Dead Girl Running (Cape Charade #1)(65)

“I asked if he was okay. He said he was great, but his skin was flushed red and his eyes were very bright for a man who was going to take a corpse on a drive.”

“All right. Then what happened?” Sheriff Kwinault asked.

“Then…nothing. I loaded the plastic box into the back of his toy car, and he drove away.”

“You loaded the box into the car,” Kellen repeated back at him.

“Yes. He almost forgot, so I did it.” Now Temo let his curiosity take over. “Why?”

“That’s all. Thank you. If I need to talk to you again, I’ll call. Is that all right?” Sheriff Kwinault asked.

“Sí. As you wish. I will be here. He was a very weird man, but no matter. He didn’t deserve death.” Temo hung up.

For the first time since they’d started the call, Max returned to the desk and pulled up a chair. “We know that Lloyd was fine when Kellen left the scene. We know Lloyd was pumped full of heroin when he crashed his car. In between those two truths, we have some possibilities.”

“He came back to the resort and, faced with driving a corpse to Virtue Falls, gave in to his addiction,” Sheriff Kwinault said.

“Where’d he get the heroin?” Kellen asked.

“From his car?” Max suggested. “He’d already bought it off-site and had been fighting the need to use it? Alternately, someone at the resort offered it to him.”

Kellen felt sick. “Who?”

Both Max and Sheriff Kwinault looked at her.

Kellen answered their unspoken question. “None of the current guests seem likely—” a lie, she thought Carson Lennex was very likely, but she wasn’t ready to accuse him “—and I don’t believe any of the employees are users. They’re all functioning at a strong level. Right now, we don’t have enough staff that anyone can slack off.”

“They don’t have to be users to distribute,” Sheriff Kwinault said. “Assuming Temo was telling the truth—”

“He isn’t a seller,” Kellen said fiercely.

“—Lloyd Magnuson came back to get Priscilla Carter’s body and he was already stoned. As he drove, he got progressively less able to operate the car, tried to stop somewhere, drove into the brush and out of sight. He died there, and at some point, someone took the plastic container with the corpse out of the vehicle.” Sheriff Kwinault leaned forward. “Why was there a corpse with no hands? Why was Lloyd Magnuson given drugs? Why was the body stolen? What is going on here?”

Max answered, “Someone is using the Yearning Sands dock for smuggling.”

Good. Kellen hadn’t had to anguish over how much to tell Sheriff Kwinault. Max had taken the issue out of her hands.

Sheriff Kwinault was patently not surprised. “Do we know what? Or who?”

“We don’t know what is being smuggled,” Max said.

Kellen didn’t correct him.

Max continued, “But we do think the head of smuggling is someone here at the resort.”

“Very likely it’s drugs, and whoever gave Lloyd the heroin is our felon.” Sheriff Kwinault looked at Kellen. “You say not Temo?”

“No.” Yet he needed to support his sister, and he’d do anything for her. Kellen feared he could be desperate enough to join a ruthless smuggler. Why not suspect him of distributing heroin, too? “Maybe.”

“Any other suspects?” Sheriff Kwinault asked.

“I think too many?” Max looked at Kellen for confirmation.

She nodded.

Sheriff Kwinault sighed. “Have you called the Coast Guard?”

“Yes,” Kellen said. “That is, not me, but yes, they’ve been contacted.”

“Then they’re keeping an eye on things here in between other duties.” Sheriff Kwinault tapped her fingers on the desk. “Let me talk to them. The fact we’ve got a mutilated body that’s missing and a dead law officer should get their attention.”

“Will they listen to you?” Kellen asked.

“Yes. I’m the former Virtue Falls Coast Guard commander.” Sheriff Kwinault gestured at the star on her chest. “And I have this nifty badge.”

Max indicated Kellen. “She’s a veteran of a war zone.”

“Really?” Sheriff Kwinault looked Kellen over. “I wouldn’t have guessed. Keeping up with your fitness?”

Kellen thought of Mara and their daily sparrings. “Yes.” Like she had a choice.

“With any luck, our smugglers will underestimate you.” Sheriff Kwinault stood. “I’ll send officers to check in every few hours. Call us for any reason, no matter how small. Max, you’re working security for the duration?”

“I am.”

“Good. You look big. You look scary. Maybe that’ll keep the bad guys at bay until the Coast Guard can scoop them up.”

“I’ll do my best Incredible Hulk imitation,” Max promised.

Sheriff Kwinault smirked at him. “You’re closer to the giant Marshmallow Man.”

Yes. They had obviously met before.

Kellen and Sheriff Kwinault shook hands again. “Can I offer you dinner in our restaurant before you go?” Kellen asked.

“Thank you, I’d be delighted to take you up on it, but the weather folks are predicting a big storm and I’m on duty.” Sheriff Kwinault shrugged her way into her coat. “Not that the weather folks have been right very often this winter.”