"What!?”
"You know, shark-themed parties,” Teagan said. “Shark shots, shark cocktails, some people are even dressing up in costumes. Every bar on the strip now suddenly has a signature shark drink. The Sharktini, the Mako Margarita. I think my favorite is the Hammered Head.”
“We are not doing a shark cocktail here,” I said.
“Of course not. It’s in poor taste.”
About the time we finished eating, my phone buzzed with a call from an unknown number. I swiped the screen and held the device to my ear. “This is Deputy Wild.”
“Deputy, this is Richard Scott. Is now a good time to talk?”
15
"I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get in touch, but I really haven't been able to bring myself to discuss this any sooner," Richard said.
"I understand,” I said.
"Can you tell me exactly what happened?”
I gave him an overview, leaving out specific details. "I spoke at length with your wife. There was clearly a lot of tension between you and your daughter.”
"Yes, there was, which makes something like this all the more difficult. So many aspects of our relationship will never be resolved.”
“I can only imagine,” I said in a sympathetic voice. “Your wife said Eden had two prior suicide attempts. Did she express any intentions of self-harm to you recently?”
“She didn’t express much to me other than her contempt.”
“This is a difficult and painful subject, I’m sure. But was there any merit to the allegations of sexual misconduct?”
The line went silent for a moment. I expected him to hang up.
“I don’t even want to dignify that with a response,” he said in a disgusted voice. “The allegations were absurd. She has publicly recanted her prior statements. Baseless accusations whose sole purpose was to drive a stake through my heart. And that it did. Despite our differences, I loved Eden. I gave her every opportunity to reconcile. My heart is truly broken.”
“Tell me about the lawsuit.”
“It was an unfortunate necessity. She didn’t take any of my threats seriously. I had to take action.”
“Threats?”
“I warned her on numerous occasions that I would take legal action if she persisted,” he said in a frustrated breath.
“Can you think of anyone who may have wanted to harm her?”
“She ran with a crowd of degenerates. Take your pick. You can’t flirt with the devil and not face the consequences.”
“When do you plan on returning to Coconut Key?”
“We have a flight back this evening.”
“Please get in touch if you think of anything that might be helpful.”
“Have you made a determination? Was this, in fact, a homicide?”
“We believe so.”
“Please find out who killed my daughter.”
“We will do our best,” I assured before ending the call.
