"Does she? And how did you know I knew them?"
"They mentioned they met a New York cop who was convalescing. I said I knew you."
"Small world," I said.
He didn't reply.
I looked around the backyard. To the east was the house, and to the south was a thick line of tall hedges, and beyond the hedges was the home of Edgar Murphy, the neighbor who found the bodies. To the north was an open marsh area that stretched a few hundred yards to the next house, which was barely visible. To the west, the deck dropped in three levels toward the bay where the dock ran out about a hundred feet to the deeper water. At the end of the dock was the Gordons' boat, a sleek white fiberglass speedboat — a Formula three-something, about thirty feet long. It was named the Spirochete, which as we know from Bio 101 is the nasty bug that causes syphilis. The Gordons had a sense of humor.
Max said, "Edgar Murphy stated that the Gordons sometimes used their own boat to commute to Plum Island. They took the government ferry when the weather was bad and in the winter." I nodded. I knew that.
He continued, "I'm going to call Plum Island and see if I can find out what time they left. The sea is calm, the tide is coming in, and the wind is from the east, so they could make maximum time between Plum and here."
"I'm not a sailor."
"Well, I am. It could have taken them as little as one hour to get here from Plum, but usually it's an hour and a half, two at the outside. The Murphys heard the Gordon boat come in about 5:30, so now we see if we can find out the time they left Plum, then we know with a little more certainty that it was the Gordon boat that the Murphys heard at 5:30."
"Right." I looked around the deck. There was the usual patio and deck furniture — table, chairs, outdoor bar, sun umbrellas, and such. Small bushes and plants grew through cutouts in the deck, but basically there was no place a person could conceal him- or herself and ambush two people out in the open.
"What are you thinking about?" Max asked.
"Well, I'm thinking about the great American deck. Big, maintenance-free wood, multileveled, landscaped, and all that. Not like my old-fashioned narrow porch that always needs painting. If I bought my uncle's house, I could build a deck down to the bay like this one. But then I wouldn't have as much lawn."
Max let a few seconds pass, then asked, "That's what you're thinking about?"
"Yeah. What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about a double murder."
"Good. Tell me what else you've learned here."
"Okay. I felt the engines — " He jerked his thumb toward the boat. "They were still warm when I arrived, like the bodies."
I nodded. The sun was starting to dip into the bay, and it was getting noticeably darker and cooler, and I was getting chilly in my T-shirt and shorts, sans underwear.
September is a truly golden month up and down the Atlantic coast, from the Outer Banks to Newfoundland. The days are mild, the nights pleasant for sleeping; it is summer without the heat and humidity, autumn without the cold rains. The summer birds haven't left yet, and the first migratory birds from up north are taking a break on their way south. I suppose if I left Manhattan and wound up here, I'd get into this nature thing, boating, fishing, and all that.
Max was saying, "And something else — the line is clove-hitched around the piling."
"Well, there's a major break in the case. What the hell's a line?"
"The rope. The boat's rope isn't tied to the cleats on the dock. The rope is just temporarily hitched to the pilings — the big poles that come out of the water. I deduce that they intended to go out in the boat again, soon."
"Good observation."
"Right. So, any ideas?"
"Nope."
"Any observations of your own?"
"I think you beat me to them, Chief."
"Theories, thoughts, hunches? Anything?"
"Nope."
Chief Maxwell seemed to want to say something else, like, "You're fired," but instead he said, "I've got to make a phone call." He went off into the house.
I glanced back at the bodies. The woman with the light tan suit was now outlining Judy in chalk. It's SOP in New York City that the investigating officer do the outline, and I guessed that it was the same out here. The idea is that the detective who is going to follow the case to its conclusion and who is going to work with the DA should know and work the entire case to the extent possible. I concluded, therefore, that the lady in tan was a homicide detective and that she was the officer assigned to investigate this case. I further concluded that I'd wind up dealing with her if I decided to help Max with this.
The scene of a homicide is one of the most interesting places in the world if you know what you're looking for and looking at. Consider people like Tom and Judy who look at little bugs under a microscope, and they can tell you the names of the bugs, what the bugs are up to at the moment, what the bugs are capable of doing to the person who's watching them, and so forth. But if I looked at the bugs, all I'd see is little squigglies. I don't have a trained eye or a trained mind for bugs.
Yet, when I look at a dead body and at the scene around the body, I see things that most people don't see. Max touched the engines and the bodies and noticed they were warm, he noticed how the boat was tied, and he registered a dozen other small details that the average citizen wouldn't notice. But Max isn't really a detective, and he was operating on about level two, whereas to solve a murder like this one, you needed to operate on a much higher plane. He knew that, which is why he called on me.
I happened to know the victims, and for the homicide detective on the case, this is a big plus. I knew, for instance, that the Gordons usually wore shorts, T-shirts, and docksiders in the boat on their way to Plum Island, and at work they slipped on their lab duds or their biohazard gear or whatever. Also, Tom didn't look like Tom in a black shirt, and Judy was more of a pastel person as I recall. My guess was that they were dressed for camouflage, and the running shoes were for speed. Then again, maybe I was making up clues. You have to be careful not to do that.
But then there was the red soil in the treads of their running shoes. Where did it come from? Not from the laboratory, probably not from the walkway to the Plum Island ferry dock, not their boat, and not the dock or deck here. It appeared they were somewhere else today, and they were dressed differently for the day, and for sure the day had ended differently. There was something else going on here, and I had no idea what it was, but it was definitely something else.
Yet, it was still possible that they just stumbled onto a burglary. I mean, this might have nothing to do with their jobs. The thing was, Max was nervous about that and sensitive to it, and it had infected me, too, pardon the pun. And before midnight, this place would be visited by the FBI, Defense Intelligence people, and the CIA. Unless Max could catch a hophead burglar before then.
"Excuse me."
I turned toward the voice. It was the lady in the tan suit. I said, "You re excused."
"Excuse me, are you supposed to be here?"
"I'm here with the band."
"Are you a police officer?"
Obviously my T-shirt and shorts didn't project an authority image. I replied, "I'm with Chief Maxwell."
"I could see that. Have you logged in?"
"Why don't you go check?" I turned and walked down to the next level of the deck, avoiding the little colored flags. I headed toward the dock. She followed.
"I'm Detective Penrose from Suffolk County homicide, and I'm in charge of this investigation."
"Congratulations."
"And unless you have official business here — "
"You'll have to speak to the chief." I got down to the dock and walked out to where the Gordons' boat was tied. It was very breezy out on the long dock and the sun had set. I didn't see any sailboats on the bay now, but a few powerboats went by with their running lights on. A three-quarter moon had risen in the southeast, and it sparkled across the water.