Page 8 of Lost Love Cove 4
Ian swallowed hard. “Because the woman Katy replaced, the one she covered for when she went on her honeymoon, was the same woman Dick took Europe back around the time Matt bought the Winters house.”
4
MATT
The storm had dwindled to a stubborn drizzle, the kind that clung to the windows and tapped like restless fingers against the glass. In the silence that followed, the living room felt both smaller and heavier, its air thick with secrets. Carrie sat taut beside Matt, her back straight, eyes sharp, waiting for Ian to give her more than half-truths.
Matt studied Ian. The man’s face was washed out in the lamplight, every line etched deeper by guilt. He looked more like someone weathered by loss than the man Matt remembered from summers on the water. The cuffs on his wrists rattled when he shifted, the sound hollow and grating.
“Let’s go back to Katy,” Andy said, his voice low but firm. “You’ve told us pieces, but not the whole of it.”
Ian’s eyes flickered to him, then away, as though bracing himself for a blow. “When Dick came back from Europe, he took over the Winters’ sale. Trevor and I… we let him. What choice did we have? He was always the one who claimed to understand the fine print. But we didn’t stop digging. We started gathering evidence quietly, careful not to let Dick suspect.”
He paused, jaw tightening, and when he spoke again his voice softened, as if he was reaching back to the moment everything shifted. “It was just a few days before Trevor died when Katy came home from work. She told us she was getting that job full-time. The woman she’d been filling in for had resigned and wasn’t coming back. Said she was staying in Europe.”
Beside Matt, Carrie’s brows drew together. Her gaze met his, and he saw the same suspicion flicker there that had already taken root in his gut. Too neat. Too convenient.
Matt’s eyes narrowed. He thought back to the day Dick had returned from his holiday, swagger in his step, ready to take control as though nothing had been done in his absence. Matt had never liked him from the start, too slick and arrogant. The kind of man who smiled too wide and kept his hands in his pockets while others worked. But after Trevor’s death, Matt had been forced to keep dealing with him.
The memory rose sharp, and Matt found himself speaking before he could stop. “Ian… Katy was the one that Dick told me to go to get all my permits passed.”
The words hung in the room.
Ian flinched as though struck. His eyes fell shut, his face contorting with something between grief and shame. For a moment, it looked as though he might be sick. When he opened them again, they were glassy, hollowed out. He looked like a man crushed beneath the weight of too many ghosts.
“Yes,” he murmured, voice rough. “I know.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “It wasn’t long after she got that job that she began to pull away from us. Erika and I… we became strangers in our own home. She treated uslike we were prying into every corner of her life. One day Erika caught her going through my desk. Another time, she insisted on visiting Lori with her mother, but instead she wandered off into Trevor’s study. Claimed she was using the landline, but Erika saw the books on his shelves had been moved.” His eyes went distant. “She was looking for something. I know she was.”
“Do you think she was searching for the evidence you and Trevor had gathered?” Oscar leaned forward, his voice alive with curiosity, almost hungry for the drama.
“Probably,” Ian admitted, the word tasting bitter on his tongue. “I don’t know how Dick found out about our investigation, but he did.”
Oscar frowned, his leg stretched out awkwardly across the sofa, his bandaged knee propped on a cushion. “So what did Katy have to do with it?” His tone was wide-eyed, too naïve to recognize the knife edge of the question.
Andy leaned forward, his voice quieter but just as pointed. “Yes, Ian. What did Katy have to do with it?”
The cuffs clinked again as Ian rubbed his palms together, a nervous tic he could not disguise. His breath left him in a ragged exhale. “Not long after Katy secured the new job on a permanent basis, she started seeing someone.” His gaze flicked toward the floor, shame crawling up his neck. “According to Arno, she told him, not us. He came to us because he was worried for his sister. He told us that Katy was dating a man much older than her. Someone she knew we would never approve of. The new man in her life had told her not to mention it until they were sure where the relationship was heading.”
Oscar’s mouth dropped open. “Do you think he was the one who… who…” He stumbled, unable to finish the sentence.
Ian’s eyes burned with sudden fury. “Yes.” His voice cut through the room like a blade. “I don’t think it. I know it. Dick hid behind voice distortions on those calls, but a father knows. He drew her in with charm, made her his pawn, and used her against us.”
The room went still. Even the storm seemed to hold its breath.
“You think she was seeing your old business partner, Dick?” Andy was the first to break the silence. “Do you have proof?” His voice was steady, almost clinical.
“If I could find Katy’s diary,” Ian said, his tone cracking under the weight of longing, “yes. She wrote everything down. Every detail. But it’s gone.”
Carrie’s voice was soft, careful. “Where would she have kept it?”
“In her room,” Ian whispered. “She had a hiding place. Erika and I checked before we left, but it wasn’t there.”
Andy leaned back, folding his arms across his chest. His eyes sharpened. “Tell us why you came back, Ian. Why on the very day your daughter was found dead?”
The words landed heavy. Carrie’s breath hitched beside Matt.
Ian’s jaw trembled. He lifted his face toward them, anguish carved deep. “Like I told Carrie earlier… I got a call. A distorted voice told me to come home and to find Trevor’s disk and the documents we’d hidden. If I didn’t, we’d never see Katy again.”
