"She never said anything to me, but we didn’t normally discuss company finances. I was just a programmer," Julie said. "Was that the appointment she had?"

Sam nodded then turned to Tara. "What about you? You’re the CFO, aren’t you?"

Tara shrugged, slowly screwing the top back on the peanut butter. "I didn’t know anything about it. You mean she saw someone here in town?"

Sam nodded then turned his gaze on Noah. Amber stepped a little closer to Noah, glancing up at him uncertainly. "What about you, Noah? You guys owned the company together. Surely she would’ve discussed this with you?"

"She didn’t. That can’t be true. I’m sure she would have told me." Noah did look confused, but he could be an accomplished liar.

Sam slid his foot off the bench and stood. "Lynn getting financing could cause a problem, right?"

"Why would it cause a problem?" Noah asked quickly. His posture turned defensive. "We needed money. Nobody’s made that a secret. And what does this have to do with her death, anyway? Why are you acting like you suspect us? We’re her friends—none of us did it."

Sam wasn’t anywhere near sure of that, but it was never good to tip your hand. He simply nodded slightly then looked at Noah. "Maybe it would be better if we talked further over there." He jerked his head toward the Tahoe.

Noah’s eyes darted around to the others, then he broke from the pack and headed toward the Tahoe.

They leaned against the front of the car, Sam placing himself so that he could see Noah as well as the others at the campground. He didn’t know who was lying, and he wanted to see their reactions to him taking Noah out and talking to him privately. If one of them had something to hide, they might show it in their actions.

"Does Amber know you were getting back together with Lynn?" Sam asked.

"What?" Noah’s face scrunched up. "I wasn’t getting back together with Lynn." He glanced back at the crowd nervously.

Amber was watching them, practically craning her neck to be able to overhear. Tara had gone back to making sandwiches. Derek and Jason were sitting at the table, and Julie was stuffing the bug spray into her backpack.

"Really? One of your friends over there saw you in a compromising position with her in the alley in town the day she was killed," Sam said.

"What? Who said that? That’s crazy! I was in O’Malley’s pub with Derek and Josh."

"So you said. But Derek and Josh were playing pool and can’t swear that you were actually in the pub the whole time."

Noah pushed his hands through his sandy-colored hair. "I was there. Why would I meet with Lynn? We broke up a long time ago."

"Really?" Sam said. "That’s funny, because Derek says he saw someone sneaking around your tent the night Lynn was killed. Amber seemed a little uncertain when she verified you had been in the tent all night."

Noah’s eyes shifted to the left, his jaw tightening.

Sam continued. "So when someone else said they saw you with Lynn in the alley, and given the fact that you are benefiting from her death by getting all the shares of the company, I figured you must’ve known she was going for financing. Then I figured maybe getting financing was a double-edged sword for you. It would water down your shares, but your company needed it to survive. Then again, if Lynn was out of the way and you owned all the shares, the watering down might not be so bad."

Noah’s face showed increasing stages of horror as Sam relayed this information.

Sam kept going. He wasn’t entirely convinced Noah was the killer, but Noah was lying about something, and Sam wanted to see if he could scare the truth out of him. "The way I figure it is that you did meet with Lynn. Maybe first you were trying to smooth-talk her out of the financing. But when that didn’t work, you had to take more drastic measures. Derek did see you that night. You snuck out of your tent and did what you had to do to protect your interests."

"No!" Noah shook his head vehemently. Glancing back at the group again, he stepped closer to Sam. "I wasn’t meeting with Lynn. But it is true that I wasn’t in my tent. Don’t tell anyone, but I—"

The radio in the Tahoe squawked noisily to life, interrupting Noah’s confession. Sam had turned his phone off just so he wouldn’t get interrupted. He’d told Reese to call only if there was a dire emergency. He went around to the driver’s-side door to grab the receiver, when Reese’s panicked voice rang out, chilling his blood. "Sam. Emergency. There’s been a dog hit down by the Pembroke Bridge."

Sam’s heart jerked. Lucy? He grabbed the mic and pressed the button. "German shepherd?"

"Sounds like it. Driver said she was still alive. You better get there fast."

Screw Noah. He would catch up with him later. Might be a good idea to let him stew on what Sam had told him, anyway. Better yet, if he told the others, the real killer might do something stupid and reveal themselves.

Right now, Sam’s quick actions might be the only thing that kept Lucy alive. He jumped into the Tahoe, flicked on the siren and lights, and screeched out of the campground toward the Pembroke Bridge.

Chapter Thirty

Sam screeched to a halt behind the old 1970s station wagon that was listing into the ditch on the side of the road with its flashers on. He jumped out of the Tahoe, bracing himself for the worst as he ran around to the front of the car.

There was no dog lying in the road.

"She just came out of nowhere!" a balding man, his belly protruding over his belt, pacing in front of his car with a worried look on his face, said. "I hope she’s not hurt badly."

"Was it a big dog? Looked like a German shepherd and mixed with something big?" Sam asked.

The man nodded and pointed to the guardrail that ran along the road just before the bridge. "She ran off over there."

Beyond the guardrail, the Sacagewassett River flowed by at a fast clip. If Lucy had fallen into the river, she was probably already gone. Sam vaulted over the guardrail and scrambled down the embankment, rocks clattering into the river as he went.

A high-pitched whine sounded to his left. Lucy was sitting next to a pile of debris that had accumulated at a bend in the river. Relief washed over him. She was sitting upright, so hopefully, she hadn’t been hurt too badly. He didn’t see any blood, but the lack of obvious external injuries didn’t mean that she didn’t have potentially fatal internal injuries. He’d better get her to the vet right away.

Sam squatted to her level. "Are you okay?"

Lucy trotted over, her brown eyes looking up at him. Sam checked her over, running his hands down her sides, her legs, and her chest. He didn’t find any injuries except a small tear in her right ear.

"What happened? Did the car clip you here?" Sam asked.

"Woof!" Lucy broke away and trotted toward the debris.

"Hey, come back. I want to take you to the vet to get you looked after."

Lucy whined. Maybe she’d been hurt more than he thought. Maybe he could bribe her into going to the vet. "If you come with me, I’ll get you one of Billie’s burgers."

Lucy trotted up to Sam, nudged his hand, and then trotted back to the debris. She wasn’t hurt. She was trying to tell him something.

Sam went over to the pile. There were empty soda bottles, cans, plastic bags, even part of a grocery cart. Sam hated to see the trash. He remembered a time when there was hardly any, but now the more people that came, the more trash there was.