Page 28 of Secrets Along the Shore

“What else?” I pressed. My burger was subpar and I was struggling with disappointment.

“Well. I can also tell you that the ME confirmed drowning as the COD.”

“Cause of death?” I asked, just to be sure.

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“Have you found anything that puts the three women together?” Another fry found its way to my mouth. I discarded the half-eaten burger on its wrapper.

“Nothing of import. No. Aside from living in the same town, they all attended different churches or not at all, had different places of employment . . .” Reuben wiped a drip of taco sauce from the corner of his mouth with a napkin. “Social media searches came up with no direct connections. Mutual friends, but acquaintances and nothing solid.”

I was sure there were probably things Reuben wasn’t telling me. I could respect that. I wasn’t under the impression I had a right to all the case information. But I couldn’t help but ask one more question.

“Sophia’s boyfriend, Dereck.”

Reuben stopped chewing. “What about him?”

“Would he be a common tie?” I felt like I should tell Reuben what I’d overheard at the warehouse. Dereck’s emphatic denial of having anything to do with Sophia’s death—it had to count for something considering he was denying it to a friend and not the police, right?

“We already checked him out. In fact, we interrogated him for several hours.”

“Six,” I muttered.

Reuben tilted his head. I could sense his question.

“I overheard Dereck where I work. He’s friends with ourwarehouse manager. He was desperate to deny he had anything to do with Sophia’s death. But he was telling Alan he didn’t have a clear alibi.”

Reuben studied me for a second and then set the rest of his taco on his plate. “Where do you work?”

“You know where I work.” I wasn’t sure why he was baiting me. “Archer’s Heating and Cooling, for all your home energy needs.” I quoted their slogan.

“How does Dereck know your warehouse manager?”

“I’ve no idea.”

“Mm, k.”

I didn’t want to discuss my job, or Dereck and Alan’s friendship. It had no bearing on Sophia’s death. I also got the strong feeling Dereck was no longer a suspect. It’d be nice if they told him that so the poor guy could stop hyperventilating over cigarettes with Alan. He was staring down a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit.

“So there’s nothing to tie the three women together?” I pressed.

Reuben’s gaze was kind when it settled on me, and for a moment, I remembered feeling safe here. I could imagine curling up on the couch in his living room for a nap and wondered how amazing it would be to just sleep. Sleep without worrying that someone was still out there—could still come back. The Serpent Killer haunted me, and in a way, I wished hewasconnected to these three women. To Sophia. That by solving Sophia’s death, I’d solve my own mystery.

But I still held fast to the conviction that there were two different killers at play. One present, and my own, in the past.

“Noa.”

Reuben’s voice snapped me back into reality. He watched me intently, and my guess is he’d been saying my name a few times before it’d gotten my attention.

“It’s better if you don’t keep digging into this on your own.” His statement swept away my momentary lapse of common sense that he could be a safe place.

“Why?” I stiffened.

“Because we don’t know who we’re dealing with.” Reuben rounded the island to stand beside me. Maybe coming closer made him feel more authoritative? More caring? I wasn’t sure how to interpretit. “You have already brought us some helpful insight, and by no means do I want you to feel you can’t tell me something if you remember anything—anything at all. But, if this is unrelated to your case, as you claim and as it appears it probably is, then . . . you’re safer if you leave the investigation in the hands of the department.”

He was right.

I knew he was.