Boldly Basil Murder

by Patti Benning

  The day had gone from a leisurely trip up the coast to a nerve-wracking race back down it with the injured woman. Even though they were moving much faster than they had on their way out, Ellie could've sworn that it was somehow taking them even longer to get back. Once the harbor and then the marina finally came into view, she breathed out a sigh of relief. Susie was still semi-coherent, and even though she wasn't getting any better, her condition didn't seem to be getting any worse either.

  By the time they had the Eleanora docked, the paramedics were waiting for them with a stretcher. They rushed onto the boat and carefully maneuvered the injured woman onto the stretcher and carried her onto solid ground. Ellie watched as they wheeled her away, twisting her hands. She wished there was more she could do, but she knew that it was completely out of her control now.

  “Ellie.” She turned at the familiar voice and saw Russell walking down the dock toward her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked when he reached her, pulling her into a hug.

  “I'm fine,” she replied. She should have realized that Russell would be there. Shannon had called the local police department, and every major call reached her husband’s ears eventually. She felt a bit bad for not even thinking that he might be worried. Her thoughts had all been on that poor woman and the people on the boat.

  “Do you want to go somewhere out of the sun and then tell me everything that happened?” he asked, looking at the three of them. “The Coast Guard has been keeping me updated. They found the boat and the body that you mentioned. I want to start piecing together what happened.”

  Ellie nodded. “Some shade, air conditioning, and a place to wash my hands would all be great,” she said.

  The three women drove to the police department separately, where after taking a few minutes to use the facilities and clean up a bit, they and Russell all crowded into his office, along with the dogs. Ellie started their story, telling him about how they had spotted the boat floating dangerously close to the rocky cliffs and decided to investigate. The vessel’s erratic behavior had been the first warning sign that something was off, but the smudge of blood on the side had been their second. Ellie couldn't quite meet her husband's eyes as she told him about how she and Joanna had boarded the vessel while Shannon called ahead to the police to let them know that something had gone terribly wrong out on the open sea. She knew that, while he would have definitely done the same thing himself, he wouldn't necessarily approve of her doing it. It wasn't as though she needed his permission to make decisions like that for herself, but she couldn't blame him for being upset when she put herself in a dangerous situation.

  “And once we got her back on the Eleanora, we decided it would be faster if we just came back to the marina ourselves with her instead of waiting for the Coast Guard,” she finished at last. “I'm worried about her. The head injury was affecting her sense of balance and her memory. Will you tell me if she's all right? I really hope she pulls through.”

  “I will,” he said. “I'll keep you updated, Ellie, I promise.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Do you need anything more from us?” Shannon asked. “I need to get back home soon. James is watching Andrew, but he needs to go out to a meeting this evening.”

  “I think that's all,” Russell said. “I –” He paused as his phone rang. Gesturing that it would be just a second, he picked it up and answered the call.

  “I see,” he said after a moment. “Thank you. Let me know if you find anything else.”

  “Everything all right?”

  As Russell hung up the phone and turned back to them, his brows knitted together.

  “That was the Coast Guard,” he said. “They found another body. This one was found washed up on some rocks, a ways up from the ship, but he had ID on him.”

  Ellie felt her heart sink. “What was his name?”

  He hesitated for a moment, then said, “Blake Callahan.”

  “Susie's brother.” She closed her eyes, trying not to imagine Susie’s reaction when she heard this news.

  Chapter Five

  The town had been quiet since the murders, like it was holding its breath. Maybe it was just the storm clouds gathering over the ocean, but Ellie thought that the morning had an ominous feel to it.

  It had been a few days since she and her friends had stumbled on to the nautical murder scene. Susie was still at the hospital, in an induced coma. The head injury had been more serious than they had previously thought. Ellie was grateful to Russell for keeping her updated on the other woman's condition, even though hearing about it made her feel helpless and angry. That poor woman. When she woke up she would have to deal not only with her own injuries, but also with the knowledge that her brother had been killed. Ellie felt both for Susie, and for whoever had to give her the news.

  She had barely seen hide nor hair of her husband since the incident. He was still trying to make sense of the murders, working hand-in-hand with the local Coast Guard. With Susie in a coma, they had no witnesses to the crime, and no way of knowing who else might have been on the boat… If anyone else had been.

  Russell had only brought it up once, but once was enough. He had mentioned his suspicions of Susie, and Ellie defended the woman without even thinking. It had been a short argument, but one that had set them on edge around each other. After taking a chance to calm down, Ellie had to admit to herself that she didn't know why she was defending the woman so much. She felt connected to her somehow; she, Joanna, and Shannon had saved her, after all. But if she tried to distance herself from it and look at it from Russell's perspective, she could see why Susie might be a suspect. Out of the three people that they knew for a fact were on the ship, only one was still in any shape to give answers.

  As Ellie drove into town that morning, she kept glancing to her left, out at the coast. The threatening storm told her that it would likely be a slow day at the pizzeria. Well, slow for dine in customers anyway. She was sure that they would get quite a few deliveries called in. As long as the weather didn't get too bad, the calls would keep them busy. Once the storm hit, though, she would likely have to shut down their delivery service. No amount of orders could make risking her employees’ lives worth it. Living this close to the Atlantic Ocean meant that storms could get quite nasty. The weather reports had been all over for the past few hours, but she could feel it in her bones; this was going to be a bad storm.

  Her nerves calmed somewhat as she walked into the pizzeria. She'd been out of sorts all morning – well, she had been out of sorts since the boat incident. Some part of her felt like she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. The killer was still out there somewhere, waiting.

  She took a deep breath, looking around and smiling as her eyes landed on the newest employee of the month photo, which had been put up just the week before. This time it was Pete, and the picture was one of him smiling while standing out in the patio portion of the restaurant, a pizza tray in hand. It was always hard to choose the employee of the month, so she usually ended up going by the numbers – who had worked the most hours, who had made the most sales, and had any of them gotten any special commendations from the customers? Every single one of them had earned the title at least once, which made her proud.

  A knock on the glass door behind her made her jump and turn around. It was still a good forty-five minutes before the pizzeria was supposed to open, and all of the employees had keys. She relaxed when she saw that it was just Shannon, and walked over to unlock the door to let her sister-in-law in.

  “Hey,” she said. “Come on in. Is everything all right?”

  Shannon, who was pushing Andrew in a stroller, nodded. “I just thought I'd swing by and see if I can grab some pizzas before heading home. I was going to go to the park first and wait until you were open, but I saw your car here decided to stop and see if we could wait here instead. We'll just hang around until you're ready, if it’s not a bother.”

  “Of course not,” Ellie said. “You can come back in the kitchen
with me while I set up. All I have to do is let the ovens heat up and get some of the dough prepared. What do you want?”

  “I can wait until you're officially open before ordering,” Shannon said. “I didn't mean to rush you. I just thought I'd grab them instead of ordering for delivery. That storm’s going hit pretty soon, and I feel bad making your drivers drive through the rain.”

  “I need to get a couple pizzas in anyway, so I can have them ready to sell by the slice once we open,” Ellie said. “It really won't be any extra work to throw yours in as well. Besides, none of the other employees are getting here until noon, so the company will be nice. Oh, we’ve got a new pizza coming out today; the Swiss Melt Special.”

  “I'll take one of those, and then how about a sausage and bacon pizza? That's James's favorite. He's coming home early and we’re just going to watch some television, play some games, and get ready for the storm.”

  “That sounds like the perfect day,” Ellie said with a smile.

  She headed back into the kitchen, her sister-in-law following her, and turned on the lights. After lighting the ovens, she turned back to Shannon. “Thin crust or regular?”

  “Regular,” Shannon said, “and can you do extra cheese on the bacon and sausage one?”

  Ellie grinned. “You got it.”

  She worked while Shannon entertained Andrew, letting him play with a few of the children's books she had gotten from the library and giving him a bottle of juice to drink in his stroller. The normal pizzas were easy, but the special took her more time. She made the first one on a regular crust, spreading the creamy butter sauce first, then adding sautéed mushrooms and onions, finely crumbled hamburger meat, and a generous helping of shredded Swiss cheese. After a few moments of silence, Ellie spoke up again.

  “Have you heard from Joanna?”

  Shannon looked over, frowning. “No. Not since the night of the boat incident, anyway. Why?”

  “I sent her a couple of text messages, just updating her on what Russell said about the case. She hasn’t answered any of them, and I tried calling her earlier today and she didn’t answer that either. I’m a little bit worried.”

  “She was pretty shaken up by the scene on the Sea Star. We all were. I’m sure she just needs some time to herself. The hot dog shop’s been open, and I can’t imagine she’d still be running it if something was seriously wrong.”

  “Yeah,” Ellie said. “I suppose you’re right.” Still, she worried about her other friend. Was she holding up okay after what they found?

  “It’s just strange,” Ellie said at last. “I thought she’d want to talk about what happened. She hasn't even contacted me to see if Russell has any updates on the case, or to ask about her friend.”

  “Why don't you stop by her shop after work tonight, or tomorrow morning?” Shannon said with a shrug. “I really think she’s just shaken up, Ellie. She's not as used to that sort of thing as you, and to a lesser extent, I, are. We’ve both known Russell for a long time, and have been involved in some of his cases before. Joanna comes from a different world. She’s been hanging around us long enough that this isn’t completely new to her, but she knew Susie, and that’s got to make it even harder for her.”

  Ellie nodded, deciding to put her worries out of her mind for the time being. “You're right. I'll probably stop in tomorrow morning just to say hi, but I won't push her too much. If she needs some space and time after what we saw on the boat, that's understandable.”

  Chapter Six

  The storm was still raging when Ellie woke up the next morning. She was mildly surprised to find that Russell was still lying beside her. He had been getting up early the past few days to go into the sheriff’s department and work on what was becoming known as the ghost ship case.

  He stirred when she did and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her to his side. “Good morning,” she said softly.

  He muttered something that sounded like it might have been, “Morning,” and Ellie felt a soft smile form on her lips. For someone who woke up before the sun most mornings, her husband really wasn't much of a morning person when he had a choice about it.

  “You stay asleep,” she said softly. “You need your rest. I'm going to go downstairs and take care of the dogs and get started on breakfast.” He had gotten home late the night before, so she didn't want to disturb him if at all possible. She knew just how precious a commodity sleep could be when someone hadn’t been getting enough of it.

  She slipped out of bed, quietly shushing the dogs as they jumped up and began getting excited, knowing that the day was about to begin. She opened the door wide enough for the two dogs to slip through and followed them out, shutting it softly behind her. Sawyer thundered down the stairs, with Bunny following a bit more sedately, and the two of them made a beeline to the back door where Ellie let them outside. While they were handling their own morning needs, she quickly filled up their dog bowls and then opened the fridge, trying to decide what to make for breakfast.

  Half an hour later, the dogs had eaten and her own meal was well underway when Russell finally came downstairs. He still looked tired, and covered up a yawn with the back of his hand as he entered the kitchen. His eyes landed on the coffee maker, and he shuffled his way over to it single-mindedly. Ellie, who was already on her second cup, smirked but knew she couldn't very well say anything about the caffeine addiction that they both shared.

  “It smells great in here,” he said at last, after he sat down at the table with his mug of coffee and had taken a couple of sips. “What's for breakfast?”

  “I made a quiche with spinach, tomatoes, and feta cheese, and I’ve got pancakes ready to go; I'll make them once the quiche is almost done. We’ve got some bacon too; I made it in the oven. It’s supposed to be healthier that way.”

  “I could kiss you right now,” he said, “but I have morning breath so I don't think I will. I skipped out on dinner last night, so I'm starved. All of that sounds amazing.”

  “Russell, you should've called and told me you were going to be home late. I would have made something and left it in the fridge for you. You can’t go around skipping meals like that.”

  “I just wasn't hungry,” he said with a shrug. “This case is really bothering me.”

  “Still no progress?”

  “Well, we certainly found no helpful evidence on the boat. There were fingerprints galore, but that won’t be any help until we have a suspect. It's obvious that the boat owner had a very active social life; we’ve been looking into the families of the deceased and from all accounts Mr. Ford was quite the partier. We haven’t been able to find any likely suspects who have ties to any of the victims. None of them had any restraining orders against anyone, none of them had gone through a messy divorce or civil suit anytime recently. We’ve got no motive so far, and no suspects.”

  “Other than Susie, right?” Ellie asked after a moment.

  “At this point we don't know anything for sure, but I'm leaning toward her being innocent for now. The doctor in charge of her care determined that most of her injuries were caused by a fall down the stairs.”

  “So, what about the head injury? Did she also get that when she fell down the stairs?”

  He shook his head. “Unless she dove headfirst, backwards down the stairs, there is no way a fall could have caused that.”

  “So, someone hit her over the head, and then pushed her down the stairs?”

  Russell nodded. “Either that, or she sustained a head wound and then fell down the stairs trying to escape. Either way, I consider her lucky, considering how the other two people ended up. If she hadn’t made her way down the stairs to hide in the supply closet, she very likely would have joined her brother and his friend. The fact that we have reason to believe the head injury was caused by an assailant is what makes me believe she may not be the one behind all of this.”

  “I know you said that her brother was found a little ways up the coast on the shore. Did he drown, or was he killed and then tosse
d overboard?”

  “I can’t go into too much detail, but I can tell you we think he was still alive when he entered the water.”

  Ellie shuddered. “That's horrible.”

  “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Ms. Callahan was the lucky one, if you can call it that.”

  “How did the killer or killers get away after the attack?” Ellie asked. “They were out in the middle of the ocean.”

  “A vessel that size would have had a lifeboat, and there was also a place to store a couple of jet skis. None were found on board, so my guess is that the killers escaped that way. They may have purposely steered the boat toward the rocks before leaving, hoping that it would crash and sink, which would have destroyed a lot of the evidence. It’s a good thing that you came across it when you did.”

  “So, what now?” Ellie asked. “How will you find out who did this?”