Page 56 of Light of Day
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The Harbortown policecouldn’t send anyone out to Sea Smoke until the next day.
“I’m hoping to have it solved by then,” Luke told the police chief, only half joking.
“Your first homicide case. It’s a big lift. Any thoughts so far?”
“Strangulation is an up-close-and-personal crime, which tells me it was someone he knew. Not random. Not accidental.”
“Agreed. Listen, be careful. I’m not going to tell you to stop because I don’t have any jurisdiction over you. Just don’t mess up any crime scenes and don’t scare off any witnesses.”
“Roger that.”
If only hehada witness. But no one to this point had surfaced with any reports of a sighting of Denton on the days leading up to his death. Jimmy was the last to speak to him, but that had been three days beforehand.
No one had seen Denton on his boat for the past week, including Mrs. Butters, who had a perfect view of theSea Sirenfrom the rocking chair where she spent much of her time.
Just to be thorough, Luke rowed Denton’s dinghy out there to search it. Everything was in its place, all lines neatly stowed, a pile of freshly painted buoys filling the stern. If any struggle had taken place here, someone had cleaned up after it. But Luke would bet his own boat that nothing like that had taken place here.
On the dashboard, he found a tide calendar booklet branded with the logo of a local hardware store, the usual array of depth finders, sonar, radar, and an old-fashioned compass mounted on a brass plate.
With his feet braced apart against the gentle rocking of theSea Siren, he flipped the tide calendar to the day of Denton’s death, then turned the pages backwards in time from there. Some fishermen left notes in their tide books—bird sightings, weather conditions, hauls, anomalies of any kind.
Sure enough, Denton had scribbled something in the margins three days before his body had been found.Meet at point. 2 Friday. Proof?
The closest point of land to Seaweed Cove was known as the North Point. Luke pulled up the site that mapped the local currents and confirmed that the North Point lay about a mile up-current from where Denton’s body had washed up.
The coroner had estimated his time of death at between eight and four on Friday. Was two o’clock on Friday afternoon Denton’s last moment of life on this earth?
Luke tucked the tide calendar into an evidence bag and rowed back to shore. He tied up Denton’s dinghy as he’d found it. He wondered what Jimmy would do with this property now. Would he let the Island Trust buy it, as they’d always wanted to do, so it could be part of the swimming cove grounds, and maybe a museum? Or would he sell it to another wealthy family who’d spend a total of two weeks a year here? Pretty soon the entire island would be short-term rentals.
Knowing Jimmy, he’d want to support the community. Thinking of the grieving man, he decided to check in on him before he drove out to the North Point, possible scene of the crime.
Jimmy had already shifted from the first shock of the news to anger. “Who would want to murder Denton? He kept to himself, didn’t bother anybody. You have to catch the sumabitch, Luke.”
“I’m working on it, I promise you. How’s it going with settling the estate? Did you call the lawyer I recommended?”
“Ayup. Got a meeting set up in town later today. It’s a funny thing though, Luke. He left the house to some stranger.”
Alarm bells clanged. “What stranger?”
“They aren’t from here, that kind of stranger. I never heard their name before. Mackey, that’s the last name. Sasha Mackey. Know who that is?”
“Nope. What do you know about her?”
“Not a thing, and I don’t know as I care. She can have the house and everything in it if she wants. I can’t even go in there anymore, it breaks my heart. Maybe she’ll take the cat too. You know I can’t have her here. I tried that allergy medicine and it makes me fall asleep on my feet.”
Luke had forgotten about poor Savannah. “Where’s the cat now?”
“At the house.”
“Mind if I take her for now?”
“That’d be good. Appreciate it.”
He didn’t want to adopt a cat either, but he’d seen the way Heather had cuddled up with Savannah. Maybe she’d want to take her down to Boston. Or maybe…maybe he was secretly hoping the cat would make her want to stick around a little while longer.
Silly, he knew. Leaving the island had been an important step for her, and he wouldn’t want to be part of dragging her back to something she didn’t want. All he wanted was more time to get to know her. And maybe finish what they’d started in his bedroom.
