“Frankie doesn’t see her?” Not surprising given Frankie’s reaction the other day when he’d asked about her surviving parent.
“I doubt Frankie gives Roxie a thought. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like it’s bad blood or anger. It’s just...” Jake shrugged. “Ambivalence.”
That might be one of the saddest things Roman had ever heard. As frustrated as his mother made him, especially when it came to his lack of long-term relationships, he couldn’t imagine her not being part of his life. She and his dad had been partners in every way, right down to raising him, and he was all the better for it.
“Why do you want to know about her?” Jake asked.
“Roxie? No reason, really. I just thought it strange no one mentions her given how much I’ve heard about Tybalt. It’s actually him I wanted to talk about. Seeing as you guys grew up together, I’m hoping I’ve come to the right person.”
“Okay.” Jake was back to looking skeptical.
“I checked out that little house across the street from the station. Frankie seemed—” Roman searched for the right word “—upset.”
“Only because nothing ever came of that place,” Jake said. “Tybalt had plans. Big plans for all that area, but he did not go about getting it in the traditional way. Some would argue he flat out beat the Hamiltons at their own game. He negotiated with the property owner and got into a bidding war with the city. The mayor at the time, that would have been Gil’s grandfather, didn’t take kindly to the idea. Legacy mayorship,” Jake added, filling in another of those town blanks for Roman.
“Any idea what Tybalt planned to do with the land and house?”
“Frankie doesn’t know?”
“She knew about the house, of course, said he’d wanted to make it a place for the chief. I didn’t push on the rest.” Roman dug out a doughnut, considered it for a moment. “I get the feeling her dad’s a bit of a touchy subject.” Just talking about him on the beach the other night had brought her to tears.
“Then readjust your barometer,” Jake suggested. “She’ll tell you anything you need to know about Tybalt. But she might not know about his plans for the house. I remember Tybalt talked about turning the area into a training and education center. I haven’t been a volunteer with the department for a long time, but back when I was sheriff, we had a pretty well-staffed department. Didn’t need more than two or three volunteers.”
“Now we have half a dozen.”
“Gil’s father gutted the budget. One of his parting gifts before he drove the town into near bankruptcy, then up and died.” Bitterness coated Jake’s words. “Gil’s pretty much been trying to rebuild everything his father and grandfather broke. Not that he’s going about it in the right way. Must be a family trait.”
“Not a fan?”
Jake grimaced and drank his coffee. “You’d be hard-pressed to find many people in town who are. It’s not that what he does is bad. A lot of his ideas have been a boon for the town. And while I might still be a bit resentful that he pushed me out as sheriff, if he hadn’t, Holly wouldn’t have met and married Luke, something I wasn’t sure would ever happen again after her first marriage. Even better, I wouldn’t have two new grandbabies to fawn over.”
“Silver lining?”
“Best one possible.” Jake toasted him with his coffee. “That butterfly sanctuary we’ve got going up will be a huge tourist draw, but again, Gil alienated a lot of people with the manner in which he went about things. Do you have any idea how hard it is to tick off Calliope Jones Costas?”
Given what Roman had seen of her, he’d have thought it next to impossible.
“Gil just goes about things in the wrong way,” Jake went on. “Someone always ends up getting hurt either personally or professionally. Me? I’ve always thought Gil could do with a good dose of reality. Someone needs to pop his bubble.”
They definitely agreed on that. “If he’s so disliked, how was he reelected?”
“He ran unopposed.” Jake winced and stretched out his leg. “And, honestly, no one else wanted the job. Not when they’d have to deal with the fallout of what he’s wrought. I can’t even imagine having to clean up his messes.”
“So there’s no truth to the rumor that you’re going to run against him in a recall election?”
Jake guffawed. “Nope. I’ve done my time in the trenches. Politics is a younger person’s game, at least here in Butterfly Harbor. I get my fill listening to and advising Luke, not that he complains much. But even my son-in-law has his limits.”