Page 52 of Forgotten Path
“Key West Airport?” The driver asked as she slid into the back seat and rested her bag at her feet.
“That’s right.”
Even with a layover at Miami International and a ninety-minute drive from the Tallahassee airport, flying to Oyster Point would be twice as fast as the drive poor Bodhi had made. That made the fact that there actually had been a chase vehicle behind Joel’s Jeep surprising. If it had been her, she’d have left the Jeep parked outside Joel’s motorhome, walked down the road to the restaurant, and called for a ride to the airport. The fact that the driver didn’t must mean that he was sufficiently worried about law enforcement pulling flight manifests that a twenty-three-hour round-trip drive was worth it.
But why not just leave the Jeep in Oyster Point?
She leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes to think. Returning the Jeep to Joel’s place did three related things. One, it made a casual observer think that Joel was somewhere in the Keys based on his Jeep parked outside his home. Two, it delayed the discovery that he’d been to Oyster Point—in fact, if Bodhi hadn’t spotted that loyalty card, they likely wouldn’t have found Joel’s body yet. Or ever. Three, it led the residents of Oyster Point to believe that their volunteer doctor had abandoned them, not that he was decomposing right under their noses.
She frowned. The smell would eventually have led someone to discover Joel’s rotting corpse. So, did the driver plan to eventually return to the clinic to dispose of the body? Why wait so long? Even if he didn’t get back to town until Sunday morning, he’d had four full days before Bodhi found Joel. Four days was ample time to sneak down to the marina under the cover of darkness, weigh down Joel’s body with chains, and roll him right into the water. It’s what she’d have done if she were a stone-cold murderer. Or a misguided, panicked person who’d accidentally killed him.
She opened her eyes. Her dark imagination served her well professionally, but it made the inside of her brain an unpleasant place.
Something wasn’t adding up. She hoped she’d piece it together once she was in Oyster Point. Even if she didn’t, she had todosomething. She couldn’t sit by the phone and wait for updates from Bodhi. And, if she was being honest, she was worried about the forensic pathologist wading into whatever had gotten Joel killed without backup.
Living by a creed to harm no other creature was all well and good for a Buddhist. But it was a seriously inconvenient moral principle when the Buddhist in question routinely stumbled into the middle of criminal investigations. She’d already lost one friend. If anything happened to Bodhi in Oyster Point, she’d never forgive herself.
She pulled out her phone and called the officer who’d been assigned to assist her with the investigation into what had happened to Joel. Despite her personal belief that this was a homicide investigation, officially, the department was calling it an unofficial inquiry into an unexplained death. All of which meant she was on shaky ground.
While she waited for Vick Medina to pick up the call, she cracked her knuckles, first on her left hand, then on her right. The cab driver met her eyes in the rearview mirror and winced. ’Nervous habit,’ she mouthed.
“Medina.”
“Hi, Vick. It’s Williams.”
“I thought you went to Oyster Point?”
“I’m on my way there now. I need you to stay on top of the phone company, okay?”
“Yeah, I’m on it.”
“We can’t get a subpoena. But it’s critically important to find out who called Joel the morning he died.”
“I get it, Felicia.”
She exhaled through her nose and went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “And his phone is missing, so the only way to get that information is—”
“From his mobile carrier.”
“Right.”
“Actually, that’s not right,” Medina told her.
“Excuse you?”
“Wecouldaccess Dr. Ashland’s customer account online.”
She sat up straighter. “You mean hack into it? Could our computer techs do that?”
“For sure. If you authorize it.”
“Yes, tell them to do it. It’s a good idea, Medina. Thinking outside the box. That’s what we need more of on this case.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Marco.”
“You know what? Use Ga-Eun instead. She’s the best.”
“Will do.”
