Page 57 of Art of Love

Chapter Seventeen

Being back in Portland was like waking up on the side of a highway after having the best night of your life. The fog was thick and the traffic was terrible.

Kevin had agreed to meet them at her small office at noon, and it took a little over an hour to get from the airport to downtown.

This time there was no limo, just her old Subaru that had over two hundred thousand miles on it. She’d thought about trading it in, but every time she got sticker shock and backed out.

When she parked at the small shopping center, Abe leaned forward and whistled.

“Beck Investigations.” He read the sign hanging over the door.

She shrugged. “It’s not flashy or catchy, just…”

“You,” he finished for her, making her smile.

“Yeah. We have a few minutes before Kevin should be here.” She got out and unlocked the front door and then froze.

Abe must have sensed something was wrong because he pushed past her and stepped inside.

She flipped on the lights and assessed the damage.

The small office had been ransacked.

Papers were scattered across the floor like confetti. The filing cabinet drawers hung open, their contents pulled out and tossed around. Her cork-board had been ripped from the wall, and the mini fridge had been left open, its contents dripping onto the linoleum. Her desk was the worst of it. Every drawer was ripped open, and her laptop was gone, along with the battered leather notebook she used for field notes.

“Damn,” Abe muttered, stepping over a stack of files. “Someone was looking for something.”

Dylan’s pulse throbbed in her ears as she slowly stepped inside, her shoes crunching over a broken coffee mug. She took it all in, her space violated. Her sanctuary stripped bare. The drawer where she kept the locked file folder on Kara’s case was still slightly ajar, the lock twisted like it had been forced open.

“No,” she breathed, rushing to it. Sure enough, the folder was gone. “They took it. Everything physical I had on Kara.”

Abe knelt beside her, resting a steady hand on her back. “This wasn’t random then.”

Her heart ached with a mix of anger and fear. “My laptop had encrypted files… but the folder… my notes, interviews, printouts, anyone could read that. This wasn’t just someone trying to scare me. They wanted to erase… everything.”

A loud knock at the door startled them both.

Kevin stood outside, his hands in his hoodie pockets and a confused look on his face.

“What the hell happened?” Kevin asked, stepping inside and glancing around.

“You tell us,” Dylan said. “Whoever did this appears to have only taken what I had on your sister’s case.”

His eyes swept the room, settling briefly on the broken drawer. “Shit. You think this is about Kara?”

Dylan nodded slowly. “Yes, seeing as it appears that they only took her files and nothing else.”

Kevin’s jaw clenched.

“Guess you were getting close to something,” Abe said, his arms folded. “It appears you arrived just in time to answer some questions.”

“Here,” Dylan said, straightening a chair and pushing the pile of paperwork on the floor aside. “Sit. Talk.”

Kevin glanced at him and he motioned. “We’re done hiding behind half-truths. It’s time you came clean with everything.”

Kevin looked between them, then sat down. “I didn’t tell you everything, and I didn’t tell the cops, that night, a few other parts.” He shook his head and looked down at his fingers. “I didn’t want to until I was sure… After Kara died, I didn’t disappear because I was guilty or anything. I checked myself into rehab.”

Dylan nodded. “For drinking?”