In Safe Hands (Search and Rescue #4)(32)

“Understood.” Callum gave him a brisk nod.

“Do you mind starting from the beginning?” Daisy asked, playing with the cap on her sports-drink bottle. “Lou gave me the basics the other day, but mostly we talked about my”—she made a face—“dead body.”

“What?” asked a chorus of voices, as almost everyone sitting around the dining room table stared at her.

Daisy flushed. “I saw someone putting…something into the back of a sheriff’s department SUV really early one morning. It ended up being a deputy who was hired to clear junk out of the empty house. His car was too small, so he used a sheriff’s department vehicle.” She turned to Chris. “Will you have any trouble with the deputy for getting him in trouble with the sheriff?”

“No.” Chris shook his head. “Rob said he didn’t tell Macavoy who’d reported seeing him.”

“Good.” She’d worried about it causing an issue, especially since Chris’s job could be a lot more dangerous if his backup was holding a grudge.

“Why was he moving junk at—what was it, Daisy? Three in the morning?” Lou asked.

“He’d just gotten off a swing shift.”

Callum’s grunt was skeptical as he looked at Chris. “How well do you know this guy?”

“Not that well,” Chris said, frowning thoughtfully. “He started last fall, so he’s still the new guy. He’s pretty quiet, keeps his head down. A lot of deputies don’t last a year out here, so it takes a while for them to…integrate, I guess. Why do you ask?”

“When you’re moving a bunch of junk, how do you carry it?” Callum asked instead of answering.

Lou made an amused sound. “Here we go with the Socratic method again.”

Ignoring her, he just waited for Chris to answer.

“Depends on what I’m moving. I’d try to make as few trips as possible. Big, heavy pieces, though, I’m going to have to move one at a time.”

“Small stuff, I’ll throw in a box or wheelbarrow.” George’s contribution made everyone jump. Daisy was pretty sure that was the first time she’d heard the man speak.

Callum nodded. “This guy was carrying something wrapped in a tarp, right, Daisy?”

She sat up straight in her chair. Callum’s stern tone made her feel like she was back in school being called on by the teacher. “Yes.”

“If you’re using a tarp, let’s say in place of Holloway’s box, how do you load up the junk?”

It was Ian’s turn to contribute. “I’d stretch the tarp out flat, pile everything in the middle, and wrap it up like Santa’s bag of toys.”

Turning to Daisy again, Callum asked, “Is that how he was carrying it?”

“No.” The image was still clear in her mind. “It was rolled, like a rug or a burrito. The ends were open, since the boot fell out of the bottom.”

“A boot?” Ian frowned. “Is that why you thought it was a body?”

“Yes. It came out when he was putting the tarp in the back of the squad SUV.” Now that they were talking about it, she couldn’t see how the bundle Macavoy had been carrying could have been a pile of junk. “Plus, it just acted like a dead body. That sounds crazy, I know, especially since I’m not an expert in any way, but he had it over his shoulder, and it hung. Lumber or metal or whatever would’ve stuck out straight. When he dumped it in the back of the SUV, he kind of bent over and dropped it, like it was really heavy.” She made a frustrated sound. “I’m not explaining this right.”

“You’re doing fine, Daisy.” Callum’s voice was gentle. “We’re thinking along the same lines. What kind of junk can you roll up in a tarp, hinges at the waist, is heavy, and sheds a boot?”

“Holy monkeys, it was a body!” Lou started to bounce in her chair, but then winced and sat still.

“That is why I asked if you know this deputy well,” Callum said to Chris, leaning back in his chair.

Chris didn’t look convinced. “If Macavoy was moving a corpse, why admit to Rob that he was at the house at all?”

“If he thought he’d been spotted and identified, he probably didn’t think he could deny it,” Lou offered.

“I’m confused.” Ellie frowned, absently picking at her cuticles. When George put a hand over hers, stilling her fingers, she gave him a grateful smile and then turned back to the group. “If it is a body, it’s a new one, right? So who is it?”

There were a few moments of silence before Lou broke it. “Argh! Nothing fits together. We keep getting new information, but it just leads to more questions.”

“Has anyone been reported missing?” Rory asked Chris, who shook his head.

Ellie made a pained sound. “Just my dad.”

Daisy stared at her. “Your dad’s missing?”

As Ellie nodded, close to tears, George released her hands so he could rub her back. “Anderson King was hunting him—hunting both of us—and I don’t know where either my dad or Anderson is.”

Although she leaned into George’s touch, Ellie still looked miserable. Daisy had to glance away. It had been one thing to speculate on whether she’d seen an actual body or not, but thinking that there was even a possibility it could be sweet Ellie’s father made her stomach curdle. She was glad she’d been too nervous to eat much. Otherwise, she’d have been sprinting for the bathroom.