“Slow day?” Zach asked. It was so beautiful out that he was surprised no one had stopped in to book a last-minute sail. There were certainly plenty of tourists around. A lot of retirees, in particular, came in December to see the Christmas decorations.
“Yes, and a good thing,” she said. “If it were summer, we’d have to be hiring extra help, on top of the seasonal employees we always hire. So far, Cal has been able to handle everything we’ve booked.” She sighed. “But the holiday flotilla is coming up—we always show off our fleet then. And then there’s New Year’s…. I guess I’m going to have to talk to Sean soon about hiring on another couple of captains. I don’t know what else we can do.”
“I can take one of the boats out for the holiday flotilla,” Zach offered. “That’s just a few days before Christmas, right?”
“The Sunday before,” she agreed.
“Maybe Sean will be up to snuff by then.”
“Maybe. So what brings you in today?” she asked him.
“Eddie’s computer.”
“Oh?” She arched a brow. “Well, it’s over there. Help yourself.”
“Thanks.” He didn’t mention that he already knew where it was.
Zach sat at Eddie’s desk, booted up his computer and went back ten days. As he accessed areas that the casual user might not, he realized that Marni had moved to stand behind him and look over his shoulder.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
“What?”
“Go back so far. I can only pull up the most recent sites I’ve visited.”
“It’s not all that tricky, really. A computer—even the worst computer—has an amazing amount of info saved in its memory, and this is a nice setup, so it’s got even more.”
“Yeah. Eddie insisted he had to have this computer. I don’t get it, myself. The Internet is the Internet, you know? We have a great business site, though. Eddie did it. Do you believe that? The old guy is the one who figures it all out,” Marni said affectionately. She was smiling, but her smile faded as she realized that she was speaking in the present tense about someone who was probably dead.
She didn’t walk away, though.
“Hey, you got any coffee?” Zach asked her.
“Sure,” she said, and went to pour him a cup.
He thought of the facts he had so far. Eddie had gone out with a man who called himself John Alden. The man had paid cash. The boat had been found by Cow Cay. There was talc on the boat, and talc on Cow Cay. And then he added the facts he couldn’t prove but believed all the same. Someone had killed Eddie, used diving equipment to reach the island and disappeared from there. And that someone had killed Eddie for a reason.
Then he moved on to the more questionable suppositions. Someone might be trying to kill Sean. If so, who? Amanda, his wife, who stood to gain? Logical, maybe. She was young and beautiful; Sean was old and rich. A likely scenario. Maybe too likely. Why did people kill? Passion, envy, greed.
Eddie had been accessing all the information he could on Rhode Island and the American Revolution. He had gone to sites that featured maps and charts of the area. He had studied battles and commanders and the congress. He had looked up Nigel Bridgewater, the local hero who had been hanged for treason, on a number of different sites, sites that focused specifically on Bridgewater and sites where he was only mentioned. He had done a lot of cross-referencing.
But hadn’t written any notes or conclusions on his computer. At least, none that Zach had found so far.
Zach went to Eddie’s calendar. There were notations about work-related events, and then a notation followed by several exclamation points on Christmas Day.
Sean will get the gift and then he’ll know!!!!
He exited the calendar and turned around. Marni was behind him, smiling, carrying his coffee. “Black?” she asked him.
“Black is fine,” he said. “Thank you.”
As he accepted the coffee, she sighed. “Poor Eddie.”
“We can still hope,” he said.
“Of course. We’re all hoping, but…Eddie wouldn’t just go away without telling someone. I know he wouldn’t.”
“Thanks for this,” he said, lifting the cup to her.
“Sure.”
She went back to her own desk. The door opened, and a group of young men came in, hoping they could charter a boat for a sail around the bay. Cal, who was off the phone by then, went over to speak to them.
Zach closed down Eddie’s computer. He was pretty sure he had discovered what he could from it, which really wasn’t much. He needed to get into Eddie’s house, and he needed to talk to Sean.
Passion, envy, greed. People were killed because they knew too much. They were killed because others envied what they had.
What was it that Eddie knew, or had, that had brought about his death?
Did it have to do with Sean, as well?
If they were both dead, did the business fall to Cal and Marni?
No. Kat and Amanda would inherit what wasn’t bequeathed to others, including Sean’s share of the business. None of it made any sense. Cal didn’t really stand to gain anything.