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“Thank you,” Gabe said, with a hint of sharpness. “She’ll be blaming herself from now till doomsday.”
One side of Burke’s mouth lifted. “You know her pretty well already.”
Molly felt her cheeks heating, which was ridiculous under the circumstances. “Did you send the video to your cloud account, Gabe?”
“Already done. And I sent a link to Antoine so that he could view it.”
Burke’s half smile became a grin. “Damn, boy. You’d make a good PI.”
Gabe shook his head. “No, sir. I’m going to be a boring chef for the rest of my natural life.”
Molly caught a sudden movement in André’s direction and barely stifled a shriek. “André!”
Because a gator—a fucking big gator—was climbing out of the water and headed for the head.
André whirled and fired, his shots intentionally going wide, all hitting the water around the gator. Burke ran to André’s side and added his own fire.
The gator slithered back into the water and André stumbled back, Burke righting him with a hand to the cop’s back.
“Holy hell,” Gabe whispered weakly. “Just... goddamn. This day keeps going on.”
“I should have helped them,” Molly said, trying to ignore the way her entire body was now shaking. “But I can’t seem to make my legs move.”
It had been a fucking long day, and she was spent, her legs like jelly.
“Then stay here with me.” Gabe put an arm around her waist, encouraging her to lean on him. Which felt so nice. “You’ve saved enough people for one day.”
They stood there together, watching as André gingerly pulled the victim’s remains away from the water’s edge. Then he seemed to freeze.
Molly took a step forward. “I wonder if André knows the victim. Or Burke,” she added when her boss crouched at André’s side.
Gabe followed as she walked toward the scene, her steps careful so that she didn’t contaminate any other evidence that the man in the hoodie might have left behind.
“You know her?” she called.
“Yeah,” Burke called back over his shoulder. “Stay where you are.” She and Gabe stopped, waiting until Burke joined them. “Well, Xavier and Carlos’s plan of calling yesterday’s visitor is now toast.”
Molly sighed. “The woman who claimed to be Nadia Hall’s sister, but who gave you all the wrong names?”
Burke’s nod was short. “Yeah. Her.”
Molly leaned her head on Gabe’s shoulder. “I’m really tired, Burke.” And she might even have a bruised rib or two. Hoodie Guy had a hard head.
André pointed to his SUV. “Get in the back seat and take a load off. I’d planned to interview you at the camp, but I’m gonna need to do this by the book. Give me your phone, Gabe. I’ll keep it safe.”
Unsaid was the alternative. If cops swarmed this place, someone who was not their friend might take Gabe’s phone, and he’d never see it again.
Gabe gave the phone to André, who pocketed it. Then the chef turned crime fighter gave her his arm and helped her into André’s SUV.
“One of these days we’ll have us a real date,” Gabe said lightly as he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “I’m pretty sure we can do better than this.”
Surprised, she huffed a laugh. “I’m pretty sure that’s true.” She sobered, trying to think clearly. “We’re going to be interrogated. André calls it an interview, but let’s be honest—they’re going to hit us hard with questions we’re going to have to answer. I wonder if we should call Willa Mae to represent us, just in case.”
Gabe kissed the top of her head. “Might not be a bad plan. Give me a minute to catch my breath and I’ll make the call.”
“You can’t. André took your phone.”
“Oh, right. Then you make the call. You’ve still got your burner, don’t you?”
