Page 68 of The Girl in the River

NINETY

THE RIVERFRONT

Ellie spotted Derrick walking down to the river, stowed her laptop in her bag, and hurried to join him. All around her, visitors chatted excitedly, lining up to climb into the rafts. The wind barreled off the mountain, the sun blazing.

Derrick stood by a stand with a guide who was organizing the tours. “Anything yet?” Ellie asked quietly.

“Maybe. Clerk inside told me to talk to Reggie. He’s just gotten in from a trip and will be here in a minute. You?”

“Patty Lasso was the assistant manager at Moonbeams when Jesse was there. Can’t find anything on her in recent years.”

They halted conversation as a dark-blond dude in a bathing suit and sunglasses approached. It was obvious he’d taken a dive into the river and had been doing this a while. Muscles bulged in his arms and his skin was tanned.

“Phil said you wanted to talk to me,” he said, shaking water from his hair.

Derrick was suddenly aware the two guys from the store were eying them. Damn, they had a tail.

“Pretend we’re talking about setting up a trip,” Derrick murmured as he gestured at the rafts. “I’m Special Agent Fox and this is Detective Reeves. What do you know about a woman named Patty Lasso?”

The guy’s friendly demeanor turned wary, but he motioned across the river as if telling them about the guided tour. “Patty and I dated a while back. She just up and left one day. I talked to the sheriff, was afraid something happened to her, but Sheriff Kincaid said he went to her house and found a note on her counter to the super. Said she needed a change and was leaving town.”

Derrick nodded and Ellie curled against Derrick as if they were a couple of tourists.

“Did you have any idea she was leaving?”

He gave a small shake of his head.

“Did you think something happened to her?” Ellie asked.

Reggie shrugged. “That last week before she left, she seemed jittery and anxious. When I asked what was wrong, she said nothing, only that she might have to leave town.”

“Have to?”

“Yeah. I got the impression she’d heard something she shouldn’t, that she was scared to talk about it.” He hefted two paddles over his shoulder. “Then she was gone.”

Clearly, a lot of people in Red River Rock were afraid to talk. “You didn’t hear from her after that?”

He pushed his wet hair from his forehead. “No, odd since she was friends with Jesse. Then… you know Jesse disappeared two days later.”

Apparently Reggie suspected something had happened to Patty. It was too much of a coincidence for her to leave one day and then Jesse two days later.

“Did Patty have family?” Ellie asked.

“I think she had a brother but she didn’t like to talk about him. Not sure about his story. But I got the impression he’d gotten jacked up with the law, maybe drugs.”

“Was she afraid of him?”

His jaw clenched. “Like I said, she wouldn’t talk to me about him. Maybe she was afraid. Could have been why she left town.”

A group of people walked by then, and he looked back to the river.

“Reggie, if you know something please tell me.”

“I told you what I know.” He pointed toward the booth in front of the outfitters’ store and raised his voice in case they had an audience. “You can sign up for the next trip up there. I’m done for the day.”

Derrick gave a nod of understanding.

Ellie tucked her hand in Derrick’s arm and scooched next to him, still in pretense although it felt damn good to be that close to him.

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