Page 3 of Refuge for Ailsa

The deputy’s eyebrows shot up. “No shit?”

“No shit. But the man in the blue runabout said he heard her screaming for help, but she never said anything about somebody killing her. Right now, I think you need to get all of them into their slips at the marina and gather them up, get some statements about what they saw.”

The deputy nodded. “Yeah. I think you’re right.”

“This is central dispatch,” a voice crackled on Tavish and Harley’s radios. “Law enforcement be advised, the clerk at the marina needs to speak with someone and give a statement. Respond, over.”

Harley keyed up his mic. “Central dispatch, this is BoyleCounty unit one twenty-six responding. We’ll take care of it. Do you have a name? Over.”

“Unit one twenty-six, her name is AilsaMacDougal. Repeat, AilsaMacDougal. Copy?”

“Copy that, dispatch. Thanks. Clear.” The deputy looked around at the crowd. “How about you help me get everybody over to the marina so I can talk to them, and you can talk to the clerk at the marina.”

“Sounds like a plan. Climb aboard my yacht and we’ll get going,” Tavish told him with a grin.

Twenty minutes later, all of the vessels carrying individuals who’d seen or heard anything were either in their slips at the marina or moored at the transient dock, their passengers climbing out and heading toward the marina’s bar. As Harley started to talk to all of them, Tavish wandered up the walkway toward the marina office and boat store, thinking about the man on the boat and wondering what the hell had really happened there.

The MyrtleBay Boat Store wasn’t a big place, but it had a reputation for having plenty of supplies and some of the best fuel prices on the lake. Even though he was sure the proprietors weren’t getting rich, they had their share of business. Bells jingled on the building’s door as he opened it, and he gazed around at all the stuff in the small establishment. It was cram-packed with tee shirts, can and bottle koozies, coolers, fishing lures and other equipment, and from over in the corner he could hear crickets chirping. He was looking at some keychains when he heard a voice ask, “May I help you?”

Tavish spun to find a woman with hair so red that it looked like it was on fire. It hung in coils that reached past her shoulders. But when he looked into her face, he was shocked. She had blue eyes, so blue that they were almost white, and he’d never seen eyes like that before. “Uh, yeah, I’m Conservation Officer TavishStewart. The BoyleCounty sheriff’s deputy asked me to come up and talk to you. Central dispatch said you called? AilsaMacDougal?”

“Yes, sir, I did. Would you like a cup of coffee?” She pointed to her left and Tavish could see a little dining area he hadn’t noticed before.

“Oh, god, yeah. That would be great.” Instead of proceeding, he waited until she came out from behind the counter and let her go first, partially out of politeness, but mostly to watch the sway of her hips. They were round and full and filled his mind with all kinds of ideas he probably shouldn’t entertain, but what the hell… It wasn’t like he was ever going to act on them.

He pulled out her chair, but she shook her head, then left him standing while she went to the coffee maker. There was a slight smile on her lips as she asked, “Cream or sugar?”

“No, thanks. Just black will be fine.” Tavish waited as she poured the two cups of steaming blackness, and he noted that she didn’t put anything in hers either. While she poured, he turned on his phone’s recording device, laid it in the middle of the table, and spoke into it. “This is KDFWR Conservation Officer TavishStewart interviewing AilsaMacDougal at MyrtleBay Boat Store in regard to the fatality involving a pontoon boat near MyrtleBay Marina on HerringtonLake, July Fourth.” As soon as she’d placed the cups in front of the seats, Tavish helped her with her chair and she sat down. Then he sat down opposite her. “Okay, so you told the dispatcher you wanted to talk to one of us.”

“Yes. Mr.and Mrs.Bentley came in to pay their slip fee and?”

“Mr.and Mrs.Bentley?”

“Yes. That was them. On the pontoon boat.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t know their names.”

She nodded. “So yeah, they were in here, and they were arguing. They weren’t loud or anything, but I could tell they were having some kind of huge disagreement. There was something about drinking and something about the casino over in Indiana?I couldn’t tell what it was. But they put on the sweetest smiles when they came up to the register and she said, ‘We’re celebrating our’?I think she said twenty-first?‘anniversary this weekend.’ And she looked happy.”

“Yeah, that’s what the husband said.”

“She excused herself to go to the restroom and when she did, he hustled off into a corner behind that rack of tee shirts over there and called somebody,” she said, pointing. “It was like they were arguing in whispers, and that look on his face sure wasn’t the look of a man who’s celebrating something. I have no idea who it was; never heard him call a name. But he was finished before she came out of the restroom, and he seemed just fine. They kind of looked around in here for a few minutes before they left.”

That was certainly odd, and he made a note to tell Harley to check the man’s phone records. “And after that?”

“They left the store, and I didn’t see them again until it happened.”

“How did you know what had happened?”

“Because I saw it.” The woman stood and stepped to a window behind the counter. “We had this put in last year. My brother suggested it, and I thought it was a good idea. This was kind of a blind spot for us here in the store, and having this window lets me see the marina. It’s also good for depression. You know, the natural light and stuff.” She didn’t smile, just acted like he should understand, and he did. “I saw when it happened.”

“What did you see?”

“I saw the boat, and the two of them, and it looked like he pushed her into the water. I couldn’t hear her, but I could see her lips moving, and then he ran right over her.”

“Did it look like an accident?”

“Uh, if hard throttling the engine until the bow rose up out of the water is an accident, then yeah. I’m sure it was an accident.” She rolled her eyes, and Tavish thought it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

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