Even soaking wet, that man was something. Especially wet. His shirt clung to his chest in interesting ways.
Helen jumped at a faint scraping sound. She saw the captain scooting her toolbox under a bench with his heroic foot, as if he didn’t want anyone to know he’d been hijacked by a woman wielding oven cleaner.
Maybe I won’t go to jail for water-taxi piracy after all, Helen thought.
The rescued Jan was still praising Capt. Klobnak and giving party introductions. “He saved my nephew, Christian Muys, and my friends Megan Kellner and Elaine Naiman.
And me, too. He’s a hero.”
The captain blushed deep red, even in the flashing blue lights. But Jan was right. The man was a hero. And if Helen was going to save herself, he’d better stay one. She slathered on praise while covering her waterlogged rear end.
“That’s right, officers,” she said. “The captain was supposed to take me to Las Olas, way in the other direction. But he saw that speedboat go flying by, and he knew something was wrong. He went after it. I’m glad he did. When I saw that boat heading for those poor people, I thought they were goners.”
“Capt. Klobnak saved us all,” Jan said. “Well, not all. I saw the Cigarette boat driver go into the water, but I don’t know what happened to him. I was too busy jumping out of the way.”
There was a
“What’s that?” Helen said.
“The Coast Guard chopper is looking for bodies,” Phil said.
Helen shivered, and this time it wasn’t from the cold. The helicopter searchlights over the flashing blue lights were disorienting. Everyone seemed to be talking at once. Helen couldn’t take in any more. She stared at the wrecked Cigarette boat and abandoned dinghy.
Debris fanned out from the swamped boats: suntan-lotion bottles, beer cans, beach toys. She saw a beer cooler bob by, a canvas seat cushion and a bloody head.
A head?
Helen shook off her lethargy. The head belonged to the half-drowned Hank Asporth. He was doing a pathetic one-armed dog paddle while he clung desperately to a boat bumper. Hank paddled mostly in circles, although an occasional wild sweep of his arm would move him forward. Another sweep would splash water in his face and set off convulsive gasping and choking.
Helen saw a round red wound in his scalp. I must have pulled out one of his precious hair plugs, she thought.
“That’s the maniac who was driving the Cigarette boat!”
Jan said.
The dripping, snuffling Hank was pulled into the closest Coast Guard boat. Phil threw off his blankets and produced his ID. “I’m a private investigator. This man is Henry Asporth. He was running from the scene of a homicide. He shot and killed Mindy Mowbry.”
Capt. Klobnak whistled. “He killed the rich lady in that waterfront mansion?”
“I did not!” It was the first time Hank said anything. He looked like a walking dead man, the red hole in his scalp echoing the bullet wound in Mindy’s head. “There was a terrible fire. Mindy’s clothes were melting into her skin. She was screaming in pain. You’ve never heard a sound like that.
She wasn’t going to survive those burns. I loved her. I couldn’t stand to see her suffer.”
Hank started to weep. His sobs sounded like someone opening a rusty grate. Helen almost felt sorry for him, until she remembered how he’d stepped over Mindy’s dead body to get the disk. Was he in shock or a stone-cold killer? She didn’t know. But she patted her pocket. Laredo’s disk was still there.
“And this woman here...” Phil smiled at Helen.
Oh, no, she thought. I can’t be mixed up in this. She elbowed Phil hard in his injured ribs.
“Urf!” he said.
“Are you OK, sir?” the sunburned Coast Guard officer said.
“My ribs.” Phil clutched his side.
“You were saying about this woman?”
Helen shook her head slightly and hoped Phil got the signal.
“She was in the water taxi when Capt. Klobnak saved me,” Phil said. “Hank Asporth tried to kill me.”
“I didn’t see any of that,” Helen said. “I closed my eyes when it looked like the boats were going to collide. I didn’t want to see those people die.”
“We’ll get a statement from you later, Billy,” the Coast Guardsman said.
Billy? Who’s Billy? Helen almost blurted, then realized she was still wearing Margery’s work shirt with BILLY on the pocket.
The Coast Guard boat took Hank Asporth away, blue lights flashing ominously.
“What’s going to happen to Hank?” Helen asked. “Will they arrest him?”
“No, the Coast Guard are federal law enforcement,” Phil said. “They’ll turn Hank over to the local police department.
He was speeding in state waters, so I suspect the Florida Marine Patrol will also get involved. Hank will have a long list of charges, starting with gross negligence and ending with Mindy’s murder.”
“And what about Laredo? Mindy killed her, but Hank didn’t stop her. He helped hide the body. He knows where Savannah’s sister is buried.”
Phil sighed. “I don’t know if we have anything to connect him to Laredo.”
Helen gave Phil the disk. “Will this help?”
“You saved it?” he said. “Helen, this is important. I can get you a reward. That list you gave me was a good start. But this could wrap up the case.”
“No!” Helen was desperate to make him understand. “I can’t be in any computers.”
“Are you in trouble with the law? I’ve got connections. I can help you.”
“I’m on the run from my ex-husband. He’ll do anything to find me. If I’m in a computer, he can track me down.” That was true—mostly. “I don’t want the money. If you nail Hank Asporth and find Laredo, that’s reward enough.”
“I’ll do my damnedest.” Phil’s eyes were such a sincere blue, she had to believe him.
“Are you going to give that disk to the Feds?” Helen said.
“Yes. But I don’t want to tip off Hank that I have it. I need a few hours. Once he calls his lawyer, the shredders will start working in the boiler room. We’ll try to get a search warrant and raid the place first thing in the morning. You might as well stay home and read the want ads.”
“Oh, no,” Helen said. “I’ll be there. I wouldn’t miss it.
What’s going to happen to us now?”
“The Coast Guard will escort the water taxi to the closest marina. You can see it—that patch of lights over there. Then they’ll take statements from everyone.”
“They think I’m Billy,” Helen said.
“Good. Let them keep thinking that,” Phil said. “I need to get away now. I’ll say I have to go to the hospital, and they’ll airlift me out. Then I’ll set the computer experts to work on your disk.”
“I guess those broken ribs will come in handy.”
“They’re not broken,” he said. “I know what broken ribs feel like. Besides, that’s not the excuse I’m using.”
“What are you going to say?”
“I have a slipped disk.”
Phil grinned. Then he kissed her once more and was gone.
Chapter 30
Helen came home in a sheriff’s car at five in the morning.
She sat in the screened-off back seat like a felon. She’d had no sleep. Her chest and neck throbbed from Mindy’s whip slash. Her scorched back pulsed like a superheated sunburn.
