up into his soft gaze. “It’s already flying by. I can’t believe she’s six.”
“She’s a great kid and you have yourself to be proud of for that.”
“Come on, you two had a hand in it too.”
He shrugged. “Maybe a little, but it was mostly you. You did the hard work.”
“And I had the best role models in you and Mom.” I hugged him with all the strength I could muster.
Tristian and Easton ran back into the room as he chased her. She was laughing her head off, and when I saw the tiara propped on his head, I joined in.
Dad chuckled. “Would you look at them?”
“He’s nothing but an overgrown kid.” I shook my head, but was thrilled to see Tristian enjoying this so much. This was what he’d never had growing up. My heart danced as I observed them.
“You couldn’t ask for anyone better with her.”
“She loves him more than she loves me.”
“Tell me about it. That’s how you were with your mother. She always put you under the rainbow.”
It was true. I remembered telling Dad that so many times. “You can thank me for playing matchmaker.”
“Yep, which was why I returned the favor.” I had no comeback as he smiled smugly.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Tristian
My phone tweeted and I saw it was Landry. “Hey, little bro, what’s up?”
“You better come over here. We got some news from the police. They’re on the way too.”
“Let me grab English and we’ll head over. We’re at work so it may take a little longer.”
English’s nose was almost pressed against her computer screen.
“Do you need glasses?” I asked.
She jerked at my voice. “Jeez, you scared me. I didn’t hear you walk in.”
“Sorry. But seriously, your nose was right up there.”
“Yeah, I was working on this tiny detail. I have glasses but hate them.”
“We’ll get you a better pair. We have to go. The police are on the way to the house of horrors and we need to get over there.”
She grabbed her purse, told Beck we were headed out, and we left. Traffic was light since it was late morning, which made the trip up shorter than expected. When we arrived, several cars were in the drive.
Everyone waited for us in my father’s old office. Glum expressions clued me into the fact that the news probably wouldn’t be in our favor.
After introductions were made, Clayton began. “I wanted everyone here to hear the conclusions. Even though we know both cars were tampered with, there isn’t enough proof to say who did it. Since your mother had access to all vehicles and could have driven the silver Mercedes at any time, it’s feasible to assume she’d driven it sometime in the past. Her prints could go back prior to when this took place.”
Then Detective Randolph, who was assigned to our case, continued. “Mr. Summers is correct. We’d like to bring her in for questioning, but if she refuses, there isn’t any legal way we can compel her to come. One thing we don’t have is any video surveillance. Do you have security cameras out here?”
Stanton hit the desk he leaned against with his crutch. “Dammit, how could we have forgotten about that? Of course we have video. Dad upgraded the system a couple of years ago, so it’s quite sophisticated.”
I shook my head. “Don’t get too excited. I’m pretty sure they erased the footage from those days.”
Stanton’s smug expression clued us into that meant nothing. “If they did, it’s not a problem. When Dad upgraded, he went all the way. After thirty days everything is then stored on the cloud. Unless they have access to that, which they don’t, then we’ve got them.”
Randolph held up a hand. “I don’t want to be a bubble-burster, but sometimes the cameras don’t catch everything if they aren’t positioned properly.”
Stanton chuckled. “Don’t worry, they will be. They’re set to scan every minute or so. In other words, they’re not stationary. As I said, Dad went all out. And now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if he suspected something.”
I was thinking the same thing. “Maybe he did and that’s why he did such an extensive upgrade.”
“Do you have the login information?” Randolph asked Stanton.
“I do. I can share it so you can check it out someplace else.”
Stanton grabbed a piece of paper off the desk and scribbled down the information. Then he handed it to the detective.
“I’ll get to work on this immediately and let’s keep this under the radar,” Randolph said. “If they suspect anything, they might be