Chapter 161: The Search at Dock 9

Chapter 161: The Search at Dock 9
October 9th, Willowbend, Mississippi
Dean's POV
After hearing Tara's statement, I leaned back in my chair and tried to make sense of what we had.
Three suspects, three versions of the same story. And for once in this goddamn case, they actually lined up. The timeline matched. The details were consistent. Even the motives made sense in that messy way that real life usually does.
The problem was Vivian. That girl hated Tara with the kind of pure venom that rich kids reserve for anyone who threatens their perfect little world. No way in hell she'd coordinate a story with someone she'd rather see buried six feet under.
"You said Tyler pushed Luka onto that steel bar," I said to Tara. "Did you actually see it happen?"
She shook her head slowly. "Everything happened so fast. One minute Tyler was trying to pull Vivian off me, the next minute we heard this horrible sound and Luka was on the ground with that piece of metal through his chest." She paused, choosing her words carefully. "It was chaos - Vivian was attacking me, Tyler was trying to separate us. In all the confusion, Tyler must have pushed Luka, but I don't think it was intentional. Just wrong place, wrong piece of rusted metal."
She leaned forward slightly, her voice taking on a defensive edge. "Look, if I really wanted to hurt Luka, I had a gun with me that night. I could've shot him if that's what I wanted. But I didn't, because that's not what this was about."
Rick was waiting for me in the hallway when I finished with Tara. He looked as tired as I felt.
"Well?" he asked.
"Same story as the other two. No contradictions." I rubbed my temples, feeling that familiar ache building behind my eyes. "This whole thing's starting to look like exactly what it appears to be."
"A love triangle gone wrong," Rick said with a shrug. "Happens every day."
Maybe he was right. Maybe I was overthinking this because I'd gotten used to conspiracy and murder in every corner of this case. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes a rich asshole gets himself killed in a stupid fight over a woman.
But something was still bothering me.
I found the officer who'd worked the scene last night and had him send me the full report. Everything checked out. Luka's gun at the scene. Tara's gun in her purse. The phone records between Tyler and Tara matched their statements down to the minute.
Yet that nagging feeling wouldn't go away. Like when you're trying to remember a word and it's right there on the tip of your tongue, but you can't quite grab it.
Then it hit me.
"Where was Luka's bodyguard last night?" I asked Rick.
"Probably didn't want him cramping his style on a date."
Made sense. Rich guys like their privacy when they're trying to get laid. Still, I wanted to hear it from the man himself.
We drove out to the rental house where the bodyguard was staying. Big guy, looked like he could bench press a pickup truck. But he didn't seem surprised to see us, which was interesting.
"Been expecting this visit," he said before we even introduced ourselves.
"Tell us about last night," I said. "Why weren't you with Luka?"
"He didn't want me there. Said it was personal business." The bodyguard's accent was thick New York, probably Brooklyn. "Look, I only started working for him in August. Guy hired me right after his old man died. I just followed orders, didn't ask questions."
August. That was when Raymond Carfano was murdered. Made sense that Luka would feel the need for protection after losing his father like that.
"What exactly was Luka doing in this town?" I pressed.
"Hell if I know. He kept me busy watching that old lady at the nursing home. Nina's mother. Had me tailing her for weeks, but nothing ever happened. Lady's half out of her mind anyway."
"And Dock 9?"
The bodyguard's expression changed slightly. "Yeah, we went there three days ago in the afternoon. Luka had me tear that place apart looking for something. Never found whatever it was he wanted."
"Any idea what he was looking for?"
"Nope. Boss didn't confide in the help."
That was it. The thing that had been nagging at me. Tara had mentioned that Luka wanted to buy the dock, claimed he was going to turn it into some kind of investment project. But you don't hire muscle to search abandoned buildings for investment opportunities. That dock was hiding something.
"Rick," I said as we walked back to the car. "We need to take another look at that dock."
The afternoon sun was already starting to set by the time we reached Dock 9. The crime scene tape was still up, fluttering in the breeze like yellow prayer flags.
Rick lit a cigarette and looked around at the ruins. "You know, this place used to be something special. Brought my first date here back in high school." He took a long drag. "Course, that was before it all went to hell."
I wasn't interested in Rick's trip down memory lane. I was studying the scene, trying to see what Luka might have seen. What had brought him back here night after night?
The steel bar that killed him was still there, dark with dried blood. Just another piece of rusted debris in a place full of rusted debris. Nothing special about it except for the fact that it had punched a hole through a man's chest.
We spent an hour going through every inch of that dock. Overturned broken crates, checked under loose boards, even waded into the shallow water to look for anything that might have been dropped or hidden.
Nothing.
Rick finished his second cigarette and flicked the butt into the water. "You know what I think? I think we're looking for mysteries where there ain't any. Sometimes bad shit just happens to people who put themselves in bad situations."
I stared at that bloodstained piece of metal, thinking about Nina's body in the river, about Raymond Carfano with his throat cut in New York, about all the secrets this godforsaken town seemed to collect like spider webs.
"Maybe you're right," I said finally. "Maybe this time it really was just an accident."