She was on the dock that led from the center of the facility out to the platforms at the far lagoons, and she quickly turned around—and saw Myles standing behind her, just at the beginning of the dock.
Watching, she thought, to make sure she went out to the lagoon. He was definitely alone, and now she was torn between hurrying out to the lagoon to see if someone else was there and striding back to tell him what she thought of him.
Going out alone would be foolish; she could prove a point, but she could also get herself killed.
She headed toward the man, feeling her fury increase with every footstep. He saw her, and then he must have heard something, because he turned and his eyes widened.
Lara smiled; the bond she shared with Meg—not to mention Meg’s training as an agent—meant her friend was standing between Myles and the rest of the facility. He was sandwiched between them, with nowhere to go. His only possibility of escape was to jump in the water, and even then he wouldn’t have gotten very far.
Lara reached him first. “What the hell were you planning, sending me out there?” she demanded.
He frowned in confusion. “Adrianna is out there,” he told her. “She and Dr. Amory are having a conversation with Cocoa. She doesn’t want to listen.”
Meg was directly behind him at that point, but she stayed silent and waited for Lara to speak.
“Want to tell me why you were snooping around the women’s shower?” Lara asked.
“Why I was— No!” Myles protested. “I wouldn’t.”
“You were seen. There was a witness. Just as there was a witness when you decided to put a chopped-up doll on my desk,” she accused him. He hadn’t been seen, of course, not then. But he didn’t know that.
His face went red.
“Meg, would you check out the end of the dock?” Lara said. “I don’t think Myles will take off. He has nowhere to go, because when people who are part of this get caught, they wind up dead. Don’t they, Myles?”
He just stood there, jaw locked, a sea of misery and confusion in his eyes.
“Move a muscle before I get back,” Meg warned him, “and you’ll be guilty of resisting arrest, and then God knows what we’ll have to do to you to capture you.”
She walked past Lara, simultaneously drawing her Glock from the holster at the small of her back and slipping her cell phone from her pocket.
Lara stared at Myles.
“It was a joke. It was just a joke,” he said.
“The doll? A bloody doll, dismembered like the bodies we found? A nice blond doll, just like me? That was a joke?”
He looked away.
“Who told you to do it, Myles?” she asked, thinking of Brett’s idea of an unwitting conspiracy. “How deeply are you into this thing?”
“I’m not in on anything. It was a joke. Okay, it was a bad joke. But you’re Little Miss Perfect, coming down here with a full-time job in two seconds, everyone fawning all over you. Smart, beautiful and everyone loves you—including the damned dolphins. Then you turn into Miss Supersleuth. I just wanted to scare you, show you you’re not so special.”
Lara heard footsteps behind her and turned quickly.
Meg was coming back.
Lara looked at her, arching a brow questioningly.
“Adrianna and Dr. Amory are down there waiting for you, hoping you can get Cocoa to listen to you,” Meg said.
“But—but he did it. He put that doll on my desk,” Lara said.
Meg inclined her head toward the path. When Lara turned to look, she saw Matt approaching. Obviously Meg had called him, and he’d come quickly from wherever he had been.
“Mr. Dawson,” Matt said. “I think you need to come with me.”
“Because of a doll?” Myles said, his voice cracking.
“Because of a whole lot of dead people,” Matt responded. “I can put cuffs on you, or we can walk out of here nicely together. It’s your choice.”
“I don’t know anything.” Myles insisted. “I didn’t do anything except chop up a doll. That isn’t illegal.”
Matt started toward him.
Myles backed away, hands up. “I’ll walk out! But you’re crazy. You can question me all night, but I just wanted to scare Lara, maybe make her quit. That’s all, I swear.” Then he gave up talking and walked away with Matt.
Lara and Meg watched the two men go.
“Thanks,” Lara said, and let out a soft sigh. “I suddenly thought that if I kept going, I’d find someone waiting there for me with a gun or a knife or something.”
Meg shook her head. “They really are trying to get Cocoa back to her lagoon.”
“I’ll see what I can do. What will Matt do with Myles?”
“Take him to headquarters. Call Brett and Diego.”
“What do you think? Was it a joke, or did someone bribe or threaten him into doing it?”
“I don’t know,” Meg said. “I honestly don’t know. Let’s hope that one of the guys can get the truth out of him,” she said. “For now...”
“Cocoa,” Lara said.