2 The Witch Who Saw a Star by Emma Belmont

Author:Emma Belmont [Belmont, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-26T04:00:00+00:00

14

By the time Maris parked at the pier, it was a scene of déjà vu. The stretcher, with a black body bag, was being loaded into the coroner’s van. Maris hurried down the dock to Slick’s boat. Impossibly, she found him still painting.

“Slick,” she called down to him, a little breathless. “Are you all right?”

“A1,” he said smiling, and set down the brush. “You must have had the wind in your sails.”

“Who died?” she asked. “Do you know?”

He shook his head. “Nope.” He shrugged. “It didn’t happen on my boat.”

Her mind immediately went to Nadia and Kaitlyn, and she prayed that they were okay.

As she turned to head to the yacht, she looked up at its deck. Several people were standing at the railing. Nadia was there, and Kaitlyn too, and Maris put a hand to her heart and exhaled. Then she took a head count. Five people wore the white uniforms of the crew, including Nadia and Lloyd. That meant they were all accounted for. Alan was at the railing, next to Kaitlyn, so that only left…

“Fritz?” she said, and then spotted Mac at the bottom of the gangway. He waved her over. Quickly, she made her way down the pier to the walkway. “Fritz Falschung is dead?”

The sheriff raised an eyebrow at her. “Slick told you?”

“No,” she said glancing up at the railing. “I did a quick head count. He was the only one missing. Unless there was a stranger on the boat?”

“No, you’re right,” he said. “Falschung is dead.”

Her stomach sank and she put both hands to her cheeks. They’d only been speaking with him—arguing with him—hours ago. And now he was dead?

“Are you all right?” Mac said quietly.

Lowering her hands, she nodded. “It’s just that….” She shook her head. “How did he die?”

Despite an obvious hangover after a night of partying, he’d seemed fit.

“The Turkish sauna,” Mac said. “He was inside and couldn’t get out.”

Maris cocked her head back. “Good grief.” Instantly she pictured him when they’d first met, coming from the sauna in his captain’s hat and purple robe.

“We’ll have to wait for the coroner’s report,” Mac said, glancing in the direction of the van. “It could be that alcohol or some other substance might have been involved. Something that would have impeded his judgement.” The sheriff looked back at her. “But I don’t think that’s it.”

His calm manner told her he knew more. “What did you find?” she asked, almost not wanting to hear the answer.

“The doorknob,” he said. “It was lying on the floor inside. When he needed to get out he couldn’t.”

“The doorknob?” she said, incredulous. “Just lying on the floor? It fell off?”

Mac shook his head. “I’ve got it in the SUV, so the lab has yet to see it. But the knob, like most doorknobs, was only held on with a set screw. I found that on the floor too.”

Maris tried to imagine it, and cocked her head. “So the screw came loose? You’re saying it was an accident.”

Again Mac shook his head.

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