Reid planted his feet on the boat rocking in the waves and shooed away a gull trying to land on his head. He turned to watch a pod of dolphins begging for fish just off the starboard side. Dolphins often followed shrimp boats since any catch other than shrimp had to be thrown overboard. They knew how to find a free meal.
“Hold the boat,” Will called, holding up his phone. “Mom is coming after all. Can we go get her?”
Reid squinted through the bright sun bouncing off the brilliant blue water and stared toward shore. “What’s her ETA?”
Will pointed at a small figure jogging down the boardwalk in the distance. “There she is.”
Alfie spun the wheel and the trawler banked. “Won’t take but a minute to pick her up. Have her wait at the end of the dock. You can get her in the dinghy.”
The boat reversed course back to the marina, and Jane’s figure grew closer. Reid’s pulse kicked when he recognized her wind-tousled light-brown hair. It had grown out a bit, just like his, and now brushed the collar of her shirt. She wasn’t in uniform, though she’d been called to a scene. She wore white shorts and a red tank top that showed off her tanned skin and stood with her head high. He’d always loved her I-can-do-it attitude. People said she resembled Reese Witherspoon, but he didn’t think anyone could be as beautiful as Jane.
“I’ll get her,” Will said.
Reid helped him lower the inflated dinghy and watched as he rowed toward shore. Parker gave a happy bark when he caught Will’s scent, and the golden retriever leaped aboard the dinghy when it reached the dock. Jane followed, and Will rowed them back to the trawler.
Smiling, Reid moved to the rail and reached out to help her aboard. His smile faded when she ignored his extended hand and clambered onto the boat without assistance. She didn’t look at him and didn’t smile. It must have been a bad murder scene. But if it was only work, why was she acting so cold?
She brushed past him and even the smile she sent Will’s way was tight. “Sorry I was so late. Augusta is taking over since it’s my day off. I feel guilty leaving it all to her though.”
“That’s why you hired her,” Reid said.
He frowned when she still didn’t acknowledge him. Her stiff back indicated anger or displeasure with him, but he couldn’t think of anything he’d done.
Alfie waved to her. “’Bout missed us, Janey-girl.”
Pete, the pelican Jane had rescued as a fledgling, flapped down to perch on the boat’s railing. If he knew Jane, she had some fish in the small cooler she carried. Sure enough, she opened it and tossed Pete some fish.
Reid grabbed the halyards and hoisted his sail. The wind filled the canvas, and the old vessel creaked as it plied the waves out on Bon Secour Bay. The scent of the sea lifted on the breeze. No one spoke as they tended to their duties guiding the old boat out to the shrimping grounds, but Reid kept stealing glances at Jane’s set face. The gold flecks in her hazel eyes seemed to spark with fury, and dread curled in his belly. What could have happened to make her so aloof? She hadn’t even cracked a genuine smile Will’s direction.
“Drop the nets,” Alfie shouted.
Isaac and Will tossed out the shrimp nets, and they sank into the blue waters. Megan hovered nearby, and her gaze never left Will’s broad shoulders.
Will turned and approached Jane. “You okay, Mom?”
The answering grimace could only be called a smile by someone who didn’t know her. “Fine, honey. Just a lot on my mind.”
Will gave her a doubtful glance, then shrugged. “Wanna swim with us?”
“I didn’t bring my suit. You kids go ahead.”
Jane turned away and walked to the bow and stared off into the horizon. Will lifted his brows at Reid and jerked his chin her direction.
The kid was throwing him to the sharks. Reid nodded, and the boy turned away to jump off the stern with Parker, Isaac, and Megan. Reid made his way to where Jane stood and waited until she noticed his presence.
When she gave no sign that she wanted to talk, he nearly retreated, but he squared his shoulders and stepped closer. “I can see you’re upset, Jane. Want to talk? Was the murder scene bad?”
His gut told him her demeanor had nothing to do with the murder scene and everything to do with him.
Her knuckles went white with her grip on the railing. She turned her head and narrowed her eyes on him. “Are you still married to Lauren?”
He held her disdainful gaze. “I don’t know. It’s something the court will have to decide. Scott thinks a case could be made either way, but no one has tested the Nevada law.”
“And how long have you known this?”
He flinched. “A couple of weeks. Scott isn’t sure what to do, and I was waiting for more direction from him before I talked to you about it. I didn’t want to worry you if he was able to find out a clear ruling.”
“You should have told me right away.”
“Maybe so. I thought I was doing the right thing for you. Filing for divorce for abandonment seemed a waste of time when I’d already had her declared legally dead.”
“But she had a year to contest that death ruling, and now everything is up in the air,” Jane said.
How did she know all this? Did Scott tell her? “Scott doesn’t think I should run the risk of going before the court with this. He says it would cost more than paying her off.”
She winced. “Where does that leave you if you pay her and she drops the lawsuit?”
“I don’t know. To assure my status, I might have to file for divorce.”
“Which she might contest and ask for even more money.”
The horrible thought had kept him up at night, but he didn’t look away and gave a short nod. “Lauren is unpredictable. Scott wants to tie any settlement to a binding agreement so she will not contest it again.”
“But your marital status would be very ambiguous.”
“It could be. Scott says the whole thing is a mess and could go either way. What do you want me to do?”
Her chin came up, and she tucked strands of hair behind her ears. “It’s not my decision, Reid. The whole situation is more than I can wrap my head around. You let me find this out from Lauren instead of telling me yourself.”
“You spoke to Lauren? When?”
“This morning. She asked me to stay away from you and said I should give the two of you space to work out your marriage.” Her voice wobbled, and she turned away as if to hide the pain in her eyes.
Reid set his hand on her forearm. “I wouldn’t stay with her for any amount of money. She abandoned Will. She hurt him. The pain she caused me isn’t nearly as important as the way she destroyed Will’s confidence. Would you step back away from him and let her have your spot?” He saw her recoil. “And your reaction is exactly how I feel. Don’t let her do this to us, Jane.”
She still wouldn’t look at him. “I’ll have to think about it.”
* * *
Jane’s eyes burned after talking to Reid. She didn’t know how to process the reality that Reid might still be married, but for now, she planned to stay far away from him until she sorted out her feelings.
The kids, glistening like playful seals, emerged from their dip in the water with the pod of dolphins. Pete fluttered down to perch on a rail, and several other pelicans dove to the water and came up with wriggling fish.
Will shot her several anxious glances as she sat in the bow. She snatched up her phone with something akin to relief when Augusta called.
“You notify next of kin yet?” Jane asked.
“Jackson did. I’m set to interview Gail’s ex-husband in about two hours.”
Conventional wisdom indicated the murderer was generally known to the victim. “Anything from the coroner?”
“Nothing yet, but I still suspect foul play. We’ll know more after the autopsy.”
Jane stared at the shoreline. They were only about half a mile out. “I think I’ll go along on that interview.”
“I can handle it, Chief.”
“I know you can.” Jane shot a glance Reid’s way. “I’ll be there in an hour.”
“If you insist.”
The tightness in Augusta’s words gave Jane pause, but only for a moment. Her hair still stank of smoke, and she wouldn’t be able to loosen the muscles in her shoulders until she had answers to at least something she could control. The situation here was impossible. She ended the call and went to tell Alfie she needed to put ashore.
“Hold your horses.” The old man blinked faded blue eyes and gave a shrug. “Got binoculars on you?”
“No, should I?”
“Yer man didn’t tell you about them survivalist types camping over yonder?” He waved a wrinkled hand toward smoke rising from the treetops on a small, unnamed island filled with impenetrable forest.
“He’s not my man.” She turned and shaded her eyes with her hand to peer through the sunshine at the location. “Survivalists? Any idea who they are?”
“Coconut telegraph hasn’t sussed it out yet. Their boat’s called Westwind. That’s all I know.”
The smoke seemed ominous after the fire, especially when she caught a whiff of it, but her nerves were playing tricks on her. This group was unlikely to have anything to do with Liberty’s Children or even the fire this morning.
She lowered her hand. “Have any of them been to town yet?”
“Ain’t seen anyone but tourists.”
Jane glanced at her watch. “We’ve got time to stop by and see what’s going on. I can make a friendly official call and make sure they are legally allowed to be there.” The location was outside her jurisdiction, but the campers were unlikely to know that.
The Liberty’s Children cult was an offshoot from Mount Sinai, a survivalist group Jane and her father had fled when she was a teenager. She and Reid had confronted the group a few weeks ago and learned the leader hated her mother. And Reid. She had to know for sure if there was any connection with that curl of smoke to the dangerous group.
Alfie gave the order to haul up the nets, which dripped water and little else other than a bit of trash and debris onto the deck. In minutes they were underway to the island.
Jane had never set foot on the island, and she didn’t know many people who had. First of all, access was difficult. There was no pier and no protected bay to find anchorage. The people there would have needed to use rowboats to ferry themselves and their belongings ashore, and even then, landing was tricky. A small spot without vegetation existed on the eastern side of the island, and she trained Alfie’s binoculars on it.
“See anything?”
Her gut clenched at Reid’s deep voice. His voice always reached in and held her in a spot she hadn’t known existed until he’d come back into her life. His tanned, muscular arm brushed hers, and she moved away just a bit.
She swallowed and nodded. “Looks like they landed there.” She handed him the binoculars and pointed it out. “There are marks in the sand and mud. And you can see several inflatable boats through the bushes farther up.”
“I see them.” He lowered the binoculars. “You’re suspicious it could be Liberty’s Children?”
“Aren’t you? Gabriel knows where you are now. And where I am. He could have come after us or sent a group to be a thorn in our sides.”
“For what purpose?”
“I don’t know. The hatred he showed toward my mother had me wondering what she’d done to him. What if he thinks I can lead him to her?”
Reid raised a brow. “You’re stretching.”
“Am I? I’m not so sure.”
Isaac lowered the anchor, and she moved toward the inflatable rowboat.
Reid followed her. “I’ll come with you.”
“I can handle it alone.”
“While you can, the question is, should you? If you really think these people could be part of Liberty’s Children, they might be dangerous.”
“Then the kids need you to stay here and protect them.”
His expression sobered, and his mouth twisted. “Fine.” He bent down and helped her get the craft over the side of the old shrimping vessel.
She clambered down toward the whitecaps rolling atop the blue water. The sea spray hit her in the face, and she was wet by the time she hopped into the dinghy. The tide helped her as she rowed toward shore, and the bottom scraped sand more quickly than she’d expected. The sea soaked her legs to the knees when she climbed over the side and hauled the craft to the shore.
Though careful to watch for snakes, she forced her way through the marsh toward the sound of voices. Her feet sank into the soft, wet ground and made sucking sounds when she pulled them free. A marsh was never her favorite place to be. Mosquitoes buzzed her head, and she waved them away. She reached drier ground where briars tore at her clothing. Water oak trees reared into the blue sky, and she found a newly trodden path to the clearing.
She didn’t have to see any people to realize she’d been right. Gabriel’s voice carried to her ears on the wind, and she had to hide her dismay before she stepped into the space filled with tents and camp stools.
Gabriel spotted her the moment she stepped out of the shadows. A slow smile stretched across his face. “It’s the pretty little policewoman, Button. Didn’t take you long to come looking for me. I didn’t think it would.”
She hated that old nickname from the cult, and he probably knew it. His face was a map of intent, and Jane wasn’t sure she wanted to know his plan. In his forties, he was built like a tank, and she would have trouble fighting him. But whatever it was, it involved her family.