Chapter 24
Ethan lay on the deck at the foot of the bed, two gunshot wounds in his chest. Blood pooled around the body and had splattered the sheets behind him.
Jack knelt down and felt for vitals, then shook his head with a grim expression.
I called the sheriff. The cavalry was on the way.
JD and I searched the cabin while we waited.
No shell casings.
These guys were either pros or used a revolver.
I dug through Ethan’s pockets and pulled out his phone. My trick of holding the device in front of his face didn’t work. He may have had facial recognition turned off. It was a smart privacy move. Cops couldn’t compel a passcode, but biometric data had been ruled fair game by the courts.
Footsteps in the salon filtered down below.
JD and I shared a look. It was too soon to be deputies.
With our pistols at the ready, we crept down the hallway toward the galley.
Footsteps clanked down the stairs. A man in his mid-20s plunged into the galley.
“Freeze!” I shouted. “Coconut County. Put your hands in the air.”
With round eyes, he complied. “What’s going on?”
“Turn around, place your hands behind your head.”
He did, and JD slapped the cuffs around his wrists.
“Who are you?”
“You guys don’t look like cops.”
Jack shoved his shiny gold badge in the guy’s face.
“Relax. I live here. What’s going on?”
"You live here?"
"Yeah. Ethan’s been letting me stay in one of the guest rooms.”
"What's your name?"
"Jeremy."
"How long have you been living here?”
He shrugged. "I don't know, maybe a few months."
"Where were you last night?”
He grinned. "I met this chick at Blue Ruin. We went back to her place, and you know…"
"When was the last time you talked to Ethan?”
"I don’t know. Probably last night around 10:00 PM.”
"Was that here on the boat?"
"Yeah.”
"What was he doing last night?”
"He said he was gonna chill out and catch up on some work he needed to do. I think he was going to try to get this girl to come over.”
"Do you know her name?”
Jeremy thought about it for a moment and shook his head. "No. What's going on? Who broke the glass in the salon?"
"This is the first time you’ve been back to the boat since last night?”
"Yeah.”
"Was your roommate in any trouble?”
Jeremy shrugged. "What kind of trouble?”
"Trouble that would get him killed," Jack said.
Jeremy's brow lifted with surprise, and his eyes bulged. "Ethan's dead?"
I nodded.
"How?”
"Do you know how he was able to afford a boat like this?”
Jeremy shrugged again. "I don't know. Ethan never really talked about it. Said he’d done well in crypto. That's not unusual. I know a couple of guys who bought bitcoin back when it was cheap.”
I gave him a skeptical look. "We think there's something more to it than just crypto."
Jeremy shrugged again.
"What do you know about the money laundering?" I asked like I was certain of it.
"Money laundering?" he replied in an innocent tone.
"Cut the shit. We know he was laundering money through Eden Saint’s For the Fans account.”
A guilty frown tugged Jeremy's lips.
"You know something about that,” I said. “Start talking.”
His face tightened, and he hesitated a moment. "Look, all I know is he was getting paid good money to be a super fan of Eden’s.”
"Oh, he was a superfan, alright. He spent millions of dollars with her.”
"Yeah, and then he got fixated on her. That was his problem. He kept trying to actually hook up with her. She didn't want to have anything to do with him. But he thought she owed it to him.”
I shared a glance with Jack, then asked Jeremy. "Did he kill her?”
Jeremy's brow wrinkled. "No. Ethan wasn't a violent dude.”
“You sure about that?”
“I never saw him get violent with anybody.” He considered it. “But he was pretty silly for that chick.”
"Who was he working for?”
"I don't know.”
"Whoever it was came here last night and killed him,” I said. “You think you’re safe.”
"Hey, I'm not involved in that shit.”
"You better tell me everything you know, right now."
"I'm telling you.”
My stern eyes glared at him.
"All I know is that he was freaking out because the cops came around asking questions about Eden. He was worried you guys were going to figure out what he was doing.”
"I need to know who he was laundering money for.”
"I'm telling you, I don't know. I stayed the fuck out of that. I just needed a place to stay until I got on my feet again. Ethan was cool enough to let me stay here without paying rent. I tried to keep out of his business, and he kept out of mine.”
“Does he have any next of kin in the area?”
“I think his mom lives in Fort Lauderdale.”
“What about his father?”
“He said his dad took off when he was a kid. I don’t think he’s spoken to him since.”
“Did he seem different or strange after Eden’s death?”
“He was strange before her death. Pretty messed up after.”
Distant sirens drew near. Soon, first responders swarmed the boat. Dietrich snapped photos, and forensic investigators documented the scene. Brenda examined the remains.
I caught the sheriff up to speed on everything.
“Do we have a time of death?” the sheriff asked.
“I’d say between midnight and 2:00 AM,” Brenda replied. “I’ll know more when I get him back to the lab.”
We searched the rest of the boat, but couldn't find any laptops or tablets that might have any evidence of money laundering. Whoever killed Ethan had taken Jeremy's laptop as well. It was one of the things he noted missing. He said it didn’t look like anything else aboard the boat had been taken. This certainly wasn’t a robbery.
Brenda and her crew bagged the body. By the time we transferred the remains to the dock, Paris Delaney and her crew were on the scene.
A crowd of curious neighbors had gathered.
"Deputy Wild, is that Ethan Rexrode?”
"I can’t release the name of the deceased until the next of kin has been notified."
Paris had obviously connected registration records on the boat to the owner. She didn't miss much.
I made a call for witnesses to contact the Sheriff's Department, then stepped out of frame. JD and I canvassed the area, talking to neighbors, hoping to find someone who had seen anything.
No such luck.
Ethan’s body was transferred into the medical examiner's van, and the crowd soon dissipated.
JD and I stopped in the manager's office and asked for the security footage.
The cute brunette behind the counter asked, "What happened?"
I gave her limited details.
She invited us around the counter and pulled up the security feeds on her computer. We watched the large flatscreen as she scrolled through the timeline.
At 1:35 AM, two men hurried through the parking lot.
They were well-built guys, probably mid-20s to mid-30s.
They wore baseball caps, sunglasses, and surgical masks.
Long-sleeve shirts covered their arms, and gloves eliminated fingerprints.
They were smart enough to park somewhere else and walk through the parking lot.
One of them was a little taller and thinner and walked with a slight limp. Looked like a hip or knee issue.
We picked them up on another angle as they walked down the dock. The two thugs boarded the Obsession and banged on the salon door. It was dark, and the footage was grainy. Even though it was a high-definition camera, the resolution was blocky at night in low light.
After the two thugs kept banging on the salon door, a light flicked on in the salon, and Ethan ambled toward the aft deck. He opened the door, and words were exchanged. They argued for a bit, then the two gentlemen pushed their way in. It seemed like Ethan knew them.
We kept watching the footage.
From the angle of the camera, it was hard to see into the salon. The thugs stayed aboard the boat for about 10 or 15 minutes before leaving. They walked back down the dock, crossed the parking lot, and stepped out of frame.
I asked Sophia to export the footage and send it to my phone. She did, and I forwarded it to the sheriff.
There was no way to identify these guys from the video, but I sent the clips to Isabella for good measure. I knew she had enhancement technology that could clarify the images.
JD and I canvassed the area to see if there were any more surveillance cameras that might have picked the thugs up once they left the property, but we didn't find any.
We headed back to the station, filled out after-action reports, then grabbed lunch at Wetsuit and kicked around theories.
"He’s laundering money," Jack said. "He gets spooked when we come around.
Maybe he talks to his employer, wants to slow down, or stop.
The employer isn't having it. Maybe his employer gets nervous that Ethan’s going to rat him out.
Or maybe Ethan killed Eden, and his employer didn't like the extra heat that created.”
It was as good a theory as any.
Jack ordered the pulled pork sliders, and I went with the soft shell crab.
We chowed down and filled our bellies. We had barely finished the meal when Paris flashed on the screen with breaking news, unrelated to the Rexrode case.
“Tragedy at Echo Beach as another victim falls prey to a vicious shark attack. This time, a young girl.”
I cringed.
The sheriff buzzed my phone a moment later.
I answered the call and said, “I know. We’re on our way.”