Chapter 11

ELEVEN

STEPH WALKED toward her car. She hated having to rush away from Cherry, but investigating Brenda’s death wasn’t her job. It was Tate’s and Cole’s and she was— apparently —interfering with that. “Not that I did it on purpose,” she muttered. Her phone buzzed and she ignored it for the moment. She could check it once she was in the car with her seat belt on and the doors locked.

“Talking to yourself?”

Steph jerked to a stop three steps from her Subaru. “Benji, what in the world? You really have to stop sneaking up on people.”

He laughed. “No sneaking involved. You were too busy having a conversation with yourself to notice me. Hope it was a good one.”

She ignored his teasing. “I thought you were taking a team on the river.”

“I was, but for the past two weeks, one of our new workers, Lila, has been insisting she’s ready to go solo. After thinking about it, I agreed, so I sent her on her way.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and walked toward her. “And if you’re finished talking to yourself, maybe we could continue our conversation.”

She shrugged. “Okay.” There was something to continue?

“Walk with me?” He gestured toward one of the hiking trails.

She glanced at her phone. Tate was getting impatient, and she needed to answer him before he had a coronary. She looked up at Benji. “I’m sorry, I really need to go.”

“Just give me five minutes. Please?”

Steph hesitated. “Okay, but I need to text someone. He’s waiting on me to let him know I’m leaving.”

“Sure.”

She tapped a quick text.

I’m leaving in just a few. Talking to Benji for a minute and then I’ll be on my way home.

When she finished, she tucked her phone into her back pocket and focused on the man in front of her. “Okay, what can I do for you?”

“I was just thinking. Brenda had a locker in the staff room. I don’t think anyone has looked in it or cleaned it out yet. Maybe you can look and see if there’s anything there that the cops might want?”

Steph raised her brows. “And you just now thought of that?”

He flushed. “I know.” He shrugged. “But in my defense, I wasn’t even on the property when the cops came the first time. The second time I was on the zip line.”

“They talked to your parents. Why wouldn’t they mention the locker?”

He gave a small shrug. “They, uh, don’t know about it. It was just a couple of weeks ago that she asked for one. I got her a key and told her which locker to use.”

“Okay. Why tell me? Why not call the cops?”

He spread his hands and sighed. “Because there was an envelope in there with your name on it.” He ducked his head and shuffled his feet a bit. “I think she was having an affair, and if there’s evidence in there to prove that, then I thought you could get rid of it when I gave you the envelope. I mean, the woman is dead. Why hurt her family by bringing all that to light?”

Steph gaped. “No way.” He wasn’t making a bit of sense. “Why not get rid of it yourself?”

“I thought about it but figured you could do it when I gave you the envelope.”

“Benji, if you think she was having an affair and there’s evidence in the locker, then the cops need to know. I’ll call Tate right now and—”

She lifted her phone and stopped when he stepped forward, a scowl on his face. “No. Brenda was a friend. A good woman. She always treated me with kindness, and I don’t want her name smeared. I only told you about this because of the envelope. Now, do you want it or not?”

She did, but Tate’s warnings were echoing in her ears. “Does Cherry know about this?”

His frown deepened. “Cherry doesn’t need to know everything.”

“Why don’t I wait here while you get the envelope for me?”

He hesitated, then scoffed. “Okay. Whatever.” He walked away and she felt slightly guilty at her immediate assumption that he was trying to lure her into the locker room for ... whatever purposes. But someone had killed Brenda and that someone may or may not have been Stan. If it wasn’t Stan, then—

Cherry came out of the café, spotted Steph, and walked toward her. “Everything all right? You make your call?”

“I did and I’m not sure if everything’s all right or not.”

Her friend frowned. “Cryptic.” Then her attention focused on a spot over Steph’s shoulder and her eyes widened. “Benji? What are you doing? You’re supposed to be on the river.”

“Change of plans. Lila’s got it covered.”

Cherry groaned. “Are you kidding me?”

“Chill. She’s got the sat phone and she’s ready. It’ll be fine.”

A muscle jumped in Cherry’s jaw, and she pulled in a deep breath. “Benji, I’m so tired of cleaning up your messes. If something happens—”

“Nothing’s going to happen! Just let it go!”

“I’ve called Mom and Dad!”

Her brother stilled. “What?”

“They’ll know how to fix this.”

He called her an unflattering name, then stomped toward the office.

Steph turned raised brows to Cherry. “What messes are you having to clean up?”

Cherry ignored her and caught up with her brother, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him around to face her. “You can’t run away from this.”

“Watch me!”

TATE WALKED to his car and climbed in. He sent a text to Cole and let him know he was heading back up the mountain to bring a stubborn woman down it. She still hadn’t texted him to let him know she was on her way home and she wasn’t answering her phone.

He called her number once more and it went to voicemail on the fourth ring. At least the phone was still on.

His phone rang. Cole. “Hey, don’t worry, I’m on the way to get her.”

“Yeah, I’m on the way too. I just got the rest of the decoded contents of Brenda’s book. She overheard part of a conversation between Benji and someone else. She said she had a hard time hearing the other person, but sounded like she was saying he needed to get his act together. In response, Benji said he had the money lined up, he just needed a couple more days to actually get it in his hands.”

“What money?”

“Bolin’s money. It’s all here on the pages from the little pink book. Forensics found two sets of books for the company. One legit set and one that was tracking money being stolen and other money being laundered. It seems like Benji has a nice little drug operation going. Brenda found some wonky transactions—deposits and withdrawals that weren’t actually made and other issues where the numbers didn’t add up. Purchases of equipment, returns that were made but the refund was never deposited, et cetera. She went to talk to Helen and Gage, but they were out of town. She left messages on their voicemails that weren’t returned. She finally said she was going to confront Benji and ask him to figure out a way to return the money so she didn’t have to report anything to the police.”

“Oh no,” Tate said, his voice soft. “And Steph’s up there with him.”

“Try to get her on the phone. I’ll meet you there.”

Tate voice dialed her number and pressed the gas.