Page 22 of Covert Chaos

I felt like I'd crossed them tonight.

If I had called Devlin immediately when Hattie had driven up to my marina, would Charles still be alive? Had my concern for Hattie made me choose an option that had resulted in a man's death?

Hattie sat down next to me, and I looked over, surprised to see she'd turned the wheel over to Beau. "You're not driving?"

She put her arm around my shoulders. "I don't know what's up ahead, but in case we do run into trouble, I wanted to thank you guys."

Lucy grinned. "No need to thank us. That's what friends do."

Hattie studied me. "You want to go back?"

I took a breath. "What if Charles is dead because we didn't call Devlin right away?"

Hattie sighed. "I thought of that, too."

Lucy nodded. "Me, too."

We looked at each other. "Charles was a mean, nasty blight on this earth," Hattie said. "If he didn't kill his brother, he's probably killed other people. And whatever caused his death, he's the one who set that in motion. Not us. At least we can take comfort in that."

I nodded. It did help. "What was he doing between when he killed Beckwith and went to clean it up? Or, if he didn't do it, whoever did kill him still left a mess to be found."

We were silent, thinking about that as the boat sped along the water.

"Maybe he didn't want the mess cleaned up," Lucy said finally. "Maybe that mess was there for a reason."

"To incriminate me?" Hattie frowned. "I didn't see anything there linking it to me. Did you guys?"

We both shook our heads. “Unless the corkscrew was there waiting for the cops, and the murderer used it on Charles because it was convenient.”

Hattie nodded. “That makes more sense.”

I sighed as I went over what we'd learned, trying to piece it together. "Someone went out there to clean up from Beckwith's murder and didn't finish. Either the killer went back immediately and then got interrupted, or the killer wasn't able to return for over an hour."

Hattie rubbed her jaw. "Either way, we have an interruption."

"If Charles isn't the murderer, then he interrupted the murderer just now," I said. "If he did kill his brother, then who killed Charles?"

Hattie sighed. "The only names we have right now are Rachel and Emmeline."

We looked across the dark lake. "I guess we better hope it's one of them," Lucy said.

I didn't like relying on hope.

There had to be more. But what was it? What were we missing?

Thirteen

Keeping our distance, we followed the boat through the channel from Little Diamond Lake, and out onto Diamond Lake, which was where most of the water activity in Bass Derby was.

And I still couldn't figure out the missing pieces.

Hattie was using the binoculars. "Do you see where we are?"

Lucy nodded. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Where are we?" I still didn't know my way around the lake, especially at night.

"We're heading toward your marina."

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