So Lush, So Deadly

There was a pause. Loring broke it by saying slowly, “There was an arson episode, Mike, a little ridiculous and fortunately not too serious. She was thrown by a horse, and that night she set fire to the stable. She set several small fires while she was in the hospital. They were put out before any damage was done.”

Shayne frowned, trying to remember what Petrocelli had said about a fire on the Nefertiti. The top of a coffee table had been burned. But how did it fit?

“Can you tell me anything else, Joshua? Was there any fire that didn’t get put out in time?”

“Yes,” Loring said with difficulty. “The main Winslow plant burned to the ground last year. The insurance company paid the claim without question, but I must confess-”

He stopped. “In the light of those earlier-”

“Where was Mrs. De Rham when it happened?”

“In Boston, eighty miles away, at her husband’s college reunion. Not many people know about those other episodes in Dotty’s history, and I-don’t want you to think I was remiss. I did make inquiries. The plant was a fire trap, and the marshal established definitely that the fire began in an overloaded electrical circuit.”

“Was anybody killed?”

Loring’s voice was unhappy. “A watchman. He was asleep-drunk-and he didn’t turn in an alarm.”

“Was De Rham with her in Boston?”

“Yes, and so was Brady, I believe. You can see why I hesitated about telling you. It’s a sticky business. I don’t think anyone could possess any evidence that the fire marshal and the insurance investigators overlooked, but if there is anything and you acquire it-”

“Yeah. It has to go to the cops. This would be a good time to pull me off if you want to play it that way.”

“I’m afraid it’s too late. It could only end in a different sort of disaster. No, stay with it, Mike, and call me if you get anything, never mind how late. I’m sleeping lightly these nights.”

Shayne hung up and called the St. Albans, a big new hotel on the Beach. In a moment he was talking to Tom Moseley.

“Mr. Loring told me you’d be calling,” Moseley said briskly when the preliminaries were out of the way. “I think he may be worrying about this more than the circumstances warrant. He’s a bachelor, as you may know, and he takes a godfather’s duties seriously. Dotty’s a lot more competent than he gives her credit for being.”

“I have a message to deliver from her husband, and then I think we’d better talk.”

“I’ll be in. I hope we can wind this up by noon tomorrow-I’d like to resume my vacation. I think the way to do it is find out as much as we can before we confront her. But I’ve always found her entirely responsible in financial matters, which is what makes these cash transfers seem so strange. If Brady’s stealing from her, and that’s the way it looks to me, we may need De Rham’s help. Would he cooperate, do you think? He and Brady are friends.”

“I don’t think that would stand in his way.”

“How did she strike you, Shayne? I know she’s been drinking heavily, but did she seem in control? Capable of making decisions?”

“I only saw her for a couple of minutes. Not long enough to make any kind of judgment.”

“Yes. Well.”

The conversation trailed off.

Shayne was on the Julia Tuttle Causeway, crossing the bay, when the phone rang on the seat beside him.

A girl’s voice said breathlessly, “I’ve been trying and trying and trying! This is Sally Lyon. You met me this morning?”

“Sally who?”

“Lyon. You didn’t exactly meet me. I was on the next boat. I was wondering who you were and what you were doing on the Nefertiti, which is a kind of mystery ship in this marina-all that skulking around and dramatic lowering of voices, and there your picture was in the paper you gave me. You know, with the story about the girl who was killed on the expressway. Michael Shayne, eh?”

Shayne held the phone clamped between his shoulder and his jaw. He was driving with undiminished speed.

“I’ll give you my autograph the next time I come by. How does it happen I don’t hear music? Don’t girls your age go out dancing any more?”

“I’m not all that youthful!” she said with spirit. “I’m twenty. And for your information, I’m no longer a virgin.”

Shayne snorted. “Congratulations.”

“Laugh. To answer your question about dancing, I’m not out dancing because I don’t know anybody in Miami. Dad and Mother think it would be just too icky to stay at a hotel when we have a boat, but you meet people in hotels. None of their friends happen to have anybody even remotely my age so I’ve had to concentrate on my tan. I don’t suppose you noticed.”

“Sally, believe me, in that bathing suit I noticed. How are things on the Nefertiti?”

“That’s why I’m calling you!” She caught her breath. When she resumed speaking it was almost in a whisper. “I’m at an open phone in the office and people keep passing by. Something very funny has been happening, if you ask me.”

Shayne’s smile had faded. “I’m headed your way, Sally. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“If you’re going to call me Sally, I’m going to call you Mike, all right? Mother and Dad are having dinner at the Sans Souci. I was supposed to go and watch them having a good time, but those dinners get to be a drag for everybody. This is Dad’s vacation, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t drink as much as he wants to, and Mother’s no slouch in the hard liquor department when she gets going, either. I think people that age ought to do their drinking in private. I don’t mean Mother and Dad get sloppy, but they say things they certainly wouldn’t back home in Baltimore. I sit there and suffer, and I guess it shows. They go home early because poor Sally has to get up in the morning for tennis lessons. Tonight I pretended I had a stomach ache and I wasn’t up to one of those fifty- course Sans Souci meals. I had a milk shake and a dog and I thought I’d go to bed early but it was too stuffy in the cabin so I brought up an air mattress and lay down on the deck.”

The phone cut out briefly as Shayne left the causeway.

“-noise,” she said.

“I missed part of that,” he said. “The last I heard you were lying on the deck.”

“Then you missed the main part. I heard this funny splashing noise and somebody breathing in the water. Or rather, not breathing. Those little bubbles, you know. Blub, blub. I was petrified!”

“What was happening on the Nefertiti?”

“Nothing, for once. The lights were on but I couldn’t see anybody. To tell the truth, from that bubbling sound I thought they might be sinking. I looked over the rail, and ducked out of sight, fast. There was this skin diver in the water!”

“Next to the Nefertiti?”

“Right next. I was on the back deck-you know what they call it, aft-and we stick out enough so I could look right down at him. His head and the tanks showed up against the white paint. He was fastening something to the back of the boat.”

“How big?”

“I couldn’t tell, but there was a wire attached to it, I think, going into the water. He turned around and pushed off. Blub, blub. I think I saw his head after a minute, but maybe it was a log or something. With some people I could knock on the door and say, ‘Excuse me, somebody just did something to the back of your boat.’ But Paul Brady. He can be really cute at times, but he gets very grumpy and alienated after a few drinks. Then I thought of calling you. I never talked to anybody on a car phone before.”

“Sally, I have to hang up. I’m in traffic. Stay in the office and I’ll honk twice. Are you still wearing that bathing suit?”

“Heavens, no. I wouldn’t dare wear that in public.”