Chapter 10
TEN
S
omeone clearing their throat near the doorway made Rafe look up from his computer. When he saw the familiar figure standing there, he mentally groaned. “Earl. You’re early.”
“Morning, Sheriff. I’m always early.” Earl glanced down at the files on Rafe’s desk, then back up at him.
A veteran in his sixties, he was dressed in his standard polo shirt, belted jeans, and the ubiquitous black ballcap with the words US Marines in bright yellow that he never took off.
“You want me to head back out front and wait the seven minutes?”
Yes. “Just let me finish this, and I’ll be right with you.” He went back to composing his email, aware of Earl hovering in the doorway.
Like Mae, Earl was a fixture in Whalebone Cove, and one of the many characters among its citizens. A proud former Marine, he had taken it upon himself to form and captain the neighborhood watch program when he’d moved here more than twenty years ago.
Then, being Earl, he’d taken it several dozen steps further by volunteering to keep watch over the town and harbor— as well as any incoming and outgoing vessels—with his high-powered binocs from the comfort of his RV on the cliffs overlooking the southwest part of the island.
He was also known to wear NODs to help him keep watch at night.
As far as Rafe or anyone else around here knew, Earl had never taken a day off. And for more than twenty years, he had met with the sheriff every Monday morning for a weekly “debriefing” about any suspicious or concerning activity he had noted.
And as the outgoing sheriff had warned Rafe, there was always something.
Rafe finished up the urgent email about the missing person case, sent it, and folded his hands on top of his desk to give Earl his full attention. Bracing himself for whatever he was about to be told. “So. Monday briefing?”
Earl nodded and sat in the chair in front of the desk. “Here’s my latest report.” He handed over a folded sheet of lined paper scrawled with hand-written notes. Earl didn’t believe in computers or smart phones. Too much risk of being hacked, intercepted, or traced, you know.
Rafe unfolded it and scanned the list, keeping his expression neutral. Part of this job was about forging connections and relationships with the locals. Earl’s heart was in the right place. His mind... The jury hadn’t returned a definitive verdict on that yet.
Earl had noted the comings and goings of several pleasure craft over the weekend. “You’ve underlined Backstreet Buoys in red.” Terrible pun, worse name for a boat. “Does that mean you’ve flagged this one?”
Earl grunted, ran a hand over his short gray beard.
“Yeah. Bunch of rich college pricks on their daddy’s boat came in Friday night and left this morning at oh-seven hundred.
If you’ve got any complaints about rowdy behavior or petty crimes over the weekend, I’d start with them.
Boat’s out of Port Angeles, by the way. I can get you the registered owner’s name if you want, but I figured you’d probably have a contact to get it quicker than I could. ”
Rafe put on a polite smile. “I do, yeah. Anything else urgent?” He went back to scanning the list. It was a lot longer than he’d expected, but compared to everything on his desk, nothing here seemed worthy of his attention at all.
“More moving trucks than usual arrived this past week. Up by eight percent from last month.”
One of them might be Willow’s stuff arriving. “It’s August. Plenty of people moving back after summer holiday.”
Earl dipped his head in acknowledgment, but his expression said he wasn’t convinced. “Eight percent’s a lot.”
Sure. “Okay. Anything else?”
“Those were the two most important things.” He rose, hiked up his belt. He was still in good shape for his age, plenty of muscle on his solid frame. “I’ll leave the list with you so you can look at everything when you have time.”
Can’t wait. “Great. Thanks.” Unless those “college pricks” had committed a serious offense, he wouldn’t be looking at any of this again.
Earl nodded. “Any questions, you can call me on my sat phone.”
They were traceable too, but couldn’t send texts and didn’t use a cell network, so Earl must be cool with it. “Sure.”
“If anything else comes up during the week, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, see you next Monday.”
“Looking forward to it.” The same way he would anticipate a dentist appointment.
He waited until Earl was safely out of view before dropping the paper in the recycling bin under his desk.
The station receptionist Darlene appeared in his doorway before it had even hit bottom.
“Betty Edgerton called again. I tried to placate her, but she’s on the warpath.
She’s demanding a meeting with you within the next twenty-four hours, or she’s threatening to go to the press to—and I quote—‘expose the corruption within the Whalebone Cove Sheriff’s Department. ’”
“Wow. One week on the job, and I’m already getting accused of corruption.”
“She’s being a mama bear. Her only child has been missing since April.”
He was aware. It was just one of the missing persons cases on the island that had never been solved. “I know.”
“What do you want me to do?” Darlene was a pro at her job and ran this place like a well-oiled machine. She also knew the town, locals, and island as well as anyone here, and way better than he did. Without her getting him up to speed over the past week, he’d have been lost.
“I need you to hold her off a little longer. See if she’s available Wednesday or Thursday for a meeting.
Or better yet, next week. I’m tied up with other things until then.
” Hopefully things that didn’t include the Backstreet Buoys.
He would need time to review the Edgerton case files and everything about the previous investigation.
“Okay, I’ll do my best, and plead the case that you’ve only just taken over the job. But no promises. Anything else urgent you need me to do?”
“Can you pull all the files pertaining to that case and put them on my desk? I’ll look at them at home this week.
” Business hours meant nothing with this job, especially since his department was so small.
He knew the island, had thought this would be both a welcome change of pace and good for his professional resume.
While the majority of the crimes weren’t as serious as what he’d seen and dealt with in his years on the force in Seattle, the pace was surprisingly high.
“Sure. You going on your lunch break now?”
“Do I have time for that?”
“If you’re quick,” she said with a grin.
“Right. I’m supposed to meet Tripp at—” He paused when the door behind him opened and Willow walked in with a dog.
“Hey.” Her cheeks were flushed pink, her hair all messy as she stood there with a backpack draped over one shoulder.
The dog, a brown shepherd mix, stood tense beside her, watching him with a fixed, hard stare Rafe didn’t love. “Everything okay?”
“I’m...not sure.” She glanced at Darlene, then back to him. “Can I talk to you in your office maybe?” She gestured to the dog. “Sorry, it’s too hot for me to leave him in the car.”
“Yeah, no problem. Come on back.” He led her into his office and closed the door behind her. “Have a seat.” He went around his desk and dropped into his cushy chair. “Is something wrong?”
“Rufus, sit.” She tugged on the leash. The dog eyed her for a long moment, then reluctantly did as he was told, flicking a nervous glance in Rafe’s direction. “He’s a rescue. Just adopted him last week.”
“Ah.”
She slid the backpack off her shoulder, set it on her lap, and unzipped it. “I was just walking him down on the beach at Shipwreck Cove, and he found this in the rocks.” She pulled out a bone. Or part of a bone, since one end of it seemed to be broken off.
He blinked in surprise and took it from her, turning it over to examine it. It was almost a foot long and fairly thick, with a knobby end that was flat on the top.
“Is it human?”
It was around the right size to be. “I’m not sure. And we don’t have a full forensics department or an ME here. We outsource this sort of thing to the mainland.” It sure looked like it might be human though. Too thick for an arm bone. Leg bone maybe?
“But it could be human, right?”
“Yeah, think so.” He frowned. “Did you find anything else with it?”
“No, but I took pictures of where we found it, just in case.” She leaned forward, stacked her forearms on his desk. “I’m not sure what the protocol is with something like this, but I have a friend who will be able to tell us whether it’s human or not.”
“Excellent. Is she a cop?”
Willow shook her head. “She just finished her master’s in human bioarchaeology and something else fancy over in the UK. Something to do with disease, I think, I can’t remember. They cover a lot of forensics in the course.”
“What’s human bioarchaeology?” He’d never heard of it.
“Study of archaeological human skeletons. She’s a bone expert, basically. I sent her the pictures, but she hasn’t responded yet.”
“It’s okay, I’ll make a call to a contact in—”
“She’s actually on her way down from Victoria on the ferry right now to stay with me for a few days.” She glanced at her watch. “The boat’s due in at one. I’m picking her up. I can bring her here right after if that works.”
Only forty minutes from now. “Sure, that works.” It would save him time. “You wanna grab a quick bite with me in the meantime? We could find a dog-friendly patio.” Rufus was still watching him with that unblinking stare. Rafe got the distinct impression he hadn’t passed muster yet.
“I could eat.”
“Want me to see if Tripp wants to join us?”
“No,” she said, a little too fast. Making him wonder about the weird undercurrent he’d sensed between them last week at The Skelly.
“He’s probably working on something in his shop.
” She looked down at the bone. “Anyway, I’m guessing you’ll want to keep this here in case it turns out to be evidence? ”
“Yes. It’s now an official police exhibit until we know what we’re looking at.”
“And if it turns out to be human?”
He had a bad feeling that it was. “I’ll send it over to the mainland for further analysis. They’ll keep it as evidence in case it winds up relating to a missing person or murder case later on.”
If it did, his job was gonna get a whole lot more complicated.