Hope smiled. “I love when you just say random words.”
It only took a few hours and numerous calls by Connor to obtain information he shouldn’t have been able to nail down. He excelled at convincing powerful and connected people to turn over personal information in the name of protection. In law enforcement, at utilities, it didn’t matter.
Joel didn’t know how, but Connor had the private numbers of officials and a direct line to government agencies. With Joel’s tech help, the whole team had access to databases with firewalls no one should be able to breach. But they did.
As a result, financial documents, phone records, every credit card statement imaginable and even electric bills—seven years of Charlie’s life—were spread out on the table in front of them. “Charlie had two mortgages on the camp, right?”
“Both of which are overdue.” Connor leaned back in his chair. “There’s no hope of salvaging the place absent a big payday. It’s possible it hasn’t happened yet.”
“He also has another line of credit. One he carries at an astronomical rate. At first it looks like a credit card and I don’t see any loan documents to support it, but he just paid it in full.” Joel passed the document showing the paid-off line of credit to Hope, who read it before slipping it to Connor.
“He made the payment three weeks ago.” She shifted the bank documents in front of her. “There’s no record of money going through his bank accounts, personal or business.”
“It had to come from somewhere,” Cam said.
“I’ll put Davis on this.” Connor glanced at his watch. “He should be back at the office by now.”
“He better be.” Cam snorted. “He left hours ago.”
Connor shot Cam a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding look. “I assume he stopped by to see Lara before heading to the office.”
Joel understood the temptation. For almost a month after he left Hope, he’d still drive to her house, thinking to check in. The habit almost broke his will.
The one time he saw her coming home, he’d sat in his car for hours and waged a mental battle about whether to get up and knock on the door. After the need tore him apart he decided going in and out of her life was worse than leaving. But he’d blown that theory over the past few days.
“So how does any of this help?” Hope pointed to the almost negligible balance on the older man’s business checking account. “He still can’t keep the campground with this income. He can’t charge enough to cover insurance and operating costs.”
Cam scoffed. “Having two deaths out there isn’t going to help business.”
“Maybe we caught him at the beginning of a new career.” Joel didn’t know if he should be happy about that or not.
A shiver shook her. “Killing for hire? That’s a horrible thought.”
“Now we have a way to apply pressure.” Joel slipped a hand under the table and linked his fingers through her cold ones. He tried to absorb the chill and the trembling.
Her other hand covered their linked ones. “If he killed Mark and Perry, don’t we want to turn him over to the police?”
“We want Tony Prather to go down, too,” Connor said in a soft voice.
“It makes sense he’s involved. I’m not sure I’d bet my life on it yet, but it’s more logical than Perry starting that fire.” She made a grumbling noise. “I talked with Charlie several times and never suspected.”
“Neither did we,” Cam said.
Joel had to choke back the fury clogging his throat. He’d had the guy right there, right next to him out in the woods, and didn’t pounce. He didn’t know whether Perry could have been saved there at the end because he was in bad shape thanks to the injury and exposure, but Joel would have tried. It looked like Charlie had stolen that chance.
“We’re paid to notice.” But it was the what could have happened that had fury twisting in Joel’s gut. “The bigger issue is how he put you in danger.”
She tightened her hold on him. “Why would he want me dead?”
“I think you were a pawn.” Connor delivered the news like he did everything else—straightforward and calm. “He underestimated you.”
Cam clasped his hands behind his head as he chuckled. “I’m thinking people tend to do that.”
Not Joel. He knew better. And he didn’t find any of this funny. “Tony’s going to pay for all of this.”
“Again, you mean if he’s involved,” she said.
Joel had moved on to plotting the guy’s takedown. “Uh-huh.”