Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,4
at all. C’mon, please,” he opened the passenger door. “Before you freeze to death.”
She hesitated but ultimately relented, taking a seat.
Matthew got in and started the engine. “Is there anything that you need to grab out of your car before we go? Anything valuable?”
She shook her head. “No. I didn’t even really check to see if they stole anything yet. There wasn’t anything good in there. I’m not even sure what they were looking for.”
“We see it a lot, especially in parking lots. People break in looking for all kinds of stuff – cell phones, headphones, even spare change.”
“Oh. That kind of kills my theory that there was someone else creeping around.”
Matthew smiled. “Well, no. You could be targeted for some reason. Do you have any enemies that you know of?”
Jade laughed. “Where do I start?”
“Well, I know one guy who I’ll be questioning.”
Jade looked at him with a look of confusion. “Brandon? Oh – I don’t think that he would do this.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Matthew didn’t know the guy well, but the one time that he arrested him for threatening Jade during their divorce mediation was pretty eye-opening. “Who else?”
Jade stretched her hands out to warm them over the vents. Matthew had to remind himself not to stare.
“I think that’s the only one, not that I’d call him an enemy exactly,” she said. “Oh – I guess Morgan has some enemies. You know, with her mom’s case. Maybe Andrea hired someone from jail to get revenge for getting her arrested?”
Matthew laughed. “That’s…not impossible.”
“Or maybe her boyfriend Brock did something? I don’t know that this is his style, though. Or that he would come after me.”
Matthew nodded. “Might be worth investigating, though. I’ll look into it.”
“Oh!” she turned towards him. “Well – this seems really silly, actually. But Barb McFarland told me to keep my nose out of where it doesn’t belong. Or out of her business, or something.”
“What?” Matthew turned towards her. “That sounds – I mean, was that a threat?”
Jade closed her eyes and let out a little laugh. “Well no, I don’t think so. I don’t think she meant it like that.”
“What did you do to her? And who is she?”
“She’s the president of the San Juan Small Business Association.”
“Oh.”
“And – well, it’s a long story. But I started getting involved with the San Juan County Council.”
Matthew had to keep himself from smiling. He hadn’t seen Jade in weeks or talked to her, truly talked to her, in months. Is this what she’d been up to all this time?
“Did you hear about the twenty-six acres of land that Colby Smith left to San Juan Island in his will?”
“Yeah – I heard something about that.”
“Well, it turns out that the county council has to decide what to do with that land. And almost immediately after it was announced, a developer showed up and offered to buy it for a ton of money. They want to build some kind of luxury resort, I don’t know. But I put in a proposal that we should have a vote to decide what happens to it.”
“Ah,” Matthew said. “I’m guessing you were successful in this?”
“I was,” Jade said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “And now I have two months to convince the people of San Juan County that the land is better used for the public good, and not just something for rich tourists.”
“That sounds awesome, actually. But I’m sure that the developers don’t agree.”
Jade nodded. “Right. And neither does Barb. But everyone has a chance to make their case! I just…didn’t think it was right for it to be sold like that. Colby said he wanted to leave it to his neighbors.”
Matthew pulled his car into the driveway in front of his house. “You’re right. But now you’re also up to roughly ten potential enemies.”
Jade laughed. “I don’t think so. I think I was just being paranoid. I bet it was just some high school kids or something.”
He wasn’t as convinced, but decided to keep that to himself for now. “Also a possibility. Anyway, welcome to my humble abode. It’s not much, and you don’t have to come inside if you don’t want to, I can just grab the vacuum and – ”
“No – I mean, I don’t want to barge in on your house or anything. But I feel like I should at least help with the clean up.”
Matthew certainly wasn’t going to let Jade do any of the heavy lifting, but he also didn’t want