Exposing Ethan
Book 4 in the Cassidy Kincaid Mystery Series
Amy Waeschle
Savage Creek Press
Contents
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Also by Amy Waeschle
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Cassidy’s Crusade Teaser
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Acknowledgments
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Also by Amy Waeschle
About the Author
BONUS SHORT STORY
Copyright © 2020 by Amy Waeschle. All rights reserved.
Publisher: Savage Creek Press
Genre: Adult Mystery.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
ISBN:
Editor: Joseph Nassie
Proofer: Melanie Austin
Cover Design: Books Covered
Cover photographs: © Shutterstock
Author Photo: Josh Monthei
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Discover the missing persons mystery that set Cassidy, a volcano scientist, down the dangerous path of amateur sleuth.
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Also by Amy Waeschle
Cassidy Kincaid Mystery Series:
Rescuing Reeve
Meet Me on the Mountain
Finding Izzy Ford
Exposing Ethan
Cassidy’s Crusade (1/2021)
Standalone Novels:
Going Over the Falls
Feeding the Fire
Memoir:
Chasing Waves, a Surfer’s Tale of Obsessive Wandering
Short Stories:
Swimming Lessons
The Call of the Canyon Wren
Father of the Bride
One
Cassidy swiveled on her board and paddled hard for the wave, its roar blasting her ears. But before she could drop in, another surfer appeared in her peripheral vision, stroking intently.
“Go home, haole,” he growled.
Cassidy gritted her teeth and scratched forward, managing to tilt into the wave as it fell away beneath her. The murderous gaze of the rival surfer blasted her like a laser as she punched to her feet and soared down the face.
The wave drew upwards, sheeting out in a ramp of glittering, clear blue. She carved a series of turns to the wave’s end, her fingers trailing in the warm water. After, she sprinted for the channel, a smile stretching her salty cheeks.
Some people might say she was wasting precious hours of volcano research, but after five days of sweat, broken fingernails, and squeezing every last drop of labor from her crew, including working by headlamp well into the night, hadn’t she earned this?
Her smile faded when she noticed the soft paddle strokes of someone approaching. Surfing at this locals-only spot on Hawaii’s Kona side had been a risk, but she’d gone anyway.
Was she about to pay for it? Had the people she’d run from only a week ago found her?
“You’re one brave lady,” a voice said behind her.
Cassidy wheeled around, ready to fight, but the face that greeted her nearly knocked her off her board.
“Bruce?” Her mind went in a thousand directions at once. Was he angry? Had he come to arrest her? She cringed, remembering his latest voicemail—his ninth in five days. Quit avoiding me, Cassidy, you’re in some serious trouble. I can help, but only if you answer your goddamn phone.
He paddled alongside her; his brown eyes sharp. “Nice wave,” he said.
Cassidy continued paddling in silence, wondering how long he had watched her surf. They hadn’t seen each other since parting ways at the Liberia airport last winter. A strange feeling settled into her gut—a mix of worry that she’d disappointed him, fear of the trouble she was in, and something like jitters, only that made no sense.
They reached the safety of the outside and pushed upright.
“I thought you only body surfed?” she asked, nodding at his surfboard, a Channel Islands thruster with several ding repairs evident near the tip.
He squinted sideways at her. “Sometimes it’s good to shake things up a bit.”
Cassidy tried to gauge his level of fury, but his tone gave nothing away. “How did you find me?”
“This is my turf, remember?”
Her shoulders sagged. Deep down, she knew she couldn’t run from him forever. “Have you come to arrest me?”
“No,” Bruce said, sounding agitated.
A quick glance at him revealed the concern in his eyes. “I was going to call you tonight,” she lied, remembering the moment in her brother Quinn’s apartment a week ago when she realized how grave her situation had become.
Bruce splashed a scoop of water over the front of his board. “You owe the Bureau a plane ticket.”
Cassidy swirled her legs in the warm water. “Pete was murdered, Bruce.” Over the past five days, she’d built seismic stations and directed her field grunts to assemble this, transmit that, as lava flows gushed from the earth to destroy homes and streets. Somehow during that frantic rush to go, go, go, the reality of it had sunk in. Someone had run Pete off that strip of highway.
“I know.”
Cassidy took this in. Of course, he knew. Didn’t Bruce know everything?
“He must have been about to expose someone,” Cassidy said, as a tightness pulled at her insides. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.” She had lain awake every night since, wondering if Saxon and his men were coming for her next.
“We need you to come in and make a statement,” Bruce said.
“I can’t,” Cassidy said, hearing the nervous hitch in her voice. “This afternoon, I fly home, then I hit the ground running.” She thought of her interview at King 5 Television to discuss volcanic hazards in less than twenty-four hours. Mount Rainier had been experiencing an increase in tremors lately, and the Sunday news program wanted answers. She was pretty sure that Mark, Pete’s best friend and a programmer at the station, had been the one to recommend her for the opportunity.
“Look, Cassidy, you can come in voluntarily, or I can get a subpoena for a grand jury.”
Cassidy inhaled a gulp of ocean air.
“We need to know what you saw. It’s critical for the investigation.”
She scraped a bump of wax from her board, wincing
