Page 21 of The Hampton Beach Café 5
Kennedy raised an eyebrow. “That's disgusting behavior, and I think we should report it, but what does that have to do with me?”
“Well,” Frances said, “we thought that maybe we could look into the council files for sale histories. If we can find out who’s buying the properties, we might be able to determine if a developer is involved.”
“Absolutely not! I'm not risking my job for you two to play detective, no.”
Lucinda appeared at that moment, holding a takeaway cup with Kennedy's name written on it.
“I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important!” Frances said, exasperated.
“Please, Kennedy,” Lucinda said, leaning in. “We just want to help the people who are most vulnerable in this community. We don’t want to see people get scammed out of their homes.”
Frances nodded in agreement. “We just need a little access to the council records. It won’t take long, and we promise we won’t do anything illegal... I swear. Regardless of anything we've been through in the past, you're my sister, and I'd never do anything that would jeopardize your career.”
Kennedy hesitated, clearly taken aback by the shamefully underhanded tactic Frances had employed––though she didn't seem mad. She actually seemed... moved?
“Okay,” she said finally. “But you have to promise me that you won’t do anything that could get me in trouble... or you.”
“We promise,” Frances said, smiling. “Thank you so much, Kennedy.”
It looked for a moment like Kennedy was going to lean forward and hug Frances, but she was just reaching for her coffee. She nodded curtly at each of them before she left.
“Come by the office after closing tonight. I'll pull the records.”
She looked over at Lucinda. “We're in.”
“We are,” Lucinda replied. “You should go and talk to Alex. One hard conversation down, one to go. Why did you say it was a friend of Martha?”
Frances winced. She really didn't want to talk to Alex... but ultimately, she knew she should.
“Because if she knew it was directly from a source, she would want to talk to her,” Frances explained. “Have you found anything else?”
“Yeah, honestly, I didn't have to search too hard––look at this,” Lucinda said, pointing at the screen. “Clarkson has filed business registrations under three different names, as well as two corporations and one investment trust––all variations on his legal name and King Zebra Holdings.”
Frances leaned in closer to the screen, her eyes narrowing as she took in the information. “What does this mean?”
“It means he's been hiding his tracks in shell companies, each company owns different parts of other companies and they're all owned under another company name,” Lucinda explained. “He doesn't want anyone to know what he's really up to, but also, I don't think he understands much about how money laundering is supposed to work––it's all pretty traceable.”
Frances bit her lip, feeling the knot of worry in her stomach grow.
“We need to figure out what he's doing,” she said. “And stop him before he can cause any more damage.”
First, though, she needed to talk to Alex.
THIRTEEN
Frances looked around the crowded beach, scanning the sea of people for any sign of Alex. He wasn't at the jet ski shack where she had expected him to be, and none of the new faces she saw there knew where he was. He must have hired four new people since she had been here. Finally, she spotted him sitting on a bench, staring out at the water. Taking a deep breath, she made her way over to him, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Hey,” she said softly, sitting beside him.
He didn't respond, his eyes still fixed on the horizon.
“I'm sorry,” she said after a moment of awkward silence. “I shouldn't have kept things from you. It was wrong of me.”
Alex shook his head slightly before sighing and looking at her, his expression softening a little.
“Yeah, it was,” he said quietly. “Why didn't you tell me? If you'd have just told me––”
“Because I didn't want you to hate me,” she said. “When I told you I'd bought the place, you were so enthusiastic and you kept saying how happy you were that I'd come back... not that this is your fault, it's entirely mine! I just... I didn't want to let you down.”
