Page 18 of Covert Chaos

"Except that we saw him come in long after the murder happened," I said. "He wouldn’t have waited that long." King Tut hopped up on the railing and peered over the edge. His tail flicked, and I saw him tense. To jump off?

"Unless he couldn't get back before now," Hattie said.

"So what delayed him?" Lucy asked.

"And why didn't he finish cleaning up?" I walked over to the railing, but as I reached for King Tut, I peered over the edge to see what he was looking at. My gut sank when I saw a familiar Barnes brother sprawled on the rocks below, in a very unnatural position. "Guys?"

Hattie and Lucy hurried over and leaned over the railing. "Oh, man," Lucy said.

Hattie swore under her breath. "Son of a biscuit!" She took off toward the side of the deck, and I realized there were steps heading down to the ground.

Lucy and I looked at each other, then sprinted after her. King Tut leaped off the railing and tore after Hattie, delighted we were finally getting some action. "Hattie! Don't touch anything!"

"That drop isn't more than ten feet!" She shouted. "He's too mean to die from such a short fall! He has answers, though! Charles!"

I scrambled down the stairs as Hattie reached the prone man. She grabbed his shoulder. "Charles! Can you hear me—" She suddenly jerked her hand back as if she’d been shocked.

Lucy and I ran up, but then stopped when Hattie held up her hand. "No! Back up!"

We both stopped, and Hattie turned and walked back toward us, her face taut.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked. "I mean, besides Charles being hurled over the railing, apparently. Is he dead?"

Hattie walked toward us. "There is a corkscrew in his neck."

My jaw dropped, and Lucy grimaced.

"It's my corkscrew," Hattie said. "It was a prize from a baking competition I won many years ago. It's engraved with my name."

Lucy touched her arm. "Oh, Hattie."

Now I was mad. Really mad. No one put my friends in prison, especially a murderer who was running around killing people. Suddenly, I was done trying to pretend I wasn't an ex-criminal. I was over trying to be a nice, upstanding citizen so I wouldn’t get any more graffiti on my docks. My mind shifted into full-focus, criminal-mindset mode. "Where were you keeping it?"

"In my kitchen in the café. By the back door."

I thought of the third member of the Diamond Baking Company. "Was it hanging there when Emmeline was working for you?"

Hattie looked at me. "Yes."

I looked over at Charles. "We have to tell Devlin."

Hattie grimaced. "My fingerprints are now on Charles' jacket, and my corkscrew is in his neck. It's just getting worse for me."

I agreed with her. I hated to give up now, especially since the evidence was mounting against Hattie. It was worse than when we'd started, but I knew when we'd crossed lines. "Charles had to have been killed in the last ten minutes. We can't sit on this."

I pulled out my phone to call Devlin, but just as I pulled up his number, I saw King Tut freeze, staring toward the water. His tail was stiff, and his head was up.

I quickly turned and scanned the lake, looking for whatever it was he saw. It took a moment, but then I saw movement in the shadows by the shore. "Is that an animal?" I picked up King Tut so he didn't take off after a bobcat and discover he wasn't as tough as he thought.

Hattie and Lucy watched the shore with me, and the figure moved out of the shadows into the moonlight.

"It's a woman," we all said at the same time.

Eleven

The back of my neck prickled.

The woman was moving in a way that I had spent much of my childhood: that walk that was intended to appear oh-so-casual and unhurried to the observer, but underneath, adrenaline was firing, and urgency was rampant.

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