Page 18 of Carry on Wayward Son

“The marina was sold several years ago. That was something else Miles admitted during his confession. He talked my aunt and uncle into selling, hoping to get out from under whoever was behind all of this. It didn’t work.” Madden turned her pen over in her fingers. “I can check with my uncle to see if he still has any records from that period.”

“Your uncle. That would be Gwen’s father.” Something I already knew, but needed to ask. “Is he still on the island?”

“No. He and my aunt divorced after the marina sold. He lives in Beaufort now. I don’t know what he might have kept.” A pause. “I can also check with Miles’s wife. Well.” Her mouth compressed slightly. “About to be ex-wife.”

I absorbed that. Another family still breaking apart in the long wake of all this. “Has anyone spoken to Miles directly? Questioned him about any of this since everything came to light?”

“I don’t yet know what records exist with the police department or the prosecutor’s office around his arrest and conviction,” Rios said, “but I’ll find out. That’s something I can move on immediately.”

“He refused to name anyone during the trial,” Madden said. “On the grounds that he still has family who could be targeted. A wife and children.”

“Not an unreasonable position on his part, given everything else we know about these people.” I tapped the pen once against the notebook. “He’s got no obvious motive to speak out now, so put a pin in him for the moment.” I looked back at the notes. “What other business was he conducting in the years after the marina sold? If someone went to all this trouble to get him under their thumb, they weren’t doing it for the sake of one laundering operation. Presumably they found other uses for him.”

“He had a lot of latitude as mayor,” Jace said from the hearth.

I looked at him. “Has anyone spoken to the current mayor? Was there any kind of audit performed of his tenure after his arrest?”

“Not that we’re aware of,” Madden said.

“Then that’s another angle. Who he worked with in that capacity. What projects he championed. Who benefitted from those relationships and where the money moved.” I looked back at Jace. “Would the current mayor be inclined to cooperate with that kind of inquiry?”

Ford leaned back in the armchair with an expression of elaborate casualness that didn’t suit him at all. “Oh, I think the mayor would be very inclined to cooperate. Particularly with Jace.”

Jace’s expression stayed even. “That was a long damned time ago.”

“She still checks out your ass every time you come home.”

“Ford.”

“I’m just saying what everyone in this room is already thinking.”

The corner of Jace’s mouth moved into a reluctant upward twitch. He looked at me across the room, steady and direct. “I can set up a meeting. If you want to come.”

This was why I was here. This was exactly and precisely why I’d come, and every question about whether any of it was wise was a question I’d answered on a ferry in the dark and couldn’t usefully revisit now.

“Set up the meeting.”

Nine

JACE

Layla was waiting on a bench in front of town hall when I arrived, Koa sitting alert at her feet. Her hair was twisted into one of those sedate knots women managed for formal occasions. Combined with the blazer and dark blouse, she looked like someone who gave depositions for a living. Three times I’d seen this woman. Here. At Sutter House. On the beach that first night. Three times she’d given wholly different impressions. She seemed to be able to put on whatever version of herself the room required, cleanly and without obvious effort. No doubt that skill was useful in her line of work, but I couldn’t help wondering if it was inclination or training.

She rose as I approached. “I’m surprised you were able to get something set up this quickly.”

No phone in her hand. No camera either. Nothing to distract her from the boredom of the wait. Or, more properly, nothing to infringe on situational awareness.

I approved.

“I didn’t actually set up a formal meeting.”

She fell into step beside me as we headed toward the entrance. “Ah, ye classic showing up unannounced to keep them from having time to prepare.”

“It’s a classic for a reason.”

“I suppose if it blows up in our faces, you always have your backside to fall back on.”

Her absolute deadpan delivery had me snorting a laugh. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”