Page 50 of Lost Truth
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A minute before eight, the sun caressing her shoulders, Cady knocked on Tom Young’s door. Hayden stood behind her. He’d been trying to engage her in conversation this morning, but after having kissed him, she didn’t have a clue what to say. It wasn’t an ordinary, run-of-the-mill first kiss. Not for her anyway. It was a fireworks bursting in the sky, explosions of emotions, and a sense of permanence and well-being at the same time kind of kiss.
In other words, she’d set her mind to thinking about what it would be like to be in a serious relationship. Not with just anyone, but with him. So how was she to handle such a realization? Behave around him? Do?
She had no idea. None. Until she did, she would do her best to keep him at arm’s length. She might come across as being rude, and she might have to tone it down some from last night as they worked in the conference room, but she had to be watchful and not fall even harder for him.
The door opened, and a man with the most interesting hair color smiled at her. A flaming red color topped the upper half of his hair, but a beautiful silvery color that spoke to his age circled around the bottom.
He shot out a hand. “Tom Young.”
Cady clasped his calloused hand and introduced herself and Hayden.
“I’m real sorry to hear about your dad, Cady.” Tom’s joyful expression disappeared. “He was a great guy. One of the best. We all liked having him as part of the club, and we all miss him a lot.”
“Thank you,” she said sincerely, as it was special to hear such wonderful things about her dad.
Tom stood back. “Come on in. I could only round up a few of the guys on such short notice, but they’re here already.”
She entered a cottage reminiscent of Kai’s place, but larger. Three men in the living area shifted their attention to Cady from where they sat on a sofa and club chairs. She marched straight to them, hoping her quick steps would give her the confidence she needed to potentially hear bad news about her father’s past.
She stopped by two wooden chairs placed near the end of the sofa. Tom pressed past her and introduced her and Hayden to the men.
“Have a seat.” Tom gestured at the sofa as he settled on one of the wooden chairs.
She sat in the middle, inching close to the baldheaded man named Larry on the end, leaving Hayden plenty of room. Didn’t matter. He perched on the arm. Why he didn’t want to sit next to her she didn’t know, but maybe after last night he didn’t feel comfortable with her so close either.
Tom looked at her. “So tell us what we can do to help.”
She forced herself to relax. “As you know, my father passed away unexpectedly. Perhaps you thought it was from his quick-moving dementia. But the medical examiner determined Dad had a high level of fentanyl in his blood.”
“Fentanyl?” Tom lurched to his feet. “You’re kidding, right? Or am I misunderstanding you to say someone murdered Percy, because we all know he wouldn’t be taking fentanyl?”
“No misunderstanding. He wouldn’t take that drug.” She clutched her hands together in her lap. “He was murdered. I’m in town hoping to find out why and who killed him.”
Larry gaped at her. “You don’t think we can help with that, do you? We wouldn’t have a clue who might possess fentanyl.”
She smiled at him. “I didn’t think you would. At this point, I’m just gathering facts.”
Hayden leaned forward, looking at Larry. “Facts can often be put together to help formulate an investigative strategy or just give us another piece to the puzzle.”
“Okay.” Tom dropped onto his chair, the shock still lingering in his expression. “What do you want to know?”
“Did my father act any differently in the last few months before he moved?” she asked.
“Well, the dementia had started in by then.” Tom’s shocked expression morphed into sadness. “So he was forgetting things. Maybe now that I think about it, he did seem a little preoccupied about something, but at the time, I thought he was just trying to deal with the shock of the dementia diagnosis, you know?”
“Same here.” Norbert pushed up his thick glasses. “He didn’t want to talk about the diagnosis, but we all could see it was taking a toll on him.”
They were right. She’d seen the same thing, and it broke her heart to remember it, and she had to fight hard not to start crying. But… “Now that we believe someone murdered him, I’m not sure if it was fear of this person or the dementia bothering him. Did you observe anything else out of the ordinary with him?”
Murmurs ofnobroke out. She looked around the group to see shaking of heads.
“What about anything unusual you might have seen while birdwatching?” Hayden asked.
“I’m assuming you’re not talking about birds.” Tom gave a wobbly smile. “I don’t recall anything unusual.” He looked at the other men. “Any of you remember anything odd?”
More head shaking. Her frustration began to build. She had no idea what she expected these men to tell her, but she hoped they could give her a lead of some sort. Maybe it was time to be more specific. “What about any unusual boats or ships in the area?”
