Much Ado About Felines (Whales and Tails Mystery Book 4) (11 page)

Cody and I returned to the cabin. Tara had made a casserole and Destiny was helping her prepare a dessert. There was no way I was going to be able to eat, but I supposed cooking gave Tara and Destiny something to do.

“Any news?” Tara asked anxiously.

“Not yet.”

“The coast guard has helicopters combing the area,” Cody assured me. “I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they find Garrett’s boat.”

“And if Danny isn’t on it?” I wondered.

“Then we’ll figure out what to do next.” Cody put his arm around me.

“I wonder if I should tell Aunt Maggie what’s going on. And my mom. God, my mom is going to freak.”

“It’s only been a couple of hours since Finn contacted the coast guard. Let’s wait to hear back. If they don’t find the boat right away I’ll go with you to tell Maggie and your mom. If they do find him right away and he’s unharmed, we can save both women some worry by waiting.”

“Yeah, you have a good point. We’ll wait a couple of hours. But if they don’t find him…”

“Then we’ll tell them what’s going on,” Cody promised.

I began to pace around the cabin. There was no way I was going to be able to sit still until Danny was found. I knew the coast guard was trained to do exactly what they were doing at that moment. Now I just had to trust that they’d find Danny and he was okay.

“Maybe Garrett knows something,” I commented. “Do we know if he’s regained consciousness?”

“It’s been several hours since he was transported to Seattle. I’ll see if I can get an update,” Cody volunteered.

I looked out the window at the sea just beyond my cabin while Cody called Finn. I knew if Hawk had been heading for open water Danny could be miles away by now, yet still I willed Garrett’s boat to magically appear from beyond the horizon. If Danny had been kidnapped on Sunday that meant he had been out at sea on Monday during the storm. I didn’t want to imagine all the horrible things that could have happened to him.

“He’s still unconscious,” Cody informed me after he hung up with Finn. “The good news is that they’ve stabilized him and they think he’s going to make a full recovery. He’s been sedated, but Finn assured me that he’ll make the trip to Seattle to talk to him the minute he wakes up.”

“And Danny?”

“No news yet. But they aren’t giving up. They’ll search until dark, and if they still haven’t found him they’ll resume the search tomorrow. Danny is smart. He’s resourceful. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“He’s with a madman who’s probably killed at least one other person. You can’t know he’ll be fine,” I cried.

Cody wrapped his arms around me and pulled me toward his chest, hugging me in an offer of support. I knew I shouldn’t be snapping at him. He was only trying to help. But snapping was the only thing I could think of to do.

Cody’s phone rang. I pulled back slightly and held my breath while he looked at the caller ID. “It’s Finn.”

It felt like my heart stopped beating as I waited, suspended in time, to hear whether they’d found Danny and if he was still alive. Tara crossed the room and took my hand in hers.

“The coast guard found Danny,” Cody informed us. “He’s fine.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding and hugged Tara. Tears streamed down both our faces. Cody spoke to Finn for a few minutes and then hung up. He smiled as he turned toward us.

“Where did they find him?” I asked.

“I don’t know specifically,” Cody said. “What I do know is that he’s been floating around in Garrett’s boat for several days. The vessel as well as its communication system had been disabled. They’re bringing him in now.”

“And he’s not hurt?”

“The coast guard told Finn that Danny was hungry and dehydrated but otherwise unharmed.”

“Does Finn know what happened?”

“He spoke to Danny for just a moment over the radio and he doesn’t have all the details, but he did say Danny confirmed that Melanie had called him in a panic before the sun had even come up on Sunday morning. She’d told him that she was in trouble and asked him to meet her at O’Malley’s. He went, but when he got there she was nowhere to be found. He’d just gotten back into his car to leave when a man with a gun slid into his passenger seat and told him to drive out to Garrett’s. Naturally, he complied. When they got there he was escorted to Garrett’s boat. Hawk demanded that he take it out to open water, where they met up with a cruise ship from South America that was heading to Alaska. Hawk disabled Garrett’s boat and then boarded the cruise ship. Danny didn’t have any way to navigate, so he’s just been drifting around, waiting to be rescued.”

“Poor Danny. Did he know why Hawk wanted to meet up with the ship?”

“Finn didn’t say. I guess we can ask Danny when he gets here. Finn said the coast guard planned to drop him off on the island within the hour, and he’s going to meet them. He said he’d call back once he picks Danny up.”

It turned out Danny had no idea why Hawk wanted to meet up with the cruise ship. After he’d kidnapped him, he brought Danny to Garrett’s boat and gave him the coordinates he wanted him to head toward. Danny got the impression Hawk didn’t know how to navigate the boat on his own. When I asked why he had Danny take Garrett’s boat rather than his own, Danny said he probably realized Garrett’s boat was docked in a private location close to open water, whereas they’d have to navigate through the harbor in order to get to Danny’s. Anyone could have seen them and he would have had ample opportunity to escape.

Danny had had very little food and water for days, so he was both hungry and dehydrated, but otherwise he seemed fine. Once we’d fed him fatigue set in, so he’d headed to Maggie’s to catch up on his sleep.

The coast guard planned to catch up with the cruise ship to see if they could track down Hawk. Finn didn’t think he’d still be with the ship; that would have made him too easy to find. If he hadn’t been planning to disappear from the ship he most likely would have killed Danny to leave behind no witnesses who would know he’d boarded the ship in the first place.

Once Danny had headed over to Maggie’s, Cody and Tara went home. I settled Destiny on the sofa and tried to go to sleep myself, but my mind simply wouldn’t shut down. I decided to head downstairs and heat some milk. My mom used to make me warm milk when I couldn’t sleep when I was a kid. Most times it still did the trick.

I tried to tiptoe quietly down to the kitchen, but I guess I wasn’t quiet enough.

“Is something wrong?” Destiny sat up and looked at me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I just came down for a glass of milk.”

“Actually, I’m kind of hungry. Do you mind if I join you?”

“Not at all. Feel free to eat or drink whatever you want while you’re here. Can I make you something?”

“Maybe just some toast and a glass of milk. My stomach usually isn’t fond of anything heavy at night.” Destiny rubbed her growing belly.

I turned on the small light over the counter area, which provided just enough illumination for us to see what we were doing. I popped a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and poured a tall glass of milk. Beatrice had already had her dinner, but I felt guilty that I’d initiated this whole middle-of-the-night pig-out, so I gave her and Max a small scoop of food.

“I don’t think Beatrice is happy with the food you gave her.” Destiny laughed as the silly cat swatted at the bowl, eventually tipping it over and spilling the contents all over the floor.

“If you didn’t want me to fill your bowl why are you sitting in front if it?” I groaned.

“I think maybe your cat is defective,” Destiny said. “Tara told me how some of the other cats Tansy has sent you have helped you out with mysteries in the past, but this one seems to be a dud.”

“She certainly hasn’t done anything to help us so far. It’s only been a few days; maybe it just isn’t time for her to show us whatever it is she’s here for yet.”

Destiny pressed her hands into her back.

“Backache?” I asked.

“Yeah. They seem to be getting worse the bigger I become.”

“You know I love having you here, but I can’t help but wonder if you’ll ever get a good night’s sleep on my lumpy old sofa.”

“I’m not going home.”

“I know. I wasn’t suggesting that. I was just wondering if maybe we should talk to Tara about you staying with her. She has an extra bedroom with a real bed.”

Destiny shrugged. “If she wants me that would be okay. If not, the sofa is fine.”

“I’m sure you must be getting to the stage in your pregnancy where you’re uncomfortable in more ways than one.”

“All the time.” Destiny rubbed her belly with one hand.

“I guess the good news is that you don’t have too much longer to wait.” Destiny had told me she was six months along.

“Yeah.” A look of longing came over the girl’s face.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do after the baby’s born?”

Destiny bit her lip. It looked like she was going to cry.
Good going, Cait.

“No,” Destiny whispered quietly. “Everyone thinks I should give it up for adoption, but I don’t know if I can. When I first found out I was pregnant I totally freaked out and wanted to rip it from my body. And then when Ricky said he was breakin’ up with me because he was too young to be a father, I thought I would die. But now… I don’t know. Now that I can feel it movin’ around it seems real to me. I know I’m young and I know my mom can’t afford to feed another mouth, but it’s mine and I just don’t see how I can give it to a stranger.”

I put my arm around Destiny. “You have time to figure out what you want to do. Whatever you decide, I want you to know I’ll be here for you.”

Destiny put her arms around my neck and began to sob. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to be having a child when you were still a child yourself. I had to agree with popular opinion that the wisest choice would be for her to give her baby up for adoption, but if I was the one with the unplanned pregnancy, I’m not sure I could give my baby away either.

Three days had passed since we found Danny, and he was pretty much fully recovered. He even planned to accept charters for the weekend. Beatrice continued with her pattern of sleeping for half the day and ignoring me the other half. Next time I’m going to ask Tansy to quality check the cats she sends me. I thought about asking for an exchange on this one, but Tansy hadn’t returned from her retreat yet and Bella claimed not to know when she’d be back.

Tara, Destiny, and I were planning to help my mom with the kiddie carnival at the St. Patrick’s dinner that evening. Destiny had decided to stay with Tara, who was thrilled to have the company. Destiny is very helpful in the bookstore, and the two of them are getting along like peas in a pod. I hope we’ve found a temporary solution to the conflict between Destiny and her mother. I knew the girl has a tough road ahead and a lot of really difficult decisions to make, but she seemed to have dropped her plan to leave the island. She also seemed to be getting along a lot better with her mother now that she wasn’t trying to force her to go to school.

“Did the bookmarks we ordered ever arrive?” I asked Tara as I sorted through the boxes that had come over on the morning ferry.

“Not yet. I guess I should call the supplier to see what the delay is all about. We still have some in the back room from the last shipment if you need to restock.”

“We’re okay for now; I was just straightening things up and it occurred to me to ask. We’re getting low on the large mugs and the Coffee Cat Books pot holders. We should have Destiny go through all the inventory when she gets back. I bet there are other items we might want to reorder while we’re at it.”

“That’d be a good job for her today,” Tara agreed as she picked up one of the boxes and slit open the top.

“She still at the high school?”

“Yeah. I expect her back any time,” Tara said as she began to check the contents of the box against the packing slip.

Destiny and her mom had been required to meet with the principal at the school to work out a homeschool program that would be counted as regular high school credit because Destiny still hoped to return to the school for her senior year. While she lived with Tara and worked at Coffee Cat Books, Sister Mary, who had a teaching degree because the church where she was prior to St. Patrick’s had a school, would oversee Destiny’s curriculum.

“I heard Garrett has regained consciousness,” Tara commented as we worked side by side to sort through the delivery and restock the shelves.

“I spoke to Finn earlier, and he said it happened yesterday morning,” I confirmed. “He went to talk to him in the afternoon. I don’t know if I would consider the case to be closed, but Garrett did fill in a few of the blanks.”

“So catch me up.” Tara stopped what she was doing and looked at me.

“Apparently, after Jimmy died, Hawk approached him about joining him in a moneymaking operation that dealt with moving cargo between a cruise ship that made regular trips between South America and Alaska and a warehouse in Seattle.”

Tara frowned. “I don’t get it. Why would they want to move cargo off the cruise ship when they could just wait until they docked in Alaska?”

“Garrett believes the cargo was illegal and would never have made it through customs. He said Hawk hired him to meet up with the cruise ship out in the open sea. He was given a date and a preset time during each of the ship’s voyages. Once he’d tied up with the cruise ship, he was given crates by a crew member he knew only as Pablo. He was told to bring the crates back to the island via his own vessel and then transport them via his vehicle and the ferry to a warehouse just outside Seattle. Once he delivered the crates to the warehouse, he was to return to the ferry terminal in Anacortes, where he was given a locked black duffel bag. He was instructed to deliver the bag to Hawk and wait for instructions concerning the next pickup. He was told that five thousand dollars would be deposited into an offshore account in his name for every delivery he completed.”

“Wait; so if he met up with the ship, the captain must have been in on whatever was going on,” Tara realized.

“It would seem so. Garrett told Finn that he would be given a set of coordinates along with a specific time. When he arrived the ship would be there and Pablo would meet him in one of the shuttle boats, along with a crate or crates that he was to transport that day. He said once the cargo was on his vessel, Pablo would return to the cruise ship and it would continue on its way.”

“It seems like the passengers would wonder what was going on.”

“Garrett said he always met the ship after dark. If anyone did question what was going on, I’m sure the captain had some sort of a canned response. Chances were most of the passengers were inside dining or enjoying the casino or an evening show. Should I put out these new book bags?”

“No, let’s sell the ones we have on display first,” Tara answered. “So what was in the cartons?”

“Garrett didn’t know. He was never told what was in them or where their eventual destination was. I know that after Garrett told Seattle law enforcement about the warehouse it was searched, but it was empty at that point.”

“So what about whoever gave Garrett the duffel bag at the ferry? Can they track that person down?”

“Finn said Garrett gave a description of the man who always delivered the duffel bag, but so far they haven’t been able to identify him,” I told her.

Tara picked up the box she had been unpacking and carried it over to the door leading out onto the wharf. We’d started a pile, which we planned to take out to the Dumpster once we were finished restocking the shelves.

“Okay, so how did Jimmy end up owing Hawk twenty grand?” Tara asked as she picked up a new box and slit open the top.

“Garrett told Finn that when he heard about the trouble Roxi was having with Hawk, he asked him about it. Hawk said Jimmy had twenty grand he was supposed to deliver to Hawk, but he died in the accident before he did. Roxi insisted she didn’t have the money or know where it was, but Hawk didn’t believe her.”

“So it looks like our theory that Hawk killed Jimmy was wrong.”

“It looks that way,” I confirmed. “That is, if both Hawk and Garrett are telling the truth. Jimmy’s accident occurred on his way back from the ferry after delivering one of the crates. It’s Finn’s new theory that Jimmy had the duffel bag with him, and that the bag contained the twenty grand. Finn believes someone knew about the money, caused the accident, and then stole the duffel bag.”

“So there’s a second bad guy?” Tara groaned.

“If Finn’s theory is correct. I wonder if we should make room in the window for these new releases.”

“Yeah, go ahead and move some of the books that have been out the longest to the rack near the checkstand. I think I’d like to redo the entire display after this weekend. It’s getting to be time to think about Halloween.”

“My favorite holiday.” I grinned. “Hopefully we’ll be murder free and can relax and have some fun.”

“Tell me about it,” Tara agreed. “We’ve certainly had our share of murders lately.”

“It’s pretty odd the way the bodies keep showing up.”

“This entire investigation began with us wanting to find out what happened to Roxi,” Tara pointed out. “Do we think Hawk killed Roxi for some reason?”

“Garrett doesn’t think so. Roxi paid Hawk what Jimmy owed. He seemed to think Hawk considered them square. My money is still on a jealous wife.”

“Okay, then, which one? We know Brianna Sommers was furious when she found out about Tony and Roxi, but it seems like that was after Roxi was already dead. Becky Wood told you that she wanted to kill Roxi for messing around with Trace, but she also said she felt less threatened once she found out she had sold her boat and was planning to leave.”

“All of that is true.”

“I heard Roxi was seen with Griff Poolman,” Tara offered.

I remembered hearing that as well. “Maybe someone should have a chat with Jean,” I said, referring to Griff’s wife.

“I’ll talk to her,” Tara volunteered. “We took that cooking class at the community center together last summer, so we sort of know each other.”

“You know who else we might want to talk to? Pink Headband.”

“Come again?”

“The woman who always wears the pink headband in our exercise class. I can’t remember her name.”

“Viveca,” Tara supplied.

“Right, Viveca. We were discussing Bitzy and her cheating husband on Tuesday and Viveca seemed to get really upset about the fact that Bitzy’s husband had cheated on her. She said she knew what it felt like to have the person you loved betray you. I have no idea if her husband knew Roxi, but it couldn’t hurt to talk to her.”

“Viveca mentioned she would be attending the ball tomorrow night,” Tara said. “Maybe we can track her down and talk to her there.”

“She might be at the dinner at St. Pat’s tonight as well. I think a couple of her kids attend the group on Tuesdays.”

“You know, the killer could be one of the men,” Tara pointed out. “Roxi scammed them all. I could see how some lovesick fool would feel betrayed when he found out Roxi had conned money out of multiple men and didn’t really seem to care about any of them.”

“I don’t know.” I frowned. “It seems like the guys Roxi conned are all worldly enough to shake it off. I mean, most of the men are married. I bet their main concern would be to keep their wives from finding out what they’d done.”

“What about Gary?” Tara asked. “He was single and a lot more naive than the others. You don’t think…”

“No,” I answered. “Finn told me Gary was seriously distraught when he found out Roxi was planning to leave the island. Finn seemed convinced he had no idea she was juggling a bunch of different guys. I know it seems like he must have known because
everyone
else did, but I think he was just a nerdy guy in love, probably for the first time, who chose to see only what he wanted to see.”

“That’s really kind of sad. I guess now that Roxi is gone he’s going to be stuck living with his mother for who knows how long.”

“Maybe and maybe not. Now that he’s experienced love he might go looking for it again rather than being content to spend all his free time with his mom,” I predicted.

“On the other hand, if he’s too heartbroken he may have decided love isn’t worth the risk.”

“Been there.” I laughed.

“Did you ever talk to Cody about the ball?”

“Actually, we did talk about it, and we’re going together. With everything that’s been going on, I haven’t had any time to work on my costume, so I may show up in my bathrobe, though.”

Tara giggled. “That could work. As long as you wear a mask of course.”

“Of course. Did you ever decide whether to go with Carl?”

“I’d decided to go alone and just help out with the food, but Danny called me last night and asked if I wanted to go with him.”

“Danny asked you out on a date?”

“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure he was asking me to go with him as a friend. But it still sounded a lot better than going alone, so I told him I would. Maybe if you’re going with Cody the four of us can go together. It might help to ease any weirdness that might creep in.”

“That sounds like fun.” I smiled. “Cody and I are really just going as friends as well, so it will be nice to have you and Danny around. I’ll ask Cody to talk to Danny about it. They can decide between them who wants to drive.”