Page 138 of The Sister's Curse

I sat back in my chair. “Whoa.”

“Evidence shows the sheriff had ongoing communication withJeff Sumner and his cronies about privileged information regarding your investigation. Our shiny new radio system records everything, and Sheriff got used to using private Bluetooth to talk to his friends. Those records show he knew about Viv Carson’s abduction, and I’m betting he knew more than that. I suspect he was fully aware of the extent of the chemical leaks in the river, and was exerting pressure to prevent Sumner’s prosecution.”

“But why?” I asked. “Why would Sheriff Wilson help the Kings of Warsaw Creek?”

“Campaign donations, I’m guessing. An audit has suggested these guys and their businesses and the church gave huge amounts of money to his campaign, in excess of campaign finance laws. And the trail of that money seems to end in meth manufacture and distribution. But that’s going to be a matter for the state AG to unravel.”

“How long have you been…investigating him?” This was not the sort of case that erupted overnight.

“A while. He just chose to trip himself up a lot faster than I expected. I figured I had at least until the election in November, but…” He spread his hands.

Damn.I had new respect for my boss. I couldn’t imagine the sheriff taking this coup lying down. “Aren’t you worried he’ll amass a network and get even?”

Chief hesitated. “Well, the sheriff was found dead this morning.”

“What?”

“He was at a Fourth of July party, hanging out on his boat in the river. The boat ran aground in the storm and capsized. He was found drowned not far from the boat. Everyone else seems okay.”

“Oh my God.” I rubbed my forehead. Rusalka. She cleaned house before she came to the showdown at the Hag Stone.Fuck.

“What this means for you is that I, as acting sheriff, want you to return to work on Monday. There’s a lot of paperwork to be filed.”

“I…but I figured…”

He winked. “I’m sheriff. Don’t defy my authority.”

He left, and I sat, stunned, at the kitchen table for nearly an hour. So much that I was unaware of had happened behind the scenes.

I wondered what would happen when they learned what had happened to Sumner and Lister, when they found their bodies. Because they would. And someone might come looking for me.

Nick quietly cleared the dishes, kissed me on the forehead, and left me to brood.

Fuck.There were so many machinations going on around me. Maybe I should’ve felt used, but…I didn’t. Somehow, it seemed like the good guys won this time.

Somehow, but not really.

—

I waited in Monica’s hospital room for her to wake up that afternoon. She was in and out of consciousness, occasionally mumbling verses from “The Wreck of theEdmund Fitzgerald.”

She’d been able to keep her leg, but it was in a ring brace contraption, with screws drilled into it from many different angles. It would be a long time before she walked again, if she ever did.

I noticed something as I watched over her during those days in the hospital. She had a small tattoo on her left shoulder, a tattoo of a snake devouring its own tail.

I did not ask her about it.

After trips to the hospital, I limped out to the creek, listening for music. I didn’t hear any, though I went back to the creek every day after that until the end of summer. I listened, and I scannedthe creek with a UV light. A dim glow in the water gradually dwindled, and I saw nothing after a few weeks.

There were no drownings in the time after the flood. None.

Jasper’s body was never discovered. Neither was Viv’s. It was as if the river swallowed them whole. The highway patrol investigated Jasper’s van accident and determined that the van had been run off the road, at approximately sixty-five miles an hour, by a vehicle with a very specific tire tread pattern. A vehicle with such a tread pattern, a damaged SUV, was found at Lister’s dealership. The remains of Jasper’s van bore Vapozene residue.

Lister and Sumner were found, dead, in the trees at Sandpiper Run when the river finally receded. Their bodies were heavily damaged, and the coroner ruled their causes of death to be accidental drownings.

Viv and Dana’s mother passed away peacefully at the mental institution on the night of July fourth. A river pearl was found clutched in her fist.

Some of the river pearls recovered during the investigations were found to have Dana’s prints on them. It was speculated that those pearls had been originally gathered by Dana, kept by Jasper, and then planted at the crime scenes. But Forensics wasn’t convinced that Dana’s prints could have persisted so long on the pearls, and the pearls remained a mystery in an evidence locker.