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Mina didn’t know what to expect when she and Nolan reached the marina and laid eyes on the boat owned by Mayor Sutton and his brother-in-law. But she had to admit surprise when she spotted Wade standing on such a fancy boat. She squinted to read the name painted on the back. Off the Hook. Yep, they had the right boat.

Having just finished his text to Sierra with the info he’d promised, Nolan let out a low whistle. “That’s not just your basic fishing boat. That’s more like a yacht. I’d say it’s a fifty-footer or more.”

She watched the shiny white boat bob in the slip. It was by far the largest boat in the marina. Boasting wood accents, it had a large deck with fishing poles mounted along the side.

Nolan held his hand over his eyes to block the sun. “Looks like he’s got living quarters on the bottom and the helm is on top.”

Wade sat in a recliner in the back, his head laid back and a hat over his face as if he were asleep.

“I’m actually surprised to see him out here at this time of year,” she said.

Nolan nodded. “It doesn’t make sense, based on what we learned on the internet.”

On the drive over, he’d looked up the fishing seasons in this part of the country, and right now lingcod were the only fish that could be caught. That coupled with the usual bad weather in the spring wouldn’t make for many tourists wanting to fish.

“Maybe he’s just taking advantage of the nice weather,” she said.

“One way to find out.” He held his hand out, gesturing at the dock leading to Wade. “After you.”

She started down the bouncy planks toward his boat. The sun shone radiantly, and a soft breeze blew over the rippling water. An ideal day to be on a boat, but they weren’t here for pleasure boating. They had a job to do. She suspected it would be a death notification call as word wouldn’t likely have reached Wade in a location away from Lost Lake. Unless of course someone had called and told him.

She stopped near the boat.

“Wade Collins,” she called out to be heard above the seagulls chattering at the end of the dock.

His head snapped up. He turned to look at her and blinked several times. His nonexistent chin and wideset eyes gave him a shifty look. Or maybe she was pre-judging him based on what Daisy had to say about him. Still, it was hard to see someone like him alive and kicking when the man who had dedicated himself to helping others had been murdered.

“Who wants to know?” He stood and looked down on her. “Oh wait, right. I know you. You’re the pretty lady sheriff for our county.”

“This is my associate, Nolan Orr,” she said, ignoring the pretty lady comment. “Do we have permission to come aboard to talk to you for a moment?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” He scowled at her, giving her a moment’s unease. He might be partners with the mayor, but he seemed to have a mean streak that Mayor Sutton didn’t have.

“We didn’t say you did.” Nolan stepped close to her. “We just have something we need to talk to you about.”

“Fine,” he said. “But make it quick. I’ve got things to do.”

Mina boarded the bobbing craft, forcing herself not to comment on what he had to do when they’d found him sleeping in the sun.

“So what’s this about?” he asked.

Mina kept eye contact with him. “We’re here to talk about your brother-in-law, Ernie.”

“What about him?”

“So you haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“I’m sorry to tell you but we found his body last night. Someone shot him.”

Wade gaped at her. “He’s dead?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Collins.”

He slapped his wide-brimmed hat on his leg and ran a hand over his shiny bald head. “So someone shot him. Killed him. But who?”

“That’s what we were hoping you could tell us,” Nolan said.

Wade flashed his gaze to Nolan. “You don’t mean me, do you? Think I killed him?”

“Where were you yesterday between three and five p.m.?” Nolan asked.

“Here.” He gestured at his boat. “Just like today. The weather was too good to do anything but come out here.”

Nolan arched an eyebrow. “Can anyone vouch for that?”

He nodded toward the land. “Check with the office. I signed in and out on the marina books. Got here around one o’clock and stayed until the sun set, so that was about seven o’clock.”

“And you stayed in the marina?” Nolan asked. “Didn’t take the boat out?”

“Well, yeah… I mean… I went for a little cruise, but that was all.”

Mina kept her gaze pinned on him. “You could’ve put in at another marina and gone to see your brother-in-law from there.”

“No, that’s not possible. Not with a boat this big. I need to have permission to dock, and I don’t have permission at other marinas.” He shuffled his feet. “Think of these places like private parking lots. The public isn’t allowed in and you have to gain access somehow.”

“What about anchoring off the coast, putting on a wetsuit, and swimming to shore?” Mina asked. “Do you have a wetsuit onboard?”

“Only for emergencies, and I didn’t put one on yesterday and swim to shore to kill Ernie. Why would you think I’d do that anyway? What reason would I have?”

“Who owns the boat?” Nolan asked.

“Ernie does now.”

“Now?” she asked.

“We bought it together, but I’ve had some bad luck in getting enough clients for the business and needed money to live on. So he fronted me the money for my salary and took it off my share of the boat. By now, I figure he has to own all of it, or at least most of it.”

Something a solid businessman would know. “Did you buy the boat outright when you got it or did you finance it?”

“Finance, man. This baby cost more than two hundred grand, and I’ve never had that kind of cash. Or even half of it. So Ernie paid the deposit and financed it in his name. But we drew up a legal agreement stating our ownership details. I helped make the payment whenever the business income exceeded the salary we agreed on.”

“What happens to the boat in the event of Ernie’s death?” she asked.

“Now wait a minute.” He scowled. “You don’t mean you think I killed him so I could get the boat. Well, I didn’t. I don’t even know what’s in his will.”

“Were the two of you close?” Mina asked.

“Close? No, I wouldn’t say that. I saw him more when my sister was alive. After she died, we still got together for a beer every now and then, but we didn’t have much in common.”

“Not even fishing?” Nolan asked.

“Nope. Ernie didn’t like to fish.”

Unbelievable. “Then why in the world did he agree to buy a boat with you?”

“It was a business investment. A good one. Just a few miles offshore, we’ve got forty to a hundred twenty-five feet of water offering the best ocean-bottom fishing opportunities on the Oregon Coast. We were supposed to both make money on the deal. Wasn’t my fault that we haven’t. Just hasn’t gone my way.”

He clearly didn’t take responsibility for the business failure, but she didn’t think he killed his brother-in-law. “Do you have any idea of who might want to kill Ernie?”

He scratched his belly hanging over a tight belt. “Nah, everybody loved him. I suppose some nutso psycho who didn’t like his politics might’ve gone after him. After all, that’s happening all over the world today.”

He could have a valid point.

Mina got out her phone and displayed Smythe’s digital image. “Have you ever seen this man or do you know who he is?”

He studied the picture. “Nope. Never seen the guy before.”

“When was the last time you saw Ernie?”

“Hmm, I don’t remember exactly. Was one day a few weeks ago when I went into his office to talk about my finances.”

“Did he seem unusually concerned or preoccupied by anything?” she asked.

“Maybe a little, but he had a lot on his plate with his job, so I didn’t think much of it.”

“Do you know if he was dating anyone?” Nolan asked.

“Ernie?” Wade let out a boisterous laugh. “Nah, he was a one-woman man, and I don’t think he’d yet moved on from my sister. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that he’s gone.” Wade swung his head. “Guess I better find out about that will to see if I still have a job.”

And there, the man showed his true colors. More worried about his job than mourning the loss of his brother-in-law.

“We haven’t been able to contact Becca to let her know. Have you seen her lately?”

“Bex? Yeah. Last week. On our usual Wednesday night date that we’ve had since she was a kid. We had dinner together at the Rusty Hull. I can’t get enough of those hush puppies.”

“Did she mention that she was going on a trip, or did she seem to be troubled by anything?” Mina asked.

“No trip and no troubles.” Worry took over his expression, the first honest emotion she’d seen from him. “Is she okay?”

“Like I said. We haven’t been able to find her.”

“You’re looking for her though, right? I mean, yeah, you wanna find Ernie’s killer, but he isn’t going to get more dead. She could be hurt and need you.”

Ah, such sensitivity.

“My team is investigating,” Nolan said. “We’re working on it full-time and doing everything we can to locate her.”

“You’ll let me know the minute you find her?” He worried his lower lip between his teeth. “I mean, I ain’t never gonna have any kids, and she’s the closest thing I’ll ever get. I couldn’t lose her.”

“We’ll let you know,” Mina said. “If there’s nothing else you think we should know about Becca’s disappearance or the mayor’s death, we’ll be going.”

“Nothing that I can think of. But I think I might head home in case Bex has shown up there for some reason.”

Mina got out her business card and handed it to him. “Call me if she’s there. And if she is, it’s up to you whether you want to tell her about her father or if you want us to.”

“Man. Man.” He ran a hand over his head and clamped it on the back of his neck. “I’ve never much liked you cops, but now I see you have a tough job telling people that someone they love has died. Still, I think I’d like to tell her. She’ll take it better from me than from you.”

Mina nodded and climbed over the side of the boat to the dock. Wade Collins wasn’t a man that she could highly respect, but at least in the end, he showed that he wasn’t in everything for himself alone. He appeared to care about his niece, and perhaps that said more about the likelihood of him being a killer than anything else.

Nolan had never attended an autopsy, so he wasn’t certain how he would react. He thought he could handle it, but then he couldn’t be sure. Mina, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be nervous at all and marched right through the doorway of the hospital morgue. She paused in the vestibule outside the exam room. Nolan kept at a slower pace, adding the facial shield to his white suit provided by Dr. Osborne.

Nolan wasn’t eager to enter the autopsy suite. His phone rang, giving him a reprieve. “Hold up.”

He dug his phone out from inside the white suit and looked at the screen. “Hayden. Good!” He accepted the call. “Putting you on speaker so Mina can hear what you have to report.”

“I did a background check on both Becca and the mayor,” Hayden said. “There was nothing in either one to suggest something troublesome. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to report that can help find Becca. She hasn’t used a credit card or debit card since the mayor’s death.”

“But you have something to report, or you wouldn’t waste time calling me,” Nolan said.

“Yeah, the mayor’s finances are sketchy.”

“Sketchy how?” Mina asked.

“He’s deposited large sums of money for the last four months. Most of it coming from an auction house in Medford. Other deposits are electronic payments from PayPal for what looks like the sale of eBay items.”

Mina blinked. “He’s selling things off?”

“Looks like it. Then he’s turning around and taking the money out in multiple cash withdrawals just below ten grand. Likely to stay under the threshold over which banks must report cash withdrawals to the feds.”

“So he didn’t want Uncle Sam to know about the money and perhaps question it,” Mina said. “But he needed cash.”

“That’s the odd part,” Hayden said. “He has a healthy balance in both his savings and checking account, and if you add up all the money he’s received and withdrawn, it wouldn’t even touch the amount in his accounts.”

“So he didn’t need to sell things to get this money that he was using for something.” Nolan shook his head. “What if someone was blackmailing him?”

“Over what?” Mina asked. “He was squeaky clean, and no one likely had anything to blackmail him about.”

“Everyone has secrets,” Nolan answered.

“And I just have to find out what his are, but nothing as of yet.” Hayden sighed. “I have several algorithms that are scraping the internet right now. Maybe they’ll turn up something actionable. Also should reveal any properties he might own that we don’t know about, but so far that’s been a bust too.”

“Thanks for your diligence,” Mina said.

“Have you thought about checking out our phones to see if Smythe put trackers or cloned them?” Nolan asked.

“Already checked mine out and a few of the other ones. Nothing, but I’d like to examine them all.”

“Perfect. I’ll give you mine when I see you again. Let us know what else you find.” He ended the call.

Mina looked at him. “Maybe the autopsy will give us the insight we need.”

She entered the room. Nolan lowered his shield as if it could protect himself from the upcoming sight and trailed her into the sterile space. An antiseptic smell laden with death hit him, and he swallowed hard to keep nausea at bay.

He averted his gaze from the two stainless steel tables in the middle of the space to take in a wall of stainless steel sinks and another one with large drawers used to hold bodies. He eased out a long breath and shifted to face the mayor lying on the closest table, his insides splayed open. The doctor stood over him.

Nolan’s stomach turned, and he wished he hadn’t eaten lunch. Not that he thought he was going to lose it, but his stomach roiled in queasy waves.

Mina strode right up to the table, and Nolan trailed behind her.

Dr. Osborne looked up. “Better late than never I guess.”

Mina apologized. “We got sidetracked in an update meeting for locating Becca.”

Dr. Osborne’s frustrated look melted into a soft expression. “Any luck in finding her?”

Mina shook her head.

He gave one of his hard nods that seemed designed to handle difficult news and turned his attention to the body. “I’ve completed my initial assessment. As you can see, he has various bruises on his head, but they were made post-mortem.”

“Could they have been made while moving the body to the locker?” Nolan asked.

“Most definitely,” Dr. Osborne said. “In fact, that was what I was going to suggest. I’ve also made the cut. There’s nothing under his nails and no broken nails either. No perimortem bruising or other marks on the body. So the man didn’t struggle or fight for his life.”

“That wouldn’t be unusual, though, right?” Mina asked. “Not when it appears as if he was shot from a distance.”

“I’m not sure where you’re getting the information that he was shot at a distance, but I can tell you from looking at the lack of stippling on the wound, that you’re correct.”

“We believe he was gunned down at Becca’s house from outside, through a window,” Mina said. “I’d say from about twenty-five feet.”

“That would be fitting for the size of the entry wound.” Dr. Osborne shifted on his feet.

“Any thoughts on ammo used?” Nolan asked.

Osborne nodded. “The wound and my experience as a field doctor suggests 9mm.”

Mina changed her focus to Nolan. “Dr. Osborne served in the Iraq war.”

Osborne frowned. “Army medical corps. I saw more bullet holes in bodies than you can imagine.” He stiffened his shoulders and peered at the body. “I’ve also confirmed that the bullet exited his back as we suspected when we retrieved him.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us at this point?” Nolan asked.

“I’ve reviewed his stomach contents.” He held up a bowl with sloshing liquid which brought Nolan closer to hurling than anything else. “His last meal consisted of salmon, coleslaw, and hush puppies.”

“He ate at the Rusty Hull.” Mina’s eyes sparked with the enthusiasm of a lead. “The only restaurant in town that serves hush puppies. And it’s the right time of year for fresh Chinook salmon from the Rogue.”

“My thoughts too,” Dr. Osborne said. “Based on food digestion I observed, he would’ve had lunch there.”

Mina’s mouth turned down. “They require reservations for dinner in every season but not lunch, so they won’t have a record of him dining there except for a credit card.”

“Sounds like you eat there often,” Nolan said.

“Best seafood in town, and mostly it’s takeout for me.” She gave him an awkward glance. “Hopefully, they’ll remember the mayor coming in and know who he dined with, if anyone.”

“That would be great,” Nolan said.

Osborne cleared his throat. “You should also know I ran a rapid drug test.”

Mina gaped at him. “For the mayor? Surely you’re not looking for illegal drugs.”

“Not exactly,” he said. “I run the test for anyone who dies under suspicious circumstances, and you don’t get more suspicious than a bullet to the heart.”

Nolan agreed. “But you didn’t find anything, right?”

“Actually, I did. Not illegal anymore, but the report showed marijuana in his system.”

“Really?” Mina asked. “The mayor was high at lunch?”

“I wouldn’t say he was high, but I would say he was taking marijuana for pain.”

“What kind of pain?” Nolan asked.

The doctor pointed to the mayor’s abdomen. “His body is riddled with cancer. In my opinion, he had, at most, a couple of months left to live.”

“Man, that’s hard news to take.” Mina ran a hand around the back of her neck. “I wonder if he told anyone? I mean, if he told Daisy, she didn’t mention it. If she knew, I think she would’ve said something.”

Nolan processed the news. “It could explain the times he was away from the office when Daisy didn’t know where he went. He might’ve been undergoing chemo or radiation or just going to doctors’ appointments.”

“I suppose he could’ve done all of that without anyone knowing it,” Osborne said. “Even if he lost his hair.”

“Right, because he already shaved his head.” Nolan gave the situation more thought. “We need to follow up with Daisy. See if she knew about this, then take some time to figure out what it could mean for his murder.”

“You think the cancer could be playing a part?” Mina blinked up at him. “Like maybe he hired someone to end his life so he didn’t have to go through the decline in dying?”

Could that be it, and they weren’t looking for a cold-blooded murderer? “I hadn’t thought of that, but now that you mention it, it’s a possibility.”

“It would be an odd way to do it, though,” Osborne said. “So violent.”

“Very odd, and why hire someone when he could simply have turned a gun on himself?” she asked.

“Maybe he didn’t want anyone to know he committed suicide,” Nolan said. “Maybe he has an insurance policy that pays out to Becca, and he wanted to make sure she got that money.”

Mina gave a vigorous nod. “We’ll have to check for that policy, then, won’t we?”

They would. Without a doubt.

Was this invasive cancer actually linked to their investigation? Nolan didn’t know, but it was a possibility, and one they couldn’t ignore if they were to bring his killer to justice.