by Cindy Bell
“Anything else about him stand out?” Suzie tried to keep a soothing tone to her voice. “Maybe a hair color, a scar, something about the way he walked?”
“Sure. He had this strange wiggle to his left toe. No. It’s not like I dated the guy.” Mike rolled his eyes. “I told you all I could. All right?”
“All right.” Suzie nodded. “Thanks for the information. I’ll make sure you and your wife have a free night at Dune House and dinner as promised. We can arrange the date for any time after this weekend. Okay?”
“Thanks. That is if I can convince her to come. I don’t think me being a murder suspect is going to make her too eager.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Suzie patted his arm. “Just cooperate with the police and focus on what you can do to remind her of just how much you care.”
“Okay. I will.”
As Suzie stepped off the boat, Paul offered his hand to steady her. She took it, along with a deep breath. “It seems to me that whoever this man in the yellow jacket was, he had a very strong interest in Robbie and his boat.”
“Yes, let’s see if we can track him down at one of these locations.” He led her to his boat and they climbed on. Once they were off to sea, Paul looked over at her. “You were amazing with Mike.”
“I just tried to reach his heart.” Suzie shrugged. “A man like that, you can’t come at him, you have to work your way around all of the anger to get to the good stuff.”
“Kind of like me?”
“No, nothing like you.” She kissed his cheek. “You’re all good stuff, Paul. You just think you have to be tough.”
“Just like you.” He smiled.
“Yes.” She laughed. “Just like me.”
Suzie looked out at sea and suddenly felt nervous at the thought that maybe she had just invited a murderer to stay at Dune House. However, one glimpse of Paul relaxed her. As the minutes passed she relaxed more and she began to run through possibilities in her mind. As kind as she’d been to Mike, he was still a suspect. So was the man in the yellow jacket. So far the only lead they had was that it appeared that the killer was someone that knew Robbie. She hoped that retracing his steps that day might lead them right to the killer.
“Here’s the first stop.” Paul pulled up to a small residential dock. When he did Suzie looked out over the sloped backyard that extended from the water. To her surprise, a flash of bright yellow caught her attention. The moment she saw it she couldn’t believe it, but a second later she was certain. Even from the distance she could see that the man had no hair.
“Paul, that’s him! The man from the docks that Mike and Pedro saw!”
“Where?” Paul jumped off the boat onto the dock.
“There, just past the trees. See?” She pointed to a clump of trees in the yard.
“Yes, I do.” Paul began to run towards the man. Suzie climbed off the boat as fast as she could. She had no idea how Paul might react once he got his hands on the man that might be responsible for Robbie’s death.
Chapter 10
By the time Suzie caught up with the man in the yellow jacket, Paul had already tackled him to the ground. He had him pinned beneath him.
“What are you doing? Let go of me! Help!” The man beneath Paul screamed as loud as he could. Suzie’s gaze fixated on the bright yellow shade of his jacket.
“Stay down and I won’t have to hurt you.” Paul’s gruff voice was strained with the force it took to hold the man down.
“Don’t hurt me, please. What do you want?” The man grew still. It struck Suzie that he didn’t act or speak like someone that was guilty. He didn’t act like a murderer.
“Paul, let him up.”
Paul stood up and kept one hand on the man’s arm as he got to his feet. The man turned to look at Suzie with wide, fear filled eyes. His stricken expression combined with his slight frame made Suzie’s heart drop. Suzie continued to study him, he certainly wasn’t thick set like Mike had said.
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. Why are you two doing this to me?”
“Why did you murder Robbie?” Paul held his arm tight in his grasp.
“Murder Robbie? What are you talking about? You two have the wrong man.” He straightened his shoulders. “Let me go, and I won’t call the police. Just let me go, and we can forget all of this ever happened.”
“I don’t think we can do that.” Paul narrowed his eyes. “Several witnesses place you at and around Robbie’s boat just hours before he was killed.”
“Wait a minute, that Robbie? He’s dead?” He looked between the two. “Someone killed him?”
“Someone in a bright yellow jacket with a bald head.” Paul pulled him closer.
“Wait a minute, Paul. Let’s just hear him out.”
“I don’t know what you think you saw, or anyone else saw, but I had nothing to do with Robbie being murdered.”
“What were you doing near his boat then?” Paul eased his grip on the man’s arm.
“I’m a mechanic. Not a boat mechanic specifically, but an engine is an engine. Robbie asked me to look at his boat because he’d had some problems with it. That’s all I did.”
“How come I’ve never seen you around the docks before?” Paul glared at him.
“Because I’m new to the area, I used to work in Parish.”
“What’s your name?” Suzie pulled out her phone.
“Gill, Gill Smith. You can look it up.”
Suzie typed the name into her phone and saw that Gill Smith was indeed a mechanic. “So Robbie hired you?”
“Yes. Well, not exactly. He paid me in shellfish.”
“I see.” Paul met Suzie’s eyes over the top of the man’s head. “What repairs needed to be done?”
“How about you try telling me who you are first?” He pulled his arm from Paul’s grasp. “And maybe why you tackled me?”
“I’m Paul, and this is Suzie. Robbie was a friend of mine, and I’d like to find out what happened to him. Since the description of the man last seen around his boat included a bright yellow jacket and Robbie came to this location on the day of his murder I assumed that you might be involved in his murder.”
“And tackled me.” He cleared his throat. “Well, you’re wrong. I had nothing to do with any murder. However, someone was certainly out to get him.”
“Why do you say that?” Suzie stepped closer to him.
“Because it was a new boat and the repairs I needed to do to the engine were not from wear and tear. Someone sabotaged it, on purpose.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Trust me, I’ve been working on engines for over twenty years. I know when something is from wear and tear, and when someone wants to keep a boat from going out on the ocean. Someone did just that to Robbie’s boat. He picked me up late in the morning and asked if I could listen to the sound he was hearing. So we went on a little ride around and I did hear it. I told him I’d work on it for him.”
“Did you ever tell him what you found out about the boat?” Paul stepped forward. “Maybe he confronted whoever he thought sabotaged it?”
“No, I never had the chance. He had some things to do in town so he left me there. I worked on his boat, repaired it, then took my share of the shellfish out of one of his coolers that he’d left open for me. He hadn’t come back. I called him, he didn’t answer. So, I caught a ride back to my place with another fisherman. I had no idea what had happened until now.” He lowered his eyes. “What a shame.”
“Do you have any thoughts on who might have sabotaged the boat? Did Robbie mention having any problems with anyone? Maybe he was upset when he picked you up?” Suzie asked.
“I’m sorry.” He shrugged. “Robbie, was just Robbie. I didn’t notice anything different.”
“Maybe he took a phone call? Or he mentioned having a meeting with someone later in the day?” Suzie frowned. “I’m sorry I don’t mean to push, but you might have been the last person to speak with Robbie, other than his killer.”
“I wish I could help more. If I had known that Robbie was going to be killed, of course I would have paid more attention. But I didn’t. To me it was just a regular day. Anyway, you can check his phone and see that I called him about the boat. I left him a message to let him know that it was fixed and to call me so I could explain what had happened.”
“Thanks Gill.” She looked over at Paul.
“Sorry about the rough handling.” Paul offered him his hand for a handshake. “I should have asked questions first.”
“Yes, that would have been good.” Gill ignored Paul’s hand. “I hope you find out what happened to Robbie. But I had nothing to do with it.”
“Thanks for your time.” Suzie started to turn away, then thought better of it. She turned back. “Gill, just one more thing.”
“Yes?” He looked over his shoulder at her.
“Did you happen to lose your jacket at the dock?” The bright yellow jacket he wore was almost identical to the one she found by the docks. She thought that maybe he had replaced it with a new one or had two of them.
“No. I only have this one.” He brushed the sleeves of his jacket. “My daughter bought it for me a couple of years ago.”
“Okay, thanks again.” Suzie followed Paul back to the boat. As they drifted at the dock she leaned against the railing.
“Do you believe him?” Paul turned on the boat’s engine.
“I’m not sure.” Suzie stared at the backyard as they drifted away from it. “On one hand, maybe. He clearly didn’t act guilty of anything.”
“I feel awful for tackling him.” Paul grimaced. “I guess I should have thought that through.”
“It wasn’t the best, but no harm was done. Don’t let it get to you. You didn’t know that he might not be the right guy.”
“Might not? What makes you suspicious? He said he took the shellfish out of the cooler, that’s why it was left open. He also said he got a ride on a different boat. That explains his disappearing act.”
“But why did I find a yellow jacket with blood on it?” Suzie shook her head. “That’s what I can’t figure out. If it wasn’t Gill who wore the jacket, then who did?”
“Maybe someone saw him around the dock and decided to frame him for the murder.”
“You could be completely right about that. I hadn’t even considered it. Someone might have framed him, and I was ready to fall right into it.”
“It’s a stretch, but the yellow jacket does make me wonder. Maybe someone used it as a cover to get onto the boat. Maybe Robbie only saw the yellow jacket at first and thought it was Gill.”
“Maybe. Where are we headed now?”
“I’m just following what was in the GPS I have no idea what he would be going out to this location for. There’s practically nothing there.”
“I’m going to try Jason again. I want to make sure that he knows about Gill.”
“You can try, but reception isn’t always great out this way.”
Suzie dialed the number and waited for Jason to pick up. As Paul had predicted the call did not go through.
“How much further, Paul? Maybe once we’re on land again I can get a signal.”
“Just about ten minutes.” When he got closer to the location he slowed the boat.
“Oh, look at that, I guess there is some property out here. This must be where Robbie went. We should have a look.” Paul squinted in an attempt to read a small no trespassing sign.
“We better be cautious we might get into trouble if we get out and walk up to the building?” Suzie said.
“We should be fine. Just stick close to me. We don’t know what we might be walking into.”
“I will.” Suzie was always cautious from her days as an investigative journalist, but that never stopped her from investigating.
Paul stepped off the boat onto the rocky shore first. Then he reached back for Suzie’s hand. She leaned on him to steady herself on the slippery rocks. In the distance there was a long, single story building. It was very plain on the outside, similar to a warehouse.
“You said you didn’t know this was here?”
“No, but I haven’t been out this way in a long time.”
“Let’s see if we can figure out what this place is.” As she started to walk towards the building, something she spotted out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was a long, black cylinder that sunk into the water just beyond the shore. “Paul, what do you think this is?” She crouched down beside it. Paul crouched down as well.
“I’m not sure, but don’t…” Suzie reached out and pulled the cylinder out of the water before Paul could finish his sentence. Classical piano music filled the air.
“It’s a speaker?” She raised an eyebrow. “Why in the world would anyone be playing music under the water?”
“Don’t you touch my babies!”
Suzie looked up to see the barrel of a shotgun pointed at her. Her heart dropped.
“Suzie, get back.” Paul lunged in front of her. The man who wielded the gun looked to her as if he was only a few years into his twenties. His stringy hair was pinned beneath an old, faded baseball cap.
“Please, we don’t want any trouble.” Suzie raised her hands in the air. The speaker splashed back into the water.
“No, you just didn’t want to get caught, but you have, so now you’re going to pay.”
“That’s enough, son, put down the gun.” Paul started to stand up.
“Don’t you move a muscle, old man, or I’ll make sure that you never get back on your boat.” Suzie put a hand on Paul’s shoulder to restrain him. His protective instincts were likely trying to convince him to tackle the man. But Suzie could see from the wild look in the man’s eyes that he was not bluffing.
“Nobody is going anywhere. You’re in charge here. My name is Suzie, what’s yours?” She kept her voice as soft as possible.
“Like a thief is going to tell me her real name. You two just sit tight until the police get here. Then you’re going to pay back every dime for the pearls you’ve stolen from my family.”
“This is all a misunderstanding. My cousin, is a police officer in Garber. Maybe you know him? Jason?”
“Jason is your cousin?” He lowered the gun some, but kept it pointed in her direction.
“Yes. I took over Dune House in Garber. Have you been in town to see it since the remodel?”
“Yes.” He lowered the gun a little more. “If you own that place, why are you stealing my oysters?”
“I’m not.” Suzie narrowed her eyes. “Has someone been stealing them?”
“Yes.” He looked over at Paul for a long moment then finally lowered his gun the rest of the way. “I thought that’s what you were doing.”
“Not at all.” Paul met his eyes. “We are here about the death of a friend of mine. I didn’t even realize this was a pearl farm. You haven’t been out here too long have you?”
“No, we haven’t, just over a year. If people keep stealing from us we won’t be out here much longer either. Who’s your friend?”
“Robbie Stillswell.”
“Robbie.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’ve met him before. What happened to him?”
“He was killed,” Paul said. “We’re not sure by whom.”
“I’m sorry. That doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“We’re here because this location was listed on his GPS as a place that he traveled to. Have you spoken to him recently?” Suzie asked.
“Here? No. He’d have no reason to be here that I know of.” He shook his head. “I could check with my mother.”
“Is she available now?”
“Sure. Follow me.” He turned and walked towards a path. Suzie hesitated for a moment. Was it safe? The man had pulled a gun on them just a few minutes before. She grabbed Paul’s arm.
“Do you think we should go with him?”
“We’re out here. If he tries anything, I’ll put him down.”
She shook her head and smiled
at him. “So tough. I guess you can snatch a bullet out of midair, too?”
“I sure would try.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s catch up, I’m not too keen on the idea of getting lost out here.”
“Why do you think Robbie would have come here?” Suzie asked.
“I have no idea. Maybe he got lost.”
She nodded and they walked together down the path. Not far along she noticed a large house that looked similar to Dune House only on a smaller scale. There was a sign with an arrow pointing towards the house. The sign said ‘Inn’.
“An inn in the middle of nowhere. Why is that?”
“It’s probably because it’s a good way to maintain a profit if the pearl turnout is low. Many people would like the secluded area and beautiful beaches.”
“Do you think that Robbie might have stayed here? That might be why this location was on his GPS.”
“It might be. Or maybe he came here to visit someone who stayed here or works here.”
“It’s possible, or maybe he even got lost.”
“Wait here, I’ll get my mother.” He ascended the wide porch. Suzie lingered beside Paul and watched as the man disappeared inside the house.
“I’ve never even heard of a pearl farm before,” Suzie said.
“It’s not too common around here. In fact this is the only one I know of in this area. They haven’t been around very long and must be trying to get a foothold.”
“It’s funny though, I’ve never really thought about how pearls are harvested. Is that why there was a speaker in the water?”
“Uh, that seems a little odd to me, but I’m sure they have a reason.” Paul smiled.
The front door opened and a small-statured woman stepped out. She had long, gray hair that hung loose around her shoulders and well past her waist.
“What is it?” She put her hands on her hips. “This is private property you know.”
“We’re only here to ask a few questions.” Suzie stepped forward. She assumed that perhaps the woman would be more comfortable speaking with her, than with Paul.
