Page 4 of Bait and Switch (Subtle Deceptions #2)

THREE

Casey

Monday afternoon

Deputy Bree Eagan had excellent instincts; if Sheriff Rizzi allowed it, she was going to become a great investigator.

Casey had often wondered if Eagan would leave the island for a better chance at advancement.

He doubted Rizzi would give her the room to grow.

The good ol’ boy just wasn’t that kind of leader.

Casey shivered even with his parka zipped to his chin, chilled from standing outside and in one place for too long.

The wet and chilly weather he’d felt coming had rolled in along with the sheriff.

A gentle sleeting rain had begun to fall, and a foggy mist had settled over the bay.

In a way, the weather was a complement to the scene.

Death was depressing and violent death even more so.

On one side of the dock, Chief Rizzi was interviewing Karne, while Deputy Eagan was taking down Casey’s statement near The Barbara .

Casey didn’t envy Karne. From where Casey stood twenty feet away, he could see his expression was a mix of frustration, anger, and sadness.

Rizzi was not going to get far with the TCSO’s star suspect.

The county coroner, a local guy named Brett Davidson, was also on the scene. He’d arrived not long after TCSO. There wasn’t a bustling team of people like on TV shows, just Rizzi, Eagan, Davidson, and the ambulance drivers who would remove the body to the hospital.

Of average height and a bit on the heavy side, Davidson was in his fifties.

The coroner was an appointed official whose qualifications were that he’d “been interested in the position,” owned a funeral home, and he and his wife had taken a certification class from the state.

Casey supposed Davidson was marginally better than what they’d had before.

For decades before his appointment, the coroner had also been a county prosecutor.

Davidson would confirm the manner and probably cause of death and then the body would be transported by ambulance to the hospital.

It was up to TCSO to gather evidence and catch whoever was responsible for the killing.

As far as Casey was aware, this was only the second homicide this year, with Dwayne Perkins being the first.

“So, just to make sure I have the facts correct, you arrived, and Mr. Karne was standing on the pier near the ...” Eagan looked down at her notes. “The Shangri-La . You didn’t see anyone else, and the gate was locked.”

“The gate is always locked.”

“Who else has a key?”

“At the moment, Elton, Karne, and myself. I changed the lock a while back, but none of the other owners have come to collect theirs.”

“Huh, okay.” She glanced up, waiting for Casey to say more.

“I’d been trying to get a hold of the marina board to get permission to change the lock, but it’s a process, so I took matters into my own hands. It’s not as if I’m difficult to track down.”

“And when you arrived, Mr. Karne was?—”

“Talking to my dog.”

“I doubt your dog will be able to answer my questions,” Eagan said dryly.

Casey replayed his return in his mind’s eye.

“I’d dropped Elton off back at his house and picked up my car. Karne was watching Bowie for me, and I came back here to pick him up. Bowie, not Karne,” he clarified.

“How did your dog seem? Jumpy? Out of sorts?”

“Irritated that his ball had dropped into the bay.”

Eagan’s cheek hitched up, exposing a dimple that appeared and disappeared again when she pressed her lips together.

“And the victim, Peter Vale, was unresponsive when you arrived?”

“Definitely unresponsive,” Casey agreed.

“Do you have any thoughts on who might have done something like this? Or how Mr. Vale might have gotten onto the dock?”

Casey had done his fair share of speculating while waiting to be questioned. The who had to do with Karne, but the how? Casey had theories but no hard facts.

“Whoever it was must have come by boat,” he offered.

Casey had already emailed a copy of his security camera’s video to the Sheriff’s Office from his phone.

And he’d played the feed for the officers after they’d arrived.

After he’d left to pick up Elton, all there was to see was Karne and Bowie leaving and then returning about an hour or so later.

No one had come through the gate. No one but Charming Fucker and Casey had parked in the lot.

“The camera is set on the gate and parking lot, not the dock. Might have to add one that has an eye on the boats.” Might . He scoffed at himself. He’d be adding another camera as soon as he could get online to order one.

“Thank you. If we need anything else, we know where to find you.” Eagan tucked the waterproof notebook and pen back into her uniform coat pocket. “We’ll be in touch, but if you think of anything else, please reach out.”

The ambulance drivers had wheeled the body down the pier and were now loading the shell of what had once been Peter Vale onto the bus.

The thump of the doors shutting had a disturbing finality to it.

Casey had only met Vale once while he’d been alive, and their exchange had been less than five minutes.

Less than three minutes, really. And yet, Casey felt the tug of responsibility toward him.

He watched as the coroner, who’d followed the drivers, gave some instructions and then got into his car and drove off.

“ The fuck I will come down to the station right now. Am I under arrest?”

Casey and Deputy Eagan turned toward where the sheriff and Karne were standing.

Rizzi looked rough. Not that the man ever modeled sartorial elegance, but he currently had a coffee stain down the front of his uniform and hadn’t bothered to tuck his shirt in all the way.

It was a decoy, Casey knew. The man was sharp and liked to fool people into thinking he was a hick.

Karne’s statement, incredibly, hadn’t been said with heat. It had been just that, a statement and a question. Eagan blew out a puff of air, shook her head, and moved toward the two men.

“If you need to talk to me further, give me a time and I’ll come down to the station.

In my own vehicle. I’m not going anywhere, especially not on The Golden Ticket .

There’s literally nothing to indicate I had anything to do with this tragic event except that I knew him back in the city.

I’m freezing and so is everyone else. And I’m hungry. Coffee is also a thing I need.”

Rizzi looked like he was considering arguing, but as Karne had pointed out, he wasn’t going anywhere. And they had no reason to arrest him—not yet.

“Coffee sounds like a plan,” Elton agreed.

“I could use some too.” He rubbed his hands together and shoved them back into the pockets of his oversized parka.

“How about it, Eli? Gabriel will be available when you want to talk to him further. Heck, I bet he’d be willing to come down later after a nice hot cuppa. ”

It was easy to forget that Elton knew everyone on Heartstone.

Eli Rizzi had moved to the island years ago as a wet-behind-the-ears deputy and worked his way up to the position of sheriff, but Elton had his own influence that was difficult for the sheriff to ignore.

The old man had a way about him that made it seem like he was asking a thing when in truth he was telling Rizzi how things would go down. Casey hid his smirk.

The sheriff frowned and appeared to be considering the suggestion. He focused his attention on Karne again. “Expect a call from Chief Deputy Spurring before long.”

Karne nodded. “Noted.”

“Stay away from the boat. Don’t touch it, don’t even breathe on it.

” The sailboat in question had been cordoned off with crime scene tape.

Rizzi gave Karne another hard stare. “If we find out anything that you didn’t tell us, even if it’s that you’re a Raiders fan when you said you rooted for the Hawks, we’ll be talking to you even sooner.

” It was as if Rizzi couldn’t resist giving an order.

Who was Casey kidding? Of course the man couldn’t. Beside Karne, Deputy Eagan shifted her weight from foot to foot. He figured she found Charming Fucker irritating, but just as likely it was Rizzi.

Karne’s head moved up and down robotically, and his lips were pressed firmly together.

Knowing what he did about him, Casey figured it was to keep words like fuck and you from spilling out.

As much as Casey also disliked and did not trust the sheriff, Charming telling him to fuck off would not relieve any of the current tension.

Without acknowledging Karne, Rizzi gave Eagan a jerk of his head and turned away, striding down the pier toward the gate. The crime scene tape flapped in the wind and would probably be mostly torn off by morning. Eagan didn’t roll her eyes at her superior, but Casey suspected she wanted to.

“We’ll see you soon,” she said, and turned to follow Rizzi.

By unspoken mutual agreement, Elton, Gabe, and Casey moved to the middle of the dock and watched the TCSO vehicles depart.

“My place?” asked Elton. “I was serious about a warm-up.”

“I could use a drink,” Karne said with a tired sigh. “Remind me why I don’t want one.”

Elton shot him an indecipherable look. “I imagine a strong cup of coffee is a better choice.”

“Peter encouraged me to stop drinking. The issue was that once I did, I realized I had no interest in being with him. He was such a high and mighty asshole about it.” Karne rolled his shoulders and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets.

“He was right about the drinking, but he didn’t need to rub it in. ”

“Did he?” Casey asked, curious about Gabe’s relationship with the dead man.

“What? Rub it in that quitting the bottle was a good thing? Oh yeah, he did. Peter liked to be Right About Things. Don’t get me wrong, he could be very charismatic when he wanted to be, and it did come in handy.”

“When you two were running a game?”

Casey appreciated Elton’s word usage. Game, con. Same coin.

“Yeah,” Gabe replied, “but it came in handy in general, too. You really can get more bees with honey. How about that coffee?”

“I got a new jar of instant the other day,” Elton said.

“You did not,” Gabe replied, shooting the older man a deadly glance while also pulling a vomit face. “That stuff will put you in an early grave.”

Elton snickered, enjoying the effect of his joke.

While Gabe and Elton slowly walked toward the gate, Casey turned and jogged back to his boat to let Bowie out. He was rewarded with a yip. The dismembered toy had been spread across the saloon.

“Yeah, I know. It was too long.”

Wiggling past him, Bowie raced out of the cabin to leap from the deck to the pier and ran to catch up with Elton and Karne.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Casey called after him. Bowie did not slow down. Apparently, he was not even chopped liver. Bowie caught up with the other two men at the dock’s entrance, graciously accepting pets while they waited for Casey to catch up with them.

It was the off season, he reasoned, so there was no point in checking in at park headquarters. If anyone did need him, they knew how to contact him. Plus, Greta was back from vacation and had offered to staff the office for the week.

“I’ll ride with Elton,” Gabriel said, “and get a ride back with you if that’s okay.”

Casey suspected that Gabriel was avoiding unwanted questions about Peter Vale. But as he let Bowie into the Wagoneer and slid behind the wheel, he realized that Elton wouldn’t hesitate to ask hard questions, and Karne already knew that about the man.

So that wasn’t it.