Chrissy shook her head dolefully and relayed what little she remembered. When she got to the part about Winston, she choked up.
Jill pulled a flowered handkerchief from the depths of her impressive cleavage and dabbed at Chrissy’s cheeks. “And you didn’t recognize them?” she asked. “I mean, if they were using the warehouse, they were locals, don’t you think? Who else would dare go in there?”
“It was so dark,” Chrissy whispered. “The big guy looked familiar somehow, but I can’t put my finger on where I’ve seen him.”
“Gotta be something to do with drugs,” Janice posited.
“Not necessarily.” Jill frowned. “Maybe it was mob related. Maybe the diver had fitted a rat with some cement galoshes, and Chrissy and Winston caught him after he came up from stuffing the body under the pier.”
“Jesus, that’s dark.” Judy grimaced.
Newspaper Man Fred shook his head. “No way. The mob moved out of Florida years ago. And any organized crime that’s left is in Miami, not Key West.”
Jill hitched a shoulder. “I’m just saying it doesn’thaveto be about drugs. Why do we always jump straight to drugs?”
“Because the simplest answer is usually the right one,” Fred insisted.
“Is that what you’re going to print in tomorrow’s paper?”
Fred scoffed. “You know me better than that. I won’t print anything I don’t get from the horse’s mouth.” He turned to Chrissy. “You’re lucky it’s Detective Dixon working the case.”
Chrissy’s brow furrowed. “Why?”
“Most of the local yokels wouldn’t know their butts from a pan of buttered biscuits much less how to work an attempted murder investigation.”
When Jill opened her mouth to argue, Fred lifted a staying hand. “Now, I’m not saying that to besmirch my fellow Conchs, Jilly Bean. Don’t get your back up. My point is, the local boys don’t have experience with this kind of thing.”
“And this Dixon fellow does?” Judy lifted an eyebrow that was fire-engine red and plucked into a death-defying arch.
“He worked narcotics in Miami for twenty years before moving here to get away from it all.” Fred made a face. “Looks like trouble followed him, though.”
Funny how that happens,Wolf mused, remembering how many scrapes and skirmishes he and the rest of the Deep Six crew had fought since bugging out of the Navy.
He’d thought the Navy SEAL motto,the only easy day was yesterday,would stop being true once they became bona fide civilians. But like Detective Dixon, their past kept catching up with them whether they wanted it to or not.
And they most definitely didnotwant it to.
Of their own accord, his fingers moved to the scar he’d received courtesy of one pissed off Iranian admiral bent on revenge. The Navy didn’t tell guys before signing them up for BUD/S training, but being a SEAL meant getting up close andrealpersonal with some of the world’s ugliest operators. Sometimes those operators didn’t forget about you simply because you quit the biz.
“What can we do for you, Chrissy, my dear?” Judy pulled Wolf from his dark musings.
“I’m fine. It’s Winston we need to worry about.” Chrissy forgot about her wounded shoulder and shrugged. The resulting pain completely blanched her already pale face of whatever color had remained.
Wolf suddenly felt as if a whole herd of buffalo stampeded across his chest. “Okay.” He clapped his hands. “Out.”
Jill scowled at him. “Are you asking us or telling us?”
“How about we agree you can tell folks I asked?”
Jill puffed up like a disgruntled game hen, eyeing Wolf as if she meant to give him a piece of her mind. Something in his face must’ve made her reconsider. She deflated and turned to Chrissy. There was a small grin playing around her mouth when she said, “Your man has an economical way with words.”
“He’s not my man.”
Damned if Wolf didn’t feel a knife slice of disappointment that Chrissy was so quick with her correction.
Jill gave him the once-over and leaned in to stage whisper to Chrissy, “Well, why not? Have you seen him?”
Afraid Chrissy might actually mention The Night That Shall Not Be Named—shewasstill a little stoned on drugs, after all—he rounded the hospital bed, herding the locals along as he went. “I’m sure Chrissy would love to see y’all again tomorrow. Duringvisitin’ hours,” he stressed this last part.
