by Dave Daren
“That sounds dreadful,” I admitted. “Did you sleep through the night of the murder?”
“I did,” she answered. “Or actually, I almost did. I was awoken by a phone call from the hospital. A nurse told me Austin was there.”
I flipped my journal open to Diana’s page and scribbled the information she had shared with me. As I wrote, the only sound in the house was the pen scratching on the paper, and I wondered if the place always felt so empty. It was creepy, and when I caught the hard stare she had focused on my notebook, I was even more convinced that there was something off about the house.
“Anything else you’d like to add?” I asked as I set my pen down between the pages of my journal.
“Yes,” she answered. “We only own one car, and Austin’s the one who drives it. I have a license, but I haven’t driven a car since we moved here. I’ve always hated driving, and I don’t trust myself to drive while being prescribed sleeping medication anyway. Even if I was out and about on the night of Vann’s death, I would have needed someone to give me a ride.”
“Noted,” I said as I added the information to my journal. “What about your relationship with Vann? Did you two get along?”
“We got along fine, I guess,” she answered with a shrug and then rubbed the side of her head. “He and Austin were rivals, but that didn’t automatically make him my enemy. In reality, I almost never saw him. He worked on the water with his crew. There was no reason for us to see each other often.”
“That’s fair,” I said. “What about his crew, then? I’m sure you ran into Ronan often since he’s the one responsible for getting supplies, like you.”
“Is he?” she asked. “I don’t see him or Yura all that often. The only time I ever run into them is if I’m with Luke and Marleen.”
I added this to my journal, but I found it hard to believe any of it was true. This city was small, and even if she didn’t go out to sea, her responsibilities to the crew overlapped with those of Ronan’s, and she should have at least seen him from time to time.
I had to keep in mind her special position, however. She didn’t drive, and she constantly fell ill. Her movement and interest in the world outside her house walls were undoubtedly limited. If she only left to take care of chores, then it was certainly possible her answers were true. If that was the case, however, then she led a very isolated life. But was that her choice, or Morris’?
“I will say, though, it seemed like Yura and Ronan spent a lot of time with Harrison,” the frail wife continued. “I always saw them with Harrison, and the three seemed pretty close, like good pals. I might be wrong, though. Like I said, it’s not like we were hanging out together.”
“Would you describe the relationship between Mr. Morris and his crew as close?” I asked. “What about their relationship with you?”
“Luke possesses a gentle soul,” she sighed with a smile, but her expression changed at the memory of something. “Well, I guess that’s hard to believe after what we saw earlier, but he’s not normally like that. He’s a quiet and kind man. He invites us over to have dinner with his wife and son every once in a while, so naturally Austin and I are close to him. I don’t believe for a second that he murdered Vann and framed Austin for it. Marleen…”
She trailed off as she rubbed the back of her neck. She sighed, set her hands on the table, and then gripped her wrist as though trying to restrain her hand. Maybe she had noticed how often she touched herself.
“Marleen is something else,” she began. “I’m sure she thinks she’s better than everyone else, and I wish I could say she’s wrong.”
Admiration and longing were heavy in her voice, and these emotions caught me off-guard. From the way Tash had spoken about Diana, I was under the impression the confident fisherwoman had little patience for the sickly woman, and I thought it only natural for Diana to return the sentiment. I couldn’t imagine Tash hiding her distaste as she didn’t strike me as the type to hide anything. Diana had to have been aware of Tash’s opinion of her, and yet here she sat beside me practically swooning over the brazen woman. Even Diana seemed confused by that, though, and she shook her head before she looked back at me.
“She’s confident in herself and what she does, and she has every right to feel that way,” Diana went on. “I swear that woman never makes mistakes. She’s private and distant, and yet she still manages to draw people to her. She’s rough, really rough, but also charming. Every time I see her, I get the impression she hates me. You heard the way she spoke to me earlier.”
Diana set her face in a bad impression of Tash.
“Don’t tell me you injured yourself,” she mimicked.
She smiled at the memory and then giggled at something else she had remembered. Her smile suddenly vanished as she threw a self-conscious glance in my direction. It was as though she had just remembered I was there in the kitchen with her, and the action made her seem like a child. I almost laughed at her behavior, and she relaxed in the face of my suppressed smile.
“Anyway, I thought she hated me,” she continued. “Sometimes I still think she does hate me. She becomes openly annoyed at me for getting sick or hurt, but she always helps me without being asked. If she could have, she would have gotten ice for my wrist earlier.”
As soon as she mentioned her wrist, she moved to touch it and then stopped. She laughed suddenly.
“I sprained my ankle one time while I was walking on the beach,” she said quietly. “I had tripped over something. I think it was a bottle. Anyway, she helped me to her car, drove me home, and helped me to the couch. Then she got some ice for my ankle and stayed with me until Austin came home. And you know what she was doing the entire time? Chewing me out for not being able to walk in a straight line. I don’t get her. Maybe she thinks it’ll hurt her image if she shows she cares.”
Diana shook her head while smiling, and I realized it was more than admiration she felt. It was infatuation. Tash was the literal opposite of the frail woman beside me, and so it made sense for Diana to yearn for something she didn’t have. Tash was the woman she wanted to be. In my line of work, envy was one of the emotions that came up often in situations like these, and it normally turned out to be the root cause of several problems. But to find infatuation in this place was bizarre, but not any less concerning. Infatuation came with its own set of storms.
“Does she pretend not to care about Mr. Morris as well?” I asked.
“I doubt it,” Diana replied. “She likes to tease him and Luke, but I don’t think she does that out of harmless fun. I think she does it because she believes they’re incompetent. I can’t imagine her fussing over them in the same way she’s fussed over me, but that doesn’t mean she would frame Austin for murder. I can’t even come up with a reason for why she would kill Harrison.”
“Were you aware that Vann knew about your husband and his crew fishing in the Arctic Ocean?” I asked.
Diana winced as though the question had physically attacked her, and she rubbed her forehead as though that had been the location of the impact. She shook her head in disappointment.
“Yes, I know,” she sighed. “I also know that’s the reason why Austin is in this mess in the first place. The day before he went looking for Harrison, he came home all anxious, talking about how Harrison knew, and our lives were over. I told him not to worry about it, that he was overthinking things. But he just wouldn’t leave it alone.”
“Mr. Morris told me the idea was Ms. Tash’s,” I explained.
“That’s what he told me as well,” she said with a nod. “Well, he said it more along the lines of ‘I shouldn’t have listened to Marlene.’ Knowing her, she probably didn’t suggest the plan in earnest. She’s not that foolish, but my husband is foolish enough to take her seriously.”
She wore a tired smile.
“You don’t believe she could have killed Vann if he threatened to expose what they were doing?” I asked.
Diana’s eyes widened at this idea, and she silently conside
red its possibility by carefully rubbing her forehead. She moved her fingers to her temples and massaged there without even noticing, and I thought for a moment she was trying to force out the image I had planted in her head. But a sudden grimace told me it was just the remnants of her migraine.
“I guess at the end of the day Marleen’s number one priority is herself,” she finally answered as she lowered her hands. “I don’t want to believe she would do something awful like that, but it’s not entirely impossible. The idea of getting in trouble with the law over something Austin decided must infuriate her, but I don’t know if it would anger her to the point of the murder. Not to mention she’s a very cool, level-headed person. I don’t see a scenario where she doesn’t persuade Harrison to keep her name out of the whole mess.”
I started to say something in response to this when my phone rang. I quickly buried my frustration and smiled at Diana as I stood up.
“Please excuse me,” I apologized. “I just need to take this.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket as I walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway to the main entrance. Cassandra’s name lit up the screen, and I immediately picked up.
“Jet ski has been located!” Cassandra yelled into the phone before I could greet her.
“Where was it?” I asked as excitement crept into my voice.
I glanced behind me as though I expected Diana to be standing there and then lowered my voice.
“Waaaaay out in the Arctic Ocean,” the giddy paralegal answered. “A ship that was passing through was the one that spotted it actually. No keys were with it. It was just floating idly.”
“What do the police think?” I asked. “The lack of keys suggests someone took it for a ride and then abandoned it in the water.”
“That’s what I said,” Cassandra chimed. “The keys weren’t on Vann, and they weren’t on his boat. It doesn’t make sense for him to bring his jet ski and not his keys.”
“Are they still arguing that Morris detached the jet ski and let it float away?” I asked as I rolled my eyes at the notion.
“That’s what Officer Ansong wanted to believe,” she said. “By the way, I had the pleasure of finally meeting her, and that woman is a menace. She kicked me out of the station.”
“What?” I almost yelled.
“Well, not out of the station entirely,” the young paralegal admitted. “I was hanging out with the other officers in the back where they keep their desks, and she found me there with them. She was not happy about it, so she booted me to the lobby. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to tell you is that Officer Ansong changed her tune about a third person being on the boat.”
“She’s not an easy person to persuade,” I said. “How’d you manage to change her mind?”
“I didn’t,” she answered. “Based on the location of Vann’s boat in the Chukchi Sea, his jet ski should have moved further out toward Russia if it had been separated from the boat. The fact that it was so far out in the Arctic Ocean means it must have been released into the water from the coast of Utqiagvik, specifically near Northernmost Point.”
“Northernmost Point is pretty secluded,” I said. “And if someone drove Vann’s jet ski over there around one in the morning, no one would have seen them abandon the watercraft there. This is perfect.”
“Sort of,” she sighed. “The police are open to the idea that another person killed Vann, but they think it’s a premediated murder that went wrong. They’re saying that Mr. Morris coordinated the attack with the third person on the boat to kill Vann, but when he was knocked unconscious, his accomplice saw an opportunity to kill Vann and escape unscathed.”
“And because there’s no physical evidence pointing at the third killer, it would be Mr. Morris’ word against that of his accomplice,” I said with realization. “So he hires me in the hopes I find something that not only places his partner at the crime scene but can be used to clear his name entirely.”
“Exactly,” Cassandra confirmed. “Now that Vann’s jet ski has been discovered, the police want to see if they can get Mr. Morris to confess to who his accomplice is. They realize that might be the only way they can get them both in jail if they don’t turn up more evidence. They think it’s someone in his crew.”
“Interesting theory,” I acknowledged. “They really don’t want to let go of the idea that our client is somehow involved.
“Can you blame them?” she asked. “He was on the boat! To call it a really bad coincidence just sounds ridiculous.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh. “But that’s what we’re working with. I take it they’re investigating Mr. Marniq and Ms. Tash as we speak?”
“Yep,” she answered. “They’re getting search warrants. They want to make sure the keys to the jet ski aren’t in their possession before saying they’re lost forever. Oh, wait, hold on.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I heard her say.
Her voice was distant, and this meant she had pulled her phone away from her face. The words had clearly not been meant for me, but I didn’t hear anyone respond. Whoever she was speaking to was not within range of the phone’s microphone, but I imagined her standing right outside the police station to make this phone call. Maybe an officer had just walked out? I shuddered at the idea of her having this conversation with me in the middle of the lobby where Ansong could overhear. Another shudder ran through me as I imagined the number of people outside that could overhear her. I didn’t know which scenario seemed worse.
“Where’s the fire?” she asked her inaudible guest.
But all I heard was silence as she listened to the other person’s response. I heard Cassandra huff impatiently, but before she could speak, police sirens suddenly blared through my speakers and rattled my teeth. A few seconds later, the noise was gone, and I assumed the cars had driven away.
“A couple of officers just left in a hurry,” she explained as she returned the phone to her face. “They were headed in your direction. Is something happening near the docks?”
“I’m currently not at the docks,” I answered as the memory of Yura and Tash flashed in my head. “But I have an idea as to what’s going on. I’m with Mrs. Morris right now at her house.”
“Scandalous,” she replied, and I grunted. “Do you want me to head down to the docks and keep tabs on the situation?”
“No, you stay at the station,” I told her. “You’re far more useful there. I’ll finish up here and head to the docks myself.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she responded and then hung up.
I returned my phone to my pocket as I returned to the kitchen.
Diana flinched at my reappearance despite the fact that my footsteps had announced my return ahead of time. She must have been deep in thought about something, and from the way she eyed me eagerly, I knew her mind had been preoccupied with the details of my phone call.
“Is everything okay?” she asked as she watched me take my seat on the barstool.
“Vann’s jet ski has been found,” I told her and watched her reaction carefully.
She furrowed her brow at this. “Is that important?” she asked.
“Well, from the way it was abandoned, the police think a third person on the boat used it to flee the crime scene after killing Vann,” I explained.
Her eyes widened at this, and she looked past me as she absorbed my words. A small smile began to take hold on her face, but realization prevented it from forming fully.
“As the lawyer representing my husband, I thought you’d be happier to tell me that news,” she said with a chuckle. “I’m guessing the police still aren’t letting him off even with this new evidence?”
“That’s correct,” I confirmed. “They think he had an accomplice. They’re doubling down on their investigation of Mr. Marniq and Ms. Tash.”
I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from her, and she didn’t seem to know how to react, either. She tapped her wrist again, massaged her forehead, and then looked at me
like she was waiting for guidance.
“It’s good news that they found the jet ski,” I suggested.
“Yes, of course, it is,” she quickly agreed.
The whole thing felt off somehow, and I realized that she had waited until she was sure of my reaction before she’d shown me any real emotional response to the news. I wondered if it had been a tactic to hide her lack of joy at the possibility of her husband being innocent. I didn’t think she had killed Vann to get rid of Morris, but it was possible she was using this murder investigation as an opportunity to finally cut ties with him. It wasn’t illegal, but it was interesting.
“They’re not bad people,” she blurted out, and there was a fierceness in her eyes. “Luke and Marleen had nothing to do with the murder. They shouldn’t be investigated. If the police truly want to solve this murder, they should look into Harrison’s crew. Neither of his workers would need a special reason to be on his boat with him late at night, and they’d have easy access to his jet ski keys without killing him.”
Her sudden confidence surprised me, but I couldn’t help but notice she had insisted on Marniq’s and Tash’s innocence and not her husband’s. I guess in accusing either Ronan or Yura as the killer there was also the implication that Morris was innocent. It didn’t make sense for him to team up with either person to kill Vann. Still, Diana hadn’t explicitly stated that.
“You have a point,” I said to her as I stood up from the island. “And I’d like to believe you’re right.”
She stood up as well and followed me to the entrance hallway. She wrapped her arms around her body as she watched me open the closet door and collect my belongings. A pained expression crossed her face, and she touched her temple.
“I’m sorry for taking your time,” I apologized to her as I pulled on my shoes and grabbed my coat. “You could have been resting.”
