“Who? What’d you see?” Teague demanded, leaning forward to try and peer at Alex’s phone.
“Brody, that’s who.” He flashed it to the back seat so there’d be no question. “Didn’t break anything to do it, at least. Just grabbed the spare key from under that fugly crab planter and waltzed right in. When the alarm went off, he turned right back around and ran for his life.”
“Brody Wickes snuck into your inn?” James slammed his palms into the back of Matt’s seat, which earned him one hell of a dirty look in the rearview mirror. “Man, I’m sorry, Alex. This is my fault.”
Teague snickered. “How’s that? Is your assignment this month on cat burglary? A scavenger hunt where you’re required to break into public buildings for each item?”
“Don’t even joke about that,” Matt growled.
Alex stared into the darkness that he knew was the marshland edging the road. Knew without even counting at this point how many stop signs Matt would streak through before turning left into the inn’s drive. He knew all those things.
It was apparently people that he didn’t know. At all.
“I’m the one who told you he was a good kid. Trustworthy.” The edge to James’s voice whipsawed between anger and apology. “You gave him a chance on my say-so. Even though you knew about his prank that had him in work-study detention.”
“Stop it,” Matt ordered. “Nobody’s to blame for the poor decision-making of a teenager. Except for the said hormonal, idiotic kid. Did he know about the security system?”
“No. It’s brand new.” Teague sighed. “Tonight was its inaugural run.”
“Okay, so he’s not actually as dumb as a box of river rocks. Plus, he didn’t do any physical damage to the structure.”
“Should we go find Brody first?”
“No.” Matt turned off the flashing lights and siren. “I want to walk around all those empty buildings on your lot, make sure he was the sole perpetrator. It is St. Patrick’s Day, the second biggest drinking holiday. What do you want to bet he was just trying to steal some beers to impress his friends?”
“Or a girl?” James added. He sounded hopeful that Matt was downplaying it.
Alex almost didn’t care what they found at Three Oaks. He was reeling. The break-in wasn’t the horrible discovery of the night. It was the revelation of how badly Alex had screwed up.
He propped his elbow against the window and leaned his forehead onto his palm. “It’s not your fault, James. It’s mine. Hell, at this rate? Because I hired her? We’ll probably find out that our new cook did ten years’ hard time for poisoning an entire country club with her crab cakes.”
“Nora? Bite your tongue.” James jabbed an outstretched finger in the space between the seats and wagged it. “The woman cooks like an angel. Looks like one, too. Have you lost your mind?”
“Maybe. A part of it, anyway. Seeing as how it turns out I really can’t trust my judgment anymore. That I can’t read people worth a damn.” Alex shifted to look back at his friends.
“Bullshit,” Teague spat out. “Alex, you can’t let what happened at the Grand Orion color everything that happens from here on out.”
“My cop radar doesn’t even tingle about Brody,” Matt said. “I mean, I’ll go through all the motions, be sure to scare him silly and talk to his parents, but my gut says this isn’t as bad as you think.”
James nodded, setting his green braids to shaking. “Because Brody’s generally a good kid. He works hard and made one bad choice.”
“Remember the things we did back in high school?” Teague added, laughing with a twinge of disbelief. “And the ones we got away with? This isn’t about your judgment, Alex. It’s about kids being kids.”
Matt switched off his headlights as they turned into the long drive. Stealth mode. “People make mistakes. It’s how they man up to being caught and fix ’em that matters.” He stopped halfway to the lot. “You three stay in the car. It isn’t likely anyone’s still here since the alarm went off. But I want to swing past the barns on foot. Once I know they’re clear, I’ll come get you.”
When he got out, he switched off the dome light and left the door open. Then he melted away into the shadows. Alex had to admit it was impressive watching him in police chief mode. As long as he didn’t think too hard about why and where Matt was doing it.