Scooter slumped into a plastic chair by the side of the bed and breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to you.”
“I’m fine. It’s just a bump on my head.” I rubbed my forehead. Was it my imagination or had the bump gotten even bigger in the past five minutes? I shivered as I thought about how Jack had grabbed me as I’d tried to run away. “Have they arrested Jack yet for assaulting me?”
Scooter frowned. “Maybe we should have the doctor examine you again. You were hit by a coconut falling from a tree. Apparently, it happens more often than you’d think.”
“I know what I saw. I overheard Jack arguing with two men on the beach. They said if he didn’t pay them what he owed them, he’d end up just like the last guy. You know who the last guy is, don’t you? Captain Dan!”
Scooter pushed himself out of his chair, then paced around the room. “You think those guys killed Captain Dan?”
“They were scary guys,” I said. “The way they threatened Jack, I wouldn’t put it past them to be killers.”
Scooter got out his cell phone, dialed the police station, and explained what I had overheard. “Someone will be here soon to take your statement.”
I texted my mom to let her know that I was in the hospital. Oddly, she didn’t text back right away. It must have been bridge night with the girls. My stomach grumbled, telling me that I hadn’t had dinner. I wondered what they had done with our pizza when I didn’t pick it up. While I was contemplating the fate of unclaimed pizzas, Chief Dalton turned up.
“What’s this I hear about you being hit on the head by a coconut?” he asked.
“It wasn’t a coconut,” I said. “Jack Holt did this.”
He raised one of his eyebrows. “Why don’t we start from the beginning.” He took out his notebook and a pen. “I understand Mrs. Holt found you unconscious in the woods with a coconut beside you. Is that correct?”
“Well, since I was unconscious at the time, I can’t be sure, but that’s what they tell me,” I said testily. My stomach grumbled loudly. The chief’s eyebrows twitched.
“What were you doing right before the coconut fell on you?”
I seized my purse and searched for something edible inside. All I found were several empty chocolate bar wrappers and a packet of breath mints, which wasn’t really going to cut it. I desperately needed pizza. “Let’s cut to the chase, Chief. I overheard Jack and two men talking on the beach. Jack owed them money for some presumably stolen goods, and they threatened him if he didn’t pay up. Jack caught me eavesdropping, shoved me, and bashed me in the head.” I chewed on a breath mint. “If you haven’t done so already, you should get out there and arrest Jack and those other two guys.”
The burly man tapped his notebook with his pen thoughtfully. “What did these guys look like?” After I provided a description of crew-cut guy and his bearded friend, he jotted down a few notes. “I think I know who you’re talking about, Mrs. McGhie. Don’t worry, we’ll have a word with them.” He closed his notebook and put it in his jacket pocket.
“Great, but what about Jack? He’s the one who tried to kill me.”
“I spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Holt in the waiting room earlier. Mr. Holt was on his boat all evening. His wife was there as well, until she went for her walk and found you. So I’m afraid that you couldn’t have possibly seen him on the beach. Maybe it was someone else you saw—that is, if you saw anyone at all. People with head injuries often have fuzzy memories.”
“I know what I saw.”
Chief Dalton pursed his lips. “Well, maybe it’s not a fuzzy memory as much as an, ahem, overactive imagination.” I glared at him, but that made the throbbing in my head worse. He looked at the floor and suppressed a smile. “It’s just that you’ve mentioned alien abduction before. You’re probably one of those creative types. My ex-wife is like that. She does watercolors. She paints fairies sitting on flowers. Weirdest-looking pictures. But what’s even weirder is that she claims the fairies actually talk to her.” He turned to Scooter, looking for support. “She even said that they lived in our garden—can you believe that?” Scooter wisely declined to comment.
The nurse came in with my discharge paperwork, which I hastily signed. “If you can’t be of any help, Chief, I’ll just have to take things into my own hands.” I grabbed my purse. “Come on, Scooter, let’s get our pizza.”
It turns out they don’t throw your pizza away, even if it takes you hours to collect it. Good thing I like cold pizza.
THE NEXT MORNING, I had leftover pizza with some painkillers for breakfast, followed by a strong cup of coffee. Scooter had a bowl of Froot Loops. After I spent ten minutes convincing him that my head was fine, we headed off to Melvin’s Marine Emporium.
Scooter had a long list of items he swore we needed for the boat. He had a much shorter second list of items he wanted for the boat. I was pretty sure that a lot of the items on list number one could easily be moved to list number two.
When we walked through the door, we were cheerfully greeted by a gangly teenager with a bad case of acne. “Ahoy there, sailors! Welcome to Melvin’s Marine Emporium. My name’s Chad. How can I help you today?”
After I confiscated the nice-to-have list, Scooter handed Chad the need-to-have-right-now list. “We just bought a sailboat, and we want to get her outfitted. Our boat broker said this was the best marine store in town.”
“You’ve come to the right place. Melvin’s Marine Emporium is your one-stop shop for all your boating needs.” Chad paused to admonish a girl with perfect, glowing skin who looked to be about his age. “Tiffany, the winches don’t go on that shelf—they go over there.” She scowled at him. He turned back to us and said importantly, “I have to keep on top of the staff. I’m the shift supervisor, you know.” I had the feeling that if Chad asked her to prom, she’d turn him down flat.
Chad scanned the list. “Why don’t we start with anchor chain?” We followed him to the back of the store, where large sections of chain were on display. “Over here, we have our stainless steel chain, over here is galvanized, and this stuff over here—well, you wouldn’t be interested in this; it’s just cheap chain.” While Scooter and the boy discussed the merits of stainless versus galvanized, I had a look at the price tags.
“It costs this much for a foot of chain?” I asked incredulously. “How much chain do we need?” Scooter rattled off a figure, and I did a quick calculation in my head. Okay, it wasn’t that quick of a calculation. I cheated and used the calculator on my phone. Wow, for that price, I could have had a very nice diamond necklace. Somehow it didn’t seem fair that Marjorie Jane was going to be the only one with a sparkly chain.
Boredom set in as the two guys debated anchoring techniques. I wandered around the store, thinking Melvin could probably jazz up his displays of bilge pumps and marine toilets. I came to a section with flags from various countries. Finally, something interesting. As I was trying to decide which nation had the prettiest flag, I spied Jack walking toward the manager’s office.
I put down a Bahamian flag, darted around the corner, and hid behind a display of sunglasses. Jack stood in the door, clenching his car keys.
“I can give you a good deal,” he said.
“I don’t care how good of a deal it is,” replied another man with a high-pitched, squeaky voice. “I can’t afford to get caught moving that stuff for you.”
“But you used to deal with Captain Dan all the time.”
“That was different.”
“Different how? Now that he’s gone, I’m taking over the business. And I’m telling you, I can keep you stocked with everything you need at rock-bottom prices.”
“Maybe after things cool down with the murder investigation. Why don’t you come back next week and we can talk about it more then?”
“But I need the money now!”
“What do I look like? Your personal ATM? Get lost.”
Jack turned abruptly and stormed toward the exit,
pushing Tiffany out of the way in the process.
I hurried back to the anchor chain section and pulled Scooter aside. “I just saw Jack,” I whispered. “He was trying to sell stolen goods to the store manager. Captain Dan was part of it all before he got killed.”
“Are you sure it was Jack?” Scooter asked. “Maybe we should get the doctor to check your head out again.”
“It’s not my head that needs to be checked out, it’s Jack who needs to be checked out.”
Chad waved Scooter over. “Did you see that all our electronics are on sale?” My husband’s eyes lit up.
I sighed. “Go on, have a look. Why don’t you meet me at the marina later? Just promise me not to go overboard buying stuff.”
“Scout’s honor,” Scooter said. “As long as you promise to stay out of this murder investigation. You’ve got to take care of yourself.”
I crossed my fingers behind my back. “Promise.” Then I headed off to confront Sandy on why she lied about Jack’s whereabouts last night.
AS I WALKED THROUGH the marina parking lot, I heard a horn. I turned and saw Penny pulling into a spot in a pink convertible.
“Mollie, perfect timing,” she said as she hopped out and locked up her car. “Why don’t you come with me to my boat, and I’ll loan you an introductory sailing book.”
“Sure,” I replied, pushing my sunglasses back on my head.
“What happened?” She pointed at the big bump on my forehead.
I hesitated. I wasn’t sure how close she was to Jack and Sandy. What if she thought I was imagining things like everyone else did?
“Mollie, did you hear me?” she asked.
“Sorry, yes, I heard you. I got hit in the head last night when I was out walking on the trail by the beach.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. The doctor said there was nothing wrong, other than this bruise and the lump on my forehead.”
“I bet it was one of those coconuts, wasn’t it? Someone else got hit by one of them last year.”
I decided to come clean. I figured seeing how Penny reacted could be useful. “It wasn’t a coconut. It was Jack.”
She stared blankly at me. “Jack hit you in the head with a coconut?”
“He grabbed me, then pushed me, and must have hit me in the head with something. It all happened so fast. But it was definitely Jack, and it was definitely deliberate.” I took a deep breath. “You see, I overheard him talking to two guys on the beach. They were threatening him. If he didn’t pay them the money he owed them, then things weren’t going to go so well for him.”
“You’re kidding,” Penny said. “Aren’t you?”
“Do you think I’d kid about this?” I asked, indicating my forehead. “No, it was Jack all right. You know him pretty well, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say I know him well, but since we all live on our boats at the marina, I certainly see him and Sandy often enough.”
“What do you think he’s involved in?”
Penny shook her head. “I can’t picture him being involved in anything. Are you sure it was Jack who attacked you?”
“It was definitely him.” I shook my head angrily. That was a mistake. My headache was coming back. “For some reason, Sandy is covering for him. She says he was with her at the time. Chief Dalton thinks I made the whole thing up, and I don’t think Scooter believes me either.”
“Your own husband doesn’t believe you? That’s awful. I used to have a boyfriend like that. He never believed me about anything. Lying, cheating jerk!” Penny said.
“No, I think you’ve got Scooter all wrong. He’s not like that at all. Sure, he tends to get obsessed about things, like Marjorie Jane, and not always pay attention to what I’m working on. But he’d never cheat on me or lie to me.” I sat down on the hood of the car next to Penny’s.
“Well, you’re lucky then,” Penny said, lost in her own thoughts. “I was there for this guy through thick and thin and believed in him, even when no one else would. I even...”
“You even did what?”
“Nothing, never mind,” Penny said firmly.
We both sat lost in our thoughts for a few moments. “So what ended up happening with your boyfriend? Are you still together?”
Penny gave a wry chuckle. “No, we’re not together. For a while there I thought we were going to get back together, but it didn’t work out. And it’s definitely never going to happen now.” She stood and said, “Well, what about that sailing book?”
While we walked to her boat, Penny told me about her sailing experience. Like Katy, she had begun sailing as a kid. When she was a teenager, she had saved up her money and bought her own sailboat. After college, she crewed on boats in the Caribbean, helping less experienced owners learn how to manage their boats and sail properly. It wasn’t long before she realized that she could get paid for teaching people how to sail. She got her certification and had been a sailing instructor ever since—first in Texas and now here in Florida.
I started to ask Penny how she knew Captain Dan in Texas, but she interrupted me by pointing proudly at her boat.
“Here she is: Pretty in Pink, my baby,” Penny said with pride.
“Wow, I didn’t know you could get pink canvas for a boat,” I said, marveling at the liberal use of pink all over the boat.
“You can get pink anything these days,” Penny said with a smile. “I’ve even written to several manufacturers of sailing clothing to ask them to make ladies’ versions of their clothes in pink. You know, one day, I might even start my own ladies’ sailing clothing and accessories line,” she confided. “Everything would be in shades of pink.”
I was speechless, but luckily Penny went down below before I could come up with a reply.
While she was gone, I checked my phone. A text from my mother, no surprise.
The hospital?! What’s wrong?!
There were a number of other texts along that line. I ignored them for now. Probably a bad idea, but I was feeling reckless.
Penny hopped down to the dock, holding a book in her hand. “Here you go. Why don’t you read the first couple of chapters and then we can talk through it later? You should also plan to join our ladies’ sailing lesson on Thursday. Meet here at the boat at eleven.”
As I took the book from Penny, I looked at her chewed-off nails. “Penny, I meant to ask you about your nails. You had such a lovely manicure when I first met you. Long pink nails.”
“Oh, yeah. I don’t normally go in for that sort of thing. Nancy had me over to her place for a girls’ wine-and-nails night. Do you know Alejandra from the Sailor’s Corner Cafe?” I nodded, trying to imagine Nancy hosting any sort of party without snarling at her guests. “She brought over all of these press-on nails for us to look at. She’s a trained nail artist, you know. She’s only waitressing until she can save up enough money to open her own nail salon. Alejandra is such a sweet girl, so I agreed to be her guinea pig.”
“Did Chief Dalton tell you what I found at the murder scene?” Penny furrowed her brow. “A pink fingernail.”
She smiled. “Oh, that. Yes, he told me about that. It wasn’t mine. I ended up taking my nails off right after I saw you that day.” She choked up but continued. “The day after the murder.”
“So you weren’t on Marjorie Jane that night?”
“Of course not.” She tapped the book. “First two chapters, right?” She waved at someone docking their boat. “I better go help them. See you Thursday.”
WHEN I GOT TO THE END of Penny’s dock, I saw Jack walking across the patio toward the parking lot carrying a tote bag. It reminded me that Scooter had said he had a surprise for me in the navy-blue tote bag of his. I’d have to remember to ask him about it later, but now was my chance to speak with Sandy while Jack was away. I hurried down C Dock to their boat. Sandy was sitting in the cockpit holding a book, but instead of reading it, she was staring blankly off into space. I tapped on the side of the boat to get her attention.
&nbs
p; “Mollie, how are you?” she said. “We waited at the hospital to see how you were, but you must have left without us spotting you. Come on aboard and I’ll make some coffee. I even have some chocolate chip cookies from Penelope’s Sugar Shack to go with it.”
At the mention of cookies, I felt my anxiety levels abate. She seemed happy to see me, despite the fact that her husband had assaulted me the night before. I sat in the cockpit while Sandy brewed the coffee. I picked up the romance novel she was reading: Revenge of the Jilted Lover. Not really my cup of tea.
She passed up the cookies and two mugs of coffee. “That bump on your head looks just awful,” she said, settling back against the cushions. “A tourist got hit by a coconut last year. They should put signs up warning people about the dangers of falling coconuts.”
I put down my coffee cup. “But I wasn’t hit by a coconut. I thought the police talked to you about this.”
She waved her hand at me. “They asked us about it last night. You really must have been delirious when you came to, saying that Jack was responsible. A concussion can do that, you know. Those coconuts sure are dangerous.”
“But it wasn’t a coconut.”
“Of course it was. When I found you on the trail, there was a coconut next to your head.”
“Maybe it was the coconut that Jack used to hit me on the head with,” I said, gripping my coffee cup tightly.
“Are you sure they should have let you out of the hospital so soon?” she asked in a soothing voice. “You might still be experiencing some—what do they call them—delusions?”
“It wasn’t a delusion, Sandy. I saw Jack on the beach with two guys. I think he’s involved in some sort of criminal activity. I overheard their conversation, and when Jack caught me, he assaulted me. That’s what happened. It wasn’t any delusion.”
“No, that can’t be. Jack was with me all night, and he was still on the boat when I went for my regular evening walk. When I found you, no one else was around.”
Murder at the Marina Page 12
