Page 5 of Rogue Wave

While I was sure he did want to verify what he’d written down, it was standard procedure to ask some questions repeatedly to make sure the details stayed consistent.

“Last time. Promise,” Kingston pleaded gently.

She sighed and nodded. “Okay.”

A strand of her wavy hair had fallen right in front of her forehead. My fingers itched to brush it away for her, but my self-control won out over my desire. Barely.

She continued, giving us the details of what she’d found and how, before I walked away to rope everything off and secure the scene.

It didn’t take long for word to spread in our small town. Crescent Coral Beach had a crowd that rivaled our summer festival.

“Sheriff,” one of the crime scene techs hollered, walking up to me.

“Sabrina, please tell me you got something,” I said hopefully.

“They all look to be from the same shipment because they all carry the same decal on the packaging, minus the one your witness found partially opened which was missing the decal,” Sabrina explained. “We’ve got blue snakes and red snakes. So, same dealer, but maybe different batches or strengths or possibly types, but I won’t know that until I get them back to the lab.”

Bingo.

“You mind if I come snap a picture of the logo before you haul them away?”

She nodded and waved her hand for me to follow. “Sure. I saved one of each for you that had the clearest decals.”

“You’re the best,” I told her as we walked back over to the small tent they’d set up on the beach to give them cover from the media.

I whipped out my phone and snapped a few pictures of both snake decals.

“Also,” Sabrina said beside me. “Miss O’Hara said these bricks had likely been in the water for at least a week or two. I believe her, but I’ll let you know if I find any evidence to the contrary.”

Before I could ask for more details on that, she answered a call on her phone and walked away quickly.

How did Hazel know they had been in the water for that long?

Only one way to find out.

“Your deputy said Hazel was all clear, so I was going to walk her over to Dottie’s house,” Dougie said, as I walked up beside them.

I nodded. If Deputy Kingston had cleared her, we likely didn’t need her again unless something else came up.

“I have one more question before you leave.” She looked up at me with tired eyes, and part of me felt bad about asking her the question and keeping her here even longer.

“You told our tech, Sabrina, that you believe the bricks have been in the water for a while. How do you know that?”

“They have barnacles on them,” she replied, as if that were obvious.

“Forgive me on my lack of knowledge about barnacles, but what does that mean?” I asked.

“Barnacles don’t appear on things overnight. The barnacles on those bricks would take at least a week or two, possibly three, to develop. I’m not a detective or anything, but the storm last night may have washed them onshore, but it wasn’t the same storm that caused these bricks to fall off whatever boat transport they were on. That likely happened weeks ago.”

“No, you’re right. It couldn’t have—” I started to say, but she held up her hand, eyes wide.

“I’m sorry… What did you say?” she asked.

“I said it couldn’t have⁠—”

“No, before that.”

“What?”