Gone Too Deep Read Online Free Page B

nosy bastards will have cleared out of this place by then so we can talk.”
    * * *
    Lou’s rough map proved to be surprisingly accurate, and the women at the assessor’s office were helpful and friendly. Ellie returned to The Coffee Spot less than an hour after she’d left it.
    As Lou had predicted, the place was empty except for Lou and a stern-looking man in a baseball hat sitting on one of the counter stools. When Ellie spotted him, she hesitated just inside the door. The men in Simpson seemed to come in only one size—extra-large. That, plus their apparent aversion to smiling, made them a little intimidating. Ellie was more used to the guys she knew in Chicago, who seemed smaller and gentler and much less scary than these mountain men.
    â€œEllie!” Lou waved her toward the counter. “Awesome. This is Callum. I hope you don’t mind, but I called him and told him Baxter Price’s daughter was here. He has full access to the Whiteboard of Knowledge and Wild Theories, so you can talk freely in front of him.”
    â€œUh…” Ellie had taken a step forward, but Lou’s last sentence made her stop again. “I don’t know what that means.”
    â€œYou get used to it.” A corner of Callum’s mouth tucked in like he was holding back a smile, and it softened his expression slightly.
    Warily, Ellie approached the counter and slid onto a stool a few down from where Callum was sitting.
    â€œWe’ve been trying and trying to talk to Baxter,” Lou said, wiping down the counters. “He’s proved to be very elusive, though. I don’t think he trusts us.”
    â€œHe’s…” It felt strange to be talking to two strangers about her father’s issues, but it sounded like they’d had contact with him, so they were her best lead at the moment. “He doesn’t trust anyone, really. He’s mentally ill. I haven’t ever talked to any of his doctors, since I was a teenager the last time he was on meds, but I’m pretty sure he’s schizophrenic. He hears voices, thinks people are after him, and has a hard time keeping his thoughts straight. He called me two nights ago, not making much sense, talking about some guys wanting to kill him and needing to hide at my grandpa’s cabin until it was safe.” She paused, belatedly considering Lou’s last comment. “Why did you want to see him?”
    Lou stopped wiping and twisted the dishcloth into a tight spiral. “That’s a long and complicated story. Do you want to hear the whole thing?”
    â€œDoes it concern my father?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThen yes.”
    â€œOkay.” Blowing out a hard breath, Lou rinsed the tortured dishcloth in the sink. “In early March, a body was discovered in a nearby reservoir.” Callum cleared his throat mildly, and Lou gave him a look. “Fine. I discovered the body. We were doing dive-team training in Mission Reservoir, and I kicked him.”
    Ellie blinked at her.
    â€œBy accident!” Lou huffed. “I’m not a corpse abuser or anything. But it did make me feel responsible for this poor, headless John Doe.”
    â€œHeadless?” Ellie asked faintly. That sounded familiar. Her father had mentioned someone’s head being chopped off.
    Lou winced, apparently misreading Ellie’s startled reaction as general horror. “Yes. And handless. It made identification a little tricky.”
    â€œUh…okay.” Ellie’s mind still spun as she tried to process this new information, wishing she hadn’t dismissed most of what her dad had told her as senseless rambling. It sounded as if at least a small part of what he’d said had been based in reality.
    â€œSince the sheriff’s department wasn’t making much headway identifying this guy, I took it upon myself to do some sleuthing. Callum agreed to be my sidekick.” He choked on his coffee. Ellie