Killer Crab Cakes Read Free Page B

breaths. His face was somewhat gray, too, though he didn’t look nearly as bad as Mr. McKenna, of course.
    Phyllis put a hand on his arm and said, “Sam, are you all right? You don’t look very good.”
    “Not as young as I used to be,” he said. “Never was a great swimmer, either. That was a pretty long haul, towin’ him in like that.”
    “You need to sit down and catch your breath,” she told him as she led him toward several wooden benches that were set back a short distance from the water on the grass between the road and the shore. Some people tried to fish from those benches, but mostly they were just for sitting and looking at the Gulf.
    “What about McKenna?”
    Phyllis glanced at the man’s body and tried not to shudder again. “He’s not going anywhere,” she said. “Right now I’m worried about you.”
    It was odd, she thought as she sat on the bench beside Sam, who leaned forward and hung his forearms between his knees as he drew in deep breaths. A half mile or so from shore, a couple of shrimp boats were heading in with their morning’s catch. Most of the shrimpers went out early, well before dawn. Even farther off shore an oil tanker made its stately way. And closer, a small boat with a couple of fishermen in it puttered along. Cars passed by on the road.
    All around them, life went on as if nothing had happened, and yet only a few yards away Mr. McKenna lay, gray-faced and lifeless, his passing unnoticed by everyone except Phyllis and Sam. If they hadn’t come along when they did, he might have sat there on the pier all morning without anyone realizing that he was dead. Odd, Phyllis thought, and more than a little sad.
    After a minute Sam straightened up on the bench. His voice sounded stronger as he asked, “You got your cell phone with you?”
    “No, I left it inside. What about you?”
    “Nope, and even if I did, it probably wouldn’t work after I jumped in the water that way.”
    “I hadn’t thought about that. I’ll go inside and call 911.” She started to get up, then hesitated. “I guess we can’t just leave him here alone. . . .”
    “Don’t worry. I’ll stay with him,” Sam said. “Let’s face it. He’s not much worse company now than when he was alive.”
    “Sam!”
    “I’m just sayin’, ol’ Ed wasn’t a fella you’d warm up to in a hurry.”
    That was true, but Phyllis didn’t think it really needed to be said, at least not at a time like this.
    “I’ll be back as fast as I can,” she told Sam as she started across the street toward the bed-and-breakfast.
    Nick and Kate Thompson were coming out the front door onto the porch as Phyllis started up the steps. They must have been able to tell from her expression that something was wrong, because a worried frown appeared on Kate’s pretty face and Nick said, “What is it, Mrs. Newsom? Are you all right?”
    They were a nice-looking couple, Nick with a friendly, open face and curly dark brown hair, Kate a brunette, as well, with hair a couple of shades lighter than her husband’s and what some might call sultry, even exotic good looks. She was also a couple of inches taller than Nick, and while Phyllis knew there wasn’t a thing in the world wrong with that, to someone of her generation it still seemed a little odd to see a wife who was taller than her husband.
    She had no idea what they did for a living, but they drove an expensive little sports car so she assumed they were lawyers or something like that. Doctors, maybe. They were certainly solicitous as they moved forward on either side of her. Kate reached out and touched her arm supportively.
    “It’s Mr. McKenna,” Phyllis said.
    “That grumpy old guy who never talks to anybody?” Nick asked. “What about him?”
    There was no easy way to say it. “He’s dead.”
    The eyes of both young people widened with surprise. “Dead?” Kate repeated.
    Without saying anything, Phyllis waved a hand toward the benches and the grassy area across the