“We were going to call you.”
“Right after we got out of the water,” Freddie said. “Calling you was our next move.”
“Please don’t get cute.” Sheriff Bigly waved a hand at us. The other hand was covering her eyes and clutching her temples.
We were seated in Grady’s office on the sofa wrapped in blankets.
After what seemed like an eternity, she took a deep breath then let her hand fall. “I thought we had all come to an understanding.”
Freddie and I exchanged glances.
“What did she get you?”
I frowned. “Pie. You?”
“Ice cream.”
Sheriff Bigly slapped her desk. “Forget the pie. Forget the … what is the matter with you two?!”
Hard to tell if that was rhetorical or not.
“No, really. I want to know.”
I shrugged. “I—”
“’Cause I can’t figure it out.” I guess it was rhetorical after all. “I really can’t.” She planted both hands on Grady’s desk. “Are your lives really so boring?” I could feel Freddie stiffen beside me at that, but he was having the good sense to keep his mouth shut. “Do you think I want to arrest you? Do you care at all about your friend Candace? Because I’m pretty sure she wants to find out what happened to her maid of honor.”
“Whoa,” I said, holding my hands out, but that dropped the blanket off my shoulder and I was still really cold, so I hiked it up real quick. “We are trying to help Candace.”
“By making my job harder.”
Freddie cleared his throat. “I—”
Bigly pointed at him. “You think you’re pretty funny don’t you, Ng?”
“I didn’t even … what did I say?” Freddie asked.
“You two have no idea what you screwed up tonight.”
Screwed up? I hated it when we screwed things up. I told Freddie we should have called her!
“We left everything in the gazebo for a reason,” Sheriff Bigly said, still leaning on the desk. “We were there tonight. We’ve been waiting for Lyssa’s boyfriend to show himself. Waiting for days. That’s why he was rummaging about Candace’s shed. That told us we were on the right track. We knew he’d eventually figure out what he was looking for had to be at the gazebo, not Candace’s. Then he finally shows up and somebody shines a big ol’ light on him, and he takes off. Amos tried to catch him, but that boy is fast. Amazing, really, given what we know about him.”
I suddenly felt like I would be sick. That was why she just so happened to be at the gazebo the other day. “I swear to God, Sheriff Bigly, if I had known—”
“Known what? Are you honestly going to sit there and try to tell me that you wouldn’t have interfered?”
“I wouldn’t have. We all want the same thing here.” I meant that too. In those other stories she was thinking of, I was either trying to prove someone I love innocent—like myself—or I was fighting for my life. “And what do you mean the condition he was in?”
“Lyssa’s boyfriend Justin is a very unstable young man. That is all you need to know.”
“But … if you were there, why didn’t you show yourself right away?”
“She wanted to see what we’d do,” Freddie said. “Probably building a case for when she arrests us.”
“No. No. Let’s back up a moment,” Bigly said. “Erica, you said we all want the same thing, and I want to know if that’s true. Do you really want this all settled for Candace? Or is this all about Otter Lake Security making the sheriff’s department look stupid once again?”
“We really don’t want that,” I said whereas Freddie asked, “Do you know where the money came from? I’m assuming Lyssa. Am I r—”
“Stop talking!” Sheriff Bigly said, hitting the desk. “What makes you think I would tell you anything about this case?”
“Professional courtesy?” Freddie mumbled.
“Professional … professional courtesy?” She chewed her lip. I think to stop herself from saying all the words that were really going through her mind. Most of them four-lettered. “I should put you in a cell for trying to make a sheriff insane. That’s what I should do.”
“So … does this mean we can get the wedding stuff from the gazebo now?”
I slapped his leg.
“Take it. Justin’s not coming back there.” Sheriff Bigly’s jaw flexed. “But I need you two to hear me on something.”
I nodded quickly and slapped Freddie’s leg some more until he was nodding too.
“If you want to help your friend, you will tell no one what you saw at the gazebo.” She jabbed a finger on her desk. “Do you understand? The money is not public knowledge, and I would like it to stay that way.”
We both nodded again.
“Now get out of my office.”
We popped up to our feet.
As we were heading out, we spotted Amos with rubber gloves counting the money at his desk. His lips were moving. It looked like he was almost done.
Freddie slowed down. “What’s that, Amos?”
“Thirty-nine thousand, nine hundred,” he said, eyes still on the money.
“Thirty-nine thousand?” Freddie asked.
“Forty,” Amos said with a smile. “It’s all there.”
“Dammit, Amos!” A shout came from Grady’s office.
I pushed Freddie toward the door. “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!”