What Washes Up by Dawn Lee McKenna Read Free Book Online

something to him. I never even remembered that until a few weeks ago.”
    Wyatt looked up at her. “If you never saw him, how’d you find out it was Wilmette?”
    Maggie swallowed and chewed the corner of her lip. “Boudreaux told me,” she said quietly.
    Wyatt blinked at her a few times. “Boudreaux told you.”
    “Well, he told me without actually telling me,” she said. “When I was interviewing him about Wilmette. I thought about telling you then. I think I was going to tell you. But then David…”
    “Of course, Boudreaux,” he said almost sarcastically.
    Wyatt sighed and stood back up. He seemed to not know which direction to go in, then walked around the couch and leaned on the back of it.
    “Why would Boudreaux tell you? Was it a slip, did he think you knew?”
    “No. He just told me.”
    “Why?”
    Maggie shrugged a little. “I’m not really sure.”
    “What the hell is it with you and Boudreaux, Maggie?”
    “I think he likes me.”
    “Boudreaux doesn’t like people. He collects people. Either he has something on them or he does something for them.”
    “Why are you mad at me?’ Maggie snapped.
    “I’m not mad at you!” he snapped back. “How can I be mad at you when you just told me you were raped?” He grabbed one of the couch pillows and slammed it back down. “That’s not true. I am mad at you, but I’m mad because everything you’ve done or found regarding Wilmette is going to be suspect.”
    “I know.” Maggie took a deep breath. “And Boudreaux killed Wilmette.”
    Wyatt stared at Maggie a moment, his face expressionless. “Why?”
    “I thought it was because Wilmette wanted money. For staying quiet about it,” Maggie said. “But I think it’s because he disapproves of rape.”
    “Well. That’s nice.”
    “He has a moral code, it’s just a little different,” Maggie said, and wondered why she felt the need to defend Boudreaux.
    “Evidently,” Wyatt said. “I assume, and I hope to hell it’s true, that if you had some concrete evidence of this, we would have had this conversation already.”
    “I don’t have anything concrete, no.” Maggie took a swallow of her wine. “We already knew Wilmette went to Sea-Fair that Tuesday night. Boudreaux told us that. But I can’t find anyone who saw him after that. And this processing room.”
    “What processing room?”
    “It’s new. Boudreaux expanded into fish. The processing room wasn’t even in use yet when Wilmette went missing. But it’s a perfect place for chopping up a body before you dump it into the ocean.”
    Maggie tried not to dwell on the fact that she happened to like someone who she was pretty sure had chopped up a body. The killing didn’t bother her so much; she had killed, too. But the chopping made her skin crawl.
    “Wonderful,” Wyatt said. He sighed and looked at Maggie. “You realize this isn’t going to be a secret anymore. If I try to get a search warrant for Sea-Fair, I’m probably going to have to give a judge a better reason than the fact that no one saw Wilmette after that meeting.”
    “I know.”
    “And if we actually get to indict the guy, then motive comes into play. And the fact that you withheld information.”
    “I know,” Maggie said again. “Just…let me tell my parents and the kids first if and when it comes to that.”
    Wyatt nodded and looked out the window behind her. “I’m pissed on a professional level, as your boss. I’m pissed on a personal level, too. I understand, intellectually, why you did what you did. But my feelings are hurt that you’ve kept so much from me so easily.” He looked at her. “That scares me.”
    “It wasn’t as easy as you probably think,” she said quietly. There was a tickling in her chest, a fear that something that had barely started might end.
    Wyatt opened his mouth to say something, but his cell phone interrupted. He pulled it out of his back pocket, saw the call was from Dwight, and put it on speaker.
    “Hey, Dwight,”