Page 86 of Crew Girl

Ryder looked pissed, but he stayed put, like someone who knew they were innocent. “Screw you, man. You seriously believe I’d tank the race because of a petty cousin drama?”

“But it isn’t petty, is it?” Perry said. “One of you is going to be crowned king of Regis Airlines, and your grandfather is obsessed with crew.”

Crabcatcher looked crushed. “I can’t believe you’d stoop so low, Ryder.”

“I didn’t do it!”

Quaid snatched Ryder’s bag from the floor. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”

Ryder tried to grab it back. They tussled.

Ryder won the tussle. Held his bag to his chest, panting.

“If you’re so innocent, Ryder, why be so secretive?” Quaid demanded.

“Fine,” Ryder said, and threw his bag in the middle of the circle. “Go ahead. Search it.”

Cam hadn’t expected that.

Quaid dropped to his knees, dumped out the contents of Ryder’s bag. Clothes. Sunglasses case. Deodorant.

“Happy now?” Ryder asked. “And for the record, I don’t want Josh to lose. I want to beat him. In broad daylight, with everybody watching.”

Ryder’s mission statement registered as a muscle twitch on Josh’s annoyingly perfect jawline.

“There’s only one way we’re going to find out the truth,” Teagan said. “There’s a security camera pointed at the front of the sheds. The footage goes to Coach’s laptop. It’ll show us who got in, who cut the oar. One of you computer whizzes needs to hack into it. Perry?”

“Me?” Perry squeaked. “I don’t know how to hack a computer!”

“So YouTube it!”

“But there are so many ads!”

Teagan hard-stared him. It wasn’t an option.

“Fine,” he huffed.

“And the rest of you?” Teagan instructed. “Go look for the saw. Noah and I are going to process the evidence.”

The team followed their cox’s orders. Cam headed outside, hoping like hell the guys didn’t extend their search beyond the boathouse. To his truck, specifically. They knew he kept tools in there. Knew they had reason to believe he was the guilty party. Which is why keeping his head down as usual was the only way he might survive this.

TEAGAN

“Hey.” Teagan found Josh in the kitchen, pulling open cupboard doors and searching through them like his life depended on it.

“No sign of a saw,” Josh said when he’d finished ransacking the last one. “But… I did find Noah’s murder weapon!” He presented her with the oyster shucker.

She didn’t take it. What was the point?

“Who do you think we’re going to see on the security camera footage?” She was worried. Really worried.

“Well.” Josh checked to make sure Noah couldn’t hear them from the open-plan kitchen. “You. Me.”

Yeah. Obviously. “But we didn’t do it. Who do you think did?”

He leaned against the counter, had a think. “Baloo? He’s madder than I thought.”

No. She didn’t believe it was Baloo.