Page 29 of Death at the Deep Dive

“Do you know anything about a James Franklin?”

Nora’s reply, as she returned abandoned books to their rightful shelves, sounded absent. “The Penn State football coach?”

“No. At least, that seems doubtful. I can only find one listing for Franklin on the entire island, and that’s James Franklin.”

“It’s not a common name on the island,” Nora admitted. “Off the top of my head, I really can’t recall knowing any Franklins.”

“You said you thought Josephine might have been the waitress at the Deep Dive.”

“She might have been. At fourteen, I wasn’t a regular.”

“You’re not a regular now. Nor the Salty Dog either.”

“I’m not much for spirits,” Nora admitted.

Ellery teased, “For which I suspect we should all be grateful.”

“My dear mother used to always say: ‘In temperance there is ever cleanliness and elegance.’”

“Mine says: ‘The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.’”

Nora chuckled. “I believe your mother is cribbing from Humphrey Bogart.”

“Mm-hm. My ma is the Humphrey Bogart of serious actresses.”

Nora laughed again and put the final stray book on the final shelf.

The brass bell chimed, and sea air wafted down the aisles of books, so either they finally had customer or Kingston was back from lunch. Judging by the barometer of Watson’s wagging tail, it was Kingston.

“Nora, how is it possible you don’t knowanythingabout these people?”

Nora said defensively, “After all, dearie, there are four thousand people on this island. I can’t knowallof them.”

“I don’t see why not,” Ellery replied. “You’ve known everyone so far.”

“Maybe they moved away from the island?” Kingston suggested, joining them.

“I’m pretty sure Douglas and Josephine have moved away from everything and everywhere. Permanently.”

“Oh.” Nora and Kingston exchanged uneasy looks.

Nora said, “Of course, you could always check the morgue.”

“The…” Ellery stared at her.

Kingston said kindly, “I believe Nora means the newspaper morgue.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Ellery told him. “Anyway, when did Sue Lewis start publishing theScuttlebutt Weekly?I thought the paper was only a few years old?”

“Before theScuttlebutt Weeklythere was theYardarm,” Nora informed him.When Sue started theScuttlebutt Weekly, she acquired most of theYardarm’s assets, including their morgue. She archives all the old bound volumes of newspapers with theScuttlebutt’s. Which is very generous of her. In fact, she’s said she ultimately intends to have both physical archives scanned and digitized.”

“I never said she was all bad.” Ellery contemplated this potentially valuable resource. The problem was, visiting that newspaper morgue was liable to mean running into Sue, something he’d prefer not to do. Call him chicken, but Ellery did not like confrontation, and he’d already had enough confrontations with Sue to last him a lifetime.

As though reading his thoughts, Kingston suggested, “The local library also has microfilm copies of the island’s newspapers pre-2000. What if I tackle our list of suspects from that angle?”

“Excellent thought.” Nora’s gray eyes shone with approval and admiration.

“Agreed. Maybe there’s a way we can get access to the Deep Dive’s employment records?” Ellery was thinking aloud. “Vera should be able to get me access.”

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