LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER 4

      I dropped my purse, screamed, and then clapped my hands to my mouth. I bent down to retrieve my purse, which had landed perilously close to Elwell’s outstretched hand. I spotted blood.

      A roar filled my head. I saw multiples of Elwell. Everything dimmed. I landed on my bum and skittered backward, dragging my purse until I bumped into something. Hands grabbed me under my armpits and hauled me up. I looked over my shoulder. Rhett let me go.

      “He’s dead.” I pointed at Elwell. “Dead. Call the police,” I said. My voice shook. I pressed a hand to my stomach.

      Rhett moved to my side and looked down at Elwell for a few seconds, his face creased. He took my arm and gently tugged me a few feet away, leaning me up against the back of the Sea Glass. “Are you okay?” His look was all wary concern. “Stupid question. No one could be.” He pulled out his phone, watching me closely while he input a number. One longer than 911.

      “Delores? This is Rhett. We’ve got a situation over at the Sea Glass.”

      Situation? I snatched the phone from him. “Delores, I don’t know who the heck you are, but what ‘we’ve’ got is a dead body.” I gulped in a couple of breaths. My legs suddenly seemed to give up the job they were meant to do. Rhett took the phone back from me. He leaned into me so I’d stay upright. His body warm against my cold one. He felt way better pressed up against me than I wanted him to. Way better.

      “Yeah, that’s right, there’s a dead body,” he said. “It’s Elwell.” He listened for a minute. “Okay. We’ll wait here.” After he hung up, Rhett turned to me. He looked so calm. Maybe too calm.

      “What are you doing out here anyway?” I asked.

      “You’re not the only one who sleeps on a boat. Although mine is a heck of a lot more comfortable than Boone’s.” His green eyes stared into my brown ones. “They don’t need to know I found you sleeping on Boone’s boat. A stranger, someone new in town, being around with Elwell dead.” He paused. “It wouldn’t look good for you. Far as I could tell, you were out for a mornin’ stroll. I heard you scream and came to your rescue.”

      I wanted to argue with the “rescued.” I didn’t need anyone to rescue me, but waves of emotion crashed through me. I nodded. He was probably right about the police. But why would he keep that secret for me—a stranger, as he said—when it was obvious that Elwell had been murdered. Maybe he had a secret of his own to keep.

      * * *

      An hour later, I stood off to one side of the action. I guess Delores was a dispatcher because the sheriff’s department personnel had shown up. Someone had handed me a bottle of water. Despite the increasing heat as the sun rose, I still shivered. Rhett was talking to a sheriff’s deputy, and they both kept looking over at me, which was kind of freaking me out. Okay, really freaking me out. I was a stranger in a strange land. I remember how it worked out in the book of the same name for the alien, and it wasn’t pretty. The deputy asked Rhett questions and jotted notes on a small spiral notebook. An occasional phrase drifted over.

      “I heard a woman scream.” They both looked over at me. “No, I’ve never seen her before.” Rhett’s voice changed on that one. His cadence quickened. It sounded like a lie to me, so surely the deputy would pick up on it, but he didn’t say a word. Maybe it was the good old boy network at play, or maybe the deputy didn’t notice. They obviously knew each other from the way they had greeted each other and did the man handshake hug thing. “Yeah, I’ve been sleeping on my boat.”

      I’d had numerous conversations with police officers before while working as a librarian. The library where I worked was in an urban area. Homeless people used it as a place to rest, read, or use the internet. Usually we didn’t have problems, but occasionally we did. Not only with them, but with men who came in to use the computers to watch porn, nannies who got in fights at story time, and kids who wandered off. But I’d never had a conversation with law enforcement officers after finding a dead man.

      While I waited, the loud voices at the bar last night kept rolling through my head. Maybe Vivi had noticed Elwell and his armadillo hat were scaring off the clientele too. Or maybe they had a history I knew nothing about. Or maybe it wasn’t even Elwell she had been arguing with.

      Vivi had shown up thirty minutes ago. She was all decked out, strappy sandals, carefully pressed linen pants, and hair styled so perfectly, it looked like she was ready for a photo shoot. Vivi eyed me from a distance, but the deputies wouldn’t let her near me. And believe me, she’d tried.

      The deputy finished up with Rhett and headed over to me. I took another shaky drink of my water. Tried to gather myself. Rhett walked off in the direction of Vivi, but she turned her back to him. He hesitated, glanced back at me, and strolled out of sight. The deputy stopped in front of me and squinted. His name tag said Biffle.

      “You doing okay? I’m Deputy Biffle. I’m with the Walton County Sheriff’s Department.” Officer Biffle was a beefy guy with a blond crew cut and a broad forehead. His mirrored aviator glasses reflected my anxious, round face. My short hair stuck up in all kinds of directions and my brown eyes looked scared. But his voice was kind and I relaxed just a little.

      “Considering the situation, I guess I’m okay.” I tried to shut down the image of the knife sticking out of Elwell’s neck, but didn’t have much luck.

      “Name?”

      “That’s Elwell Pugh.” I tipped my head toward the dumpster.

      “Your name?”

      “Oh, sorry. Of course. I’m rattled. Beyond rattled actually.” When he didn’t say more, I realized I still hadn’t answered his question. “Chloe. Chloe Jackson.”

      “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

      “Well, I don’t know what happened to Elwell. Not specifically. It looks like someone stabbed him,” I think he rolled his eyes behind those mirrored aviators, “with a channel knife.” A channel knife is a must-have tool for any bartender that’s used for making garnishes. Joaquín’s voice rolled through my head. Information he’d given me two days ago. Why was I thinking that at a time like this?

      “Why don’t you tell me about finding him?”

      “Yes.” I really needed to get Deputy Biffle on my side. I remembered I was living in the land of yes, ma’ams, and no, sirs. I’d better follow protocol. “Yes, sir.” I started at the point when I’d noticed Elwell’s foot by the dumpster and how Rhett had happened along. My heart pounded a little harder with the omission of sleeping on the boat and talking to Rhett.

      “What were you doing out here?” he asked.

      “Morning run.” Thud, thud, thud went my heart. I felt like the man in the opening of Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart”—“nervous—very,

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