by B R Snow
“No, I don’t think we did,” Josie said.
I thought back to our car ride and realized I’d had the cover story conversation with myself. I really need to stop doing that.
“Sorry about that. My mistake. If anybody asks, we were out for a late night jog, and we thought we heard a sound coming from the boat.”
Josie tried to stifle her laugh, but it escaped and echoed across the water.
“Us? Out for a late night jog?”
“Shhh,” I whispered. “You got anything better?”
“No,” she said, still chuckling under her breath.
“And no one is going to see us,” I whispered. “The boat has to be empty, and people usually don’t just happen to show up at an official crime scene in the middle of the night.”
“We’re here,” Josie said.
“Yes,” I whispered. “And that’s what gives us the element of surprise.”
“Unbelievable,” Josie said as she reached for the railing on the side of the stairway and began the short climb.
Laboring, I followed her up, and soon we were both standing on the deck of the yacht. At least I think it must have been the deck. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.
“Dark,” I whispered.
“Brilliant deduction, Sherlock.”
“Don’t start snarking at me,” I whispered.
“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever let you talk me into,” Josie whispered.
“Oh, I can think of a lot stupider.”
“Stupider? Is that even a word?” she said.
“Of course it’s a word,” I said.
“C’mon, let’s get going. I’m freezing my butt off.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, trying to compose my thoughts. “I’d like to take a look below deck.”
“Good idea,” Josie whispered. “It’s probably a lot warmer down there.”
I slowly felt my way across the deck until I reached the door that led below deck. I grabbed the handle and then turned back to Josie.
“It’s locked,” I whispered.
“Really? Now why on earth would anybody bother to lock that door? I mean, this thing is only worth millions.”
“You’re getting snarky again,” I snapped.
“Shhhh,” Josie whispered. “You’re lucky I’m not throwing you overboard.”
I shuddered at the thought of swimming in the St. Lawrence at this time of year. The water temperature wouldn’t kill you the way it would if you fell in during the winter, but it would certainly get your attention.
I tried the handle one more time. I wasn’t surprised it was still locked, but I think it’s important to recheck your facts.
“You think we should try to figure out a way to get it open?” I whispered.
“Sure,” Josie whispered. “Let’s see if we can find a way to turn a simple misdemeanor into a felony.”
“You are not being very helpful,” I said.
“I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on that,” Josie whispered. “If I wasn’t here, you would have already busted a window and climbed in.”
“Maybe,” I whispered, then cocked my head. “Did you hear that?”
“I certainly did,” Josie whispered as she took a step back. “There’s somebody in there.”
I held an ear against the door and tried to hear what was happening below deck. Moments later, I pulled my head away and looked at Josie.
“There are two people down there. A man and a woman,” I said.
“What are they doing?”
“Well, they sure aren’t sleeping,” I said.
“What? Oh, I get it. Not sleeping,” Josie said.
“Why would they feel the need to come here?” I said, stepping back from the door.
“Maybe for the gentle rocking of the boat or the luxurious surroundings, but I’m going to guess it’s because they don’t want anybody to know.”
“That makes sense,” I said. “But they’d have to have a key, right?”
“Yeah,” Josie said. “Maybe we can ask John who has one.”
“Good idea,” I said, then stopped. “But what if it’s John who’s down there?”
“Why would John be down there? You’ve seen his place. It’s remote and very secure. Not to mention luxurious.”
I couldn’t disagree with Josie’s logic. We’d been to John’s house several times for parties over the years. If he wanted to keep an affair secret, his house was the perfect place to do it. Before I had time to consider other possibilities, a light below deck came on. Josie and I panicked and made a dash toward the starboard side and ducked down near the railing.
“This is bad,” Josie whispered.
“Yeah, definitely not one of our better moments,” I whispered.
“Nice job with this one, Columbo,” she said.
“Shhh,” I said peering toward the door.
The door opened, and we saw the silhouette of a man holding a long object.
“What’s that in his hand?” I whispered. “A pool cue?”
“No,” Josie whispered. “It’s not a pool cue.”
“Baseball bat?”
“No. I think it might be-”
She was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of a shell being racked into a pump action shotgun. Hearing that sound on a TV show or in a movie always got my attention. But hearing it knowing that you were the intended victim was terrifying. I grabbed Josie’s hand and squeezed it hard.
“What are we going to do?” I whispered.
“We’re going to get out of here,” she whispered, her teeth chattering.
“Are you shivering out of fear or the cold?” I said.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s a lot of both,” she said. “He’s blocking our way. We’ll never make it back to the stairway.”
In the darkness, I heard soft footsteps slowly heading in our direction.
“You know what we’re going to have to do, right?” I whispered.
“Yes,” she whispered, slowly rising to her feet. “And I can’t begin to tell you how much I hate you at the moment.”
“This is so going to suck,” I said, standing up. I grabbed Josie’s arm and pointed it in the direction we needed to head. “About twenty feet ahead.”
“Yeah, I see it,” she said, snatching her arm away.
And then we both started running along the deck until we reached a sitting area that extended out from the railing. I imagine it would be the perfect spot to do some sunbathing while enjoying a relaxing trip to the Caribbean. But right now it would have to suffice as a diving board. I jumped up onto the sitting area and landed with both feet, then launched myself up and over the side of the boat and fell through the cold night air until I splashed a few seconds later into the freezing water of the St. Lawrence River.
My feet touched the muddy bottom of the shallow water, and I surfaced, stifling my scream from the shock of the cold water by biting down on my forearm. I located Josie treading water next to me gasping for breath. She tugged my arm and pointed at the boat. We swam underwater for about ten feet and then popped to the surface and held onto the side of the boat.
“I doubt if he can see us under here,” I finally managed to stammer.
“You are so gonna pay for this,” Josie whispered. “This water is freezing.”
“Look on the bright side,” I whispered. “At least it’s not February.”
“Suzy, I swear, if it weren't for the fact that you’re about to die of hypothermia, I’d kill you.”
“Relax,” I said. “We need to figure out a way to get out of the water without being seen.”
“Or getting shot,” she said.
“Yeah, good point,” I said, beginning to feel the weight of my clothes trying to pull me down.
Josie glanced around at the dimly lit shoreline that was about a hundred feet away.
“I don’t like our chances,” she said. “Maybe we can slip around to the other side of the boat and hide under the dock.”
“Yuk,�
�� I said. “Can you imagine what might be lurking under that dock?”
“Well not until now I wasn’t,” she snapped.
“Shhh,” I said. “Do you hear that?”
“I do,” Josie said, paddling forward for a better look at the dock. “They’re leaving. And they’re definitely in a hurry.”
“Can you see who it is?”
“No, but they just reached the end of the dock and headed off in different directions.”
We waited for the sound of cars starting, but heard nothing. Another two minutes passed before we made our way around the boat and used the bottom rung of the stairway to pull ourselves up out of the water and onto the dock. I stayed on all fours and tried to catch my breath, but the cold was relentless. Josie helped me to my feet, and we made our way down the dock and back to the car as fast as we could.
“Darn it,” Josie said as we approached my SUV.
“What?”
“They’re ruined.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“The cannoli,” she said. “I had the last two in my pocket.”
“You’re unbelievable,” I said, shaking my head.
“Me? Suzy, I should warn you that this isn’t a good time for you to start on me.”
That was probably good advice.
I started the car and turned the heater on full blast. We shook and shivered as we made the short drive home in silence.
It was too bad about the cannoli.
Then I realized it didn’t matter. There was no way Josie was in the mood to share at the moment.
Chapter 9
Like I try to do every day, I said good morning to all our guests, spending a couple of minutes with each dog inside their condo. I should probably point out a few things about life around the Inn. We refer to our dogs as guests because that’s what they are. And the word guest reminds everyone, especially our staff, how Josie and I expect them to be treated. The use of the term condo is probably a misnomer since our guests stay in enclosures that are only about the size of a small bedroom you might find in a family home. But our guests think they’re spacious and plush. At least that’s what Josie and I think they think.
We’re getting pretty good, but we’re still struggling to become fluent in dog.
And just so we’re clear, the word cage is forbidden around the Inn.
I think the language we use is important to help set the tone for the type of business we want to operate and to help people understand and appreciate our philosophy and approach. I know Josie agrees with me completely about the importance of language, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that this morning.
She still isn’t speaking to me.
She’d left the house early this morning without eating breakfast. Since we had Chef Claire’s amazing corned beef hash, I knew Josie was still running hot, and I decided to leave her alone this morning. But around nine, I did leave two cream-filled chocolate doughnuts on her desk while she was handling a minor emergency with a black lab who had felt the need to ignore its owner’s warning and had gone ahead and tried to play tag with a porcupine that had wandered onto their property.
I touched base with Jill and Sammy, two of our staff who helped us keep the place running smoothly. Since summer was over, the number of boarding guests was down, but our rescue numbers were up substantially. The publicity we’d received from John’s generous gift was extensive, and it seemed everyone within a fifty-mile radius was bringing in strays on a daily basis. That was fine with us, and we were already working with a local architect on an expansion to the Inn to accommodate the increased number of rescues.
I watched as Jill leaned over Sammy’s shoulder to review a bill with a customer. They were both laughing, and Jill placed a hand on top of Sammy’s and left it there. Recently Josie and I had noticed that they were spending a lot of time together and we’d begun to wonder if they had a little thing going on between them. But for now, all my snooping energies were devoted to figuring out who had killed Roger the Engineer and almost done the same to Jackson.
Thinking about Jackson reminded me that I needed to call his father and get an update on his condition. I headed for my office, sat down behind the desk, and made the call. Jackson’s dad answered on the second ring.
“Hi, Mr. Frank.”
“Suzy, I was just getting ready to call you,” he said.
He sounded relatively upbeat, but my stomach still sunk while I waited to hear what he had to say.
“The swelling has gone down, and Jackson’s condition has gone from critical to serious. And he’s out of intensive care.”
“That’s great news,” I choked out. My eyes filled with tears, and I wiped at them with the back of my hand.
Funny how sometimes it’s the good news that turns on the waterworks.
Josie entered the office, and I noticed chocolate frosting on the corner of her mouth. She saw me crying and assumed the worst.
“What is it?” she said, sitting down in a chair in front of the desk. “Is it Jackson?”
I nodded and tried to smile, but it wasn’t my best effort. I put the phone on speaker and set it down on the desk.
“Josie just came in, Mr. Frank,” I said, trying to catch my breath.
“Hi, Josie.”
“Good morning, Mr. Frank. Is everything okay?” Josie said, staring down at the phone.
“Yes, I was just telling Suzy that Jackson’s condition has improved. They moved him out of intensive care, and he’s conscious. I was able to talk with him this morning.”
“That’s fantastic,” Josie said. “When will we be able to see him?”
“Well, the doctor said that he could start having limited visitations. But the visits will have to be very short. Given that, I’m not sure it’s worth you making the trip.”
I glanced at Josie, and she nodded her head vigorously.
“We’ll be there this afternoon,” I said.
Mr. Frank laughed softly.
“You two are something else,” he said. “I’ll tell him you’re on your way. I know that will perk him up even more. Oh, he did ask me how Sluggo is doing.”
“Tell him Sluggo’s fine,” Josie said. “And tell Jackson that he’s started to lose that five pounds we’ve been pushing for.”
Sluggo’s weight loss was understandable since he still hadn’t eaten since the incident on the boat.
“I’ll do that,” he said. “And I guess I’ll see you two this afternoon. Bye.”
I blew my nose and leaned back in my chair.
“That’s great news,” I said.
“Yes, it certainly is,” Josie said, checking her schedule on her phone. “I can probably be ready to head out by one.”
“Good,” I said. “That will get us there by two-thirty at the latest.”
“That’s fine,” Josie said, giving me an odd look.
“What?” I finally said.
“Did you really think that I’d forgive you for almost getting us killed last night just by giving me a doughnut?” Josie said.
“No, that’s why I brought you two,” I said, giving her my best deadpan expression.
She stared at me, then burst into laughter.
“That’s better,” I said. “Now wipe the chocolate off your mouth.”
She headed off to her next appointment, and I busied myself with some paperwork I’d been avoiding for the past couple of days. I called Chef Claire at the house and asked if she would pack a lunch for the car ride. Neither one of us would have time to break for lunch, and a ninety-minute car ride when we were both hungry was neither pleasant nor recommended.
Chef Claire came into the Inn around noon carrying a picnic basket, and for the next hour, it sat on my desk untouched. I congratulated myself on my self-control and waited for Josie to finish up an annual checkup on a Jack Russell terrier that had enough energy to power a small town.
We were on the road by one, and before I got out of the driveway, Josie was digging through the picnic
basket.
“What have we got?” I said, feeling my stomach rumble.
“She’s so good,” Josie said, holding up two long objects wrapped in aluminum foil. “These wraps are perfect for the drive. Chef Claire knows how much you worry about food getting spilled in the car.”
It wasn’t the food I worried about. It was the Tasmanian Devil eating machine in the passenger seat that concerned me. But since Josie’s mood was greatly improved, I decided not to correct her.
Josie worked the aluminum foil loose on one of the wraps and handed it to me. I took a bite and savored it, then realized I’d slowed down from sixty-five to forty. I accelerated back to sixty-five and set the cruise control.
One less thing to worry about.
“Is that dill I’m tasting?” I said.
“Yeah, I think she put it in the mustard-mayo sauce.”
“It’s incredible. When did she find time to grill the chicken?”
Josie shrugged and grunted as she took another bite.
The traffic remained light, and we finished our sandwiches, munched on cheese wedges and slices of fruit, and polished things off with chocolate chip cookies the size of a small Frisbee. I showed remarkable restraint and stopped at two. Josie said she’d kill me if I told anyone how many she had so I guess you’ll just have to use your imagination.
We parked, entered Upstate Medical, and found Jackson’s parents sitting outside his room. After everyone had shared hugs, a nurse escorted us into Jackson’s room where he was sitting up and watching TV. His head was wrapped in bandages, and he seemed a bit groggy, but his eyes were clear, and he beamed at us as soon as we stepped inside.
I considered that to be a very good sign.
“Hi, Jackson,” I said, leaning over to give him a gentle embrace and a kiss on the cheek.
Josie followed suit and then we sat down near his bed. He turned off the television and yawned.
“Thanks for coming, guys,” he said. “It’s good to see you.”
“We’ve been worried about you,” I said.
“I appreciate that. But the doctors say I’m going to be as good as new. I was lucky.”
“How long are you going to have to be in the hospital?” Josie said.
“If everything continues to go well, I should be out in less than a week,” he said, his eyes drooping. He stifled another yawn. “Sorry. They just gave me a shot, and it always knocks me out.”
