Death at Dagger Cove (Butterfly Island Mysteries Book 2) by Cheri Baker

Author:Cheri Baker [Baker, Cheri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: kindle unlimited mysteries, cruise ship cozy mysteries, ellie tappet, beach books, small towns, islands, tropical mystery, male protagonist
Publisher: Adventurous Ink LLC
Published: 2022-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

PAUL AND ANDREW JOGGED TOWARD the marina, rounding the corner of the Compass Point Welcome Center, slowing their steps as they intersected with tourist traffic. A portly man in a tropical-print linen shirt watched them as they went past, apparently curious to see what was going on.

Me too, Paul thought.

Halfway down the dock, past the empty berths used by the small passenger ferries, a man with a long, morose-looking face waved them down.

“Paul. Andrew. Thanks for coming so quickly.” Edgar Fuente’s raspy voice wouldn’t have been out of place in a horror movie. There was something about his long legs and scurrying steps that reminded Paul of spiders clambering up a bedroom wall. Creepy-sounding or no, Edgar was a good guy. He’d managed the marina for more than a decade, assisted by his partner Nancy, and their three cats: Medusa, Ariel, and Steve.

Paul caught sight of a black feline with luminous green eyes glaring at him from the edge of a large fishing vessel. Steve licked his lips hungrily, staring Paul down like he was a delicious hunk of line-caught tuna.

“We got everyone out of the water,” Edgar rasped, leading them toward the end of the dock.

One of the charter boat captains, a woman with well-muscled arms and a tattoo of a lighthouse on her shoulder, nodded respectfully as they passed. She looped her line in a tight figure eight around a metal cleat affixed to the dock.

“Thankfully, no one’s hurt too bad,” Edgar said. “But you’ll want to speak to them, of course.”

He directed them to two men sitting on a wooden bench near the end of the dock. Behind them, an impressive-looking red schooner named Endurance floated nearby, her white sails tied tightly to her masts.

“The one with the busted-up face is Matteo,” Edgar said, lowering his voice. “The other guy is Gaby. They’ve been working in these parts even longer than me. Since they were teens, probably.”

“You can vouch for them?” Andrew asked.

“Yeah, they’re solid. I’ve never worried about having them on my dock. I know their mom a little. She volunteers at the Welcome Center on festival days.”

Matteo and Gaby were soaked to the skin. Their khaki shorts were plastered to their hairy legs, and they’d toweled off their black hair. Gaby was trying to blot Matteo’s swollen cheek and eye with a handkerchief. Matteo batted his brother away and unleashed a torrent of rapid-fire Spanish. Gaby held up his hands and muttered something too low to hear.

Andrew was gawking up at the boat like he’d never seen one before. It was quite a looker, Paul thought. When the big white sails were unfurled, it might look like an old-fashioned pirate ship. Except there was no skull and crossbones flag atop the crow’s nest, only a big mess of telecommunications equipment that looked like it had been bolted on with little attention paid to aesthetics.

“Is that Gardner’s boat?” Paul asked.

“It is,” Edgar replied. “It’s been tendered out there since about three in the morning. I

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