Her Grave Secrets (Rogue River #3)(14)

Carly’s arms tightened around the dog as she studied Stevie’s face. “What’s happened? My God, you still can’t hide what you’re thinking, can you? I thought being a cop would help you with that.”

Stevie tried to wipe emotion from her face. It’d been a curse when she was a child: with a simple glance, her parents had been able to tell when she was lying.

“Help Stevie with what?” Patsy asked as she breezed into the kitchen. “You brought me a present!” Her eyes lit up and she held her hands out for the small dog. Carly passed the dog to her mother, but gave Stevie a cautious look.

Patsy petted the dog, who turned her gaze to Stevie. Patsy followed the dog’s look. “Why, Stevie, she seems to be attached to you.”

“She probably still smells shrimp,” answered Stevie.

“Stevie needs a dog, Mom.”

Patsy’s gaze sharpened on Stevie and concern tightened her features. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“Can we sit down?”

Alarm crossed Carly’s and Patsy’s expressions. The dog gave a small whine.

Patsy ran a comforting hand over the dog’s head. “What’s her name?”

“I don’t know,” Stevie said as she sat at the table. She took a napkin from the pile on the table and started to shred it. The other two women took seats, looked at the napkin, and exchanged a glance. “I assume she’s a stray.” She shoved the napkin away, her fingers wanting something else to do.

Patsy leaned back in her chair and lifted the dog to look directly into her eyes. “Skinny. I can feel her ribs. But so sweet. She needs a delicate name. Something airy and light.”

“Skye? With an e at the end,” suggested Carly as she started to pick a cuticle. They casually discussed the dog, but the women knew Stevie had something important to tell them.

“No, let me think on it. She’s too dark to be called Skye.” Patsy turned a wary gaze to Stevie. “What’s going on?”

“You asked Zane a couple months ago to look into Dad’s death. Why did you do that?”

Patsy looked down at the dog and gently tugged at the silky fur on the droopy ears. “Because it wasn’t right. I could feel something was off.” She met Stevie’s gaze. “And now you’re going to tell me I was right.”

Carly sucked in a breath. “What’d he find?”

Stevie steeled her spine. “The medical examiner found traces of C-22 in Dad’s tissue samples he’d kept from the autopsy.”

“What is C-22?” asked Patsy.

“The current street drug that’s invaded southwest Oregon. There’ve been several deaths from it. It seems to mimic a heart attack and it takes a specific test to find the drug in an autopsy.”

“Is it the one that killed the Brandt boy at O’Rourke’s Lake two months ago?”

Stevie nodded. “They ran a ton of chemical screens on Hunter Brandt because his death was so odd. With Dad they stuck to the standard tests. They’d thought he’d had a heart attack and nothing showed up on their usual tox screens.”

“What does that mean?” whispered Carly. “Why did Dad take the drug? Did he not know what it was?”

“Or did someone slip it to him?” Patsy asked softly. “Oh, girls. I knew something was very off about his death.”

“Someone murdered Dad?” Carly shook her head. “That’s impossible. Who’d do that?” Her voice rose.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We stopped one distributor of the drug when Ted Warner died, but the drug is very active in the coastal cities. Zane assumes someone else will step into Ted’s shoes, but his main concern—and Seth’s too—is finding the supplier. Someone’s making this drug. Obviously it doesn’t always kill, so either the deaths are from taking too much or from a bad batch.”

Silent tears streamed from Carly’s eyes. Patsy passed the dog to Carly, who took her without a word and laid her cheek on the dog’s soft head. Patsy held out a hand to each of her daughters and they grabbed them. She looked her girls in the eyes.

“We’ll get through this. It doesn’t change what’s already happened. It’s just cranked up the pain a few notches. We’ve already been through the worst.”

“No! No, this is much worse.” Carly straightened and brushed at her tears. “Someone deliberately killed our father! I don’t understand. Everyone loved him. Were they all just being polite to his face? And our faces? I feel like our town has suddenly turned on us.”

“You’re wrong, Carly,” Patsy stated firmly. “This town loves us and it loved your father. I felt their sorrow when he died, and I still get support from the people of Solitude. When he passed they felt like part of the foundation of our town was ripped out from underneath. They’ve had to rebuild too.” She looked at Stevie. “Zane’s gone a long way in helping Solitude get back to normal. Everyone sees him as a perfect successor to Bill.”

“That’s great,” Stevie said faintly, thinking of Zane’s worries that the town still saw him as an outsider.

“What about Roy?” Carly asked. “Seth told me the drug task force is investigating him. Is he tied up in this too?”

“We don’t know yet.” Stevie picked up the remains of her napkin and tore it into smaller pieces. “We’re looking into it.” She stole a look at her mother, who had her gaze on Carly and the dog. Concern shone from her eyes, but not about her husband’s death; it was about the healing of her daughters. Sometimes holding an animal balanced one’s perspective of the world. The little dog radiated this otherworldly charm in spades.