On a rare day off from the library, Harper had a leisurely morning at home and read the chapters for this week’s book club meeting while she sipped a cup of coffee and curled up on the sofa in the living room. Mornings like that were rare for her. On a small island, she was one of two professional librarians and was on duty most of the week.
So she’d take advantage of whatever slower mornings she had—like this one.
After she finished reading the chapters, Harper puttered around the house and caught up on some yard work before deciding to head down to the beach for some sunshine in the late afternoon before dinner. Usually, she’d go to the beach first thing in the morning before work or as the sun set after work.
Throwing on a pair of shorts and a light sweatshirt, Harper walked down the street and took the little path to the beach. White sand greeted her and then faded into the turquoise blue ocean before meeting the light blue sky with a smattering of soft, wispy clouds that looked like stretched-out cotton balls. Sighing in contentment, she slipped off her sandals and walked along the water’s edge where the wet sand was firmer and didn’t shift as much beneath her feet.
Once she’d walked the length of the beach and reached the docks, Harper turned around and headed back in the direction she’d come from. The sun beat down on her, warming her up as she headed back. When she reached the spot she usually sat in to think, Harper plopped down and leaned back on her hands to tilt her head up to the sky. The sun would sink below the horizon soon and she wanted to soak up as much of the warm rays as possible before dark. Closing her eyes, she basked in the sun for a few minutes before sitting up and staring out over the water.
Over and over, Harper cupped her hands and picked up the soft sand, watching it fall through her fingers. There was something soothing in the repetitive motion.
She had a lot of questions and no clear answers.
Why was Lucas killed? More than that, why was he killed at the library? Who killed him?
That was just the tip of the iceberg. Add in the article about the library, Sybil and Adam’s role in all of this, and a missing USB drive, and Harper had more questions than directions to look for answers.
She’d been over all the theories dozens of times and they all made sense. The problem was the lack of evidence.
She fully believed Lucas planned on planting scandalous images at the library to force the library to close. That could explain why he was there that night. But the images never made it inside the library and he was killed there. So was someone protecting the library?
Harper shook her head and picked up another handful of sand. If that were the case, then the article wouldn’t have come out.
It could be that someone knew about Lucas’s plan and wanted to ruin it and him. Maybe it was out of greed to have what Lucas had—a wife, a successful business plan, and a shot at becoming mayor of Marilee Island.
Or maybe it was a wife who wanted to leave her husband and take all his money to start over with another man.
It all made sense and yet there was no proof for any of it.
Frustrated, she let the rest of the sand in her hands drop and brushed her hands together to remove the last of it that clung to her skin.
As she did that, something shiny caught her attention out of the corner of her eye and Harper looked over to where the sand met the sea wall. Fading sunlight reflected off of something metallic in the sand. Standing up, she went over to investigate. Sometimes, tourists would find their way over to the more private residential side of the island and leave their belongings behind on accident.
Bending down, she reached for whatever it was. Her hand touched something, small and silver. Picking it up, she realized it was a USB drive.
“Where did you come from?” she asked the USB drive as she studied it.
It could be anything—a student’s homework, a tourist’s photographs, a novel someone wrote. Or it could be the mysterious files Sybil and Adam were looking for.
There was only one way to find out.
Hurrying home, Harper clutched the USB drive in her hand like it might disappear again. She didn’t want to lose it if it was what she hoped it was.
Harper waved to crotchety old Mr. Wilkens on his porch next door before she rushed inside her house and went straight to her little desk in the second bedroom and opened up her laptop. She needed to see what was on the USB drive right away.
Jiggling her leg while her laptop opened up, she plugged the USB drive in and waited to see what it contained. Holding her breath, she looked at the dozens of files that popped up. She hovered the mouse over the first one before clicking it open.
At first, none of it made sense. Then she saw the name at the top on the header—Brussard and Tremayne Property Development. These documents, this USB drive, were from Lucas Tremayne’s office. Harper opened another one and then another and realized that all of the documents were about his business dealings. There appeared to be some sort of discrepancy in the numbers, highlighted with a bright yellow color to show the difference.
Did Lucas do that to keep track of things? Is that why Sybil and Adam were looking for this?
One thing was certain—this USB drive had information Marc should know about.
She had to tell Marc about this. Standing up, she went to the window by the front door and glanced across the street. No light came from the house across from her where Marc lived. Was he still at work? Should she call him?
Just as she was about to, something held her back. So far, he’d told her to stay out of his way, that she was a librarian and he was the detective. Although they’d come to some sort of a truce, she wasn’t sure what the extent of that truce was.
Stepping back from the window, Harper went back to her laptop and looked at the documents again. Most of it was just a bunch of names and numbers that didn’t make much sense to her. One part of it stood out—the part with what looked like account names and numbers for offshore banks.
That was suspicious. The other part that made her curious was a section that had real and perceived values with a note beside it to upcharge by thirty percent.
“That’s highway robbery,” she muttered as she looked over the numbers again.
Some of the numbers were for investments for outside people putting money into various projects. Harper did a quick search on the internet for these projects and came up empty. Well, not empty, but she found dead-ends for each of them. The projects no longer existed. They all dried up before completion.
It was like Lucas was an expert in dine and dash, except for business plans.
There was a page that held a bunch of numbers and account names. And then there was a single string of numbers that didn’t look like it belonged anywhere. She had no idea what it was.
Harper told herself she would give the USB to Marc in the morning. Until then, she’d see if she could make sense of the numbers. She had to tell the book club about this at their next meeting.