Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
GABE – WEDNESDAY
Gabe appreciated that Casey followed him all the way to the Sheriff’s Office. Casey pulled in beside the parked Honda and rolled the Wagoneer’s passenger window down, gesturing for Gabe to do the same.
“Do you want me to stay?” Casey asked. “I can.”
“No, I’m good. I didn’t do anything except refuse to fall for her scam. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done. But,” he added, “my place later?”
The way the week was going, Gabe could use some more up close and personal private Ranger Man time. Casey was very good at taking care of his people, and Gabe was starting to feel a bit delicate, even if he’d never admit so out loud.
A soft smile curved his lips. “Yeah. Your place sounds great. I’ll be there with bells on and all that. How about I stop and grab us pizza for dinner?”
“Oh god, yes.” Pizza was the world’s best comfort food. After talking to Eagan and the new guy, Gabe was fairly sure he would need all the comfort he could get.
“Howdy, Althea. I’m here to see Chief Deputy Eagan.”
If Gabe understood things correctly, Althea Mortine was the glue that held the TCSO together, especially since the county was still searching for an interim sheriff.
She’d been behind that front desk for decades and knew everything there was to know.
Whoever the county brought in as sheriff would have to run for the position when election time came around, but in the meantime, Althea was there to guide them.
Both Gabe and Casey thought Bree Eagan would do an excellent job. Elton had told them that she was facing resistance from the Old Codgers Club, but he was working on them to change their minds.
Gabe held the opinion that the Old Codgers Club had fucked up enough keeping Eli Rizzi in place and had lost their chance at influencing who would take the position now.
“Mr. Karne, I’ll let Deputy Eagan know you’re here,” Althea said formally.
“It’s Gabriel,” he reminded her.
Althea smiled primly at him and pressed buttons on her phone, presumably to alert the deputy. Gabe started to sit in one of the chairs across from the desk, but Deputy Eagan arrived before he could.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Karne,” she said. “We appreciate you coming to speak with us. If you don’t mind coming this way.” She gestured down the hall to the interview room.
Gabe liked Bree Eagan, which was unusual; he wasn’t usually a fan of law enforcement. But Bree seemed to fall toward the side of protect and serve, instead of arrest and harass, and he appreciated anyone who understood the true purpose of their fucking job.
And what is Casey Lundin if not law enforcement, Chance?
Fine. Point made.
She led him to the interview room he’d already spent too much fucking time in since first arriving on Heartstone.
“At least it doesn’t smell like old sweat socks in here anymore,” he commented, taking the seat closest to the door. Old habits die hard.
Gabe thought he spotted a glimmer of amusement in Bree’s eyes as she took her seat, but she quickly hid it away.
“Mr. Karne, this isn’t a formal questioning”—not yet anyway, Gabe inferred—“but if you don’t mind, I’d like to record your answers.” She indicated the voice recorder set into the table.
“That’s fine, but please call me Gabriel. Or Gabe.”
“For the purposed of this interview,” she said with a brief smile, “I will refer to you as Mr. Karne, but I promise not to in public.”
Eagan’s response gave Gabe hope that her questions weren’t too serious, and even better, she didn’t appear to be sizing him up for handcuffs. Not yet anyway. She reached across the table and pressed Record.
“First, Mr. Karne, how did you acquire that bruise on your forehead?”
Gabe lifted a hand and touched the tender area above his left eye, yep it was still there. “I had a run-in with a hedge Monday morning. I think the hedge won. You can ask Elton about it if you need to. He’ll back me up.” He was not admitting to breaking and entering lite while being recorded.
He was rewarded with a raised eyebrow and an ever so-slight shake of the head.
“The body of a young woman was discovered near the point last night,” Eagan began.
“The victim was approximately five foot seven with dark blonde or brown hair and slender. Estimated time of death is sometime Monday evening or Tuesday very early. She hadn’t been in the water long.
We have reason to believe she either knew you or knew of you.
She carried no identification, and we have yet to find a cell phone or an abandoned vehicle that could help us determine her identity. ”
Eagan stared hard at Gabriel, watching for his reaction to her next words. “However, there was a paper tucked into the inside pocket of the jacket she was wearing. Once we got it dried out, we discovered your name and home address written on it. Can you explain this?”
What had happened to the fake genealogy paperwork? And her purse thing?
“Sort of,” he said, hating that the dead woman had been so young.
She hadn’t even finished up Grifting 101.
Maybe if she’d had a chance, she could’ve turned her career around.
And why did he have to be associated with yet another body?
“She came to my house Monday morning, said her name was Juliet Carter.”
Gabe went on to describe their interaction, starting from the time he’d been woken by Juliet’s knocking until she had left, pissed as hell because Gabriel didn’t believe her story. He even included her statement about men.
Eagan’s dimple made another brief appearance, then she opened the file folder she’d carried into the room with her. Inside was a photograph. Gabe’s stomach clenched; he did not want to look at it.
Eagan pushed it toward him. “Is this the same person? She was found on one of the beaches on the north end of the island. We don’t think that’s where she was killed though.
The currents around the island probably carried her there, and we think that coat she was wearing maybe gave her some buoyancy. ”
That made sense. The north end of Heartstone was too busy, what with RV campers set up there all year long. Too many possible witnesses.
“Yes, that’s her,” Gabe confirmed, wishing it wasn’t. People young enough to fake being his kid were too young to be dead.
“Are you certain you don’t recognize her from somewhere else? She doesn’t look familiar to you at all?”
Gabe shook his head. “I only recognize her as the person on my doorstep Monday morning. I had never seen her before then, and I don’t know who she is. As I stated, she gave me the name Juliet Carter. I think it’s likely to be false though.”
He stared at the photo, refusing to let himself look away.
Her eyes were open, staring at nothing, her face was deathly white, and her lips a grayish hue.
The collar of the blue Columbia jacket she’d been wearing Monday was visible at the bottom of the photo.
Her long hair was obviously wet and obscured the lower part of her face.
Seawater had washed away any blood, but the wound that had ended her life was clear to see.
Someone had hit her on the left side of her head, hard enough to leave a dent.
Gabe pointed at the damaged area of her skull. “That wasn’t an accident, was it.” He doubted that Juliet had abruptly decided that March was the perfect weather for a swim, fully clothed.
He wasn’t really asking a question, but Eagan answered him anyway.
“No. The coroner thinks she either hit or was hit by a blunt object. Is there anything else you can tell me about her visit? Anything that might help us find out who she is?”
“Her showing up was out of left field. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.” Damn, Gabe was spending too much time with Elton. He was starting to sound like an old man.
Gabe shook his head and forced himself to refocus.
“I told her to come back when, and if, she had evidence that wasn’t obviously manipulated.
I said I’d take a real DNA test, but she didn’t want that.
I did get the impression she was nervous.
At the time, I thought it was because she’d shown up uninvited and I wasn’t giving her the response she thought she’d get, but maybe it was something else.
That’s all I know. She was only at my place ten or fifteen minutes. ”
They were both quiet for a moment. An analog clock hanging on the wall ticked, filling the silence. Gabe looked down at the photo again, realizing he was angry. Not angry with Eagan or the sheriff’s department, but with the person who had prematurely ended this young woman’s life.
Why kill her? What had she done that was so terrible that another person thought she deserved to die?
Maybe she hadn’t done anything. Maybe it was something she’d known. Or maybe none of the above.
Eagan’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Do you have anything else you’d like to share with me? Anything that might point investigators in the right direction?”
Gabe could think of a few things that could be pertinent, but none of which he wanted to share with the deputy on the record.
He nodded at the recorder. After a moment’s thought, Eagan reached across the table and pressed the Stop button.
Then she leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest.
“This better be good. I’m waiting.”
Gabe stared back at her, debating how much he could reveal about himself, his life, and his mother. Fuck, he had no idea, so he just began talking.