Murder at the Marina

by Ellen Jacobson

  Ben put his hands over his mouth and scanned the horizon. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s just that...well, it’s hard to believe.” I started coughing. Ben handed me a water bottle. “Here, have a drink. You look terrible. Let’s get you back to the marina.”

  “Okay, but first we need to alert the authorities. There’s a killer on the loose. Do you have one of those walkie-talkie things?”

  “You mean a VHF?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not sure what they’re called.”

  “I used to, but it doesn’t work anymore, and I can’t afford to replace it.”

  “Well, what about your cell phone?”

  “Sorry, I don’t have it with me. I forgot it on your boat. Scooter had to go back to Melvin’s to pick up some supplies, so I decided to take off and do some fishing.”

  “Okay, no phone and no VHF. Let’s turn on the motor and hightail it back to the marina so we can catch this killer.”

  Ben got the outboard engine started after a few attempts. “Luckily, I managed to get this fixed, Mollie.”

  “Just hurry, as fast as you can,” I said. “We need to make sure they catch the killer before she escapes.”

  “Are you really sure someone tried to kill you?”

  “I am. Someone hit me from behind and shoved me off Penny’s boat.”

  “Are you saying Penny did this?” he asked.

  “It was either her or Sandy. They were the only two people on the boat.”

  I curled up in the bow of the dinghy, listening to the engine sputtering. At the rate we were going, the killer would be long gone by the time we got back. As I struggled to keep my hands from shaking, I wondered what had happened to my PFD.

  THE SOUND OF THE DINGHY hitting the dock alerted me to the fact that we were back at the marina. “Wait here, Mollie,” Ben said as he tied it to a cleat. “I’m going to get help.”

  I struggled to hoist myself out of the dinghy, flopping ungracefully on the dock. I shuddered when I looked over at the small boat, remembering that I’d found Jack’s body floating nearby. I tried to sit up but couldn’t find the energy to move. I lay on the dock, staring at the seagulls circling overhead. After a few minutes, Ned came running toward me.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, bending down and pushing my wet hair out of my eyes. “Ben said he found you in the water off Pirate’s Cove.”

  “Can you help me up?” As Ned pulled me to my feet, I groaned in pain.

  He put his arm around my waist to hold me steady. “That’s a nasty lump, Mollie. How did that happen?”

  “Someone whacked me with a boat hook and then pushed me overboard,” I said. I bit my lip. “Did Ben call the police?”

  “He didn’t mention anything about the police. He just told me you were hurt and went to find Scooter.”

  “I don’t need a doctor—I need you to call the police!” I screamed, my voice cracking with hysteria. Ned stared at me in shock. “I need you to trust me. Please, just call them,” I pleaded.

  “Okay, I will. Let’s just get you settled first.” Ned helped me over to the patio. He got out his cell phone and placed the call. As I sank down on a chair, Mrs. Moto ran across the patio, catapulted herself onto my lap, stretched up, and nuzzled my face.

  “Hello, you beautiful girl,” I said, snuggling her against my neck. She meowed loudly. “Wait a minute—if you’re back at the marina, that means Pretty in Pink is back.” I set the calico on my lap. “Ned, have you seen Penny and Sandy?”

  “They docked a little while ago.” He looked at me quizzically. “Weren’t you on Pretty in Pink today for your sailing lesson?” I nodded. “But if that’s the case, why did Ben fish you out of the water?”

  “The boat hook and being pushed overboard. Ring a bell?”

  Ned stroked his chin. “You were serious about that? I just figured you—”

  “Imagined it?” I asked. Ned looked chastened. “Never mind. The important thing is to track down Penny and Sandy. Did you see both of them when they docked?”

  “Now that you mention it, I just saw Sandy. She said Penny was down below doing something with the engine.”

  “I have a feeling that something may have happened to Penny, just like it did to Captain Dan and Jack.” I shooed Mrs. Moto off my lap and pushed myself up. “Hurry, we’ve got to get to the boat and make sure Penny is okay.”

  I stumbled, and Ned held my elbow. “You’re in no shape to go anywhere. I see Chief Dalton coming this way. You sit back down, and we’ll let him take care of this.”

  Ned walked over to the chief. I watched as he tried to explain the situation, pointing toward me, then pointing to where Pretty in Pink was docked. The burly man seemed unimpressed. Even from a distance, I could see his raised eyebrows. I was about to go over and try to get him to see reason when I saw Sandy dashing across the patio in the direction of the parking lot.

  “Hey!” I shouted as she ran past me. Sandy stopped in her tracks and looked at me in shock. “You! What are you doing here? You should be at the bottom of the sea by now.” She grabbed my arm and yanked me out of my chair. “Now I’m going to have to find another way to deal with you.” Mrs. Moto arched her back and hissed at Sandy. Sandy tried to push her out of the way with her foot, but the cat jumped back too quickly.

  I fought to break free of Sandy’s grasp, but she dug her fingers into my arm, adding new bruises to the ones she’d given me a short while ago on Penny’s boat. I stepped down hard on her foot, pushing her off-balance and causing her to let go of me. I lifted my arm to wave at the chief, but she yanked me back. She wrapped her powerful hands around my neck with a vise-like grip. With a crazed look in her eyes, she squeezed her fingers. I tried to yell for help, but no words came out. As I struggled to breathe, I could feel the world fading away.

  Then I felt an abrupt jerk and Sandy's hands were no longer around my neck. I collapsed on the patio, gasping for air. Hearing a gruff voice say, “You're under arrest,” I looked up and saw Chief Dalton pulling Sandy back. While the big man handcuffed her, Ned rushed over and helped me to my feet.

  After reading the handcuffed woman her rights, the chief turned to me. “I’m going to need you to come down to the station and tell me what happened. But we’ll get you to the hospital first.” For a second, I thought I saw a hint of a smile as he raised one of his eyebrows. “Looks like you got hit by a whole bunch of coconuts this time.”

  I gingerly rubbed my neck. “Feels like it too.”

  “I'll make sure she gets medical attention,” Ned said.

  The chief nodded and escorted Sandy toward the parking lot.

  “Oh, no! I forgot about Penny,” I said frantically. “You have to go check on her.”

  Ned hesitated. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I assured him I was fine for the time being. The Japanese bobtail and I watched him hurry down the dock.

  Nancy poked her head out of the marina office and peppered me with questions. “What’s all the commotion out here? Where’s Ned going? He should be cleaning the shower room. What’s that mangy cat doing here?”

  I smiled, picked up Mrs. Moto, and said sweetly, “Better close that door before you get flies in there.”

  CHAPTER 17

  THE MYSTERIOUS TOTE BAG

  THE NEXT DAY, I STOPPED by Penelope’s Sugar Shack to pick up a tray of brownies. No, they weren’t for me, they were for the barbecue—although one of the brownies did accidentally fall off the tray and into my hand on the way back to the marina, so I had to eat it. It would have been wasteful not to, right?

  I have to confess, I did feel guilty about it—not about eating the brownie, but about not baking my own award-winning, gooey, quadruple-chocolate brownies. But really, when you’ve been investigating not one but two murders and an alien abduction, someone bashes you in the head when you’re out for a walk, someone else throws you overboard, you’re up for a promotion at work (which gets snatched away from you by that evil, red-headed Lola), and your husb
and surprises you with a sailboat for your anniversary, there’s really not a lot of time left for home baking.

  By the time I got to the patio—I needed a few moments to wipe the brownie crumbs off my clothes—the barbecue was in full swing. I watched everyone chatting, laughing, and having a good time, then pulled out my cell phone. My mom had left a number of text messages over the past couple of days, which I hadn’t had a chance to read properly. Rather than continue to exchange endless texts trying to correct misunderstandings, I decided to phone her instead. We had a nice talk, once she got over the shock of what had happened to me. I think I even convinced her to come visit and see Marjorie Jane for herself.

  After promising to call more often, I wandered over to join the crowd. I put the tray of brownies on one of the tables. The smell of the barbecue was heavenly. I couldn’t help but check out what Ned was grilling.

  “It’s one of my specialties—chicken legs marinated in lemon, garlic, Dijon mustard, and olive oil. The secret is to let them marinate for at least twenty-four hours,” Ned said as he checked the chicken, turning over pieces to make sure the skin got evenly crisped. “Of course, the other secret is expert grilling, and that’s where I come in.” He smiled.

  “They look delicious,” I said. “How long until they’re ready?”

  “About another five minutes or so.”

  “I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold out that long.”

  “Who put these over here?” Nancy asked, pointing at the tray I had set down.

  “Might as well get it over with, and confess to your crime,” Ned said. “It’ll be easier that way. Trust me.”

  I held my hand up meekly. “It was me.”

  Nancy summoned me over. “This table is for side dishes,” she said as she pointed to an impressive array of salads. All of them seemed to feature plenty of vegetables prepared in a variety of low-fat dressings. Fortunately, I spotted a dish of potato salad oozing with mayonnaise. “These brownies do not belong on this table. They belong over there, on the dessert table.” I muttered my apologies and placed the tray of brownies next to a lonely bowl of fruit salad.

  “Come and get it!” Ned yelled out. He placed a big platter of chicken on the table and set aside a few legs for Nancy and himself before the crowd rushed over. While they were fighting over the chicken and salads, I put a brownie on my plate. Then I found a gap in the crowd, made my way to the table with the side dishes, and scooped up some potato salad.

  “There you are, my little sweet potato,” Scooter said. He held out his plate. “Can you put some of that on mine too? No, not the quinoa salad, the potato salad.” He took some napkins and pointed to the far side of the patio, where Penny, Ned, and Nancy were sitting. “The gang’s all over at that table. Come on, let’s go join them.”

  As we sat down, Penny looked at my plate and smiled. “I see you got some of my potato salad.”

  “Did you make this?” I asked as I sampled it. “It’s delicious! You make it with plenty of mayonnaise, just the way I like it.”

  “Oh, that’s not mayonnaise. That’s tofu that I whipped up in a blender. Tastes like the real thing, doesn’t it?”

  I put my fork down slowly and grabbed one of my chicken legs. At least this was real chicken and not something made out of tofu. Maybe I was going to have to start bringing coleslaw with extra mayo, plus dessert, to these barbecues.

  Ben sat in the chair next to me. Today’s T-shirt advised me to keep calm and say “Arr.” He appeared relatively neat and tidy. His hair looked like it had been recently shampooed, and his shorts didn’t have any holes or stains. “You shaved your beard off,” I said as I toyed with the misleading potato salad on my plate.

  “What do you think?” he asked. “I thought I’d go with a clean-cut look for my new job.”

  “Your new job?”

  “Didn’t you hear? Ned and Nancy hired me to work in the boatyard,” he said with a huge grin. “Beer’s on me tonight at the Tipsy Pirate.”

  Nancy leaned over and poked Ben in the ribs with one of her long fingernails. “Don’t forget, Ben, it’s for a trial period. If you do a good job, then maybe we’ll talk about hiring you on a permanent basis.”

  “I’m going to do a great job, just you wait and see,” he said, digging into his baked beans. He set his fork down. “You know, these baked beans are good, but not as good as the ones Sandy made. I still can’t believe she tried to kill you, Mollie.”

  Ned polished off the potato salad on his plate. Clearly, he wasn’t averse to tofu being disguised as mayonnaise. “I can’t believe Sandy killed Captain Dan and Jack,” he said. “I would have never thought she had it in her.”

  “I still don’t get why she did it,” Penny said. I noticed she was eating some of the quinoa salad. It probably had tofu in it too.

  “Well, it was because of you,” I said.

  “Me?” Penny put her fork down. “What did she have against me?”

  “It all had to do with you and Captain Dan.”

  “Captain Dan? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. Her eyes began to water. I got a tissue out of my purse and passed it to her.

  “It’s okay, Penny. It happens to the best of us, falling for the wrong guy,” I said. “It wasn’t your fault that he conned you. He conned lots of people.” Ned, Nancy, and Ben all nodded in agreement.

  “But how do you know about Bob—I mean, Dan?” she asked, dabbing at her eyes.

  “Who’s Bob?” Nancy asked.

  “Bob was an alias for Captain Dan. Before he moved to Florida, he had a used-car dealership in Texas called Cowboy Bob’s Automotive Ranch. Penny knew Captain Dan back when he was Cowboy Bob. He sold her that pink convertible she has. I’m not sure when or how it happened, but at some point, they became romantically involved.”

  Penny put down her tissue. “I met him at a bar one night. He was a smooth talker. I fell head over heels in love. My family warned me about him, but I didn’t believe them. He asked me to invest money in his car dealership, and I did. I ended up losing every last cent.” Nancy patted Penny’s arm sympathetically. “Turns out he was conning other women out of money as well. He got in some trouble with the law, so that’s when he moved here.”

  “But why did you follow him up here to Florida if you knew he was no good?” Nancy asked.

  “I was curious about that too,” Scooter said. “You reported him on that Dating Scoundrels site, didn’t you?”

  “That’s the part that’s so embarrassing,” Penny said. “He convinced me that everything that happened in Texas was a misunderstanding, and that he wanted me to come to Florida and be his partner in the boat brokerage business. What was I thinking? He was a used-car salesman, for goodness’ sake. And I was stupid enough to believe he could make a success of being a boat broker, something he knew nothing about, and that things would work out between us.” She put her head in her hands and groaned.

  “You weren’t the only one who believed him,” I said. “Sandy fell for his charms too. That’s what started this all. He flirted with her, and she fell for him, hook, line, and sinker. Then she found out about you and him.”

  “How did she find out about us?” Penny asked.

  “I’m not sure, but Mrs. Moto found a picture on Sandy’s boat of you and Captain Dan, or Cowboy Bob, in Texas with your arms around each other. Sandy wanted to leave Jack and marry Captain Dan. She was convinced that you were the reason why Captain Dan was hesitating. She didn’t like being part of a love triangle.”

  Scooter looked at me quizzically. “How do you know about Sandy wanting to marry Captain Dan?”

  “Oh, I ran into Officer Moore when I was at Penelope’s Sugar Shack. She’s so much nicer than Chief Dalton. She was at the police station yesterday when I went in to give my statement about what happened on Pretty in Pink. We had such a nice chat. Then when I saw her today, I gave her one of the brownies, and she told me all about the case and Sandy’s confession.”

  “What else
did you find out?” Scooter asked.

  “Yeah, tell us about the murders,” Ben said. “Let’s hear all the details about how she whacked Captain Dan over the head with that winch handle.”

  Scooter sat back in his chair and shuddered. I don’t think he really wanted to hear all the details. I passed him my brownie. He ate the whole thing in two bites.

  “After the barbecue last week, Captain Dan told Sandy in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want her leaving Jack, and that they should continue to have an affair behind his back. He needed Jack to help him fence stolen marine equipment, and he certainly didn’t want to be tied down to one woman.”

  I looked over at Penny’s hand. “Remember how you were chewing on your nails when you had a fight with Captain Dan at the barbecue?”

  “Yeah, but how did you know about that?”

  “Never mind,” I said. “It’s not important. Sandy found one of your press-on fingernails on the patio and picked it up.”

  “See, I told you it wasn’t my fingernail,” Nancy said. “What happened after that?”

  “She followed him to Marjorie Jane when he supposedly went there to leave a boat-warming present for us. They got into a fight, she picked up the winch handle, and...well...you know what happened next. She must have decided to leave the fingernail to implicate Penny.”

  Everyone thought about this for a few minutes while Nancy cleared the table. When she sat back down, she asked, “What do you mean by Captain Dan supposedly going to Marjorie Jane to leave a boat-warming present?”

  “Oh, that.” I nodded at Ben and Scooter. “The guys found an antique compass hidden on Marjorie Jane. Turns out Captain Dan had stolen it from some people in Texas and tucked it in a secret compartment before the previous owners of Marjorie Jane sailed her over to Florida. He was planning on retrieving it when no one else was around. That’s why he said he wanted to leave a boat-warming present for us. But before he could get it, Sandy surprised him, they argued, and then she murdered him.”

  Scooter blanched at the reference to murder and pointed at my purse. “Do you have any more chocolate in there?”