Page 51 of The Last Grift
Lundin nodded. “That seems to sum it up. Look, I don’t particularly like you, but I feel the need to warn you to be careful if you decide to keep poking around. The sheriff is not to be messed with.”
Gabe almost told Lundin that he didn’t like him either but restrained himself. He wasn’t eight and they weren’t in elementary school. Instead, he chose the high road. Rising from the uncomfortable chair he slipped his hands into his pockets, doing his best to look up to good.
“Noted. How friendly were you with Gordon? Any fresh ideas where he might be if he hasn’t already met the same fate as Dwayne? If you could come up with a list, I’ll get out of your hair.”
The computer binged, indicating emails arriving or some other notification. Lundin frowned at the screen for a minute and then dragged his attention back to Gabriel.
“Excuse me. More bureaucratic bullshit I have to deal with before my day really starts.” He squinted at the screen, clicked something, and looked back at Gabriel, shooting him another hard look. How many of those did he have stored away? “You should probably keep your nose out of trouble.” His tone was somehow both condescending and scolding. “Oh, and,” Lundin added, “I’ll be the one to tell Elton about finding Gordon’s truck.”
Gabriel shot Lundin another glance of disgust. The urge to inflict some sort of incidental violence rose like a fucking king tide. Maybe he’d find a Sharpie and vandalize TheBarbarawith childish graffiti. Except theBarbarawas a pretty boat and didn’t deserve it.
“Good luck with that. The cops were planning on being athis place this morning to take his statement. They’re probably there right now.”
Turning on his heel, Gabe left the building and was rewarded by a reverberating bang when he slammed the door shut behind him.
Until he heard otherwise, he’d keep looking for Gordon on his own. It was better than stewing about the other trouble he was in.
TWENTY-TWO
GABRIEL
Friday
After leavingthe infuriating Ranger Man behind, Gabriel wasn’t ready to retreat to Elton’s. He was tempted to hunt down Sheriff Rizzi and ask him a few pointed questions though. Maybe more than a few, but he probably wouldn’t get any answers. However, not being on the sheriff’s radar—yet—was a good thing, so he set that idea aside. On top of it all, Gabe was kicking himself for having no way of knowing if the deputies had been to Elton’s and left already or if they’d even shown up at all.
“I need a goddamn phone.”
He put “buy burner phone” back onto his mental to-do list. Again. Although he was kind of getting used to not having one. Not having a phone meant no Unknown Caller popping up on the screen. Tuesday, he’d actually dug a map out of the Honda’s glove compartment and used it to navigate. A real Boy Scout. Why Heidi had stored a map in the Honda, he had no idea.
It was still early, by Gabe’s standards anyway, so he decidedto return to the marina and do something more to clean up theTicket. There was likely some risk in leaving his car parked there, exposed for anyone who drove past, especially the sheriff. But unless he wanted to get rid of the Honda—and he didn’t, a new car would be a pain—or leave Heartstone altogether, he would have to risk it. He wasn’t ready to run again, he’d been on the island less than a week.
Besides, he owed Elton some groceries and more cooking, it seemed like Gordon MacDonald wasn’t going to turn up on his own, and Dwayne Perkins wasn’t about to return to the living. At least, hopefully not. Dwayne had definitely seemed like the type to morph into a zombie.
On the other hand, Gabe reminded himself, he’d been fined a C-noteandfound Dwayne’s dead body since arriving. But he still didn’t want to think about leaving yet. Besides, where would he go?
Shit.
Another, more disturbing thought made itself known. Was he starting to like it here? After less than a week? No, it couldn’t be. Even as the thought crossed his mind, Gabe knew he was lying to himself.
Well, fuck.
Personal attachment was something Gabriel had generally avoided in personal and business relationships his entire life. When he’d been younger, Heidi had never encouraged friends. And there’d only been a single instance as an adult when he’d remotely considered settling down, and boy howdy, hadn’t that gone up in a huge ball of flames? As for putting down roots that weren’t tied to taking advantage of someone? That wasn’t something he’d thought about doing for years. There’d always been a new opportunity somewhere else.
He must have been eleven or twelve, tired of moving, changing schools, and making new friends, when he’d—to hisinstant regret—complained to Heidi about it. His mother had not been impressed, and Gabriel had been on the receiving end of a cold, clipped lecture.
“It’s not all about you, Chance, and I’m the only person keeping you from living on the streets like a lot of kids are these days. I could drop you off at the children’s home anytime. Suck it up.”
Heidi had been very good at casual cruelty. Gabe had never understood if self-preservation or selfishness was at the root of it. Probably some of both. Whichever it was, it’d cured Gabe of his desire to stay put pretty quick.
He pulled in as close to the storage shed as possible, tucking the Honda in so it could be seen from only one direction. Unlocking and opening the gate, he strode down the pier to his inheritance.
To Gabe’s disappointment, the cleaning fairy had not visited over the past day and a half, although the interior of the sailboat wasn’t as bad as he remembered it. Still, the half-cleaned-up look was plain depressing. Stripping out of his coat, he pulled on the sweatshirt he’d left from the last time he’d been aboard and got down to work. The damn boat wasn’t going to clean itself.
An hour or so later, and several more passes with the disinfectant spray and work towels, Gabriel stopped and glanced around, pleased with what he saw. He could stay there that night if he wanted, possibly for the foreseeable future—barring fixing the head and shower. The bunk was critter free and he’d even made it up with the bedding Elton had given him. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to rough it, and it was better than the cramped Honda. And he didn’t want to take advantage of Elton; Gabe knew Elton would be fine with him staying longer, but he wasn’t.
“Not bad, not bad atall.”
Gabe was bringingthe trash bags out to the car so he could drop them off at the closest transfer station at a later date when he heard sirens in the distance. Disoriented by the unpredictable way sound moved across water, he at first couldn’t tell where the sound originated. Spinning in a slow circle, it took a second before he realized the wail came from the direction of the spit and was getting closer.
