Page 34 of Death at the Deep Dive

“He didn’t run off with the po-faced peacenik, that’s for sure!”

“The who? The what?”

“Eudora Page. You won’t know her. The b-i-t-c-h is pushing daisies in the family plot at Seal Point.” She gave an evil laugh. “I won that one!”

Was it silly to be offended on behalf of his po-faced peacenik auntie when they’d never even met?

“Right. Eudora Page was another girlfriend?”

Joey shrugged. “Not really. They grew up together, so he put up with her. If therewasanything between them, it was kid stuff. I asked Vernon, and he always said it was nothing.” Her smile was cynical. “Of course, he’d have said that either way.”

“Probably.”

She laughed and smacked Ellery’s hand. “You men. You’re all alike. Dogs.”

“Wellllll,” Ellery murmured.

Joey laughed again. “Anyway, I always figured it was a diving accident that did for Vern. Every time he and Tony got leave, they were out there on the water, hunting for shipwrecks. It makes sense that if something went wrong and Vern couldn’t get out, they’d hush it up. The Shandys, I mean.” She nodded knowingly. “They wouldn’t want any cops involved.”

No doubt true.

“So Tony Bernard was on the island when Vernon went missing?”

“Yep. He sure was.”

“Was there any trouble between them?”

She frowned. “I don’t think so. Thick as thieves, those two. You know he was engaged to Vera? Tony. He was engaged to Vera. He was crazy about that b-i—”

“Yep,” Ellery broke in. “What happened there? They seemed to have a very long engagement. Was that usual for the times?”

“I used to wonder about that too. He was nuts about Vera. And she was nuts about him. Maybe he didn’t want to make her a widow. Which is what he would have done, it turns out.”

“I saw his obituary. That must have been tough.”

She shrugged her bony shoulders. “Life can’t always be a barrel of laughs. You’ll find out soon enough.I’dhave married him when I had the chance, if I were her. She cried her eyes out when he died. But maybe deep down she blamed Tony for letting Vern get drowned.”

“Is that a possibility?” Vera hadn’t even hinted at such a scenario. But shehadput Tony’s name on that list as a possible suspect.

“No way. They were buddies. Navy buddies. That’s a special bond. There’s a code of honor. Right?”

“I guess so. But people don’t always do the honorable thing. Sometimes they panic. Sometimes they don’t realize there’s a problem until it’s too late.” Ellery suggested delicately, “Especially if there’s treasure involved?”

That weird blank look came over Joey’s face again. She didn’t respond. Didn’t even look at him. She stared out the French doors at the pseudo-tropical garden of white hibiscus and pink calycanthus.

She said dreamily, “Back then, we had great music. Not like now. We all used to listen to the Beach Boys and Dick Dale and the Del Tones. Not Vernon. He said that was kid stuff. He liked the Mills Brothers!” Her smile twisted. “There was a jukebox in the Deep Dive, and every time one of those Mills Brothers’ songs came on, he’d look over at her…and she’d look over at him.”

After a moment, Ellery asked, “Can you tell me what you remember about that day, Joey?”

He couldn’t read the look she shot him. She shook her head. “Nothing. Because I don’t know what day it was. I know Vera reported him missing on the Monday, but nobody took it seriously. Or, I guess, the navy took it seriously, but they thought he’d gone AWOL. Which he’dneverhave done.”

“Vera seems to think it was Thursday.”

“I didn’t work that night.” Joey smiled. “That’s a funny thing to remember after all this time. I pulled that shift for a lot of years, though, so maybe it’s not so funny.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t there.”

Someone knocked softly on the half-open door, then pushed the door wide. A large, frizzy-haired woman in peach-colored scrubs and rose-tinted glasses said, “May I have a word with you, Mr. Parker?”

“Sure.” Ellery rose.

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