He’d never said it that plainly to anyone. Not to Ray, who already knew. Not to Jolene, who’d been there. He said it to Margot, in a shed that smelled like solder, because she’d asked to work with him and he owed her the truth about what that meant.
She reached over and took the compass off the shelf. She held it in her palm, turned it over once, ran her thumb across the cracked crystal. Then she set it back, gently, the way Lila handled her ornaments. “You’ve been carrying this.”
“Every day.”
“And you’re telling me now because Caleb is connected to what happened then and what’s happening now.”
“I’m telling you now because you should know who you’re working with.” He paused. “All of it. Not just the useful parts.”
She looked at him for a long time. Somewhere outside, a boat engine turned over and caught.
“Thank you. For trusting me with that.”
He nodded. His throat was tight. He didn’t trust himself to say anything else.
“So, we have a man who falsified the ratings that cost your wife her life. Buried in debt. Who stole a card, tripped a breaker, and moved a hundred and seventy thousand dollars in glass onto a boat he’d staged in your marina.” She picked up her pen. “Then we find the boat. And we end this.”
They walked out of the shed together. The sun was climbing, the expo was opening for its second day, and between them something had shifted that couldn’t shift back.
He’d told her about Lauren. Not all of it. But enough. And she hadn’t flinched.
The compass was in his pocket. For the first time, it felt lighter.
Chapter seventeen
The Missing Corner
Margotnoticedthemissingearrings before she noticed the tea.
Lila sat alone in the resort restaurant with a porcelain cup cooling untouched between her hands and a look sharp enough to freeze the Atlantic. Without the diamond drops she usually wore, she looked smaller somehow. Less polished. More human.
Margot pulled out a chair across from her. Evan settled beside her a moment later. He angled his chair away from the table instead of leaning in. She would have done the opposite. Leaned forward. Applied pressure. Forced the silence until it cracked.
He let the silence settle on its own.
They were learning each other’s rhythms. She pressed. He waited. She asked the hard questions. He listened for the answers people gave without meaning to. It shouldn’t have worked as well as it did.
“Who is he?” Lila asked.
“Evan Cole. Marina maintenance. He found evidence at the waterline that the ornaments were moved by boat.”
Lila’s jaw tightened. “The police didn’t mention a dock worker.”
“We’re not here officially,” Evan said. “We’re just trying to help.”
“Help.” Lila wrapped her hands around the cold tea. “Fifteen years of work. Pieces I can never recreate.”
“I know.” Margot held the eye contact. “That’s why we’re here.”
The wall dropped half an inch.
“What do you mean?” Lila asked.
Margot walked her through the logistics. Every piece had been handled by Lila alone. Her assistant Cass had helped with crate transport but hadn’t touched the ornaments. The display case was set up by Caleb’s crew. Only four keycards existed for the case.
Evan hadn’t said a word since sitting down. He was watching Lila. Margot tracked the quiet exchange and saw Lila respond to his silence. Opening up because nobody was pressing.
“The velvet cradles,” Lila said. “Whoever took the ornaments knew to lift them out, not pull. If you pull, the base chips. Every serious glass artist knows that.”
