Deep Cover Detective

by LENA DIAZ,

  Oh, no. She suddenly recognized the voice. Eddie, what are you doing? She groaned and shook her head.

  Colton moved his left hand down between them, the back of his fingers skimming her calf as he slid the leg of his jeans up his boot.

  Silver blinked with horror when she saw why. He had a gun. It was strapped in a holster against the side of his boot.

  She grabbed his arm just as his fingers closed around the gun. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  He jerked his head around and frowned at her. “I’m a cop,” he whispered. “I’m an undercover detective with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Don’t worry. It’s okay.”

  A cop? Her stomach sank. Everything had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. And dangerous. He was about to ruin everything. She had to stop him. She shook her head back and forth. “Too dangerous,” she whispered back. “Someone could get hurt.”

  “Someone could get hurt or killed by that kid holding the pistol. Now stay down.” He pushed her hand off his arm.

  Silver clenched her fists. Danny was passing around the burlap bag while Colton slowly pulled his gun out of the holster, his gaze never leaving Eddie.

  This was a disaster waiting to happen. She had to protect Eddie. The gun in Eddie’s hand was shaking so hard Silver was afraid he was going to shoot someone by accident. And Colton had his gun completely out of the holster now.

  Silver leaned back and raised her right hand as if swatting away a bug. The movement caught Eddie’s attention, as intended. His head swiveled her way, and his eyes widened. Silver made a gun signal with her pointer finger and thumb and pointed at Colton’s back. It didn’t seem possible, but the gun in Eddie’s hand started to shake even more. He nodded, and Colton snapped his head around to look at her suspiciously.

  She dropped her hand from behind his back and gave him a nervous smile.

  His eyebrows slashed down and he whipped his head back toward Eddie.

  “Your jewelry, Silver,” Danny said, pushing the bag toward her.

  She hesitated, glancing from Colton to Eddie. They were staring at each other like two gunmen about to have a shoot-out.

  Do something. You have to stop this before someone gets hurt.

  Silver started to pull her necklace over her head.

  Eddie turned his gun away from Danny and toward Colton.

  Colton started to bring his gun up.

  Silver dropped her necklace and it clattered against the floor of the boat in front of Colton. “Oh, darn it. Sorry.” She braced her right hand on his shoulder and leaned across him.

  “Out of the way,” he snapped.

  “Sorry, sorry, oops.” She fell across his lap, slamming her right arm on top of his gun arm and trapping it between her breasts and his lap.

  She jerked her head up and looked at Eddie. Go, she silently mouthed to him.

  He whipped around and ran for the trees.

  Colton swore and tried to yank his gun out from beneath her, but she clung to him like pine sap on a brand-new paint job. He looked toward the bank, then shook his head and looked back at her. His glare was so fierce she was surprised she didn’t turn into a human torch on the spot.

  “I should arrest you right now,” he growled. “You let him get away on purpose.”

  “I fell.” She blinked innocently and braced her hands on his thighs, pushing herself upright.

  He swore viciously and let his gun slide back into the holster, then yanked his pants leg down over it. No one seemed to have even noticed his gun. The rest of the passengers were all chattering excitedly. And Danny had turned away to try to comfort a loudly crying woman.

  Colton leaned down toward Silver, his face a menacing mask of anger. “Until I figure out my next step, you keep quiet. Not a word to anyone about me being a cop or I will arrest you. Got that?”

  Bristling at his tone but understanding his anger, she decided to comply—for now—and gave him a curt nod.

  He crossed his arms and looked away, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of her anymore.

  A hand touched her left shoulder. The woman who’d been so excited by the egrets earlier looked ready to pass out. Her eyes were like round moons brimming with tears about to spill down her cheeks.

  Her lips trembled as she whispered, “I can’t believe we were almost robbed. We could have been killed.”

  Silver’s heart tugged at the poor woman’s fear. Her own anger at Eddie probably rivaled Colton’s anger with her. Thank God, no one had gotten shot, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t been hurt. This poor woman, and others, would probably have nightmares and no telling what other lasting effects because of Eddie’s stupid stunt. Silver squeezed the woman’s hand and pulled her into a hug, rocking her and patting her back as she tried to soothe her.

  “You’ll want to take the boat to the main dock where everyone’s cars are parked.” Colton’s deep voice cut through the conversations around them as he addressed Danny. “We’ll have cell phone coverage there and can call the police to report the gunman.”

  Danny hesitated, then nodded. “Right. Of course. Um, ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for the fright you just had. The tour is over. We’re returning to the south dock.” He gave Colton another curious look before using the pole to push the boat off the mud.

  Chapter Five

  Colton switched his cell phone to his other ear and leaned against the police cruiser as he and his boss debated his next move. The airboat captain had brought the tourists to this main dock near the Interstate. This was where the tourists had parked their cars earlier this morning before being taken in the boats to Mystic Glades for breakfast.

  Half a parking lot away, on the mini-boardwalk outside Buddy’s Boats Boutique, a team of four Collier County Sheriff’s deputies were interviewing the few remaining airboat riders. Most of them had already given their statements and had been allowed to go. Only Silver, Danny Thompson and a couple of others were left.

  A different group of deputies had taken one of the department’s airboats out earlier, with Danny as their guide, to the spot where the gunman had been, in order to search for clues. But other than some muddy footprints that the soggy marsh had rendered useless as evidence, there wasn’t much to find. And no trace of the gunman. They’d brought Danny back and now those deputies were already on their way back to Naples.

  As Colton listened to Drew, some of the store’s staff members came outside on another one of their rounds, checking on everyone and passing out bottles of water—at four bucks a pop. Colton supposed that was entrepreneur Buddy Johnson’s brand of Southern hospitality.

  “Okay,” Drew said. “Since the B and B owner interfered and it’s unlikely the perp even saw your gun, what do you think had him spooked?”

  “Miss Westbrook must have signaled him, warned him, just before she threw herself on me so I couldn’t draw my gun.”

  “You think she interfered on purpose?”

  “Yes. But I can’t prove it. When I drove into Mystic Glades and saw Eddie talking to her, I should have confronted her then and there. Instead, before I continued to the B and B, I waited to see what they would do. Eddie disappeared. And Miss Westbrook’s been playing cat and mouse with me ever since. Did she interfere on purpose? I’d bet my next raise on it.”

  “All right. Then how do you want to play this?” Drew asked.

  He’d already given it some thought and knew exactly what he wanted to do. Namely, get out of Mystic Glades. “Once all the passengers have been interviewed, the airboat captain is going to take Miss Westbrook and me back to the dock in Mystic Glades. Once there, I’ll arrest her and drive her to the station for an interrogation. And while I’m working on getting her confession, one of our guys can get a search warrant for the inn. My statement that I saw that blue vase should be good enough to get a judge’s signature.”

  He kept an eye on Silver while his boss considered his recommendation. She seemed to have made it her personal mission to help the mostly older crowd of
tourists after each one of them was interviewed by the police. She hugged them as if they were old friends, put her arms around their shoulders and helped them to their cars. Anyone watching her would think she was a saint and that she really cared about those people. And yet she was covering for the man who’d pointed a gun at them. It didn’t make sense.

  “What about Rafferty?” Drew asked. “Can you peg him as the gunman?”

  Colton thought about it. “My gut tells me it was him. But he had his entire face covered, and since he wore a ball cap, I couldn’t even tell you his hair color. No way could I swear in court that it was him. A defense attorney would hear me describe the guy as Caucasian, average height and build, and then he’d remind the jury that half the people in the country could be described that way.”

  “All right. Then, basically, this is where I think we stand. Your cover as a tourist is still intact with everyone except Miss Westbrook. If we can ensure her silence, you can still hang around Mystic Glades and try to get in with the town gossips, or maybe listen in at the bar you mentioned. Someone is bound to know where Rafferty’s hiding and give him up. Then you can confront him, lie, tell him we’ve got his prints at one of the burglarized homes or something. Get him to roll over on the ringleader.”

  Colton straightened away from the police car. “Hold it. What are you saying? There’s no way we can trust Westbrook.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. You told her not to tell the other tourists that you were a cop. From what you’ve said, she’s kept her word.”

  “Only because either I or one of the other deputies has been with her the whole time. She hasn’t had an opportunity to spill the truth. We have no way of knowing whether she’ll continue to keep quiet.”

  “Then you’ll have to stay with her. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

  “Drew—”

  “It’s not a request, Colton. You’ve spent months and plenty of resources on this case. Other than pegging a few minor players that we agreed wouldn’t have access to the man at the top of the food chain, we’ve got nothing. We were putting all our chips on Rafferty because he seemed knee-deep in this thing and might lead us to the higher-ups. But if he was the gunman today, then it’s a safe bet that he’s going to lie low for a while. I want you to try to flush him out, but we have to consider that the ship may have sailed. Which leaves us with Westbrook as our only link to the whole ring. That’s the angle you need to work.”

  “I can work it by hauling her to the station and interrogating her.”

  “Or you can go back to the bed-and-breakfast, threaten to arrest her for interfering with a police investigation if she doesn’t cooperate, then step back and see what happens. If she thinks the jig is up, she’ll want to warn the other members of the burglary ring. My guess is she’ll do that after she thinks you’re asleep. So follow her. See where she goes.”

  Colton shook his head in frustration. Drew’s plan was too risky. Rafferty had already gotten away and might not be seen again. What if Silver slipped away, too? It would be far safer to take her into custody right now. And although he’d never admit it out loud to Drew, in spite of everything that had happened, he was worried about her.

  He knew her type, how her creative mind worked, from growing up with a sister much like her. To Silver, the world was a fascinating, enchanting place full of interesting people and things to study and capture in some kind of medium. She judged people based on their faces, voices, maybe even the colors they wore. She put faith and trust where it wasn’t always warranted. To someone like her, “bad guys” could be hard-luck cases and she felt sorry for them. He doubted she saw true evil in anyone. And that made her particularly vulnerable.

  In spite of how angry she’d made him by risking her life and throwing herself on him when he was pulling out his gun, he was also shaken that he could have hurt her. And damn it, he didn’t want her hurt. Even though she frustrated the heck out of him, and was likely involved with the criminals he was after, she didn’t strike him as a “bad” person. His instincts, honed from years of working with some of the worst excuses for humanity out there, told him that by most people’s measures she was probably a “good” person who’d gotten caught up in something and didn’t know how to get out of it.

  But that didn’t mean he’d go easy on her. She needed a wake-up call before she got hurt or her misplaced loyalties got someone else hurt.

  “Colton? You still there?” Drew asked.

  “Unfortunately. I still think that bringing her in is the better plan, the safer one.”

  “When you’re the boss, you can make that decision. Until then, give our B and B owner enough rope to hang herself. Let her lead you to the burglary ring leader and end this thing once and for all.”

  * * *

  SILVER SPENT THE airboat ride back to Mystic Glades trying to think of some way to get rid of Colton Graham. Since throwing him overboard would likely get her arrested or force her to jump into the gator-infested swamp to save him, she discarded that notion, no matter how tempting. And she couldn’t think of a reasonable excuse to toss him out of the B and B, nothing that wouldn’t raise his suspicions even more than they already were.

  She’d expected him to barrage her with questions the whole trip back, but instead he’d stared out over the water and occasional spans of saw grass and trees, as if he were deep in thought. Even the scores of alligators they passed, lying on the banks sunning themselves, didn’t shake him from his silence.

  A few minutes later, Danny cut the noisy engine and steered the boat toward the landing. As soon as it bumped against the dock, Silver was out of her seat. But before she could hop out and leave her unwanted guest behind, his right hand clamped around her left wrist like an iron band.

  She shook her arm, trying to make him let go. “What are you doing?”

  “We need to talk.” He stepped onto the dock and helped her out, but then his hand was around her wrist again, an unbreakable vise.

  “Silver?” Danny eyed Colton’s hand on her wrist as he stepped onto the dock and tied off the boat. “Everything okay here?”

  Colton aimed a warning look her way. It wasn’t necessary. She hadn’t forgotten his vow to arrest her if she told any civilians that he was a police officer. And even though he’d shown her no ID to prove his claim, the deputy who’d interviewed her back at the south dock had assured her—in answer to her whispered question—that Colton was definitely a Collier County deputy. Which meant his threat to arrest her was probably quite real.

  She forced a smile, appreciating that the boat captain was always so nice to her, even though they’d only met a few months ago when Buddy hired him for his latest venture. “No worries, Danny. Colton is...an old friend. Everything’s fine.” She leaned against Colton and patted his chest when she would rather have punched him.

  He played along, letting her wrist go and anchoring his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close and very tightly against him. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

  She subtly pressed the heel of her sneaker on top of the toe of his left boot and shifted all her weight onto it while smiling at Danny as if nothing were going on. Colton grunted and eased the pressure of his arm around her. She rewarded him by moving her foot.

  Danny’s eyebrows climbed into his hairline. “Oh, okay. I didn’t know.” He slowly grinned and gave Silver a wink. “I thought there might be something going on between you two. You were whispering quite a bit on the boat earlier. Y’all have fun, um, catching up.” He winked again and tipped his baseball cap. Then he headed into the little shack at the entrance to the dock, probably to lock up for the day, since the other boats were already tied up, having long ago ended their tours.

  Silver stared at the closed door. Great. Danny had obviously jumped to the conclusion that she and Colton were lovers. By tomorrow the whole town would think the same thing. But what was the alternative? Telling him the truth? That wouldn’t do.

  “Come on.” Colton grabbed her hand and tugge
d her away from the building. They headed through the edge of the woods and a few minutes later emerged onto the street near the church.

  After being towed along like a child’s toy, Silver couldn’t stand it anymore. She stopped and pushed at his hand. “Let me go. I’m not yours to pull around and manhandle no matter what threats you throw around.”

  He immediately dropped her hand and faced her. “Are you going to try to run away again?”

  “Again? I never tried to run away.”

  “Oh? When you hightailed it out of the restaurant this morning, you weren’t trying to get away from me?”

  “I, uh, needed to talk to Buddy.”

  “Right. And you wanted to get on a different boat than me.”

  She frowned at him. “So? It’s not like we knew each other.”

  “We know each other now. And you still tried to hop out of the boat and take off before I could catch up. If you don’t like me, that’s one thing. You’re entitled. But let’s set the record straight between us. I’m a police officer and I believe you know something about that attempted robbery today, among other things. You may have been interviewed once already, but you’re about to be interviewed again. By me. And you’d better not lie anymore. I won’t stand for it.” He leaned down toward her, obviously using his size to try to intimidate her.

  And it was working, but not the way he thought. Instead of scaring her, he was pissing her off.

  “We also need to discuss that lovely blue vase sitting behind the desk at your inn,” he continued, oblivious of the war going on inside her. “Because you and I both know you didn’t buy it, not the honest way at least.”

  Shoot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “What we’re talking about is you receiving stolen property. And make no mistake, that vase is definitely stolen. That’s just a fact. The who and why are what I’m going to find out. If you don’t want me holding your hand, then you’d better not do anything to make me think you’re trying to get away. One wrong step and I’ll slap a pair of handcuffs on you.”

  “Oh, good grief. That’s quite enough with the caveman routine.” She put her hands on her hips. “If you’re going to make threats, at least make ones I’ll believe. Taking out handcuffs would ruin your plan to not let anyone else know your—” she did air quotes “—supersecret occupation. After all, we’re on a public street. Someone is bound to look out a window and notice.”