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

officers for that year in their caps and blazers somewhere on the walls in the boardroom.”

“And these two?” Jared asked, indicating the other men in the picture.

“Regulars; they’re in here most weekends. One’s a lawyer, the other one works in the city. Something to do with banking maybe.” He shrugged. “I’m working the bar, people are across from me chatting. I’m not deaf, I hear things.”

“Have another one on me,” Danny said.

Chapter 19

“I’m not going to tell you again,” Clarke roared.

If only that were true, Jared thought, but remained silent. Danny and Merlynn gazed off down the channel, their faces grave.

They were seated on the afterdeck of Legalese doing the happy hour thing. Except Clarke was definitely not happy. He’d been lying on his back changing oil in one of the diesels in Legalese’s engine room when the police phone with Newcombe’s call forwarding rang and had cracked his skull in his rush to answer it. He’d taken off his greasy overalls, but oil and blood still covered the side of his head. “Medicine first,” he’d snarled at Merlynn when she had attempted to clean him up. He was on his third drink in ten minutes. The first two had barely touched the sides of his throat. He was so mad he could hardly speak. Jared debated whether he should tell him about the Bill Lacey lead.

“They were just trying to help,” Merlynn offered in their defence.

Clarke looked at her and swelled up once again, and they waited for the explosion. He downed his drink and picked up the jug. “I’m going for a shower. Don’t anybody even think about moving from here while I’m gone.”

“Does that include me?” Merlynn asked.

“No. You can come with me. Please,” Clarke added.

Merlynn winked at Jared and followed him out of the room.

“She’s enjoying this,” Danny said. “Said it’s the most fun she’s had since she retired. She’ll chill Clarke out if anyone can.”

When the two of them returned half an hour later, Clarke was scrubbed clean with a large bandage on his forehead and approaching mellow.

“Newcombe has vanished,” he said. “We put an APB out on him but no reports of sightings so far. Early days, though, he’s only been missing for forty-eight hours. We’ll check the airports and border crossings next. We took out a search warrant on his apartment but it was all pretty sterile — no personal touches, hard to tell that anyone actually lived there; no pictures of family or friends, laptop gone, desk empty, furniture from a rental company.”

“Someone beat you to it,” Jared said.

“Probably,” Clarke agreed.

He continued. “Newcombe doesn’t appear to have a steady job — he’s an independent public relations contractor who hires out for political campaigns and does some work for the city now and again. Last job was with Citizens United about a month ago. He’s unmarried and has no girlfriends that we know of. From everything we’ve learned so far, his closest friends might be the bartenders at the yacht club. Seems like an under-the-radar kind of a guy.” Clarke paused. “Didn’t leave much of a wake,” he added nautically.

“Did he ever work for the Conservative Party?” Merlynn asked.

“As a matter of fact, he did work for them. And for the Liberals and the NDP and the Green Party as well. So no joy there.”

“Still, it is a connection,” Merlynn said.

“Yep. And so far it’s all we’ve got until we locate him and bring him in for questioning.” Clarke shrugged. “We’ll keep looking, he’s out there somewhere. It’s possible he might just have taken some time off, gone away for a bit. Somebody somewhere will have an idea where he is. It’s just a matter of talking to enough people. It nearly always comes down to legwork in the end. I’ve got a couple of good men on it.”

Jared realized now was the moment to speak out about the accountant William Lacey. He looked to Danny who gazed impassively back at him and gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders. Leaving it up to him, the bastard.

“I think Danny and I might have—” Jared began in an appeasing tone.

“Don’t say another word,” Clarke interrupted. “Apology accepted. And I have to admit the pair of you did shake out Newcombe for the department. We wouldn’t have that without you two. Not to mention finding Merlynn and all the help she’s been.” Clarke beamed genially at the three of them and the moment for confession had passed.

“Steaks are marinating. One more round and I’ll fire up the Weber. Merlynn’s fixed the crab salad, we’re ready to rock. Tonight we party, tomorrow we find Newcombe. Or rather, tomorrow I find Newcombe. You boys are officially retired. On behalf of the department, I salute you for your service. No medals, but I do have a tub of iced beer in the galley. Cheers.”

Clarke raised his glass and clinked theirs and Jared made a phone call and a little while later Cat showed up with Danny’s latest and the evening descended into a blur of good food and alcohol and laughter.

“What?” Jared mumbled, shaking his head as he struggled up from deep unconsciousness. Cat’s arm was thrown over his chest and she was snoring softly.

“Shh, be quiet. We don’t want to wake anybody up.”

It was Danny, crouched at the side of the bed with a penlight.

“It will be light in less than an hour.”

“And?”

“And we want to get a look at Rainbow before everyone’s awake.”

Rainbow? What the hell was rainbow? Jared wondered.

“It was your idea. The tugboat. Queer Bill, remember? We’re just going to have a quick peek before the docks get busy.”

“I’m never going to drink again,” Jared muttered as he pulled on his shorts and runners. “And I’m not buying that this was my idea either.”

“Well, maybe not entirely,” Danny conceded as they crept out of the cabin.

The party had broken up late and everyone had chosen to stay on board Legalese for the night. Nobody was fit to drive, and even