Read Laughs, Corpses... and a Little Romance Page 7

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  I asked Greg why he had taken me into the houses with him. “It’s useful to have an independent witness to any conversation, in case I later have to recount what was said in court.” “Well what a shifty bastard you are! Leave me out of it. I don’t want to get involved.” He smiled gently at me. “Sorry Ted, but you are involved, as a witness, whether you like it or not.”

  I looked at my watch and had a shock. These investigations had taken longer than expected. “Come on,” I said “we’ve got to get back. There’s a tour party arriving in half an hour." We hurried along the beach to Lizzy and piled in. On the trip back to town Greg pondered over what he had uncovered. “So far,” he said, checking his notes, “we can be pretty sure the dead girl arrived on the yacht with her companion on Tuesday. We think her name is Andrea, and we are pretty sure she was murdered on Thursday night and we think her body was dumped into the river at Whitebait Bay. We don't know why she was murdered, or who murdered her. The most likely suspect is her companion. We think he’s called Tony, and he seems to have disappeared, and we don't know what's happened to him. Also we have at the possible scene of the crime three lots of residents. Firstly we have the two homosexuals. Now bearing in mind that the girl was raped before being murdered I think it’s unlikely they were involved, although you can't be completely sure. Secondly we have what seems to be a perfectly normal married couple, although we haven't questioned the husband yet.

  Thirdly we have a very unpleasant character, who quite frankly I wouldn't turn my back on. I don't think we can believe anything he tells us. He seems to me to be a possible suspect.” “I doubt that.” I said. “Here we go again” said Greg, “Why do you doubt it?” “He knows the river backwards. If he murdered the girl he’d hardly be likely to drop her into the river outside his own house, knowing the tide would carry her up past Mulloway Island, now would he? He'd be too crafty for that. He would have waited for the tide to turn, then taken her out into the main channel and dumped her there, so she floated out to sea. Why would he murder her anyway? He said he scarcely knew her. I think you can cross him off your list of suspects.”

  Jack cut in. “Maybe old Sneider was right. Maybe they were hiding away from someone. Maybe that's why they changed the name of the boat. Maybe whoever it was looking for them found them, and sneaked in Thursday night and murdered the girl and took the bloke away with them. If they weren't locals they wouldn't know about the tides and stuff. That would explain everything. Sneider said he heard a plane go over low that was probably looking for them." "If there was a plane” I said,” how come none of the other people noticed it? Come to that, if a plane was flying low up and down the river we’d have heard it ourselves. We're out on the river most of the time and you can hear a plane like that from miles away. And how could they sneak in? There's no way in by land. If they’d used a powerboat all the people in the bay would have heard it. If they sailed in, it would have taken a good sailor to pick up the jetty in the dark”. “Ah well,” said Jack, “there's an answer to that. Maybe they dropped anchor out in the bay and rowed very quietly in to the jetty in a dingy. That way nobody would have heard them.” Jack seemed to have a watertight theory there.

  “Mm, perhaps we've made some progress,” said Greg. “Add to the list of suspects, person or persons unknown who sneaked in during the night and then left again. I'll get the scientific squad to go over that boat with a fine tooth comb, and see what they can turn up. I wonder if the missing couple were married?” “Well she didn't have a ring on her wedding finger.” answered Jack. Greg glanced at him, then pulled out his packet of cigarettes and lit up. “What else did you notice about her, Jack?” “Well she didn't have nicotine stains on her fingers, so she didn't smoke like a chimney, like someone I could mention.” “Kindly keep your bloody opinions to yourself my boy. I must get the police up at Surfers to run checks on the names of the girl and bloke to see what comes up. Maybe they can run down that mate of Sneider's, Vince Lombardo, and see what he knows. I'll run a check on who the registered owner of the boat is as well.” “Don't forget the original name of the boat was Zenobia,” I said, “it might still be registered under that name."

  When we pulled into the wharf we found the coach load of tourists had already arrived and were waiting for us, and Nicky in the office was going nuts wondering where we were. We had to scamper around and get Annabelle underway. Greg jumped into his car and took off immediately, and I was glad to see the back of him.