Collateral Damage Read Free Page B

ago.”
    â€œAny connection between the girl and Mr. Garrison?” I asked.
    J.D. leaned forward in her chair, reaching again for the cup sitting on the coffee table. “We haven’t had time to establish anything except that Mrs. Garrison never heard of her. Katherine had come to the area by herself and was staying at a small bed and breakfast on Anna Maria. We found the key in her pocket. We’ll check all that out.”
    â€œHow did you know she was missing?”
    â€œWe didn’t,” said Jacobi. “We found her body while we were looking for Garrison.”
    â€œAny evidence on the boat?” I asked.
    â€œThe crime-scene unit from Manatee County is going over it as we speak,” said J.D. “I doubt they’ll find much with all those people tramping through it.”
    â€œYou said the bodies washed up on Sister Keys. Do you think they were in the water when I was picking up those three people?”
    â€œI doubt it,” said Jacobi. “It actually looks as if they were thrown overboard and may have been washed up on shore by the movement of the boats trying to get
Dulcimer
off the bar and underway to her berth. They weren’t in the water very long.”
    I sat for a beat, thinking. “Do you see this as a crime of opportunity, random, or what? It seems awfully coincidental that the grounding gave the murderer the opportunity to strike in the confusion.”
    â€œWe agree with you,” said J.D. “The medical examiner will do an autopsy on the captain today. He may not have died of natural causes.
    â€œLook,” she continued, “I know you didn’t see the bodies, but give me a minute-by-minute description of what you did see. There may be something there that’ll give us a lead.”
    I took her through the minutes from the time I saw
Dulcimer
making her way up the channel until I pulled into the dock at Moore’s.
    J.D. was quiet for a moment. “You said the pilothouse was dark before the other lights went out. Isn’t that unusual?”
    Jacobi and I both shook our heads. “No,” he said. “The captain would have kept the pilothouse dark so that he could see better outside. His instrument lights glow red, so even they wouldn’t have been visible from Mr. Royal’s vantage.”
    J.D. nodded her head, accepting the explanation. “How long after the lights went out did the boat run aground?”
    â€œSeconds,” I said. “No more than a minute. I was still running alongside at idle speed. She was moving at maybe ten knots. She would have gotten by me quickly if she hadn’t hit the bar. When she stopped, I was still beside her, back near the fake paddle wheel.”
    â€œWas she still moving at the same speed?”
    That stopped me. I sat upright in my chair. I was thinking about the exact second when
Dulcimer
grounded. It had been quiet except for the nervous chatter of the passengers. When the music died, so did the engine sounds. That was the reason I thought of her as a ghost ship as she was sliding by me. The big diesels were quiet.
    â€œThe engines had been shut down,” I said.
    â€œWhen?” asked Jacobi.
    â€œI don’t know. Let me think.”
    I closed my eyes, trying to get back to the very moment that I became subliminally aware that the engines had shut down. “Just as I crossed her bow, I heard the engines race, as if someone was pouring the fuel to them. Then, just as suddenly, they stopped. Somebody shut them down. She’d gotten a little burst of speed, and then drifted onto the bar. She hit pretty hard, though, so she had some speed on.”
    â€œHow much time elapsed between the time the engines were shut down and the boat went dark?” asked Jacobi.
    â€œImmediately. Or almost immediately. I think whoever shut the engines down did so by turning off the ignition and probably reached over and turned off the generator. It was that