“So he carried it below, together with your shoes.”
“Yes.”
“When did he ask you to take off your shoes?” I asked.
“When I reached the top of the gangway.”
“Asked you to take them off...”
“Yes.”
“...and then took them from you and carried them below.”
“Not right that minute. He carried them below when he went looking for the Perrier.”
“Did he ask you for the scarf, too?”
“No, I handed him the scarf. Because I didn’t need it.”
“What time did you leave the boat, Lainie?”
“Around ten-thirty.”
“At any time before that, did Brett Toland offer you a cash settlement to drop your suit?”
“No. Never. Who told you that?”
“Do you know a man named Bobby Diaz?”
“Of course I do. How would he know what Brett told me?
“Was he present at a meeting last September, during which Brett Toland mentioned his idea for a cross-eyed bear?”
“Never. There was never such a meeting. The idea for the bear was mine.”
“And you’re sure Brett didn’t offer you a cash settlement last Tuesday night?”
“I’m positive.”
“And you’re equally certain you left the boat at ten-thirty?”
“Yes.”
“Drove out of the parking lot at ten-thirty?”
“Yes.”
“Then Etta Toland couldn’t possibly have seen you driving out at a little after midnight.”
“I was home asleep by midnight.”
“Then you weren’t racing out of that parking lot at a little past midnight, is that right?”
“I told you. I was home asleep.”
“Did you drive home barefooted?” Frank asked.
“No, I put on my shoes before I left the boat.”
“Went below to put them on?”
“No, Brett went down to get them for me. I was never anywhere on that boat except the cockpit.”
“But he forgot your scarf, is that it?”
“I guess we both did.”
“When did you discover you’d left it on the boat?” I asked.
“When the police wanted to know about it.”
“What time was that?”
“When they came to the house.”
“Were you asleep when they came to the house?”
“Yes.”
“What time was that?”
“Six in the morning.”
“So you’d been asleep... what time did you say you went to bed?”
“I didn’t. It was around eleven-thirty.”
“So you’d had six and a half hours sleep by the time the police came to see you.”
“Yes. Six, six and a half.”
“Didn’t miss the scarf when you got home, huh?” Frank asked.
“I guess not.”
“Didn’t notice you’d left it behind.”
“No.”
“How come?”
“I guess I’d had a little to drink.”
“You told me you were drinking Perrier,” I said.
“I also had a vodka-tonic.”
“When was that?”
“After Brett made his proposal.”
“Thought it was a good proposal, did you?” Frank asked.
“I thought it sounded good, yes. I wanted to check it with Matthew, but it sounded good to me, yes.”
“But you didn’t call Matthew when you got home.”
“It was late.”
“Eleven o’clock.”
“Yes.”
“And you were in bed by eleven-thirty.”
“Yes.”
“How many drinks did you have?” I asked. “On the boat.”
“Just one. Well, maybe a bit more than one. I think Brett freshened it for me. Poured a little more vodka into the glass.”
“You didn’t tell me any of this.”
“I didn’t think it was important.”
“Is there anything else you didn’t tell me?”
“Nothing else. I didn’t kill him. And besides, I thought you guys were my lawyers.”
“We are,” I said.
“Then stop yelling at me!”
“Lainie, did you go below at any time last Tuesday night?”
“No.”
“Not the saloon...”
“No.”
“Not the master stateroom...”
“No. I told you. We sat on deck, in the cockpit, till I left the boat.”
“Without your scarf,” Frank said.
“Yes, without my goddamn scarf!” she said.
“Did anyone see you leaving the boat?”
“How would I know?”
“Did you see anyone?”
“Yes, I saw the man in the booth as I drove out.”
“He says he didn’t see you.”
“Then he must be blind. I drove right by him.”
“See anyone else?”
“People coming out of the restaurant.”
“Did you know any of them?”
“No. I mean, how could I tell? I was just driving around the oval, they were just people.”
“So you drove past the guard booth...”
“Yes.”
“Say anything to the guard?”
“No.”
“He say anything to you?”
“No.”
“Wave at you? Anything like that?”
“No.”
“And then you came around the oval in front of the restaurant...”
“Yes.”
“And saw these people coming out...”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“I drove to the pillars at the club entrance and made a left turn onto Silver... oh, wait a minute.”
We waited.
“That’s right,” she said.
“What’s right?”
“I almost hit this car parked on the side of the road.”
“What road?”
“Silver Creek. To the right of the entrance. I was making a left turn out of the club, and this car was parked just beyond the stone pillar on the right there. I guess I was cutting the corner too tight. I almost hit it.”
“What kind of car?”
“I don’t know. It was dark.”
“What color?”
“I don’t know. I almost didn’t see it. The headlights were off, it was just parked there.”
“Anybody in it?”
“No one.”
“Did you notice the license plate?”
“No. It was all very dark. I started to make the turn and saw the car and realized how close it was. I just yanked the wheel over and drove on by. I may have yelled something, too, I don’t remember.”
“Like what?”
“Like you jackass, you jerk, something like that.”
“But if no one was in the car...”
“I know, it was just a reaction.”
“This was at ten-thirty, correct?” Frank asked.
“Yes. Ten-thirty. Yes.”
“Did you see anyone wandering on foot in the parking lot at that time? While you were driving out?”
He was thinking the same thing I was. First, why would anyone park a car just outside the club entrance when there was a parking lot inside those stone pillars? And next, where was the person who’d left the car there? The Bannermans had heard shots at eleven-forty that night. If someone had been prowling the lot an hour or so earlier...
“Did you see anyone?” I asked.
“Nobody,” Lainie said.
7
He kept remembering what Amberjack had told him about keeping an eye on the weather. Warren didn’t want to get caught out here on a small craft some thirty miles from shore in case any storm was on the way. Not much traffic out here, just your occasional fishing boat and now and then a big motor cruiser passing by in the distance. But the way he figured it, all of these boat people knew more about weather than he did, so as long as there was anybody out here, he didn’t feel foolhardy. Minute he saw any boats heading in, he’d be right behind them. Meanwhile, if there was any danger he expected he’d begin hearing Coast Guard advisories on the weather channels.