Page 42 of Murder in Calusa Cove
“Funny, I don’t remember you having instincts,” Hayes muttered.
Stacey smiled wider, all teeth. “Still bitter, huh?”
He stepped in a little closer, just enough to lower his voice. “You ran with a false lead and got yourself blacklisted from a major outlet. You’re lucky you’re still reporting from anywhere other than the classifieds.”
She didn’t flinch. “And yet, here I am—still digging, still standing.”
“Yeah, well try not to trip over a boundary marker on your way back to the marina’s parking lot.”
She leaned in, eyes narrowing. “You think feeding me bad intel was a win, Hayes? Because from where I’m standing, it just made me smarter. I don’t fall for charm anymore.”
“You never fell for charm. Just headlines.”
A tense silence stretched between them until she gave a little shrug. “I know something’s happening here. And if you think I’m going to stand down, think again. Someone’s handing me information—someone who knows things only an insider would.”
That stopped him cold.
“Who?” he asked.
She smirked, spun on her heel, and walked away.
Hayes watched her go, jaw tight. That wasn’t a bluff. Not the way she’d said it.
Someone was talking to her.
Behind him, the leaves rustled as Chloe approached. She said nothing at first, but he could feel her looking at him—waiting.
“She knows things she shouldn’t,” he said.
“She’s got to be bluffing.”
“She’s not,” Hayes said. “And if someone on the inside is giving her details we haven’t even discussed publicly...”
Chloe exhaled slowly, her gaze flicking back toward the crime scene, before turning and facing him dead on. “But who? Our circle is tight. I trust Buddy, and while you and I might have a weird dynamic, I trust you and your team. No one else really knows our theories.”
“Someone’s feeding her tips, and that woman is ruthless.” He closed his eyes and counted to ten before blinking them open. “She was willing to sleep with me for a story.” He cocked his head.
“Ew. Gross. You actually did the deed with that woman?”
“I said she was willing to. I didn’t say we did.” He traced Chloe’s jawline. “I’ve never been so grateful to have grown a conscience.”
She’d never been the jealousy type. But a shot of adrenaline kicked through her system and the mere thought of those two. She pushed it right out of her mind. “Me, too.”
“Agent Frasier—you’re going to want to see this,” Remy yelled, standing near a gnarled cypress that jutted out over the murky water a few feet beyond the body. Too close to be a coincidence.
Hayes followed Chloe and Dawson as they picked their way through the reeds and knee-high sawgrass, Remy stepping back to let them see what he’d found.
Sitting at the base of the tree, half-tucked into a hollow where the roots twisted into the waterline, was a white jewelry box. The kind you’d get from a department store. No markings. Just a pale satin ribbon tied in a bow.
No mud on it. No splash damage. Clean. Intentional.
Hayes felt a chill crawl down the back of his neck.
Remy had already snapped photos. “I didn’t touch it,” he said. “Didn’t want to so much as breathe on it until you saw it.”
Chloe crouched low, her gloved fingers hovering an inch from the box.
“No tag,” she muttered. “No fingerprints visible. No signs of being dropped. This was placed.”
