Slack tide (10 page)

"I generally have dinner there. Couldn't we do it together tonight?"

The green eyes gave him a moment of serious regard

before he saw the acquiescence in them. "I think I'd hke that."

"Good," he said. "I'll caU you."

He did not see her after that; neither could he get any idea as to how long she might have to remain here. When he had signed his statement, he was told that he could go back to the yard, and that is what he did after brushing aside four reporters who were waiting on the front steps.

MacLaren got a room for Ruth Kingsley and brought her bag over from his apartment so she would have it when she arrived. He had lunch here and he took his time with it. When she stiU did not put in an appearance, he went reluctantly back to work.

He kept busy until nearly four o'clock and he was on his way back to the main dock when he saw the car pull into the parking-space. Recognizing the occupants, he walked over to greet a couple from Springfield who rented one of the boat slips. He had put their cruiser in the water on Monday, and now he walked with them to the catwalk and went aboard briefly while they inspected his work and told of their plans to make some day cruises over the weekend. It was as he moved back along the bulkhead and looked at the Annabelle III that a new thought came to him. He stopped opposite the stem, brow furrowing as he asked himself why he had not considered the possibility before, and then a partial answer came to him. He had been too worried, too concerned with other matters, to remember that the cocky httle skipper of the ancient craft might be a helpful witness.

The man called Lew had gone fishing last night not too

long before his fight with Kingsley. MacLaren had not seen him return, but he suddenly reahzed that the man might have seen or heard something that would substantiate his contention that Kingsley had reached the island ahve.

He could not remember having seen either Lew or Nick that day, but his mind was busy now and he moved out on the catwalk. He could see that the deckhouse doors were closed. A tug at the knob told him that they were also locked. A deck hatch forward was dogged part-way open and he moved up to kneel and call down into the darkness below.

Satisfied that no one was aboard, he straightened, still frowning. It seemed now that this idea of his should be passed along to Sergeant Wyre, but even as the thought occurred to him, his glance moved on beyond the point of the island and he saw what looked hke a sohtary sun bather on the beach facing the river.

A second look told him that the bather was a woman and, forgetting Wyre for the moment, he obeyed the impulse that followed. Back at the floating dock, he pushed off in the skiff and cranked the motor, steering for the point and then briefly up-river before he swung the bow inshore. He tilted the motor and locked it as he cut the power. He took off his rubber soles and socks and called out, and now a blond head hfted to give him an over-the-shoulder look.

"Could you stand a Uttle company?" he asked.

The answer came promptly when Lucille Baron recognized him. "I most certainly could." She sat up and gave a hike to the top of her swim suit. She watched him pull the

skiff onto the beach, and when he sat down, she said: "I was about to start talking to myself."

She had been lying on a beach mat and now she pushed her legs straight out and propped her torso upright on stiff arms. She was wearing a white one-piece suit that seemed a little short in the crotch and had a skin-tight look all the way to the top, and after a brief but comprehensive inspection, MacLaren revised somewhat his earher estimate of her physical attributes. She was still a little thin for his taste, but there were some very nice curves here and there. Much attention had apparently been given to her long, slim legs, because the oil-anointed skin was ghstening and flawless in the afternoon sun. Dark glasses obscured her eyes and most of the immaculately shaved and penciled brows, but he could tell she was making a thorough inspection of his face, and suddenly he was curious about this girl and wanted to know more about her.

"When did the police let you out?" he said.

"Not long after you left. I was back in time for lunch. I had a httle nap, but it was such a nice day I decided to come down here and soak up a little sun."

"Where are the others?"

She leaned forward a httle to take the weight off her arms; then waved one arm toward the opposite end of the island.

"Earl's down there somewhere painting. I don't know where Neil is; I haven't seen him. Carla took the Mercedes into New York, but she said she'd be back before dinner."

MacLaren offered cigarettes and she took one, pulling her legs in so she was now sitting cross-legged. The top of

the suit slipped a little as she leaned forward to accept a light, but she did not seem aware of this, and MacLaren had an idea that it would not have bothered her very much in any case.

"Are you a model?" he asked.

"How did you guess?" she said with a smile.

"I don't know." MacLaren considered the tip of his cigarette a moment; then griimed at her. "I never knew a model, but you look hke I think a model ought to look."

"And how is that?"

"Well—tall, slender, and very smooth."

"I think I hke that. Especially that smooth bit."

"What do you model?"

"I guess you'd put me in the high-fashion class. But I have done a httle of everything. Underwear first, in the garment district. Then bathing-suits, cheap dresses, better dresses, suits, coats. My agent did a good job for me. Today, if you wanted me, it would cost you sixty dollars an hour."

MacLaren squinted at her to see if she was kidding and decided she was not.

"Sixty dollars an hour? Wow!" He could see that she was pleased at his obvious surprise. "How many hours a week do you work?"

"Oh—I can average three or four hundred dollars a week. Occasionally five."

She spoke matter-of-factly, but with some pride, and she was still watching him. When she stubbed her cigarette out in the sand, he saw the diamond glisten on her left

hand and that diverted his thoughts in another channel.

"How long had you known Kingsley?"

"About two months. Actually I was a friend of Neil's first. I mean—we'd been going around a bit together."

"But not seriously."

"Not really. I hked Neil all right. He was good fun and he knew the right restaurants and night clubs and when you were with him you didn't have to look at the right side of the menu before you ordered. At that I doubt if I ever thought about marrying him. He never impressed me as being a heavyweight or having much backbone. He was just a little too elegant for my tastes. He was the one who introduced me to Ohver. After that, well"—she fluttered one hand—"Ohver just sort of took over."

"You didn't know about Ruth?"

"I most certainly did not."

"But you were ready and willing to marry him."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. Were you in love with him?"

"Not wildly. I'd been married before. Quite a while ago. It didn't last. But this was different. Ohver had a lot more to offer to anyone who could manage him. I thought maybe I could. I loved him with reservations, and I thought if things worked out I might be able to love him more."

She fluffed the ends of her tinted hair, and her brow was faintly furrowed with thought. She looked down at the front of her suit and gave the top of it a perfunctory hike.

"I'm no different from any other girl," she said. "I'd like a successful marriage, yes. I'd like children and a home too, and I know I won't be young and slim forever. Neither

will I get many chances to make a marriage like that one could have been."

"You knew his reputation, didn't you?"

"Certainly."

"You knew he slapped people around."

"He wouldn't have slapped me," she said decisively. "At least not more than once. I went over that very carefully with Ohver before we made any agreement."

She moistened her hps. "I have a brother who's a detective with the New York pohce. When I told him I was going to marry Oliver, he went around to see him. He's six foot one and weighs two hundred and ten pounds and he spelled it all out for Oliver. He said if Ohver ever knocked me around he'd wind up in an alley with a broken leg. My brother wouldn't touch him himself, but he has friends that owe him favors. Tough friends. All he would ever have to do would be to pass the word and it wouldn't make any diflFerence how much money Ohver had."

She paused and said: "I think OHver was very impressed. He told me about it one evening, and he was a httle hurt to think that I could doubt him. He said he didn't slap women around, only men. He'd had three marriages that didn't work out, but he promised that this one would. He said his other wives took advantage of him, that all they ever wanted anyway was money. He made it sound pretty convincing, and I thought it was worth a try. Of course," she added with some bitterness, "he was lying a httle even then, because he'd told me that Ruth was aheady in Reno."

"Was there any pre-marital agreement?"

She did not answer immediately. Instead she tipped her

gS SLACK TTOE

head. She gave him a moment of narrow-Udded regard, and an odd smile touched her red mouth. "You know something?" she said. "You're a very nosy

guy-"

"Me?"

"Always questions. Why this, why that? Where were you on the night of December twelfth?"

MacLaren grinned at her and was suddenly aware of the basic truth of her statement. His questions were personal and prying. He wanted information and he wanted to know more about this girl, but he was unable to say why he took it for granted that he would be answered. What he did not know was that he had an engaging and friendly personahty, plus some native and ingrown knack of talking to a woman—or a man for that matter—in such a way that she did not resent his curiosity but took it as a personal interest and was somehow flattered by his attention and his consideration of her problems. It was a wonderful approach because usually his interest was genuine rather than contrived, but he did not realize this; aU he knew was that he liked people generally and seldom had trouble gaining their confidence. Now, because he could find no satisfactory response, he simply let his grin widen and persisted with calm good humor.

"Was there?" he said.

"Was there what?"

"A settlement."

She took a long, even breath and shook her head. When she finally exhaled, there was resignation in the sound, but the ghnts of amusement still showed in her eyes.

"Yes, if you have to know. At least there was going to be one. If I ever became his widow, naturally I'd inherit my share of the estate, but if there was a divorce, I was to get a flat one hundred thousand with him paying all attorney's fees and expenses."

MacLaren had an idea that she would have had as good a chance as anyone to make a go of marriage with Kingsley. For she impressed him as a very self-rehant young woman who had a mind of her ovini and knew best how to get what she wanted. He did not know how old she was—his guess was about twenty-four or -five—but in many ways she seemed older and more experienced than the years would indicate. She was willing to gamble on marriage because, if successful, the rewards would probably be more than adequate. If she failed she would be well paid for her effort.

"Well—you've still got the ring," he said.

She held her hand up and examined the sohtaire with interest. "Yes," she said, "that and a mink stole. I'm also upset, confused, annoyed, and resentful," she added bluntly.

"I still can't beheve it. It's not that I feel hke going into deep mourning. Maybe I didn't know him well enough for that. Maybe it's because I'm too frustrated to feel any other honest emotion," she said. "I don't know what happened to him or how or why; all I know is that I would hke to get my hands on the one who did it."

MacLaren said he could understand her reaction, that he didn't blame her for feehng hke that. He stood up to brush the sand off his trousers: then his head cocked at the

sound of an outboard motor coming to life from the direction of Kingsley's cruiser. Apparently Danaher was about to meet someone on the dock, and MacLaren foimd himself hoping that it would be Carla Lewis because he wanted to talk to her too.

"Will you be around for a while?" he said to Lucille.

"I'll be around," she said. "By special request. A pointed suggestion was made to the effect that I stay around as a guest here until the state's attorney gives me the word."

MacLaren said that he could think of worse things and if she got too bored why didn't she come over and see him. "We might have a drink," he said, "and talk some more."

She gave him a small salute as he pushed the skiff into the water and stepped aboard. She was smihng again now, and she said it might not be a bad idea and she would keep it in mind.

10

BY THE TIME MacLaren had rounded the point and come back into the inlet, the Kingsley dinghy was again tied up at the catwalk, and he came alongside and made the skiff fast. Hailing the cruiser and getting no answer, he started for the house. He was halfway there when he met Danaher carrying a can of beer.

"Did you just bring someone over?" he asked.

"Carla."

SLACK TIDE lOl

"Anyone else at the house?"

"I didn't see anybody."

The hving-room was empty. So was the dining-room, and after a moment's hesitation, MacLaren started up the stairs. He knew which room was Carla's from the night before, and as he approached it, he saw that the door was shghtly ajar.

He knocked, stuck his head inside. His glance took in the spacious, feminine-looking room and found it momentarily empty. Another door at one side, apparently leading into the bathroom, also stood ajar, and when he heard someone moving beyond he called out.

"Carlal . . . Hey, Carla!"

The sound of running water stopped. The door opened another foot and Carla Lewis appeared in a figured robe. In his first ghmpse MacLaren decided there was very httle underneath the robe but Carla, and she closed the front of it just in time.

"Oh, oh!" Her lower hp sagged in her surprise and her dark eyes blinked at him. "I thought I heard someone—"

"Sorry," MacLaren said. "Harry said he'd just brought you over and I wanted to talk to you. I—I'll wait downstairs."

Carla, having mastered her surprise, smiled at him. "Why?"

"Well-I thought-"

"I just came back from the city and I need a shower. It won't take me more than five minutes. Why don't you go down and make us drinks? By the time you get back I should be ready. Scotch for me please, with soda."

MacLaren found the bar in one corner of the dining-room. A refrigerating-unit underneath yielded the ice that he needed, and a tap supphed him with water for his drink after he had added soda to Carla's Scotch.

The bathroom door was open about an inch when he returned to the bedroom, and he could hear the shower banging against the tub and curtain. He put the drinks down on a low table next to the chaise. A large vanity with three mirrors stood to one side of the table, and he saw that Carla's discarded clothing had been piled on the bench. He also saw her leather handbag, and he noticed that the top was open.

What MacLaren did then would never have occurred to him any other time. He was not even sure what he expected to learn from Carla, and why, exactly, he wanted to talk to her. It was just that, of all the people who had been on the island, he knew Carla Lewis best. She had been here most of last summer, and she had an assured but friendly manner that made her easy to talk to. Several times she had come over to the boatyard and sat around asking questions and talking to him, and there had been a few occasions when he had bought her a drink at the Inn.

He thought he understood in a general way her status in the Kingsley household, and the things Ruth had told the pohce that morning helped to round out the picture his mind had formed. He was no more suspicious of Carla than anyone else, but from the things he had heard he understood that several people might have had a motive for slugging Kingsley and pushing his body into the water.

Now, even as his mind explored such possibilities, his hands were busy.

He found the stock certificates almost at once. They stuck up above the accessories in the bag and had been folded twice. There were two of them. When unfolded, the first one said that Carla Lewis owned five hundred shares of United Gypsum; the second said she also owned five hundred shares of AUied Steel.

Because he did not follow the market regularly, Mac-Laren had only a rough idea of what these shares might be worth, but his curiosity was working now and he had the sense to turn them over. What he saw then gave him a somewhat different picture. For while the certificates were made out to Carla, she had endorsed them in blank on the reverse side, which meant that, since her signature had been guaranteed by a bank, whoever held the certificates would be able to sell them at any time.

Still trying to understand just what this might mean, his fingers continued to explore the recesses of the bag. He found a pin-seal leather wallet with gold corners, a matching key case, a comb, compact, lipstick, perfume atomizer, tissues, gum, and at the bottom, another set of keys.

These were the only things he examined closely, and he did so because they were so distinctive. Flat and thin, they seemed to form a matching pair, and he was at once reminded of his own set of safe deposit keys. The only difference was that these keys had no numbers of any kind nor any distinctive markings.

He had them in his palm when Carla called to him, and his reaction had a reflex quality that was automatic. Not

wanting to be caught and expecting the bathroom door to open that same instant, his fingers closed about the keys and he stepped back.

"I'll take my drink," she said. And now the door opened another foot and her face appeared. Her black hair was tousled and damp at the edges, and she thrust an arm out that was bare to the shoulder.

She took the glass he handed her and thanked him. "I'll be out in a jiffy," she said as the head and arm disappeared.

MacLaren was afraid to go back to the handbag and replace the keys. He w^as not sure there was time for this and, on second thought, he was not even sure he wanted to replace them. That they were tied up in some way with Carla's hurried trip to New York seemed reasonable. What he wanted to find out was just why the trip had been so imperative, and with this in mind he pocketed them as the door was flung open.

She came out of the bathroom with a terry-cloth robe belted about the waist, the drink in her hand. She moved over to the chaise and flopped down, stretching her legs out in front of her and covering them with the skirt of the robe.

"All right," she said. "Now what do we talk about?"

What indeed? MacLaren thought.

"That was a quick trip you made to New York."

"Wasn't it? That Mercedes really can move." She took another pull at her drink. "There were some things I wanted to get."

"Did the pohce give you any trouble this morning?"

"Not really."

"What did they say?"

"They said to stay around for a day or two. Until they had a report from the medical examiner."

"I don't suppose you have any idea about what happened last night."

"None. All I know that I didn't know last night is that you and OUver had a fight on the dock, and that Ruth hit him on the head with a piece of wood."

"Oh? The pohce told you?"

She nodded, but when he reahzed she was not going to continue, he said: "What happens to you now? I understand you'U get five thousand dollars."

"Eventually. Meanwhile I suppose I'll have to start looking for another job."

MacLaren watched her take another sip of her drink, and now, remembering the things he knew about her and the things he had heard, he voiced a question on a subject he had never approached before.

"Were you in love with him when you quit your airhne job?"

"Yes," she said simply. "I think I was." She gave the question further consideration. "I guess I thought I was going to be the second Mrs. Kingsley. What I didn't know was that OHver's taste ran more to blondes."

"Did you get over it? Loving him, I mean?"

"I got over it."

"But you stayed on. You still hked him?"

"Sometimes." She hesitated, her brow furrowed. "More important, I was used to him. I liked this sort of hfe, and I was well paid for putting up with his idiosyncrasies. It

gave me a chance to meet people who might turn out to be important to me. By that I mean potential husbands."

Again she hesitated. One edge of her robe had shpped somewhat to reveal a shver of leg from ankle to mid-thigh. This served to remind MacLaren of other things he knew about her. For he had seen her in a bathing-suit, and in halter and shorts, and he knew that underneath the robe Carla had a well-rounded, deep-chested figure, strongly made and well co-ordinated. Her eyes, nearly as black as her hair, were inteUigent under faintly upward-slanting brows. At the moment they held a thoughtful, faraway look, but he was aheady convinced that she had a mind of her own and the determination to get what she wanted. What she said next surprised him.

"I finally found one," she said. "A husband, I mean."

"Oh?"

"A young army captain I met last year. He'll be out of the service in six weeks. He's in Germany now, but he has a ring in his pocket. He'll be due in New York in about ten days. At least that's what his last letter said."

"That's wonderful," MacLaren said.

"I hope so."

He finished his drink and put his glass aside. He was about to rise when another thought occurred to him.

"What do you think of Harry Danaher?"

"Harry?" She considered the name and her tone seemed both disinterested and indifferent. "I think Harry's out for what he can get. He never spends a dime. I guess he knows his job all right, but he's got some idea about buying

a charter boat down in Florida, and he keeps on pinching pennies while he's getting his stake."

"How did he get along with Kingsley?"

"All right, I guess. At first he was pretty independent about it. I mean, he said what he thought, and Ohver seemed to reahze that he was not a person you could push around. But lately he seemed to have changed. I think something might have happened down in Florida last winter. I don't know what it was and I'm only guessing, but this spring Harry has been toeing the hne just hke the rest of us. He's got a httle more of that—yes sir, no sir, right away sir, attitude." She shrugged. "But maybe that's because he realizes what a good thing he has and wants to keep on building up his savings account."

"You don't like him much, do you?"

"I despise him," she said frankly. "Not because he's the rough-and-ready type without much background and even less manners. But because of the way he acted toward me. He got the idea that because I lived with OHver for the last couple of years I should be a pushover for him."

The edge of the robe had sHpped a bit more and this time she noticed it. There was quite a lot of leg showing and she gave the cloth an impatient jerk to cover herself and then swung her feet to the floor and sat up.

"He made one pass too many at me," she said. "He tried it before and I wrestled with him a bit and let him know how I felt about him. It wasn't so much what he did as it was his attitude, and this time I was furious. I swung at him, and"—her hp twisted in a small smile—"I hit him pretty good too. I thought he was going to clout me and I

yelled at him. I told him I was going to tell Ohver just what had happened, that when I finished he wouldn't have a job any more. I told him a lot of other things," she said tightly. "He hasn't forgotten it either. He'd Hke to wring my neck, and he knows I know it."

MacLaren could understand her resentment, but because he was more interested in more recent events, he said:

"Last night Harry said he heard Kingsley's outboard but didn't see him. Do you beheve that?"

She thought it over a moment, her black brows bunching. "I don't know," she said finally. "I don't know what he saw, or what he did. All I know is that if there was a dollar involved, I wouldn't beHeve Harry on a stack of Bibles."

She might have said more, but just then they both seemed to hear a sound of movement in the hall and they glanced toward the open door. An instant later Ruth Kingsley walked past, and Carla called to her.

"Hi, Ruth," she said. "Come on in."

Ruth stopped in the doorway but made no attempt to enter.

"I just stopped by to pack another bag," she said.

"Pack a bag? Why?"

"I'm going to stay at the Iim for a couple of days. . . . Thank you," she said to MacLaren with a small nod, "for getting me the room."

"Well," Carla said, taking no offense, "I can't say that I blame you for not being too fond of us."

"It isn't that, Carla. It's just that I've seen too much of this place aheady."

"I'll take you over when you're ready/' MacLaren said. "I'll wait for you down by the cruiser."

Carla had begun to rub the damp ends of her hair with the collar of the robe. Now she looked up at MacLaren, her head tipping slightly and her brows crooked.

"She's a nice kid," she said. "She never should have married Ohver in the first place but"—she hfted one shoulder and let it drop—"what can you do? She had a few stars in her eyes and at the time OHver had been on his very best behavior. You can't blame her. You can't blame that blonde Lucille. You can't blame any woman because every single one of us hkes to beheve she has the special equipment that can handle any man in any situation, even someone hke Ohver."

Her frown went away and suddenly she smiled. "End of sermon," she said. "End of session. And thanks for the room service."

MacLaren grinned back at her to show that he appreciated her sense of humor. He thanked her for the drink and said he would hke to talk some more but maybe they could do it another time.

11

HARRY DANAHER was sitting in the cockpit of the cruiser, his legs stretched out on the seat and the empty beer can on the deck. MacLaren stepped up on the catwalk

and sat down on the edge opposite Danaher, his feet dangling. It was when his gaze scanned the cockpit and he saw the empty brackets at one side of the stateroom door that he remembered his visit to the cruiser the night before and the pmpose of that trip.

He had come here in the darkness in the hope of finding some possible weapon that might have been used to strike OHver Kingsley down. Instead someone had popped him on the back of the head. Right after that he had found Ruth in the forward cabin, and since then the pressure of other things had kept his thoughts occupied. He still thought the idea had been a good one, and perhaps it was. He also imderstood that any search he might want to make would have to be postponed once more.

For he knew very well what had once occupied the bracket. It was just the right size and shape to hold a hand fire extinguisher, one of the several on board. That this particular one was missing might mean that Danaher had taken it down for pohshing. But since it would be within easy reach of anyone on the catwalk with violence in mind, it seemed more hkely that it might now be resting on the bottom of the inlet.