“But it still would have been risky swimming the channel in the storm,” Jeb said.
“Silas has swum that channel a million times,” I said. “And remember, there were two life jackets missing from the boat. He threw one in and used the other for his swim. It wasn’t like this was a timed event. He could take all the time he needed to get back home. No one was going to come looking for Johnny at his house. They were going to go to the marina first, then launch a search on the water.”
“So how did you know the body was under the porch?” Gertie asked.
“Because there were slats on the porch that were newer than the rest,” I said. “Silas didn’t repair anything. He turned a shed into an outhouse rather than repair his plumbing. So why would he spend money on his porch? My guess is he called Johnny to his house, then hit him up for money, like he always did. Johnny refused and they argued. Silas probably shot him as he was leaving. Johnny died right there on that porch and since there was no way Silas could move the body, he cut the slats on the porch and let the body drop below. Then he dug a shallow grave and repaired the porch.”
“And since everyone thought Johnny had died on the water, no one ever looked closely at Silas’s house,” Ida Belle said.
Carter sighed. “Diabolical. How could someone do that to their own kid?”
“Silas never cared about anyone but himself,” Wyatt said. “Anyone around him for five minutes knew that much. But murder takes things to a whole other level.”
“What do you think’s going to happen to him?” Jeb asked.
“I think he’s going to die in prison,” Carter said.
“Does this change anything about Molly’s murder?” Gertie asked.
Carter frowned. “I don’t know. The fact that Molly died in a similar fashion is going to be great fodder for the defense, especially with their father being Johnny’s killer. And we already know he had motive and opportunity. It might be enough for reasonable doubt.”
“Do you think Silas killed Molly and it wasn’t Dexter and Marissa?” Ida Belle asked.
Carter shook his head. “I just don’t know.”
“Which means a jury won’t, either,” I said.
It was a long, exhausting, but exciting day. The state police had finally shown up at the convenience store to take our preliminary statements, but I had a feeling they were going to need a much more in-depth and less excitable version of the events than what they got. Wyatt and Jeb made the entire thing sound like The A-Team and were still in the stratosphere with excitement when we finally got cut loose by the cops.
Once we got back to Sinful, I called Nickel and Angel and gave them the news. They were both overwhelmed with gratitude and both cried, although Nickel swore if I told anyone, he’d figure out a way to kill me. Neither of them seemed surprised that Silas had done the deed, but they were both shocked at how calculated he’d been with the cover-up and impressed that I’d worked out something that no one else had even considered a crime.
Unfortunately, none of it brought Molly back, and she would have been the person who wanted to hear that Johnny’s death would be vindicated the most.
Carter dropped me off at home and had to head to the office to call the DA since I’d essentially just thrown a giant monkey wrench in his case against Dexter and Marissa. I didn’t envy him that phone call. After my calls to Nickel and Angel, I’d taken a shower until the hot water ran out, then eaten most of the leftovers in my fridge while watching a marathon of Justified. Sometime that evening, I fell asleep in my recliner. I awoke there the next morning with a crick in my neck and an angry cat glaring at me from the armrest.
I glanced at my watch. 8:00 a.m. I’d been in that recliner for twelve hours!
I rose and stretched, feeling every muscle in my body strain to loosen after being in the same position for so long, then trudged into the kitchen to feed Merlin and make coffee—in that order. I’d barely flopped down to my first cup when my phone rang.
“She’s alive!” Gertie yelled as soon as I answered.
“Can we talk about whatever this is after I’ve had coffee?” I asked.
“Molly is alive!” Gertie shouted.
I dropped my cup and it broke on the tile floor, slinging coffee every direction.
“What?” I asked, certain that I’d heard wrong.
“Molly is alive,” Gertie said. “She’s in the hospital. Ida Belle and I are on our way to pick you up. Put some coffee in a thermos.”
She disconnected and I stared at the coffee running over my kitchen floor for about two seconds before launching into action. I flew upstairs and threw on street clothes, then ran back downstairs and dumped the rest of the coffee into a thermos. The floor would have to wait as I could hear Ida Belle’s SUV pulling into my drive. I dashed out and jumped in, taking note of the excited expressions and flushed cheeks my two friends wore.
“Fill me in,” I said as we took off.
“According to our hospital contact,” Ida Belle said, “early this morning, Molly walked into the emergency room. She said she’d fallen off her boat and was rescued by a Creole man who lived deep in the swamp. She said she vaguely remembered being pulled onto his boat and him pouring chicken stock down her throat.”
“She didn’t even know what day it was,” Gertie said. “She said she woke up early this morning, before daylight, in a cabin in the middle of the swamp. The man realized she was awake and told her he’d take her to the hospital. He drove her to the hospital and let her out on the road in front of it, saying he didn’t want to see ‘no people.’”
“Is she all right?” I asked.
“She has a lump on her head and some bruises that are already healing but good Lord, those could have been from her fighting that day as much as having an accident,” Ida Belle said.
“Did she say what happened?” I asked.
They both shook their heads.
“She claims she doesn’t remember,” Gertie said. “Said she remembers taking the boat out and calling Angel, but then the next thing she was really aware of was waking up in the man’s cabin.”
“I can’t believe it!” I said.
Gertie grinned. “I know, right? Best ending ever. Molly is alive and okay. Silas is going to prison for killing Johnny. Ida Belle will have awesome catering at her wedding, and Jeb promised me he’d call me for a date. This has been one heck of a week.”
“I assume Carter knows?” I asked.
“Of course,” Ida Belle said. “The nurse at the hospital recognized Molly as soon as she walked in and called the sheriff’s department. Molly’s disappearance was all over the local news. Nothing like working the night shift and thinking you’re seeing a ghost walk in the door.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” I said.
And I’d bet Carter was elated but also dealing with a very unhappy DA. Once again, I was really happy to be a lone agent and not under the thumb of the red tape bureaucracy and career climbers that Carter dealt with every day. I imagined the DA wasn’t going to be excited at all about Molly’s return from the dead.
“Did someone call Nickel and Angel?” I asked.