Were the police tearing his house apart? Had the killer planted any evidence?
Still carrying his coffee, Reid wandered down the street to the pier. The scent of the sea air normally soothed him, and he settled on a bench to watch boats moving out in the bay. Pete flew down to settle beside him. When Reid didn’t offer to feed him, the pelican flapped giant wings and soared out over the water to scoop up a fish. Other pelicans dove and soared on the wind with squawking gulls and terns.
“You look as lost as a captain with no navigation equipment, son.”
Reid gazed up at Alfie’s drawl. “Morning.” He pointed to the bench. “Have a seat. You just get back from shrimping?”
The old man reeked of seafood and still wore his once-white boots, stained red. A few shrimp scales clung to his pants. “Yep. Not tired yet though. You look lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut. Need some cheerin’ up?”
“Yeah. I guess you haven’t heard what’s happened.” He told the old fisherman about Lauren’s death and Will’s involvement.
“That kid’s good as they come. I’ll bet Miss Jane is having a hissy fit with a tail on it.”
“The worst one I’ve seen,” Reid agreed.
Several young men in their twenties stopped a few feet away and stared at him. Reid didn’t recognize any of them. They were too old to be friends with Will, and their expressions made him think they were punks looking for trouble. He glared at them as a warning to leave them alone.
“You throwin’ shade at us?” one of them called. “Figures. Any dad who’d set up his own son for murder is a tool.”
Reid rose and went toward them. “What’d you say?”
“Heard you hired someone to kill the ex, and your boy is taking the fall for it,” the tallest boy said.
“That’s absolutely not true. I’d never do that. Whoever told you that is spreading lies.”
The guys stared at him, and one shook his head in disgust before they brushed past him, deliberately striking shoulders. Reid clenched his fists and glared after them. Was that really how people felt? He was new here, but how could anyone assume such a terrible thing? What father would do that?
He went back to the bench with Alfie, who’d heard the entire exchange. “That kind of attitude here surprises me. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?”
Alfie pulled a toothpick from his shirt pocket and stuck it in his mouth. “Those fellas are as worthless as gum on a shoe. Pay them no mind, Reid. Anyone who knows you would never think such a thing.”
“Thanks, Alfie. Hard to hear something like that. You heard anything more about the squatters out on the island? Gabriel might hate me enough to try to throw suspicion on Will.”
“Saw smoke there yesterday. You saw yer little lady’s mama, right? She didn’t come back with you?”
Reid shook his head. “She couldn’t wait to see the back of us. It was painful for Jane. Even though she knew her mom could have come to see her anytime, I think she’d hoped Kim would take one look at her and grab hold. Didn’t happen. Kim was too afraid of anyone finding out who Jane really was.”
“Poor little chief. Has to be hard.”
“I don’t know what Jane will do next. Probably let it be.”
“Sounds like the woman is no real mother.”
“She has two teenage girls with the guy she’s with. Maybe when they’re older, Jane can make contact. Her mom would refuse to allow it now, I’m sure.”
Alfie took the toothpick out of his mouth. “Where’s Will? With his granddad?”
“At the moment. I’m going to go do something with him, try to distract him. There’s a search going on at my house right now.”
The worry about what they were finding wouldn’t leave him alone. It wouldn’t be good.
“And you’re feared someone planted something?”
“Yeah. If someone wants to implicate Will—and it looks that way—the police will find something else. I keep hoping and praying the killer wasn’t purposely trying to frame Will, but I think it was deliberate. And Will’s tackle box is missing.”
“That dog won’t hunt for anyone who knows your boy.”
“The problem is most don’t know him. We’re new here.”
“Folks who think that way just got one oar in the water. But be patient. Truth always comes out.”
“I guess it usually does, but I don’t want Will to have to wait in jail for it to show up.”
Alfie gave a slow nod. “Something about this smells bad enough to gag a maggot.”
Reid rose and stretched out his back. “I’d better go get my boy. Waiting to hear what they find at the house is like waiting for paint to dry. But I might wish I didn’t know what they discover.”
He walked back across the street to his SUV and glanced at the police station parking lot. Jane’s SUV was still there. He was tempted to stop in, but in the end, he got in his vehicle and left town.
Let her do her job. Maybe she could stop this runaway train.
* * *
“There’s the house.” Reid pulled into the drive of the cute coastal home painted a light turquoise.
Palm trees swayed in the breeze, and flowers bloomed beside the walk. A large water oak shaded the front lawn, and two cattle egrets followed behind a neighbor’s mower, eating bugs.
Jane opened her door. “I wish you’d stayed with Will on the beach.”
She’d argued about it in the five-minute drive from Fort Morgan to the house, but Reid hadn’t budged about accompanying her. Someone was after her family, and she might be a target. She needed backup.
He reached over to put his hand on hers. “Parker will take care of him. There are plenty of other people around, including some of his baseball friends. He’s playing volleyball. Nothing harmful in that. He’s fine.”
Music, something tropical with steel guitars, floated through the screen door and open windows. The occupants either didn’t have air-conditioning or didn’t like it. The heat and humidity shimmered off the drive, and his forehead beaded with perspiration the minute he got out of the SUV.
He fell behind Jane and let her go to the door first. She pressed the doorbell, and the distant sound of a vacuum cut off before light steps came to the door.
An attractive brunette in her twenties appeared in shorts and a tee. She opened the screen door, and her gaze flickered when she took in Jane’s uniform. “Is this about Finn?”
“I’m Jane Hardy, Pelican Harbor chief of police. You’re Amy Presley? I have a few questions.”
“I am.” The woman glanced behind her. “I’d rather make sure my daughter doesn’t overhear.” She stepped out onto the porch and pulled the door shut behind her. “What do you need to know?”
“Do you know of any enemies your ex-husband had?”
Her brown eyes widened. “Whoa, he wasn’t murdered. He died in a fire.”
“We aren’t sure yet what went on. Did he know Ms. Briscoe?”
“Not socially. She owned the lab where he got his drug test. He hated her, you know. I’m surprised he was willing to try to rescue her when the fire broke out. They had words on several occasions.”
Reid saw no sign of deception in her expression. How did Jane do this every day? Ask questions, prod deep into people’s personal lives. It was enough to make you lose faith in humanity. This young woman seemed to have no regret about what happened to her ex. And from what he’d heard about it all, demanding a drug test had been an act of meanness.
“Words?” Jane asked. “What was their disagreement?”
“He claimed she’d falsified the drug test and that he’d lost custody over it.” Amy shrugged her slim shoulders. “That was Finn though, always passing the buck.”
“Why did you request a drug test? Was he a known drug user?”
The other woman’s eyes flickered, and she glanced away from Jane’s face. “Well, sure. He’d been addicted to meth when he was a teenager. I suspected he’d gone back to it.”
“His coworkers claimed he hated drugs, that he was a health nut.”
The Presley woman bit her lip. “That kind of thing can get a hold of you.”
“Was your relationship amicable?” Jane’s voice was deceptively soft.
“He was . . . difficult. Always wanting more and more time with Bexley, our daughter. He’d fly into a rage when it wasn’t convenient.”
“You say you’re surprised he tried to help. Anything that might let us know why he went in there when he was told not to?”
Amy lifted her chin. “I thought maybe he tried to kill her.”
“I see. Did he threaten Ms. Briscoe?”
“He said someone should end her reign of terror. He was planning on suing her. I tried to talk him out of it, but he could be bullheaded.”
“Were you surprised when the test results came back?”
“Not really.”
“You wanted to find something to use against him.”
Relief lit Mrs. Presley’s eyes at the sound of a child calling for Mommy. “I’d better go. That’s all I know anyway.”
When she vanished inside the house, Reid took Jane’s arm and they walked back toward the SUV.
“What did you make of her story?” Jane asked.
Reid loved the way she trusted his opinion. “I dislike women like her—ones who use power over their children to hurt their exes. And she was lying about believing he was doing drugs. She was probably more surprised than anyone when it came back positive. Something is fishy about the whole thing.”
“I think so too. But her point about the test being falsified needs investigation. Maybe something’s there. The team is checking out disgruntled customers. I’d call Finn one of those.”
“Me too,” he agreed. “It sounds like a setup. It makes me wonder if maybe Mrs. Presley knew Gail and asked her to falsify the results. I didn’t believe her to be credible at all.”
Jane smiled. “You’re picking up police terminology.”
They got in the SUV, and she started the engine. “That didn’t take long. Will won’t be ready to go.”
“We can hang out and watch him play for a while. It’s a hot day. He’ll be ready to get ice cream soon.”
Reid buckled his seat belt. “Have you heard if they’ve searched my house yet?”
She glanced at her watch. “They should be there now. You want to grab Will and head back to watch?”
“Scott is there and told me to stay away. He’s probably right. I don’t think I could stop from interfering.”
She squeezed his hand. “Augusta has it under control. She’ll figure out who really did this.”
Reid wished he could believe her, but he was getting more and more worried about their son. If it looked like Will would be arrested, he planned to confess himself. He couldn’t let their son’s life be ruined.