The three of them stared at each other while Kevin thought about it. Sam started to get nervous. Would Kevin tell Dupont?
After a few seconds, Kevin sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you’re right." He slipped the rubber lid onto his travel mug and grabbed the digital camera off his desk. "You guys ready?"
Chapter Ten
The campers had told Sam the day before that they planned to extend their stay at the campground. They wanted to stick around until they knew exactly what had happened to Lynn. He reckoned at least some of them were going to be surprised by the news that Lynn’s death had not been accidental. But was there one that wouldn’t be?
When they arrived, Kevin headed straight to the spot where they’d found Lynn’s clothes. Jo and Sam descended on the campsite.
The smell of bacon permeated the air, reminding Sam of dozens of camping trips he himself had enjoyed. At the picnic table, Noah was manning the Coleman stove. A pile of crisp bacon was stacked beside him on grease-soaked-paper-towel-lined plates.
A fire crackled inside the ring of rocks. A thick metal grate covered the fire, and on top of that, a cast-iron skillet held fluffy yellow eggs. Lawn chairs sat haphazardly around the site. Bottles of vodka, rum, and Jack Daniels were lined up next to a stack of sixteen-ounce red plastic Solo cups on top of a large blue cooler.
The campers were busy either cooking or tidying up the site. Julie was folding colorful towels. Derek collected kindling, twigs snapping under his hiking boots as he scoured the woods at the edge of the site. Up in the trees, a squirrel chittered. Birds twittered. Beyond the campsite, the river rolled past.
A mosquito buzzed Sam, and he waited patiently for it to land on his arm. When it did, he smacked it flat, leaving only a smudge of brown and a dot of blood as evidence.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to Jo and Sam. Their somber faces reflected a mixture of hope and fear.
Noah stepped forward, the large fork still in his hand. "Any news?"
Sam nodded slowly. "Afraid it’s not good. Lynn didn’t slip and fall. She was murdered, and then her body was put in the river."
"Murdered?" Joshua’s eyes widened.
The looks of shock on their faces seemed genuine. The women started crying.
Noah scrubbed his hands across his face. "I don’t understand. Who would kill Lynn?" He looked around at his group of friends. No one had an answer.
"That’s what we need to find out," Sam said. "Did she have any jealous boyfriends? Any enemies?"
Julie stepped up. "We’re her closest friends. I don’t know of anyone that would want to harm Lynn." She looked at the others, her face falling. "Do you guys?"
They shook their heads.
"What about that guy from the bar?" Tara said. "We don’t know anything about him. He could be a killer."
"We talked to him last night," Jo said. She had her polarized Oakley Standard Issue sunglasses on and her hair stuffed under a navy-blue cap with WRPD stamped in white letters on the front. "He denied even being here."
"He’s lying." Noah’s voice rose in anger. "He was here. And the people from the other campsite were here, too. It could have been one of them. It couldn’t be anyone that knew her."
"We’ll look into it. But I want you guys to think hard if you know of any reason that someone would want to harm her. Was anyone angry with her?" Sam’s gaze drifted around the group. "Maybe someone close to her that had a grudge?"
Derek’s hands curled into fists, and he moved closer to Sam. "Now wait a minute. Are you saying it was one of us?"
Josh stepped in next to him. "Why aren’t you looking into that guy from the bar instead of accusing us? Is it because he’s a local?"
Sam held up his hands, his voice gentle. "We’re looking into everyone. I’m not accusing any of you, but since you knew her best, you’d be the ones to know if anyone might have had a reason to want her out of the way."
That seemed to mollify them, and both Josh and Derek relaxed their stance.
"In the meantime, we’re going to need to take her things," Sam said. "There could be a clue in there."
Everyone glanced toward the red tent, frozen on their spot, then finally Julie broke from the group. "I’ll break things down for you."
Jo already had the latex gloves on. "I’ll do it. It’s important that we don’t contaminate it."
Julie’s eyes filled, and her lower lip quivered. She nodded and stepped back while Jo got to work.
Twenty minutes later, they were in the Tahoe with Julie’s tent and her duffel bag full of clothes. A few miles down the road, Sam saw the giant coffee cup of the Brewed Awakening coffee shop. The K-Cup coffee at the station was okay, but there was nothing better than a fresh brew from Brewed Awakening.
"Coffee?" Sam asked.
Jo made a face. "You have to ask?"
He signaled for the right turn, and just before he started to turn in, a candy-apple-red Cadillac swooped in front of him, cutting them off and making Sam slam on the brakes. Sam laid on the horn, but the man in the car simply turned an arrogant face to them, smiled, and waved.
"Thorne." Jo spat out the name.
As Sam drove forward toward the drive-through, Jo twisted in her seat, looking over her sunglasses at Thorne as he parked, taking up two spots. Thorne got out of the car. He was in his late forties, still in good shape but with a bit of thickening around his middle. His hair was dyed black, and he walked with the self-important air of someone who is used to getting his way.
"He looks so smug. We should arrest him for driving to endanger." Jo turned to face forward and pushed the sunglasses back up on her nose.
"Be more trouble than it’s worth."
They ordered coffees in Styrofoam cups, and Jo bought her usual half-dozen jelly donuts. Sam had no idea where she put all the donuts she ate. Even with her bulky police belt, she was trim. He could never eat that many donuts. Since he’d turned forty, he’d noticed his pants fitting a little tighter. The only solution was to cut down on food and beer. Jo hadn’t seemed to cut down any since he’d known her. She wasn’t much younger, but maybe she had a fast metabolism. Some people were just lucky that way.
"So, what do you think about the friends?" Jo fished a jelly donut out of the bag. "Do you think it could be one of them?"
"I don’t know. They seemed genuinely surprised. I’ll have Reese check into their backgrounds, but there doesn’t seem to be any connection. And this murder was definitely done by someone who had a connection. What do you think?"
"I’m not so sure. They seemed nervous, like they were hiding something. Too quick to try to blame someone else."
"Natural reaction. No one wants to think their friends are capable of murder."
Jo bit into the donut, and a blob of jelly squirted onto her finger. She licked it off. "What about Jesse? I saw him scratching a bug bite last night. He probably was at the campground even though he said no. Which means he lied. I mean, I know he’s not a pillar of society, but murder?"
"He could have gotten a bug bite anywhere." White Rock was loaded with wilderness, and the bugs could be persistent even in the middle of town. "I know what you mean, though. Seems like Lynn’s friends would be pretty dumb to lie about Jesse being there. Too easy to prove them wrong. And most of them agreed he was there, so unless they were all in on it, I think it’s a good bet he was there. But why would Jesse lie?"