Page 31 of Last Date
“This can’t be happening. This has to be a nightmare.” Selena’s voice was thick with tears.
Two uniformed cops showed up in the open doorway.
“You Captain Roscoe?” the younger, shorter one asked the man next to Selena.
“Yes.”
The cop looked like he wanted to ask Selena her name too, but she was crying, so he moved on to me. “Who are you?”
“Kip O’Connor.”
“Why are you here?”
I winced. “I… I had a date with the… victim.”
“I see.” He scribbled our names down on a notepad. “If you folks don’t mind, we need you to wait in the saloon area. We’ll need to talk to you, but you’re just in the way here.”
I think all three of us were happy to have permission to leave. Once in the saloon, I stood near the fireplace, still trying to wrap my head around Allister’s death. There hadn’t been any signs of a struggle, or at least not to my untrained eye. Was it possible he’d just blacked out and hit his head on the nightstand? I hadn’t seen a weapon near the body. His face had been untouched, so he hadn’t been beaten. The blood had seemed contained to the head area, although there had been plenty of it. But I remembered hearing head wounds bled a lot.Something to do with the face and scalp having many blood vessels close to the surface of the skin.
At the memory of Allister’s bloodied head, I swallowed hard, trying not to be sick. This horrible feeling of loss and confusion was all too familiar. How could my luck be so horrible that two men who’d shown interest in me had died? Both times, I’d found them. Logically, I knew it was a coincidence, but it was an unnerving fact.
Needing to distract myself from that train of thought, I turned to the other two. “If this wasn’t an accident, can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Allister?”
“What?” Selena looked indignant. “Allister was a wonderful person. It has to be an accident.”
I grimaced. “I’m sure he was wonderful, but even then, sometimes people don’t like you.”
Selena didn’t respond.
I met Captain Roscoe’s gaze. “Did anyone else come aboard the ship before me?”
“Not that I saw.”
“Right before I came aboard, I passed a guy in a hoodie on the dock near the yacht. Since the yacht is at the end of the pier, I assumed he came from this boat.”
Selena shook her head. “I doubt that. Our crew doesn’t dress in hoodies.”
“Perhaps he wasn’t part of the crew. Is it possible he was just a looky-loo on the ship and no one knew?”
“Usually, I’d say that would be impossible.” Captain Roscoe frowned. “But because it’s Valentine’s Day, we have a smaller crew than normal on board. It might be conceivable someone could climb aboard while we were distracted.”
“I didn’t see anyone on deck. I’m sure I would have noticed,” Selena said.
“You were down in the galley quite a bit, Selena,” Captain Roscoe said. “There’s a chance someone could slip by.”
“Maybe,” she said softly.
“When was the last time you saw Allister… alive?” I addressed Selena.
She gave little hiccups and wiped at her eyes. “Ten minutes before you got here.” Her face crumpled, and she whispered through her tears, “He was so excited for tonight.”
My heart ached at her raw pain and the loss of Allister’s life. It still wasn’t completely real to me. “Was Allister having problems with anyone?”
Selena dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “What do you mean?”
“Well, was there anyone who might have had a grudge against him?”
“Lots of people were jealous of him.” She scowled. “They always wanted things from him. Who could blame him if he sometimes lost patience with them?”
