Page 54 of Nightshade

Stilwell ignored the question.

“Mr. Colbrink,” he said. “I’m going to give you my card so we can be in contact. I ask that you stay off the boat and keep others off it until I can get a forensics tech out here.”

“I thought you said any evidence would be gone by now,” Colbrink said.

“I changed my mind. Especially with these anchors being in the compartment. You opened the front hatch with a key. Did you bring that with you?”

“No. It hangs on a hook in the cabin by the chart table.”

“So it’s always on the boat.”

“That’s right.”

“And the cabin hatch is not locked?”

“Not usually. The CYC has armed security on the premises twenty-four seven. I never lock the boat. That way I can have Duncan come out and make sure the bilge-pump battery hasn’t lost its charge.”

“Not sure what that means.”

“Old boats like this leak, Sergeant. The bilge pump clears the water out so that the boat stays afloat. If the bilge pump goesdown, the boat could go down. It’s important to keep the battery charged.”

“Got it.”

Stilwell stared down at the anchors and thought about the timeline. It had been ten days since the unusual activities associated with theEmerald Seahad occurred in Avalon Harbor. If he assumed that those activities involved moving a body onto the ketch and then out of the harbor to the place where it was bagged, wrapped in an anchor chain, and dumped overboard, then there had been plenty of time to replace the anchor and jib bag with duplicates.

“What are you thinking, Sergeant?” Colbrink asked.

Stilwell was thinking that he wished it were his case so he could make the moves he knew needed to be made. But he didn’t say that to Colbrink.

“I’m thinking that I’d like to look around inside the cabin,” he said instead.

And he was thinking that he needed to talk to Colbrink’s crew member and cleanup man, Duncan Forbes.

19

TWO HARBORS WASlittle more than a fishing village at the island’s isthmus. There was a scattering of small independent hotels, restaurants, and markets that catered to the hillside homes, campgrounds, and fishing guides. Duncan Forbes might have moved there in an attempt to fall off law enforcement radar. No driver’s license was needed on the island to operate a boat or golf cart. No marine license was needed if you were crew for someone with the proper licensing. And there was no need for bank accounts and other electronic tails if you were a day player paid in cash for your work on the water.

But with a name like Duncan Forbes, he could not completely escape the grid. There were only two people named Duncan Forbes in the sheriff’s crime-index computer. One was seventy-four years old and lived in Sacramento. He had a criminal record that included convictions for domestic abuse, DUIs, and assaulting a police officer. The other Duncan Forbes was thirty-three years old and wanted on a minor warrant for jumping probation for a marijuana arrest before California legalized recreational use of the drug in 2016. In law enforcement parlance, it was a chickenshitwarrant, but it was still on the books and it was all Stilwell needed to talk to Mason Colbrink’s part-time crew member.

After getting back to the island Wednesday morning, Stilwell dispatched Deputies Lampley and Ramirez on the sheriff’s Zodiac to Two Harbors to locate Forbes, arrest him on the outstanding warrant, and bring him back to Avalon. They could have taken one of the sheriff’s two SUVs that were kept on the island for use outside Avalon, but the drive to the isthmus took twice as long as the trip by boat and Stilwell didn’t want to waste time.

While Lampley and Ramirez were following his order, Stilwell cleared out the sub’s one interview room, which was rarely used for its stated purpose and had become more of a storage unit for office supplies as well as a community lost and found. There were paddleboards, fishing poles, life vests, laptops, and suitcases left behind on the ferry docks. Cardboard boxes contained sunglasses, cell phones, and wallets that had been turned in over the past year or so. Stilwell had a strategy for his interview with Forbes and wanted the room to be clean and clear when they sat down face-to-face.

Once the room was prepped, Stilwell radioed Lampley to get his ETA. Lampley replied that they had Forbes in custody but had not left Two Harbors yet. They were heading to the Zodiac now, which put them close to thirty minutes out.

“Any trouble with him?” Stilwell asked.

“Only trouble we had was finding him,” Lampley said. “People out here didn’t want to give him up. But we got him. He says we have the wrong man.”

When the deputies questioned why they had to go all the way to Two Harbors on a chickenshit warrant, Stilwell had told them the real reason, but he hoped they hadn’t shared that with Forbes.

“You mean he says he’s not the guy on the warrant?” Stilwell asked.

“Yeah, the warrant,” Lampley said.

“Tell him I’ll explain it all when he gets to Avalon.”

“Roger that.”