“Hello, is anyone down there? This is the police,” a loud voice boomed.
“Yes, we’re down here with the body.” I looked at Scooter, worried he might faint at the mention of a body. He stared into space blankly and held out his hand for more chocolate.
“All right, ma’am. We’re coming on board. Step aside.”
It’s not easy to step aside in a boat. I squeezed as far into the galley as I could, while a burly man climbed down the ladder, followed by a petite woman carrying a large black plastic case. The man said briskly, “Sir, ma’am, I’m Chief Dalton and this is Officer Moore. Officer Moore is going to have a look around while I ask you some questions.” He reached up and flicked the overhead light on.
“I thought the lights weren’t working,” Scooter said. I think he had been hoping they still didn’t work. He closed his eyes so he could avoid looking at the blood on the floor and on the winch handle.
Officer Moore stepped into the galley and set the case on the counter. “We noticed your shore power cord had been disconnected, so we plugged it back in.”
Chief Dalton asked us what we knew about Captain Dan and why he was on our boat, our whereabouts prior to discovering the body, and when and why we’d purchased Marjorie Jane. I told him about the break-in earlier and Captain Dan’s theory that it had been high school kids. He scribbled down notes while Officer Moore took photographs.
Once he was done questioning us, he told us to wait on the patio while they examined the boat and removed the body.
SCOOTER SLUMPED INTO a chair and I passed him the rest of the chocolate. While he scraped every last morsel from the wrapper, I looked around the patio, wondering if someone who had been at the barbecue earlier in the night had killed Captain Dan.
A small crowd had gathered, watching the police go back and forth between the parking lot and B Dock. Sandy and Jack stood at the edge of the group. Sandy appeared agitated, pulling on Jack’s arm and whispering something in his ear. Everyone gasped as two officers wheeled a gurney with a body bag on it past them.
Sandy hurried over to us, Jack in tow. “Did you see that?” she asked, pulling up a chair next to mine. “I wonder if Mr. Kennedy had a heart attack. Did you know he’s in his late eighties and still living aboard his boat? He’s been having heart problems for years.”
“No, I don’t think it was Mr. Kennedy,” I said, glancing at Scooter to see how he was holding up. He was searching through my purse, presumably looking for more chocolate. I leaned over to Sandy and whispered, “Captain Dan was murdered on our boat.”
Sandy shrieked, “Captain Dan was murdered? Are you sure?” Everyone on the patio turned and stared at her.
Scooter dumped the contents of my purse on the table and pawed through them. “Where’s the rest of the chocolate?” he muttered.
Sandy tugged Jack’s arm. “Did you hear that? Captain Dan is dead.”
Jack looked at her quietly for a few moments. “It’s not really a great loss, is it?” He walked over to the boardwalk and gazed blankly out at the water.
The color drained from Sandy’s face as she wiped away tears. She probably could use some chocolate too. Clearly, I wasn’t prepared for a chocolate emergency of this magnitude.
Ned and Nancy pushed through the crowd and walked over to us. They looked like they had just woken up. Nancy was wearing a fleece robe cinched tightly over her nightgown. Ned had a matching robe over striped pajamas.
Nancy eyed the police officers milling around the patio. “Is it true that Captain Dan was found murdered on your boat? At this time of night?” she asked, peering over her reading glasses. I had a feeling she thought murders should be scheduled ahead of time at a more convenient hour. The way she was staring at me, I wondered if she was going to make a citizen’s arrest for disturbing the peace, or rather disturbing her peace.
“It’s true. I found him in the V-berth.”
Nancy frowned and made tsk-tsk sounds. Ned looked woozy. He grabbed onto the back of a chair to steady himself.
Chief Dalton marched toward us, followed by Officer Moore, who was still carrying the black case.
“Mr. and Mrs. Schneider,” Chief Dalton said. He pulled a notebook out of his pocket. It wasn’t a question, but Ned and Nancy nodded while the chief scribbled something down. “A Daniel Robert Smith was found dead aboard a boat named Marjorie Jane.” More nodding. “I understand Mr. Smith was a boat broker at the marina.” Ned and Nancy continued to nod. I was beginning to like Chief Dalton’s effect on Nancy.
The burly man flipped over a page in his notebook. “Is it true that the two of you had an argument with Mr. Smith earlier in the evening?”
Nancy stopped nodding. “Now, just you wait a minute here, mister,” she said, jabbing the chief in his stomach with her long nails. The stout man looked down at her hand. She jabbed him again. “The people you should be talking to are them.” She stopped jabbing his stomach and pointed at us. I pulled back in my chair, worried she might poke me in the eye with her fingernail. “They bought Marjorie Jane from Captain Dan, realized after the fact that they got conned, and then ‘discovered’ his body on their boat.” She used her fingers to make air quotes around the word “discovered,” then jabbed Chief Dalton in the stomach again for emphasis.
Ned seized Nancy by the shoulder and pulled her back. “Hang on there a minute, honey. There’s no need to get worked up. The police chief is just doing his job.” He looked over at the beleaguered man. “Maybe we could continue this inside our office?”
Chief Dalton snapped his notebook shut. “That sounds fine, sir. While we’re at it, we’ll need you to make a list of everyone who was at the marina tonight.”
Ned nodded while Nancy glared at me.
The chief pointed at the marina office. “After the two of you.” Before following them, he looked at us. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to get back onto your boat until sometime tomorrow. Why don’t you head home for the night? We’ll follow up with you in the morning with any additional questions we may have.” Scooter appeared relieved. He didn’t want to get back on a boat covered in blood anytime soon.
Then it hit me. This was our way out. There was no way that Scooter was going to want to keep Marjorie Jane after this. He’d have to agree to sell her to Penny now, although selling a boat that someone had been murdered on might not be so easy. I thought about this while I put everything back in my purse that Scooter had dumped out.
Sandy snagged a pack of tissues off the table before I could put them away. “Do you mind?”
“No, they’re all yours.” She wiped her eyes and then blew her nose. “I just can’t believe he’s dead.”
Jack wandered back to the table. “Come on, Sandy. The police said it’s okay for us to head back to our boat.” He walked down the dock without waiting for her.
Sandy got up and gave me a hug. “Thanks for being so understanding, Mollie.”
I hugged her back. “I’ll come by tomorrow and check to see how you’re doing.” I silently cursed Jack for ignoring Sandy. His wife was falling to pieces and he didn’t seem to care. Then again, he didn’t really seem to care that Captain Dan had been murdered either.
THE NEXT MORNING, CHIEF Dalton called and asked us to come to the police station. As we drove down Main Street, I pointed at Penelope’s Sugar Shack. “That’s where I bought the brownies for the potluck yesterday. They were good, weren’t they? Captain Dan had a couple of them. That’s the kind of last supper I’d like to have.”
Scooter gripped the steering wheel tightly while he pulled up in front of the police station. It was painted bright blue and had flower baskets hanging from the windowsills, like the rest of the buildings on Main Street. It almost felt cheerful until I remembered why we were there.
Officer Moore greeted us and ushered us into the chief’s office. After exchanging a few pleasantries, we tried to make ourselves comfortable in the hard wooden chairs in front of his desk. He reached into a cardboard box and pulled out a large p
lastic bag. He placed it on the desk with a thud. Inside the bag, I saw the winch handle that had killed Captain Dan. It was still covered in blood.
Scooter pushed his chair back. I reached into my purse, grabbed a bag of Peanut M&M’S, and passed them to him.
Chief Dalton looked at Scooter popping M&M’S rapidly into his mouth and raised his right eyebrow. “What can you tell me about this winch handle?” he asked, raising his eyebrow even higher.
I hadn’t really noticed with all the commotion and the dim lighting yesterday, but he had the bushiest eyebrows I had ever seen in my life. They were fascinating in a strange sort of way, conjuring up visions of two dark, fuzzy caterpillars playing tug-of-war on his forehead.
Scooter crumpled up the empty M&M’S bag and tossed it in the trash can. “Is that the winch handle that, um, you know...”
“Killed Captain Dan?”
Scooter shifted in his seat and nodded.
“It is,” Chief Dalton said. “What can you tell me about it?”
“It isn’t ours. I mean, it doesn’t belong to Marjorie Jane.”
“Go on.”
“Well, Marjorie Jane came with two winch handles. I saw them both when I did the original inventory with Captain Dan a few days ago. This isn’t one of them. It’s designed to fit a much larger winch.”
“So you’re saying that you had never seen this before last night.”
“Yes, that’s correct. I mean no, that’s not correct.” Scooter took a deep breath. “What I mean to say is that we did see this handle earlier in the evening. Mollie almost tripped over it. But it wasn’t covered in...” Scooter clenched the sides of the chair.
“Blood?” Chief Dalton offered.
Scooter nodded.
“And you, Mrs. McGhie. Had you ever seen this winch handle before last night?”
I snorted. “Are you kidding me? I hadn’t even seen Marjorie Jane before yesterday, when Scooter signed the papers to buy her, let alone any of her winch handles.”
Chief Dalton raised his other eyebrow. “You mean to say you bought a boat without seeing it first?”
Scooter smiled. “It was a surprise. I bought Marjorie Jane as an anniversary present for Mollie. I took her over to see her for the first time yesterday afternoon, then signed the papers to buy her.”
“Wow, that’s some anniversary present. You must really like sailing, Mrs. McGhie.”
I snorted again. “I’ve never been sailing before in my life.”
The burly man looked at me in surprise, then at Scooter in disbelief. He picked up the winch handle and put it back in the cardboard box. Scooter breathed a sigh of relief now that it was out of sight.
“Tell me again, where were the two of you between six and eight last night?”
“We were walking along the beach,” Scooter said nervously.
“That’s a long walk.”
Scooter gulped. “Well, we did sit for a while and talk.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Oh, you know, this and that.” Scooter took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “I’ve been going through a tough time lately with work stuff. We were talking about plans for the future, that kind of thing.”
The chief chewed on his pen for a moment. “Did anyone see you?”
Scooter looked questioningly at me. “I’m not sure. I didn’t notice anyone. Did you, Mollie?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so, but it was dark out once the sun went down. It would have been hard to see anyone.” I tried to recall the details of our walk, then remembered that I had seen something important. “But there were these bright red and green flashing lights out on the water. I think they might have been a—”
Scooter interrupted. “Chief Dalton is asking if we saw any people, not if you saw any flashing lights.”
The chief wrote something down on a piece of paper and tucked it into a file folder. “I’ll need to go over the documents of sale.”
“Wait a minute,” I said excitedly. “Maybe the sale didn’t go through because Captain Dan died. Maybe we don’t actually own Marjorie Jane.”
The chief thumbed through a pile of papers. “From what I can see here, it all looks legitimate. I’m afraid you’re the owners of the boat.”
“Does Mollie need to stay for this? I was the one who signed the paperwork,” Scooter said.
“She can go, if she wants.”
I grabbed my purse. “Great. I told Sandy I would check in on her this morning. You go through those papers, Scooter. Maybe you can find a loophole to get us out of this sale, while you’re at it. I’ll meet you at the marina later.”
As I walked toward the door, I turned to Chief Dalton and asked, “Who’s on your suspect list?”
He seemed taken aback by my question. I could tell by the twitching of his eyebrows. They were enough to frighten small children, let alone murder suspects. “I’m afraid I can’t share that with you. It’s confidential.”
“You know, I’m an investigative reporter. I’ve got a knack for getting people to open up and admit things they don’t want to talk about. I bet I could help you out by chatting with some of the folks at the marina. There did seem to be a number of them that held a grudge against Captain Dan.”
Chief Dalton raised both of his eyebrows and gave me a faint smile. “That’s okay, ma’am. I think we’ve got it covered.”
“Fine,” I said. “Scooter, want to walk me out?”
He nodded and walked with me to the lobby. “What was that back there about being an investigative reporter?”
“Okay, I might have exaggerated a bit. I’m not technically one yet, but I’m sure I’m going to get the job.”
“Are you talking about this thing with FAROUT?”
“Of course,” I said with a frown. “How many times do I have to tell you about this? It’s between Lola and me. You remember Lola, don’t you? That obnoxious redhead who wore those very tiny skirts at the FAROUT convention in Texas last year?”
“Oh, her,” Scooter said with a faraway look. “Who could forget her?”
Yeah, of course he couldn’t forget her. She had had Scooter and every other guy at the convention wrapped around her little finger.
“Scooter, snap out of it! Back to business. I’m going to go to the marina and start questioning people. Once you’re done here, you’re going to stop by Penelope’s Sugar Shack and pick up a couple more of those brownies and meet me back at the marina.”
“Sure thing. Brownies and then the marina.” He leaned down and gave me a kiss on the forehead. “Don’t worry about Lola. I’m sure you’re a shoo-in for the job.” I was pleased that he was referring to my work as a job now, and not a volunteer position. “But do me a favor and don’t get in Chief Dalton’s way. And for goodness’ sake, don’t tell him about FAROUT and your theory about those red and green lights.” I pulled away from Scooter, and he quickly added, “It’s just that I don’t think he’ll understand—it’s not that I don’t believe you.”
“Fine. Whatever,” I said as I stomped across the lobby and out the door.
ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES of living in a small town is that you can walk everywhere. As I made my way toward the marina, I breathed in the salty air and breathed out my irritation with Scooter. I knew he tried to believe in the work I did, but it was hard for people to accept the truth sometimes, especially when no one talked about it. That was one of FAROUT’s missions—to raise awareness and make people more comfortable sharing their stories.
When I got to the marina, I popped in the office to find out where Jack and Sandy’s boat was located. Fortunately, Ned was staffing the desk. He told me that I could find them on C Dock, then asked me how I was holding up. You would think that a little of Ned’s compassion would have rubbed off on Nancy after so many years of marriage.
We talked for a few minutes about what it was like to find a body, then I headed to Jack and Sandy’s boat. As I walked down the dock, I ran into Penny. She was wearing another all-pink outfit.
Pink tank top, pink shorts, and another pink hat.
“Can you believe what happened to Captain Dan?” I asked her.
“It’s terrible to think he’s gone, isn’t it?” Penny started chewing her nails. Her manicure looked terrible. Half of her nails were long, shiny, and pink. The other half were short and ragged. She looked at me. “Is it true that you found him on Marjorie Jane?”
“Yes. In the V-berth.”
Penny shuddered and continued mangling her nails. I thought about giving her a hug, but she didn’t seem like the hugging type. I pointed at her hand. “My mom does that when she gets nervous.” Penny quickly put her hands in her pockets.
“It’s a bad habit. Besides, short nails are better for sailing. Otherwise, you end up breaking them.” She stared down at the dock absentmindedly and mumbled something that sounded like “poor Bob.”
“What was that you said?” I asked.
Penny looked up at me sharply. “Nothing. Just saying that I need to get going. I’ve got a sailing class starting in a few minutes.” She hurried down the dock, leaving me to wonder if she was referring to Captain Dan as Bob, like she had when I’d overheard them arguing at the barbecue.
I remembered the pink fingernail that I had found on the boat when I’d discovered Captain Dan’s body. When the police had come on board they’d startled me, and I’d completely forgotten to tell them about it. I’d have to figure out what I did with it and give it to Chief Dalton. It could be an important clue. Both Penny and Nancy had been sporting pink manicures. Could one of them have been on our boat?
I pondered this as I made my way to Island Time, Jack and Sandy’s boat. I saw her halfway down the dock. Jack and Sandy were in front of her, arguing.
“How can you say that, Jack?” Sandy said. “You’re the one who should be careful. After all, I heard it was a large winch handle that was the murder weapon.”
Murder at the Marina Page 6
