I looked at Mrs. Moto. “How did a picture of Penny and Captain Dan get into that drawer?” She blinked at me a few times and meowed. I don’t think she knew or cared.
CHAPTER 13
BELLY BUTTON LINT
I WASN’T SURE WHAT to do with the picture. Should I confront Penny? After all, she’d told me that she didn’t know Captain Dan prior to moving to Florida, yet according to the date stamp, this picture had been taken a few years before that. But if I did ask her about it, would she tell me the truth?
Amid all these questions, my stomach growled, alerting me to the fact that two cookies and a cup of coffee weren’t really going to cut it for lunch. I tucked the picture in my purse, filled up Mrs. Moto’s water bowl, gave her a quick cuddle, and headed to the boat to see if the guys were interested in fish-and-chips.
My head was reeling with thoughts of cowboys, cookies, and Penny’s poor taste in men when I ran into Ben.
“Weren’t you on Marjorie Jane with Scooter?” I asked.
“We needed a socket wrench, so I ran back to my boat to grab one,” he said, holding up a tool bag. “Scooter doesn’t really have a good set of tools, does he?”
“No idea.”
“Might be something to think about with the holidays coming up,” Ben said. “People always want tools as presents.”
“Just like people want sailboats for their anniversary?” I asked.
Ben smiled. “Exactly. Your husband is awesome! I’d love to find a woman who would be thrilled to get a sailboat as a present, like you were,” he said wistfully. “But there’s so few women out there who are single, let alone who enjoy sailing.”
“It must be tough. I think the only single woman I’ve met at the marina is Penny.”
“Oh, she’s amazing. She’s smart, she’s gorgeous, she’s got her own boat, and she’s a great sailor. Between you and me, I actually asked her out once. Couldn’t believe I got up the nerve, but I’d had a few beers and I thought, what the heck, all she can do is say no.”
“So she said yes?” If you had asked me before I’d found that picture, I would have thought there was no way Penny would date an unemployed pirate wannabe. But seeing her with her arm around Captain Dan put a new perspective on things. Maybe she had said yes.
“No, she said no,” Ben said, looking down at the dock. “It was kind of embarrassing the next day.”
“Why’d she turn you down?”
“She said she had recently broken up with a guy and hadn’t gotten over him yet.”
“Was he someone you know? Someone from around here?”
“She wouldn’t say. She got real evasive. The only thing she did say was that he was an older guy who had swept her off her feet. It might have been a guy back when she lived in Texas. She said that they had been in business together, a business she’d invested heavily in, but when it had started to lose money, he’d dumped her. She thought maybe he had liked her just for her money. She comes from a wealthy family, you know. Talking about it got her really upset, so I dropped it.”
“Captain Dan was from Texas, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, he was.”
“Do you think they knew each other there? Maybe he was the guy that she was involved with?”
“Captain Dan?” Ben asked incredulously. “I can’t see it. That dude was such a jerk. Penny is too nice of a girl to have ever gotten mixed up with someone like him.”
I was debating whether or not to show Ben the picture when Scooter walked up. “I was wondering where you got to,” he said to Ben with a wink. “Now I know—you’ve been chatting up my wife.”
Ben flushed. “It wasn’t like that at all. It just took longer than I thought. My outboard engine died on me again. Jack helped me last time, and now that he’s—you know—no longer with us, I had to try to fix it myself. He knew engines inside and out.” Ben shifted his tool bag. “Anyway, I got the socket wrench. Wanna head back to Marjorie Jane and see if we can get that bolt out?”
“I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes,” Scooter said.
Ben mumbled good-bye to me and left without making eye contact. Once he was out of earshot, I punched Scooter in the arm. “Why did you go and tease him? You’ve totally embarrassed him.”
Scooter scoffed. “He knows I was only kidding. It’s not like he’s one of those creepy guys always flirting with other men’s wives.”
“Speaking of creepy guys, look what I found on Jack and Sandy’s boat.”
My husband frowned. “How’s she doing?”
“Not great. She’s still at the hospital. It was just awful.” I smiled. “But there was one bright spot to the visit.”
“What’s that?”
“Chief Dalton started pestering her with questions and got kicked out by the nurse. You should have seen the look on his smug face.”
Scooter pulled me close. “I can’t imagine what I’d do if I ever lost you.”
“Oh, you’d be fine, provided you had enough chocolate to get you through the mourning period.”
He chuckled. “The problem is that you always hide the chocolate. You’ll have to leave a note with instructions on where I can find it.”
“Enough about chocolate,” I said. “You have to see this. It’s Captain Dan and Penny.”
“Are you sure?” He held the photo at arm’s length. “I can’t really see all that well without my glasses.”
“I’d lay money on it. Or chocolate.”
“But why would there be a picture of Captain Dan and Penny on Jack and Sandy’s boat? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t know. There are a lot of things that don’t make sense.” I put the photo back in my purse and headed off to pick up lunch.
AFTER A DELIGHTFULLY greasy lunch of fish-and-chips, I decided to bite the bullet and see what I could get out of Penny regarding her relationship with Captain Dan. She was sitting on the deck of her boat with her legs hanging over the edge, polishing a metal railing.
“That looks like hard work,” I said.
“Owning a boat isn’t for the fainthearted,” Penny replied, putting down her cloth. “There’s always something that needs to be fixed, installed, or maintained. Like this stainless steel. You have to keep it polished to prevent rust. That’s one of the things I like about living on a boat. I’ve always got a project to work on. It keeps me busy.”
“That’s probably a good thing, given everything that’s been happening at the marina. Jack murdered and Captain Dan before that. I saw Sandy in the hospital this morning, and she’s devastated by the loss of her husband. I wonder if Captain Dan had a special lady in his life?” I watched Penny carefully to see what her reaction was.
Penny picked her cloth back up and began polishing furiously. “Not that I know of.”
“That’s a shame. He seemed like such an outgoing guy. I’m surprised he wasn’t dating anyone.” Penny didn’t respond. I tried again. “You know, I can picture the two of you together. You both like boats and sailing. I thought you guys would have been a good match.”
“A love of boats and sailing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Penny said bitterly. “You’d think that would be enough to keep a man interested, but no, it isn’t. Trust me. Never date a sailor. They’ll cheat on you and lie to you.”
“You think Captain Dan was a cheater and a liar?” I asked cautiously.
“I only know what I told you before. Ned and Nancy lost a lot of money when the previous owners of Marjorie Jane skipped town, and they blame Captain Dan for it.”
“I also heard that Jack wasn’t all that fond of him.”
Penny reluctantly agreed. “That’s true.”
“You know, at first I thought Jack might have been the one who killed Captain Dan, but then he was killed.”
“Jack kill Captain Dan? Why did you think that?”
“The two of them were involved in selling stolen marine equipment. Things went sour with the deal. Jack was angry about it, maybe angry enough to kill. Plus, h
e did this to me.” I pointed at my head.
“I thought that was a coconut.”
“No, Jack hit me on the head.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m positive. It was Jack. But since Jack’s dead, who would have reason to kill both him and Captain Dan?”
“No idea. And to be honest, I have other things to worry about, like my sailing school.”
“You moved here from Texas, right?”
“I did.”
“Captain Dan moved here from Texas too, didn’t he?”
“What are you getting at?”
“I was just curious if you knew him when you lived in Texas. You might be able to give some background information to the police to help them figure out who would have a motive to kill him.”
“Sorry, I can’t help them. I didn’t know him there. You know, Texas is a big state. There are a lot of people who come from Texas,” she said wryly.
“That’s true. I just thought that maybe the sailing community was relatively small and that you two had met through that somehow.”
Penny relaxed a little bit. “It is a small community, but I never ran across him before I came here. Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t. He’s a sleazeball. Did you notice how he flirts with all the women?”
“I saw him chatting Sandy up at the barbecue. I figured it was harmless, although Jack looked irritated. I thought that might have played into his motive for killing Captain Dan as well.”
“I can see that. He had a reputation for going after married women.”
“You don’t think he and Sandy ever, you know...”
Penny bit her lip. “I wouldn’t put it past him.” She stood, picking up her rag and a bottle of polish. “I’ve got to finish the rest of this. I’ll see you tomorrow for the ladies’ sailing class. Wear clothes you don’t mind getting wet and shoes that won’t mark the deck, and bring your PFD.” She walked to the other side of the deck and resumed polishing.
I was left not only wondering why Penny continued to lie, but also what a PFD was.
WHAT DID WE DO BEFORE Google? When you want to know the answers to questions you’re too embarrassed to ask anyone, like “Why is there lint in my belly button?” or “What’s a PFD?” Google is there for you. So I made a plan of action. Step one: stop at the marina office for more chocolate. Step two: go to the marina lounge for Wi-Fi.
Fortunately, Nancy wasn’t sitting behind the counter when I entered the office. I’m pretty sure a couple of flies followed me in. I looked at the rack where the chocolate bars were usually kept. Nothing. This was disconcerting. How was I supposed to execute step one of my plan?
Nancy came out of the back room carrying cans of soda. “Where’s all the chocolate?” I asked.
“It’s all gone,” she said. She set the box down and opened it with a pair of scissors.
“What do you mean, gone?”
She paused and held up the scissors in a way that made me regret my question. “A group of boats spent the night at the marina and bought the rest of the chocolate. They also cleaned us out of soda and chips. Big spenders—they’re the kind of boaters we like to see here.”
“But you have some more in the back, don’t you?” I asked, keeping a careful eye on the scissors.
“Nope, that was the last of it.”
“But what am I supposed to do now?”
“Live without.”
Not the answer I was hoping for. Oh well, if I couldn’t get chocolate, maybe I could get Nancy’s thoughts on the picture of Captain Dan and Penny. “Here, get a load of this. Don’t these folks look familiar to you?”
Nancy took the picture, walked to the counter, and put her reading glasses on. I watched with relief as she placed the scissors down next to the computer. “I don’t think so. Like that guy’s cowboy hat, though. Ned would look good in a hat. I’ve been trying to convince him to wear a baseball cap with the marina logo on it.”
What was it with women and guys in cowboy hats? “Have a closer look,” I said, tapping my finger on the photo.
“No, can’t say that they’re familiar. Friends of yours?”
“Don’t you think they look just like Penny and Captain Dan?” I blurted out.
“Well, the woman does have long, blonde hair like Penny. I guess it could be her. But it’s hard to see the man’s face underneath that hat. Where did you get this?”
“Oh, I found it lying around,” I said, sidestepping the question. “I think this picture was taken in Texas. See the sign in the corner that says ‘Lone Star Plaza’? If that’s the case, then Penny and Captain Dan knew each other before they moved to Florida.”
“But they didn’t. They met here.”
“Are you sure? How do you know?”
“Penny told me. It’s probably just a couple of people who look like them. There are a lot of gals with hair like that.” She passed the picture back to me. “Check back in tomorrow. We might have more chocolate then,” she said gruffly.
I SAT DOWN IN WHAT I was coming to think of as “my chair” in the marina lounge and pulled out my laptop. The car invoice, originally tucked away in Penny’s sailing book, fluttered out with it. It was a run-of-the-mill invoice, but something about it niggled away at me. I read the dealership address again—Cowboy Bob’s Automotive Ranch, located at the Lone Star Plaza. That was it! I pulled out the photo and squinted at the sign next to Captain Dan and Penny, which read Lone Star Plaza. Penny had referred to Captain Dan as Bob the night of the barbecue. Was it possible they were one and the same?
I decided to add a third step to my plan of action—learn more about Cowboy Bob’s Automotive Ranch. But first I was going to find out once and for all the answer to the belly button lint question. I fired up my laptop and did a quick check of my email. Big mistake. There at the top of my inbox was an email from Brian Morrison.
I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, but the board of directors has decided to give the investigative reporter job to Lola. If it had been up to me, I would have selected you, and in fact, I argued strongly for your case at the board meeting, but to no avail. The board is convinced that the publicity generated by Lola’s scoop on the Disneyland alien cover-up will advance FAROUT’s cause with the general public.
I needed something to distract me from thinking about Lola. Googling about belly button lint wasn’t going to cut it. I reached for the TV remote and flicked through the channels. As I was deliberating between a home improvement show and an old black-and-white movie, Ned walked into the lounge carrying his cleaning supplies.
He set his bucket down. “Ooh, The Thin Man. That’s a great one. I didn’t know you liked old films.”
“I didn’t until I met Scooter. He loves classic movies like this.”
Ned perched on the arm of the other chair. “My favorite scene is coming up, where Nick and Nora throw a dinner party for all the suspects. They make investigating a murder look like fun. It’s too bad Nancy isn’t here. She loves this movie too. Although if she caught me slacking off instead of cleaning, that’d be another story.”
While he polished the bookshelves, he kept peeking at the screen, chiming in with trivia about the stars and director. He was telling me about the fox terrier that starred in the film when the door flew open, and Chief Dalton and Officer Moore marched in, followed by Nancy.
Nancy was tugging at the big man’s arm. “I’m telling you, he didn’t have anything to do with this! You can’t do this!”
The chief removed her hand from his arm, raised an eyebrow, and motioned to Officer Moore to escort Nancy outside. “Sir, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us,” he said.
“Do you have more questions for me?” Ned asked, while watching Nancy gesticulate wildly at Officer Moore outside. “I thought I answered everything yesterday.”
“I’m afraid you’re under arrest.” I quickly turned off the TV while Ned stared at him in shock. Chief Dalton handcuffed him, read him his rights, and then ushered him out of the lounge.
&nb
sp; As I went out onto the patio, I saw the police leading Ned up to the parking lot and the waiting squad car. Nancy was wringing her hands in despair.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. She sat on one of the patio chairs and rocked back and forth. “They came into the office and started asking me all these questions about Jack and Ned’s business dealings. They mentioned the money Ned had loaned Jack, and then the next thing I know, they’re arresting him for Jack’s murder. Jack and Ned were friends. There’s no way Ned would kill him. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He can’t even hurt the flies that buzz around the office.” She saw Mrs. Moto walking off in the distance. “He even has a soft spot for that mangy cat.”
“Was Ned involved in Jack’s business?” I asked gently.
“No, of course not. We’ve got plenty to keep ourselves busy with here at the marina without getting mixed up in other business ventures.”
“Then why do the police think he was?”
“That’s the thing that doesn’t make any sense. When they were going through Jack’s computer, they found an inventory of the boat equipment Jack bought and sold, and Ned’s name was listed as a seller. They claim Ned sold Jack used boat equipment on credit, and that when Jack didn’t pay him on time he got angry and killed him.”
I thought about this for a moment. “There has to be more to it than that. Couldn’t that inventory have been falsified?”
“It has to have been. Sure, Ned loaned Jack money, but it was a loan, pure and simple. He never sold Jack any boat parts.”
“Do they think this has anything to do with Captain Dan’s murder?”
Nancy put her head in her hands. “I don’t know. The police didn’t say anything about Captain Dan.” She raised her head. “But their murders have to be connected. There must be someone who wanted both Jack and Captain Dan dead and it certainly wasn’t Ned. I don’t know what to do, Mollie.”
Murder at the Marina Page 17
