Page 13 of Nightshade

“Hey, was that A-Hole I saw slide into the water?”

That was one of the popular nicknames for Rex Ahearn. The other was a play on both his names: King A-Hole.

“It was,” Stilwell said.

“I guess it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” Saunders said.

“What I said.”

“That’s sure to go viral. A lot of people with phones up on the pier.”

“I saw.”

“Okay, we’ll finish up here and drop by your twenty.”

“Copy. Out.”

Stilwell pulled his phone and relayed the information to Tash.

“Anything you can do to hurry them would be good,” she said.

“They have to get back to the mainland with it,” Stilwell said. “I’m sure they want to get there before dark.”

“Okay.”

“Hey, Tash, while I’ve got you, you remember seeing anyone around here with long dark hair with a streak of purple dye in it? A woman?”

“Hmm.”

She went silent for a long moment before continuing.

“Something about that seems really familiar but I can’t place her. I don’t think it’s a local. I know all the locals. But I think I remember seeing a girl with hair like that somewhere.”

“A girl?”

“I mean a woman. She was older.”

“If you can remember where or anything else, let me know.”

“That’s the person in the water?”

“Yes. Age unknown at the moment.”

“Right. So sad.”

“Yeah.”

They disconnected. Stilwell sat down on a fiberglass equipment box at the end of the dock and watched the recovery operation from afar. Saunders had put up a privacy tent over the back deck of the dive boat. Stilwell knew that this was where they would place the body for the trip back across the bay.

The divers soon surfaced and lifted a submergible body bag onto the fantail of the dive boat. Saunders and a coroner’s investigator Stilwell didn’t recognize grabbed the straps on the bag and moved it through the gunwale door, onto the rear deck of the boat, and out of sight. Next the coiled rope, chain, and anchor were handed up by the divers, followed by the weight belt Stilwell had wrapped around the anchor.

The two recovery divers climbed up the drop ladder and onto the boat. The ladder went up and soon Stilwell heard the twin 150 engines come to life. Saunders went to the bow and pulled up the anchor and then the boat started moving at idle speed toward the skiff dock.

Stilwell called the harbormaster’s office.

“Tash, you can start bringing the rest of the boats in.”

“Perfect. They’ll be happy.”

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