Page 49 of Nightshade

“Yes, sir. My name is Stilwell. I’m a detective sergeant with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. I handle all cases that originate on Catalina.”

“I just heard there was a death out there in the harbor—a possible murder.”

“Yes, that is being managed by the homicide unit. I’m actually here about something else. We received a report of a very valuable art object being stolen from the Black Marlin Club, of which I’m told you are a member.”

“Was it one of the plein air paintings my father donated?”

“Uh, no. This was a small statue. A sculpture of a black marlin that was stolen from a display pedestal in the main hallway. It was described as priceless, and so we’re taking the theft pretty seriously.”

“I know the sculpture. I also know black jade and I would hardly say that it’s a priceless piece of art. Whoever took it made a mistake. The paintings on the walls in the club’s library are far more valuable.”

Stilwell just nodded. He understood that Colbrink wanted to control the meeting by using his wealth of knowledge. He looked around the room as if noticing it for the first time.

“You have a beautiful place,” he said. “Do you live here alone?”

“No, I don’t,” Colbrink said.

He offered no further explanation.

“Well, getting back to the black marlin that was stolen,” Stilwell said, “as I mentioned, we’re taking it seriously, no matter the actual value. We believe the theft occurred two weekends ago. The BMC has no exterior or interior cameras, but we were able to review other cameras located around the harbor and we saw that your ketch, theEmerald Sea,was in the harbor that weekend. I’d like to know if you were in the club on Saturday or Sunday and if you saw anything that was suspicious, a person who didn’t belong or anything else that seemed out of—”

“I can stop you right there,” Colbrink said. “My boat was there but I was not. I was here. And I can provide witnesses to corroborate that—several of them. Saturday the seventeenth was my wife’s birthday and we had a number of people here to celebrate.”

Stilwell forced a smile and held up a hand to stop Colbrink’s explanation.

“Please don’t misunderstand me,” Stilwell said. “You’re not a suspect, Mr. Colbrink. Not at all. I saw that your boat was in the harbor and thought you might have been there at the club or on the boat and that there was a chance you saw something.”

“Well, I was not,” Colbrink said.

“We actually have a suspect. Leigh-Anne Moss? She worked in the restaurant during lunch and in the bar at night. Do you by any chance know her?”

“I know many of the staff but not all of them by name.”

“She’s twenty-eight, has a purple streak in her hair. She was dismissed by Mr. Crane the same weekend as the theft. It’s his theory that she took the statue from the pedestal after leaving his office.”

“I remember the girl with a purple streak in her hair. I had no interaction with her other than giving her my drink order in the bar. I was, in fact, told that she was bad news.”

That phrase again,Stilwell thought. “In what way was she bad news?”

“I heard that she was ‘loose and looking,’ if you know what I mean.”

“Who told you this?”

“I don’t really remember. It was just talk among the members in the card room. People like to gossip while playing poker. It distracts their opponents.”

“So, other than telling her what you wanted to drink, you didn’t have any interaction with Leigh-Anne Moss?”

“I already told you, I did not. Now, if that’s all you came to find out, I’ll ask you to leave.” Colbrink started to get up.

“That’s not actually what I came to ask you.”

“Then what, Sergeant?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll try to be brief. Did anyone use your boat that weekend while you were here on the mainland?”

“No. I have a crew that sails with me, but there were no plans for that weekend. I was just out there over this past weekend, as you probably already know, and we sailed theEmeraldhome.”

“To Marina del Rey?”

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