Page 106 of Tide and Seek

Royce gave a weak smile.“She’s not wrong.We just know bits and pieces.”

She sighed.“It’s a pretty crazy tale.To think Ethan was involved in any of this is shocking.I thought he was such a nice guy.His wife and children must be devastated.”

“So what exactly was Ethan’s role in everything that happened?”I asked, shading my eyes from the sun.“I mean, I know he helped kidnap Royce, but what else?”

“Well, first of all, Ethan was your burglar.”

I widened my eyes.“He was?”

“Yep.”

I frowned.“If that’s true, why’d he break the lock on my front door?He had a key because he worked for Coastal Pest.”

“He lost the key for a while.Had to break in that night, which was just one more fuck-up in a long line of fuck-ups.”She sighed.“Ethan wasn’t organized enough for a life of crime.”

“No.”I agreed.“It seems he wasn’t.”

“So even though he had to break into your home, he thought that was no biggie,” she said.“But then the alarm went off because the code had been changed without his knowledge.”

“We knew the code had been changed from visiting the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station,” Royce murmured.“Do they know yet who changed the code?”

“The police now think it was Margie.”

I widened my eyes.“Why’d she change it?”

“She didn’t trust Stiles or Ethan anymore.Not after Luke pointed the cops toward her.She was paranoid.”

“Yeah, with good reason,” I mumbled.“How’d she get involved with those two to begin with?”

“All this insanity started when Margie was approached by Stiles.He wanted Margie to let him use your house to store drugs in the attic, Max.”

I scowled.“So he approached her and she agreed?”

“Yes.”

“Unbelievable,” I groused.

“Apparently Stiles paid Margie very nicely for that access too.Sorry, Max.”She winced.“Then she brought Ethan into the deal.She knew he needed money because of his sick wife.Plus, Margie wasn’t going to drive down and pick up drug deliveries.That’s where Ethan was perfect.He was strong, and he drove around all day long anyway.Nobody thought twice about him coming and going.”

Royce nodded, sipping his coffee.“Service people are kind of invisible.”

C.J.sighed.“It’s true.I never once thought Ethan was anything but a nice guy doing his job.But apparently, anytime Stiles had a customer, Ethan would get the drugs from your attic and make the drop to that person.That way Stiles wasn’t handling the drugs himself and he had a buffer between him and the drugs.Margie and Ethan were his built-in fall guys.”

I scowled.“I still can’t believe Margie was a drug dealer.”

“Honestly, that even surprised Ethan.From what he’s told the cops, her only role was supposed to be letting them use your vacant house to store the drugs.But then she got greedy.”C.J.pulled her sunglasses off.“Unbeknownst to Ethan or Stiles, she started skimming from the boxes that Ethan would deliver to the house.She began selling drugs on the side to Luke and some people at her apartment complex.”

Royce rubbed his jaw, looking thoughtful.“She didn’t really OD, did she?”

C.J.lifted her light brows.“How’d you know?”

“Well, when Stiles was bragging about how he could make my death to look like an accident, it was like he was speaking from experience.I figured he’d done something before and got away with it.”

“He almost got away with it again,” I said, meeting Royce’s gaze.“Making your death look accidental, I mean.”

“Yeah.But he didn’t.”

C.J.slid her glasses back up.“The cops are pretty sure Stiles killed Margie, that’s what Ethan is telling them.But it’s almost impossible to prove she didn’t just OD.Ethan says Stiles did it to stop her from working with the cops, but we may never know for sure.”