date.
“Kai was only here to look up his long-lost brother. They only made contact a little bit ago.”
“But he’s been there long enough for you to fall in love with him?” Steve asked. He was starting to sound grumpy.
“Yeah, he’s been here for five weeks.”
“I’m not catching on here, Marlowe. If he’s been there for five weeks, where’s he been living?”
“In a hotel, but I told him last night to come live here with me. But I don’t know if that’ll work, because his dad just sent a server to evict me.”
“What!” Sue shouted.
I heard Angie whimper.
“I’m tapping out,” Steve said. “But Sue, you better have answers to make sense of all of this after I get Baby Girl her breakfast.”
“I will,” Sue promised her husband.
“I’ll make this quick,” I promised Sue. “I got an eviction notice from Arthur Beaumont. That is Beau Beaumont’s dad who has been gone from Jasper Creek for twenty years. According to what the sheriff found out, he must have the deed to the house, but that can’t be right, since Mrs. Beaumont, his wife, and Beau Beaumont, her son, had to have been making all the mortgage payments, so it belonged to them.”
“So is Arthur Beaumont also Kai’s dad?”
“Yes. Kai has been asking his friends up in Alaska about where he might be. So far nobody knows anything.”
“Do you have to leave your house?”
“Not according to Kai or the sheriff, so I’m staying put.”
There was a long pause.
“Marlowe, I’ve known you for ten years now. Back to our university days.”
I braced. “I know.”
“I’ve known you through the Denny years.”
“I know.”
“This has got to be the scariest, craziest most, screwed-up shit I’ve ever heard.”
“I know.”
“But you know something?” Sue asked.
