While Broadrick kept NB away from the diaper bag, I called Anderson and sent Ridge a text message about the find. That way neither of them could complain I'd left someone in the dark. It was the only way to keep the macho men appeased.

Even if Ridge was the last person I wanted to see right then.

Thirty minutes later, a crew of crime scene analysts from the county had their temporary workstation set up. The name made it seem fancy, but really it was a small pop-up canopy with a white shade on top and a plastic table with no chairs.

Considering I didn't even have an office at the moment, I cut them some slack on the lack of funding.

Broadrick and I stayed to the side, watching the team work with little conversation between them. It appeared they each knew their part of the job and carried it out without issue. That or they all hated one another. In this area, it could go either way.

The wind blew against the long branches of the pine trees as two people from the team carefully carried out the diaper bag on a small blue makeshift stretcher. They set it in the middle of the area covered by the pop-up and the photographer snapped another series of photos.

Detective... er Chief-I'd never get used to that-Anderson walked up to us with his signature stalk. The bottom of his tan trench coat blew in the wind created by his quick steps and the breeze.

"I thought the chief of police spent all day in his office?" I asked when he reached us.

Anderson opened his mouth as if to say something snotty but then closed it again.

I popped my hip and grinned. "Annoyed already, huh?"

"With you? Always," he said, barely glancing at me. He cast his gaze on the team, slowly unzipping the diaper bag as three people kneeled beside it on the tarp. "But I'm also upset that my team missed this."

I shrugged with both shoulders. "Don't hold it against them. Not everyone can be as outstanding as I am."

"And anyway," Anderson said, ignoring my comment about my awesomeness. "Good chiefs are active in the field. Especially in a case like this. We're going to get justice for Emma."

Aww. My heart grew a little. Anderson might be a jerk half the time, but the other half he cared about the people in this town. Emma probably didn't have many people who would fight to get her justice, but Anderson would. Me too. We had that goal in common.

"Also," he physically turned his entire body toward me and crossed his arms. Never a good sign. "Did you send an angry mob to the station to demand we arrest her killer?"

My eyes flashed, and then I jerked my gaze to the sky. A big fluffy white cloud that resembled an old man's face floated by while I tried to appear innocent. I finally crinkled my nose like something smelled bad nearby and shook my head. "Not that I remember. That sounds more like a Katy thing."

Sorry, Katy.

I'd have to bring her a cupcake or something sweet from the bakery to make up for throwing her under the bus.

"I'm sure everyone in town realizes you're working as fast as you can. It's not like they expect the police to just arrest the first person they see," Broadrick said, now holding NB in his arms. We didn't want him trying to pee on anyone.

One woman on the crime scene team reached into the bag and pulled out a clear baggie loaded with white powder. It matched the one Emma sold me in this very park last month.

Anderson's jaw set into a firm line. "You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Faith, the baby momma Emma used as a decoy, told me if we didn't arrest someone by the end of the week, she'd report our incompetence to the national news."

The pile of white-powder-filled baggies grew to three. Why hadn't Emma's killer taken the drugs? It only made sense to leave the drugs if the killing was about revenge.

"Why would they care about a murder in Maine?" Broadrick asked. "This isn't New York."

"You clearly haven't lived here long enough," I said, giving Broadrick a pat on the shoulder. He'd spent enough time around Katy. You'd think he'd have picked up on the general vibe in Pelican Bay.

The photographer stepped around the pile of drugs, snapping photos from every angle. It seemed overkill to me.

"The entire thing is a mess, and now I've got the mother of the baby decoy calling the precinct daily, demanding we tell her about the case. She acts like they were best friends, but a week ago she demanded we keep Emma in jail for making her infant son a criminal." Anderson spoke quickly, but I caught every word.

"Huh?"

He narrowed his eyes at me but said nothing. In front of us, the crime scene tech retrieved two pacifiers and a bottle of water from the diaper bag before indicating the bag was now empty. The photographer jumped in to snap photos of the full pile of items.

"Oh, come on, Anderson. I did you a solid by finding this bag, and if you don't tell me, I'll just go pawing around to figure it out myself, anyway." Even if he told me, I'd have to sneak around to confirm his suspicions, but I left that part out.

"Fine." He sighed. "Somehow, the baby's mother, Faith, learned Emma used her baby as a drug cover. It's messy like everything in this town. We're not sure who told Faith, but it seems to have happened after we brought in Emma for initial questioning."

Interesting.

"She demanded we arrest Emma, but she was cooperating, and technically, we didn't have any evidence of her crime yet. Contrary to popular belief, I can't just arrest everyone who looks at me weirdly."

"Thank God for that," I mumbled. I'd already been arrested by Anderson once. If he could bring me in whenever I annoyed him, I'd have to pay the jail rent every month. "Something's missing."

Anderson snorted. "There's a fuck-ton missing. The entire case is a fucking mess. Everyone is town is losing their minds."

I nodded back and forth in a quick bob. He had a point, but they were always one meltdown away from a full-blown city-wide panic attack. It's like every dead body was their first one ever.

Another tall, overbearing man joined our group, and I refused to give him eye contact. Ridge Jefferson didn't give two shits that I purposely turned away from him when he stopped beside Broadrick.

I might have called Ridge to fill him in on the diaper bag find, but my feelings hadn't gotten over him telling me to leave town. Or trying to bribe me to do it by making me a full-fledged PI. Over the last few days, I'd gone from thinking nonstop about his offer and forgetting it existed every five minutes. It was both the most fascinating idea I'd heard and the worst.

Florida had always been the dream, but now that the chance was staring me in the face, I wanted to run and hide. The only way I'd go to Florida was if I got to take the entire town of Pelican Bay with me.

"Have you given my proposition any more thought, Vonnie?" Ridge asked. See! I said he had no clue I was purposely ignoring him. He'd probably never considered the very idea that someone wouldn't want to talk to him.

I adjusted my shoulders and head to be even more turned away from him. "No, and I'm not speaking to you now."

"Okay..." Broadrick said, putting NB back on the ground. He grabbed on to my shoulders and walked me forward a few inches. "We'll see everyone later. Right now Vonnie needs some dinner."

I tried to slap his hands away. "Food will not help this situation. I'm angry, not hungry." Although, I was also a little hungry. "Unless it's pasta."

Broadrick chuckled. "Pasta it is."

"We have to hurry, though." I checked the time on my phone. "I have to be somewhere later tonight."

"That's terrifying," Broadrick said with a gentle shake of his head, but he didn't ask me any additional questions.

It's a good thing too because what he didn't know was that he had somewhere to be as well. And he wouldn't like it.