He thought about Raven’s meeting with her CPA that morning and what the man had discovered and whether there were charges coming against Morgan and maybe even Raven’s uncle.
He figured a stop off at his own uncle’s office after lunch might offer him a few answers. What was the use of having an uncle as sheriff if you couldn’t exploit it once in a while?
After dropping Kevin and Tony off at the fire house, he drove the few blocks to the police station and walked past the front desk to his uncle’s office. He knocked quickly and entered when he heard Sean Stone call out to come in.
It still was strange seeing so much of himself in his uncle. It was no wonder that rumors had been flying around town ever since he’d been born.
Cade Stone was the spitting image of his uncle Sean. Even more so now that he was an adult. The only difference between the two of them was the streak of silver that ran just above his uncle’s ears. That and the uniforms they wore.
“Hey, buddy,” Sean said, glancing up from his laptop.
“Hey,” he said easily as he sat down in the chair across from his uncle. “I heard the Browns got in a fender bender this morning?”
His uncle nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Just finishing up with the paperwork now.” His uncle’s eyes narrowed. “What’s on your mind?”
Cade shifted slightly. “I’m just curious to see if you’d heard anything about money laundering from the resort?”
His uncle’s eyebrows jumped up. “Brooks?”
“Colin and possibly Morgan Roche,” he answered with a slight nod.
“Roche?” His uncle leaned his elbows on the desk. “Legally? No. Nothing has come through my office. However, the gossip has been buzzing around town.”
Cade frowned. “What are your thoughts on Raven Brooks returning to town?” he asked after a moment.
His uncle was silent for a while, then he stood up and shut the office door. He waited until he was sitting behind his desk to respond.
“My personal opinion? I think it’s about time she came home. It can only be a good thing for the resort and for the town, if the rumors are true about her hiring locals again. My professional opinion…” He glanced towards the door and sighed. “She’s caused quite the stir. There are still a lot of people in this town that would like to see her pack up and leave again, never to return.”
Cade’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I’ve seen it for myself. She’s hiring locals. She mentioned last night—”
His uncle’s eyebrows shot up, and Cade winced slightly. He hadn’t meant to let anyone know about their date. At least not yet. “She’s going to hire as many locals as she can,” he finished.
“Last night?” his uncle asked.
“Yeah, last night,” he said dryly. “I stay out of your love life; you stay out of mine.”
His uncle smiled and nodded. “Fair deal.” Then his smile fell away. “I was the one who found Raven. That next morning.”
Cade sat forward. “You were?” He frowned slight. “Why didn’t I know this?”
Sean shrugged as his eyes grew darker. “I was out looking for your brother. I remembered the caves up on the old walking path. Some of the high school kids used to go up there and smoke weed.” He smirked. “Okay, to be honest, I used to go up there with your dad a lot.”
Cade sighed. “Yeah, Mom has told me some stories about you two.”
Sean’s eyes grew distant and sad again. “I thought that if Reggie remembered the cave, maybe he’d make his way there.”
“You found Raven instead?”
Sean nodded. “Most of her clothes had been burned or had fallen off her. She was barely breathing but, oddly, there wasn’t a scratch on her, except for her hands and knees. From what I saw, she’d crawled her way out of the fire.”
“She crawled into the caves?” Cade asked. He’d known that Raven had been found up near there and that she hadn’t been burned, but the rest of the details hadn’t spread around.
“The official report confirms that she was nowhere near where the fire started.” Sean nodded.
Again, this was the first he’d heard of this fact. For the past ten years, he’d tried to get as much information from his uncle and from the reports as he could. So far, none of them had given him as much as his uncle had just said.
“Then why are there rumors floating around that say otherwise?” Cade asked.
Sean shrugged. “People will spread rumors they want. There were even rumors that she was some sort of a witch since she’d been untouched. Rumors are just that, like the one about me and your mother.”
“Anyone who knows you two can tell that’s a lie,” he said quickly.
“When Henry was alive, I only thought of Fiona as a sister,” Sean agreed.
Yet, there was something in his uncle’s tone that had him asking, “And now?”
Sean sighed and shook his head. “You did say we’d stay out of each other’s love lives.”
Cade laughed. “Fine.”
Chapter Eleven
Fire is never a gentle master
The meeting with Joe and his assistant Ruth Downing went better than Raven had expected. With the exception of the part where they informed her that in the past ten years, more than three million dollars had been misplaced from the resort’s general funds account.
What could her uncle possibly do with that much money without anyone noticing? It wasn’t as if he had a line of luxury cars in the garage. Or even a mansion filled with expensive jewelry.
That came down to over three hundred thousand dollars a year. More than her parents had made in combined salaries when they had worked there.
Ruth, a middle-aged woman who was dressed in the latest fashion and sporting a cropped haircut, explained how her uncle and aunt had also doubled their salaries each year. All while hiring fewer and fewer employees and maintenance crews. They’d even cancelled all of the services needed each year to run the massive resort.
“So, now we just need to find out who was responsible for the embezzlement,” Ruth had said. “If you want to file formal charges.”
Raven’s heart skipped at the thought of that. “How will we be able to find that out?” she asked, dreading the process already.
“We’ll have to file a police report, so that we can legally look at your aunt and uncle’s personal finances. We’ll need to file a report against Roche Accounting Firm as well,” Ruth added. “Her firm was reluctant to supply us with the resort’s financial records.”
“Morgan Roche and my uncle… Rumors are…” She couldn’t even bring herself to say it.
“Right, we heard the rumors all the way in Redding,” Joe added. “For now, I’m going to hand over everything so that Ruth can take care of you.” Joe stood up and held out his hand for her.
“You won’t be taking the lead?” she asked, standing up.
“I’m retired, remember?” Joe shook his head with a smile. “Ruth here runs my business for me. I only dabble in numbers every now and then when I’m bored.”