Page 47 of Shallow Remains

He radioed for a deputy to come down and assist him as he and Grey took the suspects to Rafe’s SUV. He put David in the back and his buddy into the patrol car when it arrived.

“Were they going to or from Skelly?” Rafe asked the other three.

“Based on their heading, I’m pretty sure they were coming from Skelly when they started taking on water.”

“Did you see anything else on board?”

“No, but I bet the Coast Guard finds something interesting when they pull the boat out,” Grey said.

“This genius was busy shoving the money into his bag as we approached,” Emma said, jerking her chin at the guy in the back of the patrol car. “Chances are high there’s more of it still on the boat. Maybe drugs too.”

Rafe nodded. He’d become suspicious of a drug smuggling operation at least moving through Skelly after he’d come on board as sheriff. But finding all that stashed ammunition in the summer pointed to something a whole lot bigger and more complicated.

It worried him.

“I’ll need you all to file an official report. You’ve got a camera on board?”

“Yeah, I’ll send you the video.”

“Perfect.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s late. I’m gonna take these two back to the station and get them processed. If you guys wanna head home, I understand. You can come by tomorrow morning to give your statements.”

He’d asked the Feds repeatedly about what they had uncovered, but they remained tight-lipped. That pretty much guaranteed they were looking at a larger picture. And that meant bigger fish they wanted to catch.

Just one more thing to keep him up at night while he did what he could to protect the island.

Maddy had finally come back to the cottage on the hill above town. And she was alone.

I was tempted to do the next phase of the plan now, but resisted the urge. It was too soon.

Had she seen me drive past? I couldn’t be sure, but it didn’t matter. It was dark as hell up here, and I’d turned the headlights off before making the final turn into this neighborhood. There was no way she would have seen well enough to recognize me.

Not that she would recognize me, I thought with a satisfied smirk.

The lights on the house at the corner had been on too. Some locals had told me an old lady lived there. A typical small town busybody who looked out for everyone.

I needed to take that into consideration as I firmed up the final pieces of my plan and put them into place.

The hard, steady rain pouring on the car was oddly soothing as I cruised down the hill and turned the headlights back on before starting down the road to Whalebone Cove.

I hated this place. This backwards, granola-fed island that felt like stepping back fifty years in time.

But I hated Maddy more.

I would stay a little while longer. Just enough to fuck with her some more before I carried out my true mission.

Only then would I have what I wanted. And maybe I would finally be able to put all the pain behind me and try to move on.

TWENTY-THREE

After going into the police station to give his statement and sign the official incident report, Lachlan drove down to the marina. With some time left to kill before his first scheduled trip, he checked emails on his phone to cross-reference the information from the booking system.

A party of eight had booked a sunset cruise for tonight, and he had a supply transport run scheduled for tomorrow morning. The upcoming weekend whale watch tours were only a third full at the moment, but the weather forecast didn’t look great.

People tended to not be excited to go out in the rain. This time of year was tough for his business, and the tourists wouldn’t return in significant numbers until the spring.

He needed all the paying trips he could get through the fall and winter to keep everything operating smoothly and pay his bills without having to dip into his investments. He didn’t want to pull capital out of them unless he’d used up all his savings.

At a knock on his truck window he looked up, smiled at Xanthe, and lowered it. “Morning. Fancy meeting you here.”