Page 141 of Resting Beach Face
Bruce faltered. “Yeah, I mean I, uh, was just out for a drive, and then I saw this great garden, so I decided to get out and enjoy?—”
“Bruce, you live half an hour away, and it’s four in the morning. Try again.”
“You can’t prove anything,” Bruce snapped as Declan slipped away to wave the deputies over. “A man can be outside!”
“This is private property, sir,” a deputy named Wade said.
Luckily, Gray had released Bruce when the deputy cars arrived and was standing there looking menacing but innocent. I’d hate for him to get hauled in for tackling the guy for us.
“Well, I didn’t realize that,” Bruce said. “I apologize. I’ll just leave.”
Wade shook his head. “I’m afraid it won’t be that easy. We’re going to have to take you in for questioning in a series of vandalism and thefts on the property.”
Bruce swallowed hard, and I could see by his expression he was scared shitless. This was our guy. There was no doubt in my mind.
“Why would you do it?” Declan asked Bruce. “You’ve got a business to run just like us.”
He scoffed. “My business is in the shitter, not that anyone gives a damn. You’ve got plenty of family money stashed away. We’re nothing alike, you and me.”
Deputy Wade pulled the cuffs off his belt and read him his rights. After he put Bruce in the back of his car, he tipped his hat at us. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. Don’t you folks worry. Get some rest, and I’ll check in tomorrow. You can let me know then if anything else was disturbed tonight.”
“We’ve got camera footage too.”
Wade nodded. “Send me anything that’ll help the case against Bruce.”
“Deputy,” I called as he turned away.
He paused next to his car. “Yes?”
“I don’t think Bruce would do this on his own. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Sometimes men just get angry and desperate. In my experience, crime hardly ever makes any sense.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Declan
“Babe,wake up. The sheriff’s calling.”
Cash sat on the edge of the bed beside me, holding out my cell phone. I wiped at my bleary eyes, trying to clear the sleep fog from my brain.
I could swear I’d only just closed my eyes, but the bright sunlight filtering in through the window suggested hours had gone by.
After the deputy left, it had been damn near five a.m. Cash, Gray, and I had gone to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and speculate about why Bruce would vandalize my property.
He could sell the supplies he’d stolen, but why damage The Roost at all? It didn’t make sense. And I didn’t care what the deputy said, there had to besomereason for it.
An ugly suspicion started to form, a pit in my stomach that said I knew the answer if I really thought it through. But the adrenaline from the confrontation dropped, and I started crashing hard. Cash had sent me to bed with a promise to wake me if there were any updates.
“Declan?” Cash prompted when I was slow to wake up. “Do you want me to take the call?”
“No,” I rasped, reaching for the phone and bringing it to my ear. “Hello? This is Declan.”
“Declan, sorry to disturb you. Sounds like you had a busy night,” Sheriff Roy Minnis said with a chuckle.
“We did. I assume that’s why you’re calling?”
“Yeah. We checked Bruce’s property. Found the exact number of polycarbonate sheets you reported stolen along with an industrial toolbox full of tools. Didn’t even have to get a warrant. The dang fool had it all sitting out in his yard in broad daylight. We’re getting it all documented, and then we’ll release the property back to you.”
