Collateral Damage Read Free

bow,” I said. “They’re going to start getting cold.”
    â€œI’ll go get them. Why don’t you get these folks names and take them to Moore’s so the paramedics can take a look.”
    He went around me and moved slowly into the shallows to pick up the people on the sandbar. I crossed the channel running almost due west, past the southern tip of Jewfish Key and across the lagoon to Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant. I saw a sea of flashing blue lights in the parking lot. I maneuvered into the dock and cut the engines. Logan and I helped our passengers off the boat and turned them over to the paramedics.
    â€œYou ready for a drink?” I asked Logan.
    â€œDamn right.”
    I picked up the microphone. “Coast Guard Cortez, this is
Recess
.”
    â€œThis is United States Coast Guard Cortez.”
    â€œThis is
Recess
. I’ve dropped my three passengers off at Moore’s with the paramedics. I’ll be inside in case your people need to talk to me.”
    â€œ
Recess
, did you get their names?
    I gave them to her, told her my cell phone number, signed off, and headed for the bar.

CHAPTER FOUR
    It was late by the time the Coast Guard accident investigator called me. He’d had to drive down from St. Petersburg. He told me that they’d inspected
Dulcimer
and didn’t think there was any structural damage. Just a bit of bottom paint scraped off the bow where it ran up on the sandbar. They’d kept the passengers aboard and were going to tow the boat back to its dock at the restaurant. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, there did not seem to be any casualties, except for the captain. He’d apparently had a heart attack or a stroke and died at the helm. The investigator said he’d call me the next day and come by and get a statement.
    It was midnight and my friend Debbie the bartender was trying to kick us out. Logan and I had been joined by a few other villagers who were interested in all the commotion out on the waterway. We filled them in on what we knew, and after I talked to the investigator, they all knew as much as I did.
    Logan paid our tab and we walked down to the dock and boarded
Recess
. I pulled away from the dock and threaded my way around the sand-bars and idled toward my cottage. We could see the activity over on the Intracoastal where two small towboats were hooking up to the bow of
Dulcimer
. They’d see her home.
    â€œI wonder why they don’t just take her home under her own power,” I said.
    â€œGotta pay the towboat captains anyway. Might as well make them work for their money.”
    â€œProbably makes it easier to justify calling them out in the first place.”
    â€œThe bureaucratic mind,” said Logan, “never fails to amaze me.”
    I slid
Recess
into her home berth, tied her off, and told Logan I’d wait until morning to wash her down and flush the engines. “I need sleep.”
    â€œMe too,” he said. “I’ll check in with you tomorrow.”
    Logan went to his car, and I opened the back patio sliding glass door and went in to bed.
    My cell phone rang, waking me from a troubling dream of soldiers falling off boats into subtropical waters. Daylight was creeping through my windows overlooking the bay. I looked at my watch. A few minutes after six. I rolled over and picked up the phone.
    â€œMatt,” a soft voice said “this is J.D. May I come by with the Coast Guard investigator and talk to you?”
    â€œSure. When?” I was puzzled as to why she was calling me so early.
    â€œNow. There’s been a bad turn on the
Dulcimer
grounding.”
    I sat up in bed, a little surprised. It had seemed pretty routine last night.
    â€œGive me ten minutes to jump in the shower and put some coffee on.”
    â€œWe’ll be there in fifteen,” she said, and hung up.
    J. D. Duncan was my friend and Longboat Key’s only detective. She’d spent fifteen