I slanted a look at him. “You don’t believe it.”
“I believe he used,” he qualified. “We saw the paraphernalia. We saw him high yesterday. But he texted me in the middle of the night to set that meeting. People planning to help don’t usually plan to die before breakfast.”
My mouth twisted. “People planning not to die do it all the time.”
“Overdose is the preliminary ruling,” Daniel said. “I heard chatter from local LEOs over the radio driving in. As you said, they found paraphernalia, and with his record…” He trailed off, expression tightening.
Mild surprise flickered through me. “You’re on the radio how, exactly?”
“I’m Coast Guard. Task force covering drug traffic up and down this stretch of coast. We work pretty close with local agencies. Even when they don’t like it.”
“Ah.” What more was there to say than that?
“If they want to slap a bow on it, OD is easy,” Ford said. “People will believe it.”
The truth of that reality had me rising to Willie’s defense. “But he asked us to meet. Why would he reach out if he planned to get high enough to kill himself before we even got there? He was nervous, yes, but he wasn’t self-destructive. He was scared. There’s a difference.”
“Could’ve meant to do a little to take the edge off and misjudged the purity,” Daniel offered, though his tone suggested he didn’t quite buy it.
Gabi crossed her arms, doctor mode activated. “Did you see needle marks?”
“One on the inside of his elbow,” I admitted. “But with him? Could’ve been anything. I don’t think it was an opioid OD. No pinpoint pupils. No foam. His coloring wasn’t quite right for respiratory depression. And the timing doesn’t line up with what he told Rios.”
Daniel lifted his brows. “Damn. You’ve seen some things.”
A humorless smile tugged at my mouth. “My job put me in contact with a lot of witnesses who used. A lot of defendants, too. And that doesn’t touch the crime scene photos and police reports from other ODs. You learn patterns.”
“And this didn’t fit.” Rios’s voice was steady, but something colder lurked underneath. A steel thread I hadn’t noticed in him before.
“No,” I agreed. “It didn’t. He wasn’t weaving when we saw him last. He wasn’t sweating or shaking. His attention was scattered but coherent. He looked… overwhelmed. Not intoxicated. Not fully. He was in enough of his right mind to be aware he wasn’t in his right mind and needed to sober up before we talked further.”
“Withdrawal?” Ford asked.
“Maybe,” Gabi said. “But sudden death from withdrawal is rare. And his body position—face down, arm outstretched—doesn’t scream collapse. It screams… interruption.”
The room went quiet, weight settling over the conversation like humidity before a storm.
Sawyer broke it first. “Let’s say it wasn’t an accident. Why him? Why now?”
“Because he saw something,” Bree said bluntly. “That’s what you said, right? He saw someone getting assaulted behind Home Port. And now he’s conveniently dead? Come on. That’s not coincidence.”
Daniel scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Small islands breed a lot of rumors. But one thing I’ve learned working narcotics here—if someone needs to disappear, drugs make a great cover story. No one asks questions they don’t want the answers to.”
An icy shiver slipped beneath my skin. “He was trying to do something good. God, he was scared, and he still stepped up. And he ends up on a bathroom floor.”
I felt more than saw movement beside me. Rios’s hand slid briefly to my knee—steady pressure, warm, protective—before he pulled it back. He didn’t look at me. Didn’t acknowledge it.
I, on the other hand, forgot how breathing worked for a moment.
Willa spoke softly from her stool. “Could this be connected to Priya? If someone hurt her, maybe Willie saw something they didn’t want repeated.”
Ford set down his spoon with a quiet clank. “Hell of a coincidence if not.”
“Or deliberate timing,” Sawyer said. “Priya goes missing. Willie starts talking. Suddenly he’s dead.”
“But no signs of forced entry,” Gabi said. “No struggle.”
“Because whoever did it didn’t need force,” I murmured. “If you know someone’s habits—their vulnerabilities—you just need opportunity.”
