And there was nothing Cam could do but watch him go.
Grinding his teeth together in frustration, he stayed until the boat was out of sight. Then he dragged his hand through his hair and turned back toward Evie. She was kneeling in the sand beside Bruno.
He pulled himself together with an effort. “Knowing Dan Johnson has access to a boat makes me wonder if he used it to go up the river to the nature preserve. He could have easily carried his victims from the boat to the area where he’d buried them.”
“If he’s guilty,” Evie said cautiously, “owning a boat isn’t evidence of a crime.”
“I know that.” His gaze hardened as he remembered that smirk. The same one Dan had flashed back when they were younger. Until Cam had socked him in the gut. At that point, his smirk had morphed into anger and maybe a hint of fear.
He blew out a breath. Evie was right. He was letting his personal feelings toward Dan cloud his judgment. He frowned as he looked down at Bruno. “He didn’t alert.”
“No, but honestly, Cam, I don’t know if Bruno is able to scent someone from that far away.” She frowned and stroked a hand over Bruno’s wet fur. “I don’t know that we should count Dan out as a suspect simply because Bruno didn’t bark.”
“You’re right.” He’d thought the wind might carry Dan’s scent across the water, but now that he was paying attention, the wind seemed to be coming from the east. And that wind was likely carrying Dan’s scent away from the lakeshore.
Unless he was putting too much credence in the shepherd’s ability to track the killer’s scent. Bruno stared up at him, his tongue lolling to the side, giving him what appeared to be a happy expression. He bent to stroke the dog’s fur. “You’re a good boy, Bruno, aren’t you?”
Bruno wagged his tail in agreement.
It was too bad he had to travel so much for the work he did with Grayson’s Guardians. He was starting to appreciate how nice it was to have a pet. At least then he’d have someone to come home to each day.
His lonely bachelor lifestyle was wearing thin. Especially now that so many of his fellow Guardians were settling down.
Well, a handful of them anyway. Not that he was counting.
Okay, he was counting. But that didn’t matter.
“I need to get out of the sun for a while.” Evie swiped her arm over her forehead as she turned away from the water. “I didn’t use enough sunscreen this morning.”
He nodded, following her toward a small cluster of trees. He’d remembered how her fair skin had burned their first few shifts as lifeguards. Evie didn’t tan easily, the way he and several of the others had.
Yet he couldn’t wipe the image of Dan’s smirk out of his mind. Especially since it reminded him of the callous way he’d dragged his girlfriend into the water, completely ignoring her very real and panicked protests that she couldn’t swim.
“Don’t, Cam,” Evie said in a quiet voice. “I know you’re imagining Dan killing Skye, and we can’t go there. Not yet.”
“I get that, but you don’t understand how hard it is to know the local police think I did this. That I lured young women away to brutally kill them.”
“I know you didn’t kill anyone.” Evie’s expression was pained. “Other than whatever you had to do while in Afghanistan. That’s different.”
It was different, but apparently, Rueger didn’t think so. “I guess our plan worked,” he said a few minutes later. “We spoke to Bev and found Dan. I guess we should keep going down to the lakefront to see if we can run into anyone else.”
“We can, but is that necessary?” Evie asked with a frown. “You were mostly concerned about Dan still being around. We’ve confirmed he does live here and that he has a boat. For all we know, he could be married with kids. That might be why Rueger hasn’t identified him as a suspect.”
It was not reassuring to think Dan could have a wife and kids who could provide an alibi for the time frame of the most recent murder. “How long do you think it will take for the news about Jasmine’s death to spread through town?”
“I’m surprised it hasn’t already,” Evie admitted with a frown. “I wish I knew more about what happened to Jasmine. Do you think she had a car like Skye? Or did this guy lure her away with a ride?”
“Hard to say. The killer’s MO could have changed over time.” He grimaced as another horrible thought hit hard. “And we’re assuming Skye was his first victim. She may not have been. There could have been others.”
Evie frowned. “No way, Cam. We would have known if another woman had disappeared all those years ago.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Keep in mind we were friends with Skye, which is why we were so invested in what had happened to her. Especially when she hadn’t reached out to either of us by text or phone call. And really, we were just kids. Barely adults.” He stared again at the water. “Could be someone else had disappeared as much as a year earlier.”
“That seems highly unlikely,” Evie protested. “I can’t believe Rueger wouldn’t have taken Skye’s disappearance more seriously if some other woman had gone missing the same way.”
He shrugged, unconvinced. “One would hope. But based on what I’ve seen so far, we can’t make any assumptions.”
“I guess Rueger is basically a small-town detective.” Evie’s brow furrowed in concern. “That’s a scary thought, Cam. A very scary thought.”
