CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

"So you two are dirty cops?" Vica said from the backseat of the police car. "Wyndham Croft is paying you to get rid of me."

"Everybody has a price, sweetheart," Fischer said. "Mine might have been higher if my alimony payments weren't so fucking high. Bitch of an ex-wife is taking half of everything, including my pension. Croft didn't have to offer much before I jumped at the chance to get some money on the side, that Gloria has no clue about."

"Mine too," Jenkins agreed. "Stupid cunt."

"Maybe your wives left you because you're both corrupt pieces of shit," Vica snapped back.

The hand came hard and fast, and out of nowhere. It knocked the side of her head against the window. "You watch your fucking mouth," Jenkins warned. His phone vibrated, and he glanced down at it as stars filled Vica's eyes and a ringing formed in her ears. "Where does Burke live?" he asked Fischer.

"Burke who?"

"I dunno his last name. Does anybody? The text message just said that Burke was being warned about something. Maybe we need to go check it out. Isn't he one of those guys in the kitchen?"

"You have a mole at the restaurant," Vica said. "Who?"

"Roll down the fucking window," Jenkins ordered, retracting his own window. "It smells like vomit in here."

"Maybe if I wasn't terrified for my life …" Vica replied.

"Do you need another fucking warning?" Jenkins asked.

She closed her mouth.

"Where does Burke live?" Fischer asked.

"I think he's on the north side, on Blind Bluff Drive."

Fischer nodded and took a right at the next intersection. "Right."

Dammit. Somebody needed to warn Burke and Evie. They were sitting chickens right now. If Fischer and Jenkins found out that Burke was harboring Evie and that she was another witness against Track and Wyndham Croft's crimes, they wouldn't hesitate to take her out. They'd probably collect more money because of it.

Most of the driveways on the island were long, with the houses set far away from the main roads. Burke's was no different. How could she warn them? As they rumbled down the driveway lined with trees, she turned her body so that she could reach the button on the door for her own window. Would it retract? Did the windows in police cruisers go down? Maybe this was an old enough one that it would. She pushed, and pushed, and pushed, but it wouldn't budge.

A small, dark-green, shake-sided bungalow came into view. The north facing side was on stilts, with kayaks and a canoe stored underneath. But it was the most beautiful, unencumbered view of the sound that really stole the show. A half-wraparound porch connected the front door to the balcony facing the water. And at the sound of their approach, Burke's big, foreboding figure came into view. He must have seen Vica in the backseat of the cruiser because he pulled out his phone immediately, then shouted.

Evie darted around from the deck where he'd come from and ran straight in front of the patrol car and down a trail toward the ocean. Burke approached the police car but kept a safe distance. "Officer Jenkins. Officer Fischer," he said with a nod. Then he tilted his head to the side slightly and made eye contact with Vica. "Vica. You okay?"

Fischer met her gaze in the rearview mirror and Jenkins spun around in his seat to watch her. "I've been arrested for murder and the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents," she said like a robot.

"Not to mention you're a dirty fucking immigrant, here illegally," Fischer said with a snort. "Just because you spread your legs for a McEvoy doesn't mean you're an American."

"Is that really the way police officers are supposed to speak to or treat people?" Burke asked, his tone calm even though the muscle in his jaw was close to popping clean through his skin.

"Are you telling us how to do our job?" Jenkins asked, opening the car door and stepping out. He was a tall man, but Burke was taller, younger, and stronger. Burke probably had at least fifty pounds of pure muscle on the cop.

Fischer spun around as best as he could to face her. "Say a fucking word and you'll regret it."

He climbed out of the car too. Both cops made a show of drawing attention to their guns by hoisting up their pants. Burke's gaze landed on each, then flitted back to Vica. "It'll be okay," he mouthed before turning his attention back to the crooked cops.

"Who was that woman?" Jenkins asked. "Why'd she run when we came? What's she hiding?"

"Have I done something wrong, officers?" Burke asked.

"Not yet, but if you don't answer the question, we might have a problem. Who was that woman?"

"My girlfriend. Sandrine. She's here visiting from Seattle for a few days. I'm not sure if you heard about the bomb that was sent to Vica yesterday at the restaurant, but I defused it. My bosses thought I deserved some time off because of it. So I invited Sandrine to join me for a few days. "

"Why'd she run away so fast?" Jenkins asked.

"I have an alert on my phone that tells me whenever there are whales down near the beach. I got the alert when you pulled in and called to her. She wanted to run down there and see them before they left."

"What kind of whales?" Fischer asked. "What pod?"

"Orcas. J-pod."

"What does Sandrine do for work?" Jenkins asked.

"She's a registered massage therapist at a rehab clinic for people who experience workplace injuries."

Even though Vica was terrified, she was also very impressed with Burke's ability to lie so well and so quickly.

"How long have you been together?" Fischer asked.

"Not long. About six months. We're taking it slow since neither of us are ready to move."

Jenkins glanced back at Vica before facing Burke again. "How'd you meet?"

"Is this interrogation really necessary?" Burke asked with a sigh. "You still haven't told me why you're here. Or what I've done to warrant a visit."

"Well, it's come to our attention that there was a mole in the restaurant feeding information to the wrong people about Vica's whereabouts. This is why people knew to send the bomb to the restaurant, and when Vica would be out for a walk, and when she would be in Wyatt's truck. So, we're just paying all the staff some visits to do our due diligence as officers of the law."

Burke smirked. "So you think that I might be the mole, even though I was the one who risked my life taking the bomb out on the kayak and diffusing it? When, at any point in time, it could have detonated and killed me."

"Unless you were the one to build the bomb and knew all along how to diffuse it. You remove suspicion from yourself and come across as a hero. Pretty smart, if you ask me." Fischer glanced at Jenkins who nodded in agreement.

"That seems pretty far-fetched to me," Burke scoffed.

"Call your lady friend back. We'd like to ask her some questions," Jenkins said.

Burke shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't. She doesn't have her phone on her. She left it in the bedroom and my voice won't carry all the way down to the water. I also don't see why you need to question her. She doesn't work for the restaurant. And she's done nothing wrong." His gaze flicked up and beyond the car just as a big, black truck and another police cruiser came barrelling down the driveway and into the clearing.

Jenkins and Fischer both drew their guns and aimed them at the truck and cruiser.

Myla and Everett leaped out of the cruiser. "Dan, Duane; you don't want to do this," Myla called out.

"You're not part of this, Bruce. Go back to desk duty like a good girl," Jenkins shot back, opening up the passenger door of the car Vica was in and hiding behind it, his gun still pointed at Myla and Everett.

"Let us help you," Everett said. "Whatever trouble you're in with Wyndham Croft, we can help. You don't want to go out like this. You don't want this to be how you end your careers."

"The fuck you know about our careers?" Fischer shot back.

"We know you guys did a lot of good protecting the streets of Tacoma and Bellevue for many years. Then you moved here and have done well protecting the island. I'm not sure what Wyndham Croft has promised you, but it's not worth this." Everett hid behind the open door of his car as well, but murmured something to Dom who was behind the steering wheel in his truck.

Dom nodded and brought out his phone, probably to record the whole thing.

Vica caught Wyatt's eyes and saw instant relief. All she wanted to do was feel his arms around her again.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Burke slowly crept up behind Jenkins. He didn't make a sound, and made sure he kept one eye on Fischer too. One wrong move and Fischer could end up shooting Burke .

"Did you kill Ginny Simmons?" Myla asked. "Was she your mole at the restaurant?"

Ginny was dead?

Confusion and shock flitted across both cops' faces.

Vica knew right then and there that they didn't kill Ginny, and that she also wasn't their mole.

They seemed nearly as confused as they were scared. This wasn't going at all how they intended it to. They were desperate. Wyndham Croft was probably breathing down their necks for results and when the bomb didn't work yesterday, they decided to risk it all and kidnap Vica.

"It doesn't have to end this way," Everett said. "Let Vica go. Turn yourselves in and we'll do everything we can to help you. If you didn't kill Ginny, then you're not up for murder. Cooperate and we can help get your sentence reduced."

Jenkins and Fischer exchanged looks, and it was then that Fischer noticed Burke sneaking up on Jenkins and the stupid cop opened fire and shot Burke.

The big, tanned teddy bear fell backward, and Vica screamed. But that sudden chaos gave Myla, Everett, Dom, and Wyatt their window.

Myla shot at Fischer, catching him in the shoulder, and even though Jenkins fired off a shot, it only hit the front grill of Dom's truck. Everett got off a few more shots, but they missed Jenkins.

Wyatt said something to Everett, and the cop only hesitated a moment before he nodded and handed a second gun to Wyatt. Wyatt hung out of the window of Dom's truck, took aim, and shot the gun clean out of Jenkins' hand, along with what looked like one of his fingers. The scout sniper wasn't rusty or out of practice at all.

Jenkins screamed in agony and fell to the ground. Fischer was already on the ground.

Dom ran out and went immediately to Burke, Wyatt ran to Vica, and Myla and Everett went to deal with their crooked coworkers .

Wyatt opened the cruiser door. "Are you okay?"

"Go see Burke," she said. "Please."

"Dom's got him," he said. "Let's get you out first."

He wasn't going to let her argue with him. So she nodded and tried to shimmy her way across the bench seat. But she was way too happy to see him and face planted into the filthy vinyl. "Here," he said, "hang on." Then he helped her up before disappearing for a moment, returning a second later with the keys.

"Burke's okay," Dom called. "Took it in the shoulder."

Both Vica and Wyatt exhaled in relief as he unlocked her handcuffs and helped her up out of the cruiser. Her wrists ached and her fingers tingled as blood flooded her hands again.

Myla and Everett already had Fischer and Jenkins in handcuffs and were reading them their Miranda rights.

They hadn't even read Vica her Miranda rights when they arrested her.

Down the path, Evie was making her way back. When she saw that Burke was injured, she picked up to a run. "I heard gunshots," she said. "Is everything okay?"

"Nothing but a scratch," Burke said, holding his T-shirt over the bullet wound, and sitting on his porch steps topless. "Just need to buff it out and I'll be good as new."

Wyatt snorted.

Evie wasn't buying it and ran inside, coming back out a moment later with a first aid kit. She began tending to and babying Burke, and the man seemed to be eating up the attention with both hands.

Vica's eyes flew open. "Wait! They got a text message from someone at the restaurant that said Burke was being warned about something and they needed to go check on him."

Dom and Wyatt exchanged looks.

Myla poked her head into the cruiser and brought out Jenkins' phone from the center console. She then used Jenkins' thumb to unlock the screen. "There's no name attached to the number that sent the text."

"Tell me the number and I'll see who it is in my phone," Dom said.

"Ginny is dead, so it couldn't be her," Wyatt said. "That means somebody else is the mole.

"We didn't kill Ginny," Jenkins said, his face in the dirt. "Don't even know who the fuck Ginny is."

"And you were just inviting Vica over for a game of Scrabble," Wyatt retorted. "Were you going to kill her?"

Jenkins said nothing.

"What about trying to run her off the road? Shooting at her on our property? The hit-and-run and gunfire while my children were in the vehicle, or … I don't know, the fucking bomb?" Wyatt gritted out. "I bet you didn't do any of those things either?"

Neither Fischer, nor Jenkins said anything else.

"They said they didn't get paid unless they provided my head," Vica added, glaring down at Fischer and Jenkins as they lay, bellies down, in the dirt driveway.

Myla rattled off the number, and Dom punched it into his phone. His eyes went as wide as saucers as he lifted his gaze to Vica and Wyatt. "It's Nadine."

It was all-hands-on-deck.

Burke refused to go to the hospital until the situation with Nadine was put to rest. So he, along with Evie, Vica, Dom, and Wyatt, all drove back to the restaurant while Myla and Everett tossed Fischer and Jenkins into the back of their patrol car and followed them .

There were officially only two cops on the island now, and they needed to be in more than one place.

Grayson had dispatched one of his other doctors to watch over Ginny's body at her dorm in the hostel while a coroner made their way over from Seattle.

Bennett, Brooke, and Justine were well aware that Nadine was the mole, and they were to do whatever they could to keep her from leaving without alerting her, or any other staff, to the fact that they were onto her.

Clint and Jagger needed to keep the kids away from the property until further notice. Cash and Dash Reilly had been called and asked to stand as security guards on the main road leading onto the laneway for the property. Nobody was to come onto the property until they received the all clear from Wyatt.

Sometimes it was nice to have someone owe you. And Cash knew he owed Wyatt.

Not that Wyatt would abuse it, but when he needed more hands, he knew Cash was someone he could trust to jump in and help with no questions asked.

They reached the property and Cash and Dash waved from their dad's truck loaded with crab traps as Dom pulled onto the laneway, followed by Myla and Everett in the cruiser, with Jenkins and Fischer handcuffed in the backseat.

Wyatt could just imagine Cash and Dash's faces when they saw who was in the backseat of the cop car.

They reached the pub and were met at the front door of the restaurant by Justine. "Where's Burke?"

"In here. But I'm fine," Burke said from the backseat.

"I'll be the judge of that," she said, her words a little slurred because of her puffy face as she climbed into the driver's seat of Dom's truck after he hopped out. "Move and I'll convince Wyatt to add my apple pie recipe to the menu and remove yours."

"You wouldn't dare," Burke grumbled.

"I happen to think a gingersnap crust is the superior crust," Justine added.

"And I happen to think you're dead fucking wrong," Burke shot back with a growl.

Justine snorted. "Well, his sour mood is still there. I'd say he's mostly fine. Just need to get that wound cleaned up."

Evie stayed with Burke and Justine as Justine pulled away from the restaurant and drove them up to the house so she could remove the bullet from Burke's shoulder and properly stitch him up. Unfortunately, it wasn't a through-and-through.

One by one, they filed into the restaurant, leaving Everett outside with Dumb and Dumber.

The anger, devastation, and shock that rolled off Dom when he found out it was Nadine was something Wyatt would always remember. Dom wasn't someone who trusted easily to begin with, and now, it would take him even longer to put his faith in anybody that wasn't family.

All the staff was still there. It would have made people suspicious if they sent a few people home and kept others, or sent everyone home but Nadine.

"What's going on?" Luke asked. "Why's Officer Bruce here?"

Myla brought up Jenkins' phone. "I have Officer Jenkins' phone here. He received a text message shortly after Wyatt and Dom left, that they needed to go check on Burke. That Burke was being warned about something."

Confusion and murmurs drifted around the staff. Wyatt, Dom, Bennett, Brooke, and Vica all kept keen eyes on Nadine. Her face was getting pinker by the second, and she got squirmy in her seat.

"I'm going to call the number and see who picks up," Myla said, hitting the green call button.

A moment later, a phone started to vibrate, and all the staff began looking around at each other to see where the sound was coming from.

The first to realize it was Nadine's phone was Kline. "Nadine?" he whispered, doused in shock.

Gasps and slack jaws filled the room.

Nadine's nostrils flared and anger filled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how much med school costs?" she said with a sneer. She rounded on Luke. "Not all of us get scholarships." Then she glared at Monique and Padma. "Not all of our parents put away and saved for our education. Some of us have to fight tooth and nail to get ahead."

"We're working too," Padma said slowly. "We're all students, struggling to make it. Just because my parents were able to stash a little bit of money away every month when I was a kid doesn't mean I still don't have to take out student loans and have summer jobs. Their savings for me barely covers the cost of one semester of classes a year. That's nothing."

Monique nodded in agreement. "I have to take fewer classes a semester and will take longer to graduate because I need to have a job while going to school. Otherwise, I can't afford rent. My parents make too much for me to get student loans, but not enough that they're able to help me pay for school."

Nadine shook her head, and what Wyatt could only describe as an almost-air-of-arrogance he'd never seen before fell upon her. "But not all of you are planning to go to med school. I am. I have the grades. I have the volunteer work and the recommendation letters. I was even accepted to Stanford."

"Yeah, but you chose to apply to Stanford. There are other cheaper med schools," Kline said. His eyes flared wide. "Did you frame Ginny? Is that why she's not here?" Then he pivoted to face Myla. "Is Ginny okay? Did you arrest her, thinking she was the mole?"

Myla's gaze dropped to the floor for a moment, she exhaled deeply through her nose. "I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid Ginny was found dead in her dorm room at the hostel this morning. Someone put a pillow over her face."

Every single staff member stared at Nadine.

"Did you kill Ginny?" Renée whispered, choking on Ginny's name as she stared at Nadine in utter shock.

Nadine growled. "She saw my text messages. She was going to rat me out. This country needs more doctors. They don't need more … English majors, or whatever Ginny is studying." Nadine protested before slapping her hand over her mouth.

Holy shit.

"Past tense," Padma said softly. "Ginny was studying English. Because she wanted to be a teacher. Now she'll never get that chance."

"Were you also the person who rented Shelley Diamond's garage off her to store the gray sedan that Jenkins and Fischer used to try to run over Vica?" Wyatt asked. "You just put on a blonde wig?"

Angry, fearful tears teamed down Nadine's pale cheeks. "They offered me three grand in cash, and all I had to do was talk to Shelley, stash the car and pay her. I didn't know that was the car they used to try to run Vica down. And I don't know where the SUV they hit your truck with is being stored. I only told them what ferry you were on coming back. And I had no idea your kids were with you, I swear."

Myla pulled in a long breath, then exhaled again. "Nadine Aikman, you're under arrest for the murder of Ginny Simmons. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." Then she walked up to Nadine, brought out another set of handcuffs, and urged the young woman to stand up.

Everyone just sat there, eyes wide, shaking their heads as they struggled to process what they were hearing and seeing.

Myla, Wyatt, and Dom walked Nadine outside, where Myla stuffed Ginny into the cramped backseat of the cruiser with the Dirty Cops of the Year.

"You're welcome to come down to the station and be there if we get the full story from them." Myla offered to Wyatt and Vica.

It was up to Vica.

She shook her head and glanced down at her pants. "I think I want to shower and change. I kind of vomited in the back of their car when I thought they were going to kill me."

Wyatt smiled at her. "You puked? "

Confused, she nodded. "Yeah."

He wrapped an arm around her. "I puked too. I was worried so sick about you that I actually made Dom pull over so I didn't mess his truck."

"You two weirdos are perfect for each other," Everett said out of the open window from where he sat in the cop car. "We'll let you know what we find out." He glanced behind him. "If these dumbasses know what's good for them, they'll cooperate. Cops aren't exactly liked in prison. Particularly Gen Pop."

Wyatt could have sworn he heard Fischer gulp.

Myla pulled away in the cruiser and Wyatt escorted Vica back into the restaurant.

"We want to thank all of you for your cooperation today," Dom was already saying. "We will, of course, be holding a memorial for Ginny soon. And you're all entitled to bereavement leave. We will cover the costs of a grief counselor as well, and I think that given the circumstances of yesterday and today, the restaurant and pub should remain closed until tomorrow."

Slowly, the staff members, many of them crying, got up and left. Dom offered to lock up, so Bennett, Brooke, Wyatt, and Vica made their way on foot back up to the houses.

"I guess it's safe to walk home again?" Brooke asked as they reached the wrecked and no-longer-safe gate.

Wyatt lifted one shoulder. "For the time being, I guess. Until Wyndham dispatches more goons?"

"Don't say that," Vica said, squeezing his hand.

They were nearly home when an SUV pulled into the driveway. Everyone recognized it as Gabrielle Campbell. So nobody flinched—very much.

"What the hell?" Gabrielle said, climbing out of her vehicle. "You have Cash and Dash Reilly acting like bouncers at the road? Why? You know that's going to go straight to their already overly-inflated heads. And what happened to the gate?"

"Come inside and we'll fill you in," Wyatt said with a heavy sigh. "It's been a hell of a morning."