Page 12 of The Summer We Made Promises (The Destin Diaries #3)

M aggie somehow managed not to gasp at what she just been told, but kept one hand clenched tightly around her phone while the other rested on her lap.

Disappeared?

She couldn’t have heard that right.

“Justin, I’m sorry,” she said to the attorney on the other end of the line. “Did you say…the case files disappeared?”

“I’m as baffled as you are, Mrs. Lawson.” The man gave an awkward laugh, and she could picture him clearly. In his late forties, buttoned up, and quite capable. She’d been thrilled to learn he’d taken over his father’s cases when old John Waverly passed away a few years back.

But she wasn’t thrilled right now. Not with this news.

Over the years, she’d had no reason to discuss Roger’s crimes with Justin—his father had handled the criminal case. In fact, John Waverly deserved the credit for negotiating a plea bargain deal that allowed Roger to serve seven years instead of twenty-five.

And it was John who’d created a trust that protected this property from government seizure, placing it in Maggie’s name.

She’d never quite understood how he’d done that, but Roger had told her plainly and clearly: “Do not sell that property. Just let John Waverly rent it for you, save the money, and tell no one you own it until I’m out of jail. ”

Of course, he never got out of jail…only into an early grave. She’d been terrified to do anything at all with it lest some despicable human from the government announce they wanted the property.

But that never happened.

Then, one day two years ago, John’s son, Justin, had contacted her out of the blue, telling her that he’d been reviewing some of his father’s files and looked at the trust.

Thanks to a new law he’d learned of, she not only could sell the house, but any profit made from the sale of this house had to go to her children because their father had died while incarcerated.

She’d never heard of anything like it, but for this wonderful gift, she had placed young Justin Waverly in the highest possible esteem.

But that esteem just plummeted to rock bottom.

The files were gone ? She was certain somewhere in the mountains of paperwork, they’d discover why Artie had turned Roger in to the police.

“Have you searched all possible storage places, file basements…wherever you keep old documents?” she demanded.

“High and low, and I did so personally,” he said. “Honestly, this makes no sense at all, Mrs. Lawson. Even though we are under no legal obligation to hold case files that long, it was my father’s express orders that we never destroy files. But these…have disappeared.”

“Could someone have taken them?” she asked as a whole new wave of worry took hold.

“Highly unlikely,” he said. “Files that old are in a massive underground storage facility that only staff of this firm can access. The only other possibility is that my father had them sent to you.”

“He most certainly did not,” Maggie snapped. “I would have remembered.”

“Well, I have the paperwork for the Lawson Trust and your personal legal documents, Mrs. Lawson, but nothing else.”

Maggie squeezed her eyes shut in abject frustration.

“Were you looking for something in particular?” Justin asked. “Is there something I could find in court records?”

She sighed. She was looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack and the haystack was gone.

“Just…history. How the case started, who launched the investigation, that sort of thing.”

He thought for a moment. “Have you tried the Atlanta police department?” he asked. “It’s been a while, but they might have something.”

“My son has a contact in law enforcement, but he advised us to see what your father had kept.” She looked out at the soft dunes that gave way to the endless stretch of shimmering emerald waves.

Normally, that view alone would soothe her frayed nerves but this blasted phone call had soured the air, making it feel heavy and thick despite the ocean breeze.

It didn’t help that Jo Ellen sat five feet away playing some inane word game on a tablet computer that kept chirping incessantly.

“I’m sorry but we don’t have a thing for you,” he said again. “I don’t know where else to try but I promise, if I think of anything, I’ll let you know.”

Maggie inhaled sharply. “Thank you. I’d appreciate a call the moment you find anything.”

“Of course, Mrs. Lawson. I’m sorry.”

She ended the call with a tap, missing the days when a receiver could be slammed good and hard to deliver a clear message.

Jo Ellen looked up from the screen. “No luck?”

“Bad luck, the only kind we have, it seems. How do files that have to be a foot thick just disappear?”

Jo Ellen lifted a glass of iced tea. “Now what?”

“Your files. When are you getting them?” Maggie asked.

“I haven’t reached Kate yet,” Jo Ellen said.

“You can’t reach your own daughter?” Maggie asked, frustrated that Jo didn’t sense the urgency.

“She’s busy with end of the school year things for her kids and she works full-time,” Jo Ellen said. “But Tessa and I made plans to talk to Kate tonight. We want to talk to her about…something.”

At her obvious vague tone, Maggie eyed the other woman. “What…something?” she asked.

“Just…” She waved her hand. “Just a Wylie family thing. Nothing you need to know about.”

Maggie bristled—she hated to be out of the loop on anything. But she let the comment go and looked out at the water again, sitting in tense silence with a woman who used to know her every thought and feeling.

In some ways, these past few days, Maggie sensed Jo still wanted that kind of relationship. But they’d both made promises to their husbands, whether they understood why or not.

Still, should a promise be kept if the reason for it was unknown, dead, and never to be discovered? Did talking to Jo Ellen now break that promise?

The thought made her heart—the one no one thought she had—hitch and hurt.

Before she could brood any further, Vivien stepped out onto the deck, her expression curious. She hesitated when she saw them sitting there, like she’d just interrupted a funeral.

“Everything okay out here?” Vivien asked, glancing between them.

Maggie straightened, forcing a composed expression. “We hit a dead end with the attorney. Roger’s case files are missing. Can you believe that?”

Vivien’s eyes widened. “Missing? All of them?”

“Yes,” Maggie confirmed, her lips pressed into a thin line. “Gone without a trace.”

“That seems bizarre,” Vivien said. “But I guess the case is thirty years old. Surely a law firm doesn’t keep everything forever.”

“John Waverly did,” Maggie said. “Anyway, we don’t know what to do next to crack this case.”

“Crack the case, Nancy Drew?” Jo Ellen teased. “We can call it The Secret of Gulf Shore Drive .”

Maggie had to laugh at that, too, since they’d both been raised on the books and always connected over them. “Sadly, it’s The Case of the Brick Wall we’re facing,” she said. “And no idea what clue to follow next.”

Vivien pulled out a chair. “I have a thought.”

They turned to her, both interested.

“What about the Cavallaris?”

“Frank and Betty?” Maggie blinked at her. “Surely they’re dead by now.”

“Oh, no.” Jo Ellen finally put her tablet on the table. “Kate and Eli went to see them a while back.”

Maggie launched a brow north. Good heavens, she hated to be in the dark. “And was anyone ever going to tell me this?”

“There was no reason, Mom,” Vivien said softly. “They just found out that they lived not far from here and went to see how they were.”

“And how are they?”

“Confused and might have dementia,” Jo Ellen replied.

“Really?” Maggie blinked, her heart squeezing. “I liked Betty so much. I never really cared much for Frank. He had some very seedy acquaintances in town, but Betty taught us to cook so many things, Jo. Remember?”

“Like Bolognese,” Vivien said.

“Yes!” Maggie and Jo Ellen exclaimed in unison.

“It was so good I wrote about it in my diary.” Vivien laughed. “I even kept the recipe you gave me, Aunt Jo Ellen. It’s funny, because I read that entry last night.”

“Why do you think they have dementia?” Maggie asked, not interested in recipes right then.

“Eli and Kate said they were very muddled about the past,” Jo Ellen said. “But they’re living in Santa Rosa Beach, which is close. Do you want to go see them, Mags? I could get the address from Kate.”

Did she? Not particularly, but maybe they remembered something. She and Roger had gone out with them one last time after the Wylies left in a hurry that last summer. But Roger wasn’t himself that night, and she didn’t learn why until he was arrested a month or so later.

If she saw Betty and Frank, she’d have to tell them all about Roger, and she hated that subject.

“I don’t want to visit them, not if they were confused,” Maggie said, searching for an out. “I mean, they could lead us down some completely wrong path.”

“They very well might,” Vivien agreed, getting their attention again. “They both remember things differently.”

“How so?” Maggie asked.

Vivien sighed and made a face. “I’m not sure I should tell you.”

Maggie leaned in and gave Vivien her most commanding expression. “You will tell me and you will tell me now.”

The slightest smile crossed her daughter’s face, as if her words had no impact, but then she tipped her head in concession. “Okay, but it’s…kind of out there. Betty thought that maybe, um…” She flushed a little and laughed. “That you, Mom, and Uncle Artie might have been…you know.”

“No, I do not.”

“Having an affair.”

For a moment, Maggie just stared at her, utterly dumbstruck. Then she started snickering and looked at Jo Ellen, who was visibly fighting the urge to do exactly the same thing.

“Me and… Artie ?” She choked the words.

“That’s not all,” Vivien said, which was almost enough to make Maggie stop laughing. “At the same time, in a different room, Frank told Eli that Roger and…you…” She looked directly at Jo Ellen. “Were…involved.”

Jo Ellen gasped noisily. “No!”

“Oh, my…” Maggie couldn’t quite find the words. “That’s…that’s…”