Murder at the Marina

by Ellen Jacobson

  “I saw you and Jack arguing,” I said. “I thought you could use a cat cuddle.”

  Sandy smiled. “You’re right. Mrs. Moto is the only good thing in my life right now.”

  “What were you fighting about?”

  “I’ve been trying to help with his business records. I’ve spent hours entering data into spreadsheets. Next thing you know, he’s yelling at me, saying I did it all wrong. But I didn’t. I matched everything up with his notes and invoices.”

  “What does he think you did wrong?” I asked.

  “You know how he buys and sells marine equipment? I enter what items he’s bought, the quantity, and how much he paid in one spreadsheet. Then in another, I enter what items he’s sold, the quantity, and how much he’s sold them for. That way I can calculate any profit that’s been made.” She shook her head. “Who am I kidding? There hasn’t been any profit in a long time. It’s been all losses.”

  “I don’t know—it sounds like you’re pretty organized.” I actually didn’t have a clue if she was organized or not. Data entry and spreadsheets mystified me. I preferred the written word to crunching numbers. “So what exactly was the problem?”

  “I know he ordered twelve bicolor lights, but he says he never bought any at all. But I have a receipt saying that he sold them to some guy. So how could he have sold something he never bought in the first place? I just don’t get it.”

  “What are bicolor lights?” I asked. Mrs. Moto meowed. I guess she was curious too.

  “They’re navigational lights you have on your boat at night. The port-side lights are red and the starboard lights are green. That way when you encounter another boat in the dark, you can tell by their lights what direction they’re going in. Keeps you from crashing into each other.”

  Red and green lights—not the most fascinating topic, unless it involved decorating a Christmas tree. Mrs. Moto yawned. I was more polite and stifled mine.

  Sandy set the calico down on the dock. “I’m so glad you came by, Mollie. Sometimes it’s hard not having anyone to talk to.”

  I looked at Sandy’s eyes. Not only were they bloodshot, but she had dark circles underneath them. “You look tired. How have you been sleeping lately?”

  “More of the same. Jack tells me he caught me sleepwalking again last night.” She shrugged. “I don’t remember a thing, but he says he found me trying to climb into one of the dinghies.”

  “Yikes!” I said. “That could have been dangerous if you’d fallen in the water.”

  “That’s what Jack says. Somehow he managed to guide me back onto the boat and into bed without me being aware of it.” She rubbed her eyes. “He’s been trying to get me to take sleeping pills at night, hoping they’ll knock me out and keep me from sleepwalking.”

  That sounded dangerous to me. Who knew what was in those things? “Did you talk to your doctor about it?”

  “No,” she said. “Besides, we can’t really afford to go to the doctor these days.” I wondered how they could afford the sleeping pills and where Jack got them.

  Sandy yawned. “You look like you could use a nap.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.” She rubbed her temples. “I feel another one of my headaches coming on again.” She picked up Mrs. Moto. “Why don’t you come snuggle with me?” The Japanese bobtail didn’t look like she would object to a nap. “Was there anything else, Mollie? Or did you just come to drop the cat off?”

  I decided to show more sensitivity than I had yesterday and not press her about the abduction. “No, that was it. Dropping Mrs. Moto off.” As Sandy was getting on board her boat, I added, “I guess there is one other thing. Why did you and Jack decide not to go out of town? I meant to ask you before, but I completely forgot about it after Captain Dan’s murder.”

  As soon as I mentioned Captain Dan, Sandy turned white and steadied herself by holding onto the side of her boat. “That was Jack. His business plans changed. He said he had to be here at the marina. I didn’t ask any questions. Sorry that I didn’t let you know about the change of plans.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. She was breathing rapidly, and sweat was beading on her brow. “Sandy, you really don’t look good. Are you sure you’re all right to be here on your own?”

  “I’ll be fine. It’s the headache. I just need to lie down.” She squeezed Mrs. Moto tightly. “Come on, time for our nap.” The cat squirmed, jumped out of her arms, and tore down the dock. Sandy frowned, then went down below.

  I wished I had been able to ask her more questions. There was more going on than simple alien abduction here, but what it was I wasn’t sure. What I was sure of was that as soon as I got to the bottom of it, the story would completely wipe Lola’s Disneyland scoop off the map.

  AS I WAS WALKING BACK to Marjorie Jane, I saw Jack come toward me, wearing another gaudy Hawaiian shirt. I tried to duck behind one of the palm trees, but the problem with palm trees is that their trunks are much narrower than my hips. There’s really no place to hide.

  “Is that you, Mollie?” Jack called out.

  I reluctantly came out from behind the tree and glanced around to see if there were any witnesses in case he decided to assault me again. “Did you want to check and see how I’m doing?” I asked sarcastically.

  He came closer and looked at my forehead. “That’s a nasty lump. There was a tourist who got hit by a coconut last year. He had a bad lump on his head too, but I think yours is larger. It looks pretty painful.”

  “It wasn’t a coconut and you know it, Jack,” I said as I backed up a few steps.

  “What do you mean?” he replied. “Sandy found you on the trail with a coconut lying next to your head.”

  I scouted around to see if there was anything I could use to defend myself if things turned ugly. The only thing I saw were coconuts strewn at the bottom of the palm tree. I picked one up.

  “See what I mean, Mollie? Those things are heavy. One of those falling from a tree could easily knock a person out.”

  “Just stay away, Jack,” I said.

  “Mollie, what’s wrong with you?”

  “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? You’re the one who hit me on the head!”

  “What! Are you crazy? I did no such thing.” He advanced toward me. I held up my coconut. “Loss of memory can happen when you’ve had a head injury. I’m sure they explained that at the hospital.”

  “Just stop lying, Jack. You can’t walk all over me like you do to your wife!”

  “My wife? Why are you bringing up Sandy? She doesn’t have anything to do with this. She’s the one who found you. She probably even saved your life.”

  “I was just over at your boat speaking with her. She’s really upset. Not to mention really sick. I heard you yelling at her. How could you do that to a sick woman?” I shifted the coconut in my hands. They really were heavy. “Can you imagine what it would do to her if she knew what you were up to?”

  “What in the world are you talking about?”

  “When you realized that I saw you with those two hooligans, Fred Rollins and Wayne Grimm, and heard what it was you were up to, you panicked.” Jack looked surprised at the mention of crew-cut guy and his bearded friend’s names. “You tried to kill me because I discovered you were involved in something illegal. Isn’t that right?”

  “You’re crazy. Just like Sandy. What are you talking about? I’m not involved in anything illegal.”

  “Oh yeah, then what were those two guys doing on the beach saying that you owed them money?”

  “I don’t owe anyone money.”

  “I don’t believe you. I think you’re up to your eyeballs in debt. I even heard you talking with someone at Melvin’s Marine Emporium trying to sell him some stuff. Probably stuff you’re trying to fence.”

  Jack’s eyes turned cold. “Well, aren’t you a little eavesdropper? Fine, yes, you caught me. I was trying to sell some stuff to Tony. Some stuff from the boat that we won’t need anymore now that we’re selling her. You’ve
got quite the overactive imagination, you know. I can’t imagine how Scooter puts up with it.”

  “Well, at least we’re happily married.”

  “So are we.” Jack frowned. “Why would you think we weren’t?”

  “I heard you two arguing, and Sandy says that things haven’t been great between you two.”

  Jack looked down at the ground. “Sandy and I have been married for over thirty years. We’ve had our ups and downs like any other couple. And I’ll admit, our financial difficulties have put a strain on our relationship, but we’re working through it. Plus, as you pointed out, Sandy hasn’t been physically well for quite some time. Her doctor has tried all sorts of things, but we haven’t been able to come up with a treatment plan that works yet.”

  Things didn’t add up. Sandy had said they couldn’t afford a doctor, yet Jack said she was seeing one. Maybe all this talk about Sandy’s treatment plan was just a ruse to play on my sympathies and make me forget about the assault.

  I was about to tell Jack exactly that when Chief Dalton walked up. He looked at the coconut in my hands, raised an eyebrow, and asked, “Is everything okay here?”

  “Did you know that this man”—I pointed at Jack with my coconut—“is still claiming that he didn’t strike me over the head!”

  “But I didn’t!”

  “Oh yeah, then how did I end up with this?” I said, pointing at my head with one hand and trying to balance the coconut in the other. Both the chief and Jack ignored my bump and stared at the coconut.

  I almost threw the coconut at them in exasperation. “Just keep him away from me!”

  Chief Dalton turned to Jack. “I was actually looking for you, sir. Would you mind coming down to the police station to answer a few questions.”

  “Questions? Questions about what?”

  “Why don’t I explain it to you down at the station?” His tone and manner made it seem like it wasn’t an invitation.

  “Fine, fine,” Jack said. “But I’ve got a lot going on. I don’t have much time for this sort of thing.”

  “Come along, then,” the big man said as he ushered Jack down the path. I saw Mrs. Moto peek around a palm tree and hiss at Jack as he walked past her. Can’t say I blamed her.

  SCOOTER AND BEN WERE determined to install something to do with the navigational lights before they called it quits for the night. They were so focused on the task at hand that they didn’t even want dinner. My stomach doesn’t let me get away with skipping meals. It lets me know in no uncertain terms that it needs to be fed every few hours.

  I pulled Scooter aside, reminded him to keep an eye on Ben, and headed into town to find something to eat.

  My earlier encounter with Jack had me on edge, so just to be safe, I took a sturdy flashlight with me. I figured it would come in handy not only to light my way, but also to fight back if needed. I thought about tucking a coconut in my purse too, but it didn’t fit.

  I walked along the boardwalk and paused at the dinghy dock. There were only two dinghies tied up, one of which belonged to Ben. The skull-and-crossbones sticker on the side made it easy to identify. His dinghy was covered in lots of patches. How long would it hold air before it deflated?

  A Styrofoam cooler was floating in the water. Similar ones were used by fishing boat crews to transport fresh fish to the local restaurants. My flashlight kept cutting in and out as I walked to the edge of the dock to get a closer look. I opened it up, pulled out both batteries, and reinserted them, giving it a sharp tap as I closed the lid. I bent down to try to grab the cooler before it floated out to sea.

  That’s one of the reasons that we don’t get more alien visitors. They’re appalled by all the litter we have floating in the water and the damage we’ve done to the environment. I figured it was the least I could do, sparing the ocean from one more unnecessary piece of debris.

  Fortunately, there was a nylon handle attached to the cooler, which I was able to reach by lying down on my stomach. I pulled it out of the water and set it on the dock. The cooler was taped shut with duct tape, which of course made me want to see what was inside.

  I looked in my purse to see if I could find anything that could cut the cooler open. I didn’t find a handy pocketknife, but I did find a bag of M&M’S. I munched on a few while I thought about my options. Then I had a horrifying thought. How was it I didn’t know I had M&M’S in my purse? After the whole Ben-compass incident, I’d sworn to Scooter up and down that I knew the contents of my purse inside and out. I wasn’t about to admit to him that I’d been wrong, so I decided to destroy the evidence by finishing the rest of them.

  As I popped the last candy morsel in my mouth, I saw something out of the corner of my eye floating between the two dinghies. Probably another cooler. I aimed the flashlight toward it. It flashed in and out, then cut out, but not before I caught sight of a Hawaiian shirt. It wasn’t a cooler—it was a body.

  I grabbed an oar out of one of the dinghies and pulled the body toward me. As I held onto his shirt collar, it didn’t take long to realize that the man was dead. And even without my flashlight working, it also didn’t take long to figure out that it was Jack.

  CHAPTER 12

  LITTLE GREEN MEN

  I WISHED I HAD MORE M&M’S. Why didn’t I save them for a real emergency, like this? I got out my phone and dialed 911. The dispatcher said that Chief Dalton would be out right away and not to interfere with the crime scene, like last time. Yes, she actually said that.

  While I waited for the chief and his bushy eyebrows to arrive, I took another look at Jack’s body floating in the water. I wondered what had happened. Had he fallen into the water and accidentally drowned? Or had something more sinister occurred?

  Then I thought about Sandy. How would she cope when she heard about her husband? Despite their difficulties, they’d been married for many years and it would be a huge shock. It didn’t help that Sandy was dealing with so many physical ailments either. And somewhere lingering in her subconscious was the knowledge that she’d been abducted by aliens. Many people didn’t remember or want to remember their experiences, but when they had a big enough shock, it all came flooding to the surface. I’d have to look out for her.

  “Mrs. McGhie, what a surprise to find you here. You seem to specialize in finding bodies.” Chief Dalton raised both of his eyebrows. “That makes two bodies in just four days, doesn’t it?” His math was correct. I guess the ability to be able to do simple arithmetic was an important skill for police officers. That’s probably why I never joined the force. I struggle with math. I’m also scared of guns.

  “It looks like that’s Jack Holt from what I can see,” I said, ignoring his comment about the number of bodies I’d found to date.

  He eyed me suspiciously. “And why would you say that? From his position in the water, you can’t see his face. Unless you tampered with the crime scene. Is that what you did? Or perhaps you had something to do with how he got in the water. Is that the case?”

  “Me?” I spluttered. “I didn’t have anything to do with Jack’s death. I just happened to be out for a walk when I saw him floating in the water.”

  “Then why do you think it’s Mr. Holt?”

  “From his shirt,” I said. “I saw him wearing that same Hawaiian shirt earlier today when I was speaking with him. You were there—you saw it too. You must have had a good look at it when you were questioning him at the police station.” I watched Chief Dalton’s eyebrows do contortions. “What was that about, anyway? Did you finally get him to confess that he hit me over the head?”

  “That’s police business, completely unrelated to alien abductions,” he said with a smirk. We watched as the EMTs lifted the body out of the water. “In any event, I have to admit you were right. It is Jack Holt.”

  I noticed a nasty lump on Jack’s head. There seemed to be a lot of those going around these days. Maybe he hit his head when he fell into the water, or maybe somebody hit him over the head before throwing him into the water.


  As the EMTs removed Jack’s body, Scooter and Ben came rushing up.

  “What happened?” Scooter asked.

  “They found Jack floating in the water.”

  “They?” Scooter asked dubiously.

  “Well, okay, by ‘they,’ I mean me,” I said. “I was walking down to the dinghy dock when I noticed that Styrofoam container floating next to the dinghies. I pulled it out and tried to open it. That’s when I saw a body floating nearby.”

  Scooter clutched his chest and turned pale. “You’re not kidding, are you? Jack’s really dead?”

  “He is,” I said, giving him a hug. Ben put his hands over his mouth for a few moments. Then he took a deep breath. “He was a nice guy. Always willing to lend a hand.” He knelt down near the container. “I wonder what’s inside?” he asked as he tried to pry the lid off. “Maybe it’s beer. We could all probably use one about now.”

  “Hands off that, sir,” Chief Dalton said as he came up behind Ben. He shifted his gaze to me. “You weren’t going to try to hide this from me like you hid that fingernail the other day?”

  “I didn’t hide the fingernail. I just forgot about it,” I said. “There’s a big difference. And I was going to tell you about this. I just haven’t had a chance. Besides, you should be grateful I pulled it out of the water, otherwise Jack’s body might not have been discovered until the morning. It might have floated out to sea when the tide changed.”

  I was proud of myself for remembering about the tidal flow in the local waters. Scooter looked at me with pride too. Or maybe that was surprise.

  “What might have floated out with the tide?” Nancy asked, sneaking up behind us with Ned in tow.

  “Jack,” I said.

  “Jack? What are you talking about?” Ned asked.

  “I found him floating in the water.” I looked at their confused faces. “He’s dead.”

  Ned gasped. “Jack...are you sure?” His eyes welled up. “I need to get out of here.”

  Nancy squeezed his arm. “Do you want me to come with you?”