Page 35 of Light of Day (Sea Smoke Island #1)
Luke picked up Detective Tina Chen at the ferry landing shortly after nine.
She’d taken a water taxi instead of wasting an hour on the ferry boat.
Her clothes were spangled with sea spray, and she staggered as she stepped off the craft onto the float.
He judged her to be around forty, with blunt bangs and a don’t-mess-with-me attitude.
She waved away the hand Luke offered. “I warned them not to send me out here,” she grumbled. “But my partner’s sick, and I’d be on desk duty otherwise. So here I am. What do have for me?”
“Do you need some coffee? Breakfast? The best place on the island nearly burned down last night, but the second-best place opened early.”
The Clambake Grill had stepped into the breach for the sake of the island’s fishing community—and their pocketbooks, of course.
“I just googled how to get over seasickness. brAT, they call it. Bananas, rice, applesauce and toast. Do they serve any of that shit?”
“Toast, for sure. Probably bananas.”
“Let’s go.”
Over the most bland and easily digestible meal the Clambake could offer—cream of wheat and packaged banana pudding—Luke filled Detective Chen in on everything he knew about the Denton Simms case. She listened closely, clearly shutting out her nausea by focusing on the details.
“So you think this historical angle is a good one?” she asked when Luke was done.
“Nothing else has surfaced.”
“What about the beneficiary of his will? What was that name?” She flipped a page on her pad. Luke was embarrassed that he hadn’t dug up any more information about Sasha Mackey.
“I left her a few messages, but she hasn’t called back. Anyway, why would she burn down the house she just inherited? It’s still in probate. She won’t get anything now.”
“It’s still good practice to investigate anyone who’s a beneficiary of a murder victim.”
Luke couldn’t argue with that. He drank from his coffee cup, the bitter taste matching his mood. He should have done more to solve Denton’s murder. Instead he’d gotten distracted by everything going on with Heather.
Wasn’t that her reputation? She stirred up trouble wherever she went?
“You ruled out the kid who got hauled off to the hospital?”
“It was just an overnight stay…but yes. He’s not a suspect. Apart from anything else, he has a firm alibi for the time of Denton’s death. He was busy kidnapping someone on the other side of the island.”
“This place…” Detective Chen shook her head. “Is it always like this out here? Crime-o-rama?”
“Not at all. We’re usually very peaceful. Not counting the weather, obviously.” Luke glanced out at the wind ruffling the surface of the water, white spray flying off the tops of the waves. “White horses,” his mother used to call the whitecaps. “So what’s your first step?”
“Scene of the crime, of course. Can you take me out there?”
“Of course, but don’t expect much. It’s a grassy hilltop open to the elements. I doubt anything helpful is left.”
“Only one way to find out.”
Luke suppressed his frustration that he was stuck ferrying around this off-island detective when he could be finding out who was behind these damn fires. It must have been several people, based on the timing. One person at the Bloodshot Eyeball, one at his house, another at Denton’s.
At this point, his prime suspect was his own father.
John Carmichael III had the money to pay people to do his bidding, and the ease with which the perpetrators had broken in suggested they were professionals.
He ought to go interrogate his dad. Instead he had to trek out to the North Point with a seasick detective.
The motion of his truck seemed to make matters worse. He had to keep pulling over so the poor woman could take gulps of fresh air by the side of the road.
Once they were at the North Point, the wind helped. The color returned to Chen’s cheeks. She even climbed down the first few feet of the ledge to see up close where Denton had tumbled across the rocks.
“We looked down there pretty thoroughly,” Luke told her. He squatted on the ledge, ready to snag the detective if her footing slipped. Beyond her, creamy foam swirled against the rocks a hundred yards down.
“Sometimes fresh eyes can help.”
After a few minutes of intensive searching, Chen hauled herself back up next to Luke.
“See anything we missed?”
“No. But I have a theory.”
“Already? Just from what, breathing the air?”
Chen smirked. “Yes, I’m that good. No. I interviewed the coroner before I came out here. You saw the report, right?”
“No, they never sent it. Over the phone, I was told it was strangulation.”
“Did they mention what was used?”
Luke set his fists on his hips. “I assumed it was done with bare hands.”
“No. I’ll show you the report, it’s on my phone. It was done with a piece of cloth, not rope, because that leaves a very specific mark. No scraps of the cloth were left, thanks to the body being immersed in water.”
“So we don’t know what kind of cloth?”
“No. I was hoping I’d spot a scrap of thread somewhere on the rocks, but no such luck.
However, think about it. The murderer chose this place to meet.
They knew that if they weakened Denton enough, they’d be able to shove him over the edge here.
They came prepared with a piece of cloth, maybe a scarf.
They knew they wouldn’t have the strength to strangle someone as strong as Denton Simms without assistance.
If they couldn’t kill him outright, plan B was to injure him, maybe render him unconscious, then roll him off the ledge.
Either the fall would deliver the final blow, or he’d make it to the water and drown. ”
“You think the killer planned it that carefully? Then why not just bring a gun or something?”
“A gunshot would draw attention, even out here. The sound travels. Whoever did this was clever and deceptive, but not especially strong. My guess is that it was a woman.”
That sounded quite…sexist to Luke. Were women more clever and deceptive than men? He couldn’t wait to hear this reasoning. “How do you figure?”
“The lack of signs of a struggle, to start with. We’d see something. Gouges in the grass, more footprints, that kind of thing. That tells me he was taken by surprise.”
“It could have been someone he knew and trusted, not necessarily a woman. Everyone knew Denton. He was well-liked and respected.”
“But what piece of cloth would a man have with him to strangle someone with? It wasn’t cold enough for a wool scarf, right?
In order for the murderer to take Denton by surprise, the cloth had to be something innocuous, something he wouldn’t think was strange, such as a scarf.
But outside of winter and maybe, I don’t know, Rome, only women wear scarves. ”
“Cowboys wear bandannas,” Luke pointed out. “If someone wore a bandanna out here, it wouldn’t arouse suspicion.”
“I thought of that. I’m very thorough,” she added modestly.
“A bandanna wouldn’t be long enough to give enough leverage.
I tried it out on a mannequin back at the station.
The cloth had to have been at least two feet long.
” She measured that distance with her hands.
“I believe we’re looking for a woman’s scarf-type item.
Know any women here who wear a lot of scarves? ”
“It’s not something I’ve ever paid much attention to,” Luke had to admit. “Lily Highgrove dresses like a hippie fairy. She might have some scarves. I’ve seen Judy wear scarves. The manager at the Lightkeeper Inn,” he explained.
“Would she have a motive for killing Simms?”
“Hard to imagine. She rarely leaves the inn.”
“As far as you know.”
Luke acknowledged that point with a tip of his head. “But what about the boot print? It’s a man’s size.”
“It could be unrelated to the murder. Or maybe our perp has large feet.”
“So we’re looking for a woman with big feet who wears scarves.”
“Possibly. It’s just a theory,” Chen admitted. “I’m known for my out-of-the-box theories.”
Something tugged at his memory. Someone had worn a scarf recently. He’d noticed it because of its dorkiness, its goofy pattern of ducks against a blue background…
”Holy shit. I know who wears scarves. Amy Lou Westbrook. She runs the historical society. She took over for Denton’s brother Jimmy. When I interviewed her, I thought she was hiding something. But I can’t believe she’d kill anyone. And I’ve never noticed her shoe size.”
“Means, opportunity, and most importantly, motive, my friend,” said Chen wisely. “If someone has enough motivation, they will do things you wouldn’t ever imagine.”
“Even a middle-aged woman with a yellow ducky scarf?”
“Especially someone with a yellow ducky scarf,” Chen said darkly, making Luke chuckle. “Lead the way.”