Arrow's Rest by Joel Scott (best books to read all time .TXT) 📗

slip at any rate. My night vision isn’t all that great anymore.”

Or maybe it’s the martinis, Danny thought.

“Or maybe it’s the martinis,” Merlynn said.

Jared passed Danny a beer and sat down. “Do you remember the name of the boat?”

“No idea. I don’t think it was on the bow. That’s the sharp end,” she added by way of clarification. “It was in the oversize slip on the end, so you could probably find out easily enough, although there have been a few different boats coming and going in there the last couple of months. What is this all about anyway? If you two are working for a movie company, then I’m Jane Fonda and I want a part in your next film.”

“Actually you do remind me of her a bit,” Danny said.

“Ten years ago I might have taken that for a compliment, but thanks for the effort.”

Nobody said anything for a while.

“It’s likely nothing,” Jared said finally. “Just a stupid hunch.”

“Now that’s bullshit,” Merlynn said. “I was a crown prosecutor for thirty years and I can recognize the odour a mile off. Tell me what’s going on here.”

“You might know Detective Clarke then. He’s working the case we’re looking at. He’s a friend of ours.”

“Don’t tell me that ugly old bugger is still around? I would have thought he’d be retired by now. I had him on the stand a few times over the years. Good witness for the Crown, always knew his stuff. Smart, although you would never have guessed it to look at him. I think he might have had a bit of a thing for me once back in the day. A long time ago now.”

Jared said, “He has less than a year to go until mandatory retirement. That’s assuming he’s not kicked out for insubordination first. We met up with him a few days ago after a friend of ours got into some trouble. The latest of the ‘girls on the park bench,’ to quote the tabloids.”

“I saw that story on the evening news. Sounded grim. How’s she doing?”

“She should be out of hospital soon. Still pretty messed up.”

“What’s that got to do with the boat in the end slip?”

“There’s security video of the woman inside a West End nightclub on the night she was assaulted. It looks like two guys in windbreakers and fedoras put something in her drink and then took her away in a taxi. The cab company says they were dropped off in front of the yacht club gate. A member’s card was used to gain entrance around that time. A lost or stolen card, according to the club’s records.” Jared shrugged. “What the hell. We decided to buy some windbreakers and hats and troll up and down awhile on the off chance.”

Merlynn clapped her hands in delight. “That is absolutely the hands-down dumbest plan I’ve ever heard in all of my thirty years in criminal justice,” she said admiringly.

“That’s what I told him,” Danny said.

Chapter 11

“That is without question, and beyond the shadow of a doubt, the dumbest plan I’ve heard in my thirty-six years on the force,” Clarke said when he joined them at the yacht club. The martini glass looked ridiculously small in his hand.

“Except it sort of worked,” Jared said, a bit stiffly. “It led us here, didn’t it?”

“It did, but you just got stupid lucky,” Clarke said. “You’re looking well, Merlynn. Sorry to hear about your husband.”

When they’d phoned Clarke and told him they might have gathered some information about the abductions, he said that if they weren’t down at the station inside of thirty minutes, he would dispatch a squad car with large patrolmen and multiple sets of handcuffs. When he learned they were at the Queens Own Yacht Club having drinks on a boat belonging to Merlynn Saunders, he reconsidered and instructed them to stay there pending his arrival. Merlynn went out to the gate to let him in and by the time they arrived at Legalese, Clarke was almost calm.

When he concluded his lecture on the penalties available to private citizens interfering in an ongoing criminal investigation, Jared and Danny told him what they’d learned from the videos and their interview with the cab driver that had led them to the yacht club. And then the chat with Basil that led to a dead end, followed by the clothes and the hats and the cruise in the dinghy.

“Talk about blind squirrels,” Clarke said, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’ve told you two before about rushing thoughtlessly ahead without any sort of plan! It’s going to catch up with you one of these days, and the two of you are going to end up in serious trouble. If not with the other side, then certainly with me.” He glared at them and they remained silent.

“Okay then,” Clarke said, mollified. “Let me think about this. I guess the first thing to do is get a list of all the boats and owners and find out where they’re moored. I suppose the best way is to get in touch with one of the club officers and—”

Jared reached into his pocket and pulled out the moorage chart and handed it across to him.

Clarke put on a pair of glasses, unfolded the paper, and read it over.

“Okay, well, this is good,” he said. “Very useful.” He sat in silence, his brow furrowed. The others waited patiently.

“Okay then. I think the next step would be to get a list of the times and dates the card was used and see if that links up to the other—”

Danny pulled the computer printout from his pocket and reached over and slapped Clarke on the wrist with it.

“Okay, good,” Clarke growled, his face reddening as he looked it over. “Is there anything else you two smartasses haven’t told me? I should haul you down to the station right now and charge you with interfering in the course of an investigation.”

“I’m not sure that would stick,” Merlynn said.

“Probably not,” Clarke said, “but at