Page 8 of Secrets in Calusa Cove

Silas was a pain in the ass. He thought he knew everything and didn’t take too kindly to strangers coming in and runninghistown.

That meant he didn’t like Dawson, Hayes, or Keaton.

And he merely tolerated Fletcher, but only because he’d been born in Calusa Cove. Silas and others—like Baily—didn’t appreciate Fletcher's return.

“And over there. Paul Massey, Dewey, they’re all talking about it, too.” Fletcher sighed. “I’m honestly shocked she came back.”

“Should I be worried about her?”

Fletcher chuckled. “The girl I knew could hold her own.”

“So, everyone in this town thinks she murdered her dad, dumped his body in the Everglades, and got away with it? That’s messed up.”

“She was one month shy of turning seventeen when it happened. Her dad was all she had,” Fletcher said. “Ken and I were getting ready to ship off to boot camp. Ken loved Audra. Perhaps a little more than she did him, but she was always a bit of a tough read. It screwed with Ken’s head for a while. He didn’t know what to believe when it came to Audra. This town came after her hard. I remember late-night phone calls with Baily, which were a hot mess.”

“If she had no one and was a minor, what happened? Because she was never charged.” Dawson rubbed his temple. Being a small-town cop meant the puzzle pieces he had to put together weren’t all that complicated. Stolen bikes. A few car thefts. The occasional boat theft. Breaking and entering. But since he knew the players and, in general, who the bad guys were, he could usually piece together what happened pretty quickly.

Drugs were big in Florida. If they were involved, he called in the local DEA agent. However, the only drug cases he’d had to deal with concerned a few dumbass kids smoking weed they usually stole from their parents’ medical stash.

In the ten months he’d lived in Calusa Cove, not a single murder had occurred.

That was something.

“Oddly enough, Silas Monroe stepped in and helped her. In Florida, a seventeen-year-old doesn’t need to be emancipated. While she was sixteen when her father went missing, she turned seventeen a month later, so he took her in and offered to help her with any legal fees if that were going to be necessary.”

“Why is that odd?” Dawson wanted to know more. He told himself that his badge dictated and drove this inquisition—not the sexy redhead he couldn’t get out of his mind.

Nope, she had nothing to do with it because he didn’t do redheads anymore.

Fletcher shrugged. “Silas and Victor were never friends. I'm not sure anyone really knows why, but their animosity started when they were kids. Some say it was over Audra’s mother. Others say it was just normal male chest-pounding in a small town that couldn’t handle two young men with big egos.” Fletcher laughed. “And what you just witnessed was a tame version of the young girl I remember. She certainly had a way with words.”

“I’ve got a crazy question here because you’ve piqued my curiosity. Do you know what Silas believes about what happened to Victor?”

“All I know is that, when it happened, he swore he didn’t believe she could’ve hurt her father. That no matter his feelings toward Victor, Audra wasn’t a killer. But his opinion changed the second she turned seventeen, and the cops couldn’t keep her from leaving town. In his eyes, that made her look suspect, mostly because she just up and left. She didn’t tell anyone she was leaving. Not even Baily. To my knowledge, no one has heard from Audra in years.”

“Baily hasn’t spoken to her?”

“Not that I know of,” Fletcher said. “But Baily barely speaks to me, so I honestly don’t know.”

“One more question.” Dawson wiggled his finger. “Do you know if either of my predecessors had a possible motive for her killing her dad?”

“That’s a weird question.” Fletcher jerked his head. “But yeah. She and her dad had a massive fight the day before. She said something that could’ve been seen as threatening,” Fletcher said.

“Were you there? Did you witness that? Were you living here when he went missing? Or had you and Ken already left for boot camp?”

“Wow, that cop brain of yours is in full gear,” Fletcher said. “Or are you trying to figure out if you want to entangle yourself with the redhead?” Fletcher lifted his hand. “Because if it’s the latter, I might have something to say about that and not because I know you and redheads, but because I know that redhead.”

Dawson chugged the last of his water before jumping off the picnic table and tossing the empty bottle in the recycle bin. If it were anyone other than Fletcher, he’d be insulted. But Dawson knew his buddy was only looking out for his best interests. Fletcher had seen him through some of his darkest hours. Fletcher was the glue that held their little group together. “I’ll admit she caught my attention, but the story holds it. Now, please answer my original question, and then tell me why you’re calling me off. Not that I’m going to pursue.”

“All right.” Fletcher laughed. “Yes. I was still living at home when Victor disappeared, and yeah, I witnessed that fight. It happened a month before Ken and I shipped off. It was a difficult time for Ken. Like I said, he was in love with Audra and was conflicted about leaving her, but he was excited about joining the Navy. At first, Audra wrote letters every day, letting him know what was going on, but a month or so in, the letters stopped. Baily informed us that she had taken off and hadn’t left a forwarding address. Ken hired a private investigator. He found her once living in Virginia and paid her a visit. She told him she never wanted to see him or talk to him again. That she wanted nothing to do with anyone from Calusa Cove. Ken came back from seeing her a completely different man.” Fletcher ran a hand over his face. “Ken once told me he wondered if Audra might know more about her father’s death than she was letting on.”

“Seriously? And he never came forward?” Of all the men Dawson had worked with, Ken had been the hardest to get to know. Dawson told himself it was because, by the time they met, Ken was a married man.

“He had nothing to go on except concern,” Fletcher said. “Audra was very close to her dad, and Ken loved her enough to put up with Victor’s weirdness. But that fight affected Ken. He thought Audra was out of line, and he let her know it. So, when he returned from seeing her and decided to put that part of his life behind him, I thought that was harsh. If I even brought up her name, he told me to stop. He said he was done. It was over, and he’d moved on. I had to respect that. Besides, I was dealing with my shit with Baily because we’d started to drift apart.”

“I met you both two years after we all joined the Navy. Ken had already met his wife. Audra was mentioned a few times, but you warned me not to ask questions.” Dawson knew there were things about his good friend Ken that he didn’t know. He was okay with that. They had been through so much together. Near-death experiences. Deaths of loved ones. Deaths of brothers. SEAL training—a different kind of hell.

And then that fateful mission that had changed their lives forever.

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