Page 38 of Nightshade

“I know, and you are helping, but I want to be careful about it.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning it’s not all fun and games. I don’t want you to go down a path that, you know, could become dangerous.”

“I’m just sharing records and video.”

“Okay, that’s great, and let’s leave it there.”

“Well, you’re the one who asked me.”

“I know. I did. And now I’m saying we should stay in our lanes. You mean the world to me and I don’t want—”

She bent down over his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek, apparently not caring that Heidi was nearby, then went back to the control desk. Stilwell watched her go, then glanced over at Heidi. She was oblivious, or at least acting like she was. He went back to the screen and continued the high-speed playback, hoping to see something that might explain what the midnight mission of the man on the workboat had been about.

He started skipping ahead, searching hour to hour and checking to see if there was any movement from either theEmerald Seaor theAventura. An hour later, with a headache blooming behind his eyes, Stilwell slowed the playback and watched as a skiff delivered supplies and a crew of three to theAventura. Shortly afterward, the big yacht left the harbor, confirming the time details that Tash had written in her notes. As it slowly made its way out of the harbor, crew members in matching white shorts and polos moved about its decks, prepping the craft for the journey ahead.

The cameras now had an unobstructed view of theEmerald Sea.Stilwell had no sooner returned to a faster playback when he saw movement and hit the pause button. The time code put it at 11:16 a.m. on the Monday after the weekend of Leigh-Anne Moss’s firing. He played it at regular speed and watched as a male figure in what looked like the same workboat as before came from the covered embarcadero at the club and went directly to theEmerald Sea.The man wore a floppy fishing hat and sunglasses along with a baggy green windbreaker. When Stilwell zoomed in, the resolution of the video blurred badly and made identifying the man impossible. Stilwell watched as the man in the floppy hat tied the workboat to the stern of the ketch and then climbed aboard.

The man unbuttoned a canvas cover over the boat’s cockpit and helm, then stepped down into it. He bent over and busied his hands with something on the floor of the cockpit that was out of Stilwell’s view. He then stood, grabbed a gaffing pole out of a holder on the deck, and moved forward to the bow, where he used the gaff to pull a line off the mooring buoy.

With the boat free-floating, the man went back to the cockpit and positioned himself behind the large wheel and throttle. Under engine power, theEmerald Seastarted making its way toward the mouth of the harbor at idle speed.

Stilwell quickly switched angles, moving to a camera that was located on top of the harbormaster’s tower and offered the closest and clearest view of the harbor’s opening to the Santa MonicaBay. As theEmerald Seamoved across the screen, Stilwell saw the sun glinting off the bow and realized that a shiny steel anchor was attached at the boat’s prow. He stared intently at the boat and the workboat in tow behind it. As it passed directly in front of the tower, the man at the helm stood tall in the cockpit, and the mainsail boom completely blocked his face. The boat then turned into the mouth of the harbor and headed out into the bay.

“Shit,” Stilwell said.

Tash came over from her desk. “What?” she asked.

Stilwell pointed to the screen.

“TheEmerald Seajust left, and the guy behind the wheel blocked his face with the boom,” he said. “It felt like he was making sure the camera didn’t get a clear shot of him.”

“Let me see,” Tash said.

Stilwell reversed the playback and let her watch.

“Definitely,” she said. “He’s standing on the cockpit bench so he’ll be hidden behind the boom. You’re not supposed to do that, because if you hit a wave wrong, the boom could knock you off the boat.”

“You think it could be Colbrink?”

“I can’t tell. But the thing is, Mr. Colbrink never sails without a crew. He always has one or two people with him when he crosses back to MDR.”

Stilwell nodded.

“So would there be any record of this boat leaving?” he asked.

“Let me check the registry,” Tash said. “Get up.”

Stilwell jumped up from his seat and Tash sat down. She closed out the camera app and opened the harbor registry. Stilwell watched as she scrolled through a log listing various dates, times, boat names, and crew contacts.

“It doesn’t say—wait, here it is,” she said. “It left at eleven thirty but then it says it came back only an hour later. It was just counted as a day trip.”

“And no explanation for it being so short a trip?” Stilwell asked.

“Nothing here.”

“Who was in the tower that day?”

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