Chapter 9: What He Said on the Dock

Colt's POV

Camille called me while I was in a meeting with my lawyers, and she did not say hello.

"Della has Dean's case," she said. "She's at the marina with her father. I'm going down there."

"Don't. Camille, wait for me."

"I'm already in the car."

I walked out of the room with a dozen people watching me do it.

It was a forty-minute drive to Shem Creek, and I did it in half that.

I took the causeway with the window down and my phone face up on the seat, and it did not ring again.

The gravel lot was empty except for Camille's white car and Gene's truck.

I left the engine running and went down the ramp at a walk that was close to a run.

From the end of the dock I could hear voices, hers soft and level.

I slowed when I saw them.

Della was sitting on the deck of the Second Wind with a green ledger across her knees.

She had a yellow page in her hand.

Gene stood beside her.

Camille was at the foot of the gangway, with a pie box on the plank beside her feet.

"...because I'm trying to protect you," she was saying. "Colt and I fixed it already, Della. It's done."

She took a step closer.

"If this comes out now, every donor will want to know who signed the annual reports."

"I signed them," Della said.

"Every spring. With your own pen. They'll say the chair knew."

"Camille." I came the rest of the way down the dock.

Her head turned, and for half a second her face was not soft at all.

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