Nowhere to Turn (9 page)

“Your dad didn't go for it, huh?”

“He threatened to call the police if Nick didn't leave.”

“And Nick came back again after that?”

“That's what my dad said. He told the police that he wouldn't be surprised if Nick had a grudge. Then Connor told them that Nick knew exactly how much the coins were worth.”

I could just imagine how the police had reacted to that information.

“How did Connor know that?” I said.

“Grandpa e-mailed him about Nick. He said he was teaching Nick all about coins.”

One more reason for the police to be suspicious.

“When my dad heard that, he got really mad. He said Grandpa had been foolish to let Nick in the house. He said that once Nick knew how valuable the coins were, of course he would want to steal them. I guess the police must have thought so too. My dad said that because Nick is a youth, probably the most he'll get is two years. Dad's really mad about that. He says it's not nearly enough.”

I wanted to spring to Nick's defense, but without any facts to back me up . . .

“Robyn, why are you so interested in Nick?”

“We're . . .friends.”

“You used to be more than that, didn't you?” Isobel said. She smiled gently. “When I saw that picture of you and he said you were just someone he knew, I knew there was more to it than that. I could tell by the way he said it.”

“We used to go out,” I admitted. “But that's over.”

She looked at me as if she didn't believe me. But she didn't say anything else about Nick.

We walked home in silence. I don't know what Isobel was thinking about, but my mind was on Nick. Two years may have seemed like nothing to Elliot, but to Nick, it would sound like a lifetime. He'd been doing so well lately. He'd worked hard at getting his life on track. What would he be like after two years in jail, especially if it was for something he hadn't done? Would he ever get over the anger he'd feel? Would he ever be able to get back to a normal life? Would he even want to?

CHAPTER
EIGHT

M

organ came over after supper, and we settled at my dad's enormous dining table to work on our project. Morgan seemed to be making good progress, but I was just going through the motions. I couldn't get Nick out of my mind. After a while, my dad brought us tea and cookies.

“Okay, that makes it an official time-out,” Morgan said. She reached for a cookie. “How's the dog walking going?”

My father glanced at me on his way back to the kitchen, but he didn't say anything.

“It's okay,” I said.

“Have you found out anything?”

“Just that poor Orion spends most of his time locked in the basement. And that it doesn't look good for Nick. Everyone is convinced that he stole Mr. Schuster's coin collection.”

“Everyone?” she said. “Does that include you?”

I gave her a sharp look.

“I didn't think so,” she said. She took another sip of tea. “Have you talked to him again?”

“I tried calling, but Glen wouldn't let him come to the phone.”

“So now what?”

“That coin collection didn't just walk away,” I said. “Someone took it.”

“Obviously,” Morgan said. “But who?”

I'd been thinking about that too. But even if I was on the right track, how was I going to prove it?

“I'm working on it,” I said.

“What about Ben?”

“What about him?”

“Does he know what you're up to?”

“Not exactly.”

“Not exactly?”

“Okay. No, he doesn't know.”

“Does he know that Nick is back in town?”

I shook my head.

Morgan didn't say anything as she took another nibble of the cookie, but sometimes silence is louder than words.

“Come on, Morgan. You saw how Nick acted when we were there. He's not interested in me anymore.”

“Nick saw you with Ben. If Billy's right, he saw you take off the necklace he sent you and put on Ben's ring instead. Maybe he acted the way he did because you broke his heart.”

“Well, if I did, he broke mine first. He's the one who walked out on me.”

“You didn't even ask him why he did it.”

“What's the matter with you?” I said. “You were the one who kept telling me to forget about him. You told me Ben was the perfect guy for me. Over and over.” I couldn't believe how angry I was. I stared down at the table and took a couple of deep breaths to try to calm down.

“I'm sorry,” Morgan said quietly. “I should have kept my mouth shut. But you were such a mess after Nick left. I just wanted you to be happy. I just want you to be happy now.”

“In that case,” I said, “we should get back to work.”

It was late by the time we finished, so my father offered to drive Morgan home. When he got back, I was still sitting at the dining table. My laptop was open in front of me, but I hadn't looked at it the whole time he was gone. Instead, I'd been staring up at the moon through the raised skylight in the ceiling over the table. I'd been thinking about Nick.

“What's this about walking a dog?” my father said after he'd hung up his coat.

“I got a job as a dog walker.”

That earned me a raised eyebrow. “I thought you didn't like dogs.”

“I'm doing it as a special favor.”

“Really? Whose dog are you walking?”

I hesitated. “Mr. Schuster's.”

“I see.” My dad sat down at the table opposite me. His expression was somber. “Nick really got himself jammed up this time, Robbie.”

I swallowed hard. He wouldn't be saying that if he didn't know something.

“Who did you talk to?”

“I know one of the arresting officers.”

I was afraid to ask: “And?”

“And, on the night in question, Mr. Schuster's family went out to dinner.” He dug into a pocket, pulled out the notebook he always carried, and thumbed through it. “They left the house at seven thirty. When they returned a little after nine thirty, Claudia Schuster went into the kitchen and noticed that the kitchen window was open a few inches. She swore it had been closed when she left the house.”

“I thought the thief came in through the side door.”

“He did,” my father said. “The theory is that he tried the kitchen window first. The screen was already loose. But according to Mr. Schuster, that window has been broken for years. It only opens about six inches. No way anyone could have got in that way. Then Elliot Schuster went down to the basement to check on Mr. Schuster's dog and noticed something amiss with the side door. The lock was broken. Pried open.”

“With a crowbar,” I said.

Dad nodded. “The family also discovered that Mr. Schuster's coins were gone. As far as they could tell, it was the only thing missing. They called the police. During the investigation, Nick's name came up. When the police finally tracked him down, they found some of the stolen coins in his backpack, together with a thousand in cash.”

Nobody had mentioned that. “Where did Nick get a thousand dollars?”

My father did not look happy. “Apparently he declined to explain.”

That didn't sound good. It didn't sound good at all.

“There's more, Robbie. They also found the crowbar that was used to pry open the door. And Nick was seen in the area earlier that day.”

I already knew that. Esther had told me.

“He was probably just trying to make sure that Orion was okay,” I said. “He loves that dog, Dad.”

“Nick has no alibi for when it happened, Robbie,” Dad said softly. “He can't account for his where-abouts. They've offered to reduce or even drop some of the charges if he tells them what he did with the rest of the coins, but he isn't cooperating.”

“But did he confess? Did he admit he did it?”

My dad shook his head. “He maintains he doesn't know anything about it.”

“You don't really think he did it, do you?”

“I haven't talked to him, Robbie, so I have no basis to form an opinion. I'd like to think that he didn't. But based on what the arresting officer told me, if this were my case? I would have arrested Nick too and I'd feel sure I had the right person.”

I'd been hoping my father would answer differently. I wanted someone—someone besides Beej—to believe in Nick's innocence. I wanted someone to tell me that I was right to believe in him.

“Mr. Schuster's coin collection was insured, Dad. But when I was there today visiting Mr. Schuster, his son said that the insurance company was asking a lot of questions because they had been insured only recently. Why does that matter?”

“It depends. How recent is recent?” my father said.

“I don't know. What difference does it make?”

“Has Mr. Schuster had his collection for a long time?”

“His granddaughter told me that he's been collecting for years.”

“I see.”

“See what?”

“Okay, example one: A person has a valuable coin collection. Has had it insured for, say, ten years. He pays the premiums every year and nothing happens to the coins. Then, after ten years, his house is broken into and the coins are stolen. He calls the police and they make an arrest. In that case, the owner of the coins probably wouldn't have any trouble collecting from the insurance company.”

“I still don't—”

“Example two,” my father said. “The same person has the same valuable coin collection but hasn't had it insured the whole time it's been in his possession. Suddenly he decides to buy a policy. One month later, he reports that the collection has been stolen. He tells the police that he thinks it was taken by a boy who worked for him, who he knew had a criminal record.

“In that case,” my father continued, “the insurance company might be justifiably suspicious. They might think that the person took out the policy because he
planned
to make a claim.”

“You mean that he was planning to report the coins stolen when they really hadn't been stolen?”

My father nodded.

“But Mr. Schuster's house really was broken into. And the police made an arrest. Why wouldn't the insurance company believe the police?” I was wondering—hoping—that the company's doubts might mean something, something that could help Nick.

“I'm sure they do believe the police, up to a point,” my dad said. “There's no doubt that Nick was caught with stolen property. But the police found only a few coins in Nick's backpack. And according to my source, they were the least valuable coins in the collection.”

“So . .?” I said.

“So victims of theft sometimes try to take advantage of the situation. For example, say a person leaves his phone in his car. Someone breaks a window and steals it. The person calls the police and reports the theft. But he tells the police that there was also a brand-new iPad in the car or maybe an expensive camera. After all, who's going to know? He thinks, I've been paying insurance premiums for years, why shouldn't I get something back?”

“So the insurance company might think that Nick only took some coins? That Mr. Schuster said he took them all when he really didn't?”

“It wouldn't be the first time,” my father said. “There have also been plenty of cases where people pay someone to stage a robbery so that they can collect the insurance money. Hard to imagine that Mr. Schuster would do anything like that, though, especially since he was in the hospital at the time.”

“But the coins wouldn't have been insured in the first place if Mr. Schuster's son hadn't talked him into it,” I said.

“Schuster's son took the initiative to have the coins insured? And while the son was staying at the house, the coins were stolen?” My father pondered this. “No wonder the insurance company wants to investigate before they pay up. But, Robbie, even if they find out that Mr. Schuster's son lied about what happened to the coins, Nick still has a lot of explaining to do. Not only did he have some coins in his possession—and a large amount of cash that he refuses to account for
and
that crowbar—he's also being less than cooperative. Add an assault charge to that, and he's still in big trouble.”