Walters was a pig, plain and simple.
Her skin prickled as his cool gaze raked over her.When Ryan looked at her that way, she felt warm all over.But Walters?He made her blood run cold.
“I’ll imagine what I want, Nurse Nielsen.Whenever I want.I saw the others watching me this morning,” he added, his voice growing colder.“Funny how they happened to be eating breakfast at the same time as me, yet you were nowhere in sight.”
Ignoring him, she strode over to the table where her friends were.She could feel his eyes on her the entire way, and by the time she sank down into a chair, she was practically vibrating with anger.
“What happened?”Luciana asked.
“He was sexually harassing me is what happened.What a dick.”
The other women looked at her sympathetically.“He knows you have a boyfriend,” Luciana told her.“He’s just jealous you’re not giving him the attention he wants.”
“He’s disgusting is what he is,” Avery said, feeling some of her anger wash away now that she was seated with her friends.Her stomach rumbled.“And he’s suspicious now since you were both here without me this morning.I’m going to grab some breakfast and we can talk.Just give me a minute.”
“Did you find anything in the tents?”Luciana asked a few minutes later when Avery was back at the table with her tray of food.
Avery shook her head, taking a sip of her steaming cup of coffee.“Not a box out of place.Whatever you saw him with last night isn’t in the tents.I think we need to search the storage closet.”
Ada nodded.“Si.It’s a big space with lots of things inside.Some of it is organized on shelves, and some things are just stacked up haphazardly.It would be relatively easy to move boxes in and out without drawing too much attention.It’s not as secure though.Many people have keys.”
“Exactly.I think he was keeping some boxes in the tents’ storage cabinets until he realized we noticed.”
“You mentioned he was suspicious this morning.What did he say?”Luciana asked.
Avery eyed the other nurses.“He noticed you were both here earlier and without me.Walters seemed to think we were up to something.”
“Because he’s feeling guilty,” Luciana said knowingly.
“Probably, but we can’t prove anything.We don’t even know what he’s involved with.I can’t imagine what it is aside from drugs.Is he working with the cartels in some capacity?”Avery asked in a hushed tone.
“I don’t know,” Luciana said with a frown.“The cartels move a vast amount of merchandise.A few cardboard boxes left with Walters seems like more trouble than it’s worth for them.The cartels are large and don’t need an American to move goods, especially not here in their own turf.”
“Valid point.Unless he’s buying drugs from them,” Avery mused.
“Huh.Could be a possibility,” Luciana agreed.“But what’s he doing with them?Selling them here in the village?Using them?”
“Maybe he packs illegal narcotics in plain boxes to look more innocuous and then sends them somewhere,” Ada said.
“Maybe,” Avery said, feeling doubtful.“But if so, he’s not shipping them from the village.Why move them into our storage units at all?We do occasionally go back and forth to Panama City, but again, it doesn’t make sense.He was picking up boxes then, not shipping anything.
Ada frowned.“Maybe he has something they want, and he’s storing it for the cartels.”
“Cash?”Avery asked.“Other types of drugs?He looked a bit jumpy the other day, but I’m not sure if he’s using anything himself.”Avery wracked her brain, trying to remember what specifically they’d been doing when she’d noticed he’d gone pale the other day.Aside from that one moment, nothing had been out of the ordinary.Until he’d disappeared, that is.
“If he’s working with them, it must be mutually beneficial,” Luciana said.
“Then what are we missing?”Avery asked.“If not drugs or money, which are easy enough for the cartels to acquire without him, what is Walters involved with?”