“Who paid you off?”
“De Rham. I didn’t see her again to talk to. But I heard her! You know how sound travels on a boat. They were having this same argument all across the north bay. I heard enough to get the gist, and it was all about how Captain Petrocelli was the only real man aboard that boat. I know it sounds self-centered,” he said smugly, “but that’s what she was saying. She didn’t want to have a real dingdong affair with me, all she wanted to do was try me a couple of times. She couldn’t see why he objected. Shayne, it made me shiver. After we tied up, De Rham came out and he looked like death warmed over. Circles under his eyes the size of oranges. He said that under the circumstances, et cetera et cetera, I’d better start traveling. I was only too happy, as you can imagine. People are always looking for captains who don’t look like out and out goons. He was nice about it, nothing but friendly words spoken. I picked up my gear and hit the dock in about thirty seconds flat.”
“That sounds clear enough,” Shayne said. “What’s this harassment she’s complaining about?”
“She’s got a nerve complaining. I got myself a room and began reconnoitering bars. Riley’s has been more or less my headquarters. I had to get the taste of the Nefertiti out of my mouth. Then I got to thinking. I walked off without a reference. I could get along without it, but it’s the kind of thing I like to have. Like now. You’re wondering who to believe, me or Mrs. De Rham, and if I had a reference I could show it to you and that would settle it. See what I mean? So I went back.”
He was so caught up in his explanation that he was neglecting his drinking. Shayne let him tell it his own way.
“I talked to Brady. He was in a hell of a mood. A chip on his shoulder. What the hell was I bothering them about? De Rham wasn’t there. Mrs. De Rham wasn’t feeling too well and I couldn’t see her. But I mean! Why should he be the spokesman? I felt like picking him up in my thumb and forefinger and dropping him in the bay. We were never buddy-buddy at any time. I was always the, you know, employee. I can be stubborn when I feel like it and I came back the next day. De Rham still wasn’t there, Mrs. De Rham still wasn’t feeling too well. This time Brady and I had a little altercation, a little back and forth. I wasn’t stone cold sober myself. I thought of getting Mrs. De Rham to write me the reference, but that’s not the same thing, De Rham’s the owner of record. And Brady, the punk, do you know what he did? He came on with a goddamn pistol.”
He drank, finally, and held his glass to the light to show Shayne he could use more gin. Shayne sipped his cognac and waited.
“I have an allergy to guns, personally,” Petrocelli said. “Is a reference worth getting shot to death over? But it struck me later-why the paranoia? Where was De Rham, exactly? They were supposed to be going to South America, so why was she still here? I had a couple of drinks with individuals who work at the marina, the night guard, the kid who pumps gas. Nobody’s seen any sign of De Rham after the first day. And that’s a real party they’ve been having, she and Brady. A real flow of bottles. She’s only been off the boat like a few times at night to use the phone, and not navigating too well. Well, hell. Extracurricular sex-what’s wrong with that? I’m in no position to judge. I just about decided to let it go when I got a call from her at the motel.”
“When?”
“Couple of days ago. She sounded pretty good, not slurring her words or anything. She said she’d been under the weather lately, which is one way to put it. Now she’d heard I’ve been going around spreading slander about her, which is a lie. I’ve only talked to a few people and I’ve said nothing but the truth, namely that she and Brady are alone on the boat and what happened to the husband? She said she didn’t like to think I was holding a grudge, it was just the way things worked out. So why didn’t I go back to New York? She was willing to give me a hundred, like severance pay, to cover transportation. She didn’t want me coming back to the boat, because Paul and I would be sure to tangle, so she’d send it to me.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Everything’s wrong with it!” He turned in the seat. “De Rham already gave me an extra hundred for transportation when we parted company. What makes her so anxious to get me out of town? Why should Paul he carrying a pistol? There’s more here than meets the eye. Dig? I’m planning to go back to New York eventually, because, not wanting to say anything against your hometown, Shayne, I’m not too crazy about the weather down here. Meanwhile, I’m in no hurry. I’m shacked up with this Sandy. She was right there beside me in the bed when I took the call. I told Mrs. De Rham sure, send me the hundred, and it came in the mail. Now a hundred bucks may not mean much to you or to me, but she’s in one of the upper tax brackets and she don’t part with that kind of dough unless there’s a reason. I mean she gave me a five for Christmas last year! I thought about it and I thought about it, and the explanation I came up with finally was that she wanted me out of town because she and Brady between them have put De Rham out of his misery!”
He held up his hands to keep Shayne from objecting.
“I know. What have I got to go on? He’s probably alive and well somewhere and there’s nothing to it. But you can’t get around the fact. There were four people on the Nefertiti when she came in, including me, and there are only two people on her now. The clincher as far as I’m concerned, and maybe you won’t think this is such a big deal, is the guitar. It’s still on the boat. I saw it the day Brady pulled the gun on me.”
“I thought you said she smashed it.”
“No, she just put a dent in it and broke the strings. What I’m getting at is-if he got fed up with the way she was treating him and walked off, he would have taken the guitar with him. It was hardly ever out of his hands on the way down. Anything else he might leave, but not the guitar.”
Shayne was scraping his chin. “Let’s get the chronology. Your two visits to the boat, and the call from Mrs. De Rham.”
Petrocelli shook his head. “The dates have been running together on me lately, Shayne. The call was like five days ago now. You could verify it with the cops, because I called them that same day. I don’t know if you’ll think it was finky or not, but if there’s any chance of a murder! The thing of it is, of the three of them De Rham was the one I liked. I know it’s probably all in my head. But somebody ought to go and ask her one simple question: ‘What have you done with your husband, Mrs. De Rham? Where is he?’”
“Who did you talk with?”
“What cops? I saw a couple. One named Richardson?”
“Luke Richardson. I know him.” Shayne finished his cognac and screwed the cap back on the flask. “Do you have any money?”
“I’ve got about four hundred in the safe at the motel. Why?”
Shayne opened his wallet and counted out three fifties. “I don’t think you’d better go back there. I’ll check you in somewhere else.”
“Why? What do you mean?” Petrocelli said, alarmed. “You don’t think anybody’s going to-”
Shayne said roughly, “I don’t know a damn thing about it, but they obviously don’t want you in Miami. Brady has a gun. Guns have a way of going off. All you have to do is pull the trigger.”
“Don’t be dumb. You don’t really think that creep Brady-” He stopped, his eyes narrowing. “Shayne, do you know it never actually dawned on me until right this minute? If he killed De Rham, if he tied an anchor to him and dropped him in the bay, I’ve been playing with fire! I think you may be right. I’d better stay out of sight for a while.”
He shuddered and drank the gin-flavored melted ice at the bottom of his glass. “Now that I think of it, that Brady has a bad eye. Mean and lazy. He wouldn’t walk a block out of his way, but if he could do it without getting up, yeah-I really think he could pull that trigger.”