“Or if we’re really lucky, a small pile of the perpetrator’s DNA.”
“I don’t think… You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”
“I am. And I shouldn’t be,” Dottie said. “As the boss says, let’s search. We don’t have a lot of time to lose.”
“Where do we start?”
“With the canoe,” Josie said with more assurance and authority than she was feeling. “How was it taken down? Is there anything in it? Any sign of how Courtney was killed?”
“Excuse me?”
Josie looked at Dottie. “It would be interesting to know how she was killed, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t know about everyone else, but I thought we knew how. At least, I thought you knew how it was done. You were up there so close to her for such a long time.”
“There was no sign-”
“No gunshot wound?”
“No knife sticking out of her chest?”
“No long, thin cord tied tightly around her neck?”
“I didn’t even see any bruises.” Josie answered their questions. “She was covered with a blanket. Well, not exactly covered. It wasn’t over her head or anything like that. It was lying across her from her feet up to her chest-and tucked in neatly. Almost as though she had been asleep. But she wasn’t sleeping,” she added quickly before Annette could jump to another conclusion. “I’m sure she was dead. She was… well, I’m sure she was dead.” She glanced around the room.
“Look, there’s nothing here that we didn’t put here. One of us might recognize something that doesn’t belong, something that has been moved, something different. All we can do is look.”
They looked. Fifteen minutes later they had nothing. No clues and no ideas. The canoe had been hung from the rafters by a metal chain attached to large metal hooks screwed into beams across the ceiling. The hooks were still there. The chain was piled neatly in the bottom of the canoe. Island Contracting’s policy was to keep a neat workplace. It impressed the customers and saved time in the long run. Nothing, as far as anyone could tell, had been moved. Since the house was unoccupied, there was a lot of dust around. Now that layer of dust was full of scuffed footprints and other marks of human habitation. There was no way of knowing which, if any, had been made by whoever had removed Courtney’s body.
It was getting dark. They were going to be forced to turn on the lights or leave. Josie picked the last option. “Time to go. If there’s anything here, we’ve missed it-”
“Shut up! Someone’s outside.”
“Get down! Shh!”
At Josie’s order, the women dropped to the floor
“Do you think it’s the murderer?” Annette sounded terrified.
“Shh!”
“Josie! I know you’re here. Where are you?”
She recognized the voice and stood. “Everything’s all right. It’s Sam.”
“Who?”
“Her boyfriend, stupid!”
Josie ignored her crew’s comments. “Sam. We’re in here, Sam!”
“Who’s we? Did you have some trouble with the electricity? Why are all the lights off?”
“We… we didn’t want anyone to know we were here. I’ll explain later,” she added.
“Fine. Are you ready to go?”
“Wh-”
“You were meeting Tyler and me for dinner.”
“Oh, I forgot! It’s late! Tyler must be starving!”
“Tyler is fine. I fed him an entire pizza with the works and he’s gone home to watch videos.”
Josie instantly reverted to mother mode. “He’s had pizza two nights in a row. And he watches videos at that store all day. Shouldn’t he be out getting some fresh air?”
“He’s fine. We ate at a table on the boardwalk. He’s had his daily allotment of air-and cheese. I, on the other hand, am starving.”
“Oh, Sam…”
“We’d better get going now that we’ve finished up here.” Dottie spoke up.
“Yeah, good night.” Jill picked up the hint.
“See you in the morning,” Annette added, sounding a bit doubtful.
“Why doesn’t Dottie drive the truck and Jill the Jeep,” Josie suggested. “Annette can ride.”
“Okay.”
“Good night.”
“Good night. Thanks for everything.” Josie realized they all wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She felt the same way. “You must be starving,” she said, looking up at Sam with a smile on her face.
“I am. Good night, ladies.” He waited until they were alone and then put both hands on Josie’s shoulders and turned her toward him. “What is going on here, Josie?”
She had a question of her own. “How did you know I was here?”
“Your truck and the Island Contracting Jeep are parked out front. I even know that you were at your office earlier.”
“The same way, right?”
“Your truck was parked outside. Anyone could tell you were there.”
“I never thought about that.” Josie spoke slowly.
“So are you going to tell me what’s going on now? Or do you want to wait until we get to the restaurant?”
Josie decided that wasn’t the time to tell him that she had already eaten. “Let’s go to the restaurant. We can talk there.”
And she would have the entire drive to decide just how much she was going to tell him.
TWENTY
JOSIE GOT INTO Sam’s antique MGB. “Do I need to go home and change? Where are we going?” she asked, peering through the windshield.
“How about Basil’s new spot? I’d like to try it and he won’t care what you look like. Although you look very nice,” Sam lied diplomatically.
“I didn’t know his new place was open yet.”
“You’ve had other things to think about. It opened last week. I hope we can get a table.”
Josie didn’t answer. Sam was just making conversation. They both knew Basil would fit them in someplace.
“I saw the menu when Basil was placing his wine order. This should be an interesting meal.”
“I don’t remember exactly what he was planning. I know he was talking about a Southwestern theme emphasizing fish on the menu-or was it Thai?” She was momentarily diverted. She’d eaten earlier but, in fact, was always hungry. And Basil’s meals were always worth relishing.
“He couldn’t make up his mind. So he decided to try a multicultural approach. All the main courses emphasize fish, but the recipes are Thai, Tex-Mex, Caribbean, American Southern, Cajun, French, even a bit of English-Basil thought he needed to provide fish and chips for families who want to eat with their children.”
“Interesting.”
“As is his selection of wines. If I buy a bottle of good Chardonnay, will you at least tell me a bit of what’s going on?”
Josie opened her mouth to protest and then shut it again. Sam knew her. He knew she wouldn’t have been leading her crew around that house long after the workday had ended unless she had a good reason to be there. And he knew there was something odd about doing it in the dark. She leaned back against the soft glove-leather seat (original equipment) and closed her eyes. “Yes. In fact, I’d like to ask your advice. Just don’t tell me we should go to the police. We already decided against that.”
It was dark; her eyes were closed. She didn’t see Sam roll his eyes. “You’re making me very nervous” was all he said.
“Join the crowd.” She opened her eyes as the car made a sharp turn. “Are we already there?”
“Yup. But I don’t see anyplace to park. Is that car coming or going?”
It turned out to be leaving and they slid easily into the spot vacated by the big white Lincoln Town Car. They both got out, and as Sam locked the doors, Josie stared up at the bright sign over the long one-story building. A KETTLE OF FISH was spelled out in green neon light. They walked under the sign and through a door decorated with an imaginative underwater scene.
Josie looked around curiously. Island Contracting had remodeled two of Basil’s five restaurants, but he had bought this building recently and decided to go through this season with what he called “a little minor decorating.”