Page 31 of Bait and Switch
“You’re the only person he asked about.”
“How the fuck did he know I was here, then? For the life of me, I cannot figure out how he could have traced me to Heartstone.”
“Does it matter?” Watching him closely, Casey scooped the last bite out of his bowl. “Your dessert is melting.”
Karne shot him a glance before answering. He stirred the softened ice cream and spooned some into his mouth. A little bit ended up on his top lip, and he stuck his lip out and licked it off. Slowly.
Not sexy, Casey reminded himself. His reaction was ludicrous. After years of no serious sexual interest in another human, he did not need his libido coming online for a sketchy con man. Lucky for him, the cat chose that moment to startle and jump back into his lap, clawing his thigh in the process.
“Colavitos.” The word came out so fast Casey almost missed it.
“Say again? Slowly this time.”
“The Colavitos,” Karne repeated through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, you’ve mentioned them before.”
Gabe’s eyes rolled up to the ceiling for a second.
“Is there more I need to know?Weneed to know?”
Casey was the recipient of a dirty look before he got his answer.
“I mean,theyare who Peter and I pissed off, remember?Theyare why I’m here—them and my mother’s letter.” He tapped his chin and looked thoughtful. “Actually, that letter had more to do with my arrival here specifically than the Colavitos. If not for her, I would’ve headed south to Venice Beach or the border.”
“So, the Colavitos followed you here. Or, possibly, they followed Peter?”
“I don’t know what to think. Maybe they did follow Peter. But, and I ask you this in all seriousness, what the fuck? Nothing makes sense! If they followed him, offed him, and dumped him on theShangri-La, why didn’t they kill me too? I mean, I was literally thirty feet away!”
“You weren’t here when Vale was dumped,” Casey felt the need to point out.
“No, I wasn’t. But theystillleft theTicketalone. If the Colavitos are behind this, it seems they—at the very least—would have ransacked my boat. They’re pissed. Only offing Peter alone wouldn’t be enough. They said they want to destroy both of us if they catch us on their turf, and they don’t care how they do it. This is why I’m starting to think maybe it wasn’t them. If Larry Colavito and, or, his henchmen were on the island, I think everyone would know it. Larry does not believe in the word subtle.”
“Noted. What else did you find out?”
Gabe was peering inside his mug. He frowned, apparently disappointed that his ice cream had disappeared. Karne lifted his head and caught Casey watching him—and grinned. A full-on, no-holds-barred grin that was almost blinding. No doubtabout it, that grin was going to be a problem. Charming Fucker as a whole? Also a problem.
“What else?” Gabe blinked at him. “Oh, you mean from my super fun session with the cops today. They don’t have a suspect other than me to focus on, and they don’t plan on looking that hard. At least, that utter toad, Deputy Spurring, isn’t looking anywhere else. I didn’t get to experience the joy of Rizzi this morning. Which means it’s up to me to get myself out of this mess—again.”
Casey pressed his lips together for a second. Footage of Gabriel Karne wreaking havoc across Heartstone and elsewhere as he turned every stone looking for a killer streamed across his mental screen. What he imagined was not so much the turning of stones but tossing, throwing, and lobbing, and not caring where the rocks landed as long as he wasn’t the one in the hot seat. He also wasn’t shocked that the Sheriff’s Office had wanted to interview Charming again.
“Did anyone aside from Spurring question you this time?”
Casey and Greta had stopped by the station after coming down the mountain. It was their duty to let the officers know what Carlos had said about a possible sighting of Calvin Perkins. Rizzi had been less than thrilled to see them and had half-heartedly jotted down notes while a wet-behind-the-ears trainee deputy had watched him. But maybe his attitude had more to do with Gabriel Karne than Casey’s appearance at the station.
“Nope. He smells like dirty gym socks. Or it was the room, could’ve been both.”
What was Rizzi up to? Casey had expected him to at least display some kind of interest over the fact there’d been a possible sighting of his nephew.
Instead, the man had stared impassively at Casey and Greta from behind his gunmetal gray desk and dismissed them with a curt “Thank you” and then picked up his phone, but he’d waiteduntil they’d turned to leave to punch in a number. Glancing back over his shoulder, Casey’d seen an almost calculating expression cross the sheriff’s face, but it went blank when he realized Casey was watching him.
“Was that weird?” Greta had asked him on their way back to the truck. “I think that was weird, even for Rizzi.”
Casey agreed with her. As far as he was concerned, Rizzi was a misfortune the citizens of the county were forced to suffer through until the man decided to retire. Unfortunately, Casey’s opinion was not the popular one, considering Rizzi ran unopposed every four years. The man was dirty, and Casey just hadn’t figured out how to prove it yet, not even with the shooting of Deter Nolan.
The Sheriff’s Office released a public statement almost immediately after the “self-defense” shooting of the deputy. It hadn’t gone into detail, only stating that Nolan had drawn first with intent to harm and Rizzi had reacted. The sheriff was cleared of any wrongdoing—easy to do when you were the one in charge.
Karne and a freaked-out Gordon MacDonald were the only witnesses to the shooting, and Nolan had been abducting MacDonald, so maybe Rizzi had been justified. But damn it had been fast. And Casey couldn’t help but think he’d arrived at the hospital prepared for violence.
