Sierra quickly hid her smile.
Mr. Rivers closed his gaping mouth. Then he managed to say, “I had no idea.”
Adam assumed he hadn’t.
It didn’t take but a few minutes before Tori called Adam back. “We just found an old case where Mr. Rivers was charged with the possession of a stolen boat in Florida. He got off on a technicality, but the boat was confiscated. Not only that, but the boat he just purchased wasn’t listed on Craigslist.”
“Thanks, Tori.” Adam ended the call and said to Mr. Rivers, “Sorry, Sierra can get the rest of your descriptions.”
“Am I…uh, under arrest?”
“Not at the moment. Detective Rose read you your Miranda rights before I left on another case. Just know that this could be a murder case. That you were in possession of stolen goods. We could conclude that you were involved in a criminal conspiracy.” If Mr. Rivers was feeding Sierra a line of bullshit about what the guys looked like, then he might as well know the consequences of his actions. “Oh, and for the purpose of keeping the chain of evidence in a criminal case, you’ll be asked to autograph the sketches that Sierra is drawing, per your account.”
Mr. Rivers rubbed his chin. “Okay, listen. I’ll talk if I can have immunity from prosecution. I didn’t have anything to do with stealing the boat, dead bodies, none of it.”
“Okay,” Adam said.
Mr. Rivers let out his breath. “I met the guy at a bar at a marina. I was wearing my captain’s hat, and this guy pulled up a seat at the bar and asked what kind of a boat I had. All right? Well, I didn’t have a boat. I’d just sold off one for a damn good price and was looking to get another that wasn’t quite so expensive.”
“We’ll need to see the paperwork on the boat you sold.”
“Hell, it was legitimate!”
“Then you won’t mind showing us the paperwork,” Adam said.
“I’ll be right back,” Mr. Rivers said, sounding exasperated, and went inside the house.
Adam hoped he would return with legitimate paperwork and that he didn’t try to sneak out the back of the house if he was involved in everything else.
“I guess it’s good I had gotten the descriptions first from him,” Sierra said.
“If it’s all lies—”
“Then you would have him on false testimony. Do you think he lied about the descriptions that he already gave us?”
“Yeah, I do. That’s the reason he wanted immunity.” Adam called up the district attorney to let him know what the issue was and if they could go forward with a cooperation agreement. Adam told the DA the situation with the witness and owner of the stolen property. “Mr. Rivers agreed to be a cooperating witness.”
“We need to have the agreement signed if he’s willing to provide competent and truthful testimony. And that he had nothing to do with stealing the boat in the first place or anything to do with the drowned victims.”
“Yes, sir. I don’t think he’ll tell us what we need to know unless he has immunity from prosecution, and I don’t believe he actually had anything to do with stealing the boat or the drowned men. We’ll bring him downtown and get the paperwork signed.”
When they ended the call, Mr. Rivers came out with the paperwork for the earlier boat he said he’d just sold. He had actually bought it at a boat dealership so everything looked legitimate, but Adam would still verify it with the dealership.
“Okay, the DA says we need to sign the deal so that you can be a cooperating witness. You can follow us downtown and we’ll get that done. Then you can finish your story,” Adam said. And give the real descriptions of the men involved in selling him the boat. Hell, maybe even their names.
Mr. Rivers agreed to it, got into his car, and followed Sierra and Adam to the courthouse.
“You won’t need me now,” Sierra said.
“Yeah I do. You still need to finish the sketches of the men he dealt with. Even if he thinks he knows their names, they may be using aliases. After that, I’ll run you over to speak with the River Patrol Unit.” He smiled at her. “What? Do you think I’m holding you hostage so that I get to keep you safe throughout the day?”
“Are you?” She was wearing a hint of a smile and he knew she was teasing him.
“Nope. You don’t have a car.”
“I could have leased one.”
“I still need you. And when you speak to the River Patrol Unit, I need to learn all I can about what they saw, reactions, et cetera, concerning the men they stopped and gave the citation to.”
“Okay, admit it. You want to date me, and this is a way of seeing more of me without officially calling it a date.”
He smiled at her. “Hell yeah.”
She laughed.
After they finished with Mr. Rivers and got a much-changed account of what the men looked like, the U.S. Marshals arrived to put him in witness protection. In the meantime, Adam arranged to see the officers on the River Patrol Unit.
When he and Sierra arrived, the two officers greeted them.
“Hey, we wish we’d known the boat was stolen,” the blond officer said. “We sure would have done something about it.”
“Yeah, I wish so too. We didn’t find the body of the man that it belonged to and his companions until almost a week later,” Adam said.
“Do you suspect foul play?” the officer asked.
“We don’t have all the facts yet. The coroner’s doing the autopsies now. It’s possible the men accidentally drowned, though we’re still trying to determine how that could have happened.”
“Then the boat was found adrift and these men took advantage of the situation?” the dark-haired officer asked.
“It’s either that or they stole it from them. I can’t think of any other scenario that would make sense of the situation.”
The officers gave the descriptions of the three men on the boat. After Sierra drew the sketches, she showed them to the officers.
“Yeah, these look just like them,” the blond officer said.
“Good. It matches the description the man who bought the boat gave us.” At least the second description Mr. Rivers gave them. “So we know the same people who sold the boat had taken it off the water,” Adam said.
“If you need any more help with this, just let us know,” the blond officer said.
“Thanks. This is a lot of help.” Adam was glad that the boat buyer had been honest with them once they assured him he wouldn’t be prosecuted for the crime.