Breakwater

“Something like that. That’s what she told Harlowe.”

Juliet sat back in her chair. “Ospreys. That’s a new one. Harlowe didn’t get a plate number of the Lincoln that picked up Alicia Miller?”

“No. She only caught a glimpse of the car. She did what she could to find her friend. Checked the woman’s apartment and her office, made a few calls to friends and colleagues. Then she drove down to her cottage.”

“McCabe give you all this?” Juliet asked skeptically.

“He managed to get to Diego Clemente. Then Diego called me.”

She shifted in her chair, her concern plain on her face. “McCabe knows his safety is paramount, doesn’t he? He’s not to take unnecessary risks.”

“Clemente says he reminded him.”

“And?”

Nate let his gaze settle on Juliet for a moment. “McCabe told him all risks are unnecessary. Otherwise they wouldn’t be risks.” He grimaced. A dangerous, delicate undercover investigation depended on a man Nate didn’t know. “I have a feeling that’s a typical Huck McCabe answer.”

“What about Gerard Lattimore?” Juliet asked. “Alicia Miller worked for him. Until January, so did Harlowe. He and Oliver Crawford are longtime friends—”

“I’ll speak with Eliza Abrams,” Nate interrupted, well aware of the facts, none of which he liked. Abrams was the U.S. attorney overseeing the vigilante investigation on behalf of the Department of Justice. “I expect she’ll want to give this thing some time. If Alicia Miller was in the middle of a mental breakdown, it’s possible her death had nothing to do with our investigation. We don’t need to jump the gun.”

“Meaning…”

“Meaning we continue to tell Gerard Lattimore nothing.”

10

Joe Riccardi intercepted Huck outside the converted barn before he could get back to his room and change his shoes, not yet dry after he’d charged into the marsh. Quinn Harlowe’s screams of horror had stopped him dead in his tracks on his run. Diego had said he’d heard her, too, out on his boat.

A hell of a shock, finding her friend’s body.

One DOJ lawyer dead. A former DOJ analyst talking to the feds and the local police. Huck thought he could understand his new boss’s tight look.

“Where have you been, Boone?”

“I was out for a run. There was a problem in town.”

Riccardi’s face didn’t register any obvious emotion. “Alicia Miller. We heard the news about her death.” He paused, his eyes unchanged. “Police suspect she drowned.”

“I’d say so.”

“What was your involvement?”

“I was on my run. I’d just gone past Quinn Harlowe’s cottage when I heard her scream. I went to see what I could do.”

“She could have screamed for a dozen different reasons—”

“Didn’t matter.”

Riccardi nodded. “You’ll do well in this work, Boone.” But his voice was toneless. “The body—”

“There was no hope for Miss Miller by the time I got there. She’d been dead for a number of hours.” For some reason, Huck pictured Quinn barefoot, flapping at the gulls, her black hair whipping in her face as she’d tried to protect her dead friend. “Her body washed up in the marsh near a kayak—she must have been out during yesterday’s storms.”

“Why would anyone—” Joe shook his head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Why would she go kayaking in severe weather? Did this Quinn Harlowe have any ideas? What’s she doing in Yorkville?”

“She was worried about Alicia—Miss Miller. Apparently they had an encounter in Washington early yesterday afternoon. Sounds as if she was in even worse shape than when she showed up at the front gate here that morning at the crack of dawn. Harlowe tried to find her—checked her apartment, made a few calls. When she didn’t have any luck, she came down here to see if Miller had returned to the cottage.”

Joe inhaled sharply. “What a tragedy. Did you tell the police about our encounter with Miss Miller yesterday morning?”

“No. I didn’t actually see her myself. I figured—” Huck regarded Joe Riccardi, clearly nothing about this day sitting well with Breakwater Security’s chief of operations. “It wasn’t anything I wanted to get into.”

“Understood.”

“Alicia Miller worked for the DOJ. The FBI’s investigating. Her boss was Deputy Assistant Attorney General—”

“Gerard Lattimore. Yes, I know. He and Oliver Crawford are longtime friends. Law enforcement officials are welcome to ask questions of any of us.” Riccardi’s square chin came up slightly. “We have nothing to hide. Do we?”

“I sure as hell don’t.”

A flicker of impatience rose in Joe’s hard face, but his wife joined them, shuddering in the cool wind as she stepped out of the converted barn. “What an awful thing suicide is.” She crossed her arms on her chest, her windbreaker, with its prominent Breakwater Security logo, not warm enough for the cool temperature. “When I was in high school, one of my classmates killed himself. I’ll never forget it. There was no reason, not that any of us saw.”

“As far as I know, Alicia Miller didn’t leave a suicide note,” Huck said.

“Maybe there wasn’t one. Maybe she wanted her death to look like an accident.” Sharon shook her head, staring at the ground. “Maybe it was an accident, but she was reckless and didn’t care what happened to her, didn’t fight to save herself.”

Joe Riccardi’s jaw seemed to clamp down on itself. “We shouldn’t speculate.”

His wife didn’t seem to hear him. “I wonder if Miss Miller had an underlying mental illness—would that make her death easier for her family and friends? If they could latch onto a reason, maybe—”

“There’s never a reason to kill yourself,” her husband snapped.

Her head jerked up, and she looked taken aback at his sharp tone. “No, of course not. That’s not what I meant. A reason in her own mind—”

Joe broke in as if she hadn’t spoken. “You’d think if Miller had obvious emotional problems the Justice Department would have taken some kind of action. Insist she take a leave of absence. They wouldn’t just sit back and do nothing.” He stopped himself. “Now I’m speculating. We don’t know what happened.”

“How well did you all know her?” Huck asked.

Sharon turned to him. “We met last month at a party Gerard Lattimore held at the marina restaurant here in Yorkville. Joe and I were there with Oliver.”

“Quinn Harlowe?”

“She was there, too.”

Joe straightened, even more rigid than usual. “Let’s leave the investigating to the authorities. We have our own job to do. Boone? You all set? If the police have further questions to ask you—”

“I’ll be in the shower.”

His deliberately flip answer got a reaction out of Lieutenant Colonel Riccardi. He made two fists. Huck thought he’d end up with at least one of them coming at his jaw, but his new boss restrained himself.