Page 33 of Death at the Deep Dive

“Pirates!” Her expression was sardonic. “One of our natural resources. Boys love pirates, that’s the truth. So what unsolved mystery do you think I can help you with?”

Perhaps Nora was wearing off on him because Ellery said glibly, “I thought I’d end the book with a story from the 1960s. The world was changing, the island was changing, and this particular unsolved mystery straddles both the old world and the new.”

“Vernon’s treasure,” she said with sudden weariness.

“Right. Exactly.”

“Who told you about me and Vernon?” Joey’s black pebble gaze never wavered from his face.

In this case, honesty seemed like the best policy. “His sister Vera.”

Joey scowled. “I hope you’re not relying on the word of that b-i-t-c-h.”

(Puzzlingly, she did indeed spell out the word.)

“Rely? No. But Vera does have an interesting story to tell.”

“I don’t doubt that! She always had interesting stories to tell. They’re called lies. Sheneverliked me. Always found fault with my work. And that was before Vern and I got involved. The nerve ofthatwoman looking down onme.”

“It seems like people either love her or hate her.”

“Mostly they hate her,” Joey said. “Speaking on behalf of everyone who worked for her, past, present, and future. I can’t believe the b-i-t-c-h is still alive and kicking.”

(What was the deal with the spelling? Did she think there was someone listening in who lacked a sixth-grade reading vocabulary?)

Ellery tried to gently steer her away from past grievances. “I guess you must have met Vernon when you were working at the Deep Dive?”

“That’s right. The first time I ever saw him, he was home on leave. He walked into the pub, looking like a million bucks in that uniform. Well, you must’ve seen the photos of him. He was so handsome.”

“I actually haven’t seen any photos of him yet.”

Joey looked surprised. “You haven’t? Vera must have drawers full of them. She carried that little Brownie camera around all the time she wasn’t working, which wasallthe time. She was always snapping pictures at the worst possible moment and from the worst possible angle. Douglas burned all of mine.”

“Douglas was your husband?”

“I know what you’re thinking, but we were separated at the time. That was years later, when he burned all my photos. At the time, he couldn’t have cared less.”

“That’s hard to believe.”

Joey gave that raucous seagull laugh. “Are you flirting with me?”

Ellery smiled weakly. No, he sure was not. He was just going by his own observations of human nature. Namely, people were often still jealous of their exes, sometimes even when they were the ones who initiated the breakup.

“It’s the truth, though. Back then, Dougie didn’t give a damn about anything but the ponies. Not me. Not even his kid. Nowadays, we’d say,Oooh, he’sstruggling with addiction. Back then…well, who cares what you call it? The jerk spent all his spare time—and spare change—at the race track. Who could live with that?”

“That would be tough,” Ellery admitted. “That’s why you left him?”

“That’s right.” She sounded defiant as if she thought Ellery might judge her, but no way. He couldn’t even imagine what life with a compulsive gambler would be like. Add a child into the mix, and he didn’t blame her for walking out.

“What race track?” he asked. “I didn’t realize there were any race tracks around here.”

“Gansett. Narragansett Park. He’d take the ferry and spend the day. Sometimes he’d spend the night. I warned him again and again: shape up or ship out. I even told him I’d take the kid with me. He didn’t care. I bet he wouldn’t even have noticed until he woke up from one of his benders and I wasn’t there to fix his breakfast.”

“When did you separate?”

She said vaguely, “I can’t recall exactly. It was off and on. I’d have done it too, I’d have left him for good if Vern hadn’t…” Her expression was hard to interpret. All the liveliness seemed to fade away, leaving her blank. She blinked tiredly, as though she’d just woken from a nap.

“That’s the mystery, isn’t it?” Ellery watched her carefully. “What do you think happened to Vernon?”

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