“The thing is, Ally had only spoken to Molly a couple times and it was only in a professional capacity,” I said. “So she barely knew her and has no idea why Molly would leave her the catering business, assuming that’s all legal and aboveboard.”
Angel shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t do it, and Molly knew that. I’m sure she wanted it to go to someone who loved and appreciated food as much as she did. Molly wasn’t a complex person. Not really. If you understood where she came from and what she lived through, then she wasn’t that hard to figure out.”
“So the phone call is why you don’t think this was an accident?” I asked.
“That’s actually the least of the reasons,” she said. “Molly was an excellent boater and after what happened to Johnny, she was extra careful about everything. She went over every square inch of her boats every single time she came back to the dock.”
“How was she as a swimmer?” Ida Belle asked.
“Olympic good. Silas used to make Johnny and Molly swim back and forth across the channel, even when the tide was at its strongest. He said everyone living on the water needed to know how to handle it. Honestly, I think he was just being mean but it didn’t turn her off from it. She had a gym membership somewhere close to the city. She drove in a couple times a week to use the pool and if she had time, she’d drop by for a visit. An hour of laps was her regular workout.”
I watched her face as she delivered that information. She was so certain, so earnest in her words, that I had no doubt she believed something had happened to her friend besides a tragic accident. But was that correct or were she and Nickel just refusing to believe that the same fate could befall two people they cared about? Which made me wonder…
“Do you think Johnny’s death was an accident?” I asked.
Her eyes widened a bit, then she stared at the floor, not speaking for some time before she finally looked back at me. “Honestly, I have my doubts there as well. I know what it looks like. I never got over Johnny’s death—and I guess that’s true enough on some level—so you think I refuse to believe that Molly could go the same way. But that’s not it. You see, I know Johnny would have never taken his boat out that day. I told the cops that but no one believed me.”
“Because of the storm?” Gertie asked.
Angel nodded. “And because there was no point. Johnny was a businessman. Shrimp wouldn’t have been running in that kind of weather. Every commercial shrimper knows it and said as much. No smart shrimper would waste his energy and gas on a trip out to make no money.”
“Maybe he didn’t think the weather was going to be as bad as it turned out,” I said.
“Johnny was never wrong about the weather,” Angel said. “It was kind of eerie, actually. The forecasters would all say one thing and Johnny would laugh and call them fools. He was never wrong. Not one single time. Got to be the standard around the dock for the others to go out based on his call. Besides, we lived together then and I’d talked to him that morning before I left for my shift. He told me he was going to work in the garage that day on an old lawn mower. Why would he lie about that?”
“So what do you think happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “All I know is a fisherman was leaving the docks when Johnny showed up, and he said Johnny was getting on his boat as the fisherman drove off. It was already starting to rain. The sky was already black. You see why it doesn’t make sense?”
“Did the fisherman talk to him?” I asked.
“No. He only saw him from a distance, but he recognized Johnny’s truck and his rain slicker. He had one with fluorescent purple stripes. Molly had given it to him. She loved the bright colors and he was so pleased with the gift that he wore it despite the ribbing he got from the other guys.”
“And he was alone?” I asked.
Her shoulders slumped. “Yeah. I know. It sounds like exactly what the police said—he got caught out in the storm and something bad happened. They found his boat the next day and a piece of the slicker caught in a nearby buoy.”
“Would he have been wearing a life jacket?” I asked.
“There were two missing from his boat,” Angel said. “They found one some distance away from the buoy.”
“I’m really sorry,” I said, and I meant it. I could see how much Johnny’s death still hurt her even though she’d moved on with her life. But I could also see how his death might have influenced her beliefs concerning Molly’s disappearance.
But just because it could have influenced her didn’t mean it had.
Chapter Thirteen
We climbed back into the SUV, all silent for a bit as Ida Belle exited the parking lot. We’d gotten a lot of information in one day and we needed time to process it all. Sometimes typing it up helped me piece things together. Sometimes I just got a wrist cramp out of it and zero inspiration.
“I’m confused,” Gertie said.
“Me too,” Ida Belle said. “And I hate to say it, but I’m not completely sure there’s a crime here.”
“You think Nickel and Angel are projecting?” I asked.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if they were,” Gertie said. “I mean, who could blame them after going through what they did with Johnny? Especially Angel. They were practically married. I can’t imagine losing the man I love and not even having a body to bury.”
Ida Belle nodded. “Me either. But it’s no wonder she wouldn’t want to do it again. She wants answers.”
“And someone to blame,” Gertie said.
“Yes,” Ida Belle agreed. “After meeting Silas and hearing about the childhood those two had, I can’t really blame her for wanting their lives to mean more. To know that they weren’t just two people who made bad choices that cost them everything.”
“What do you think?” Gertie asked me.
“I agree with you and Ida Belle,” I said. “But then there’s strange things, like the insurance policy Silas thinks he’s cashing in on. And Dexter trying to find a buyer for the catering business. I didn’t think Molly would be interested in selling even before we talked to Angel, but I’m doubling down on that now. You heard her. She said the business was Molly’s salvation. You don’t just let something that important go. Not for any amount of money.”
“So we keep digging?” Ida Belle said.
“We have to,” I said. “If this was an accident, we’re going to have to figure out how to prove it.”
“How in the world can you prove an accident that happens with no witnesses?” Gertie asked.
“By proving the only people who benefit from Molly’s death couldn’t have done it,” Ida Belle said. “I think that’s as close as we can hope to get.”
I nodded.
“That’s going to be harder than proving someone did it,” Gertie said. “Especially if no one has alibis. And even if we started asking questions, I doubt Dexter and Silas are going to offer up where they were and what they were doing when Molly disappeared.”
“Dexter was at the house when we left and when Carter went to check on Molly,” I said. “So we know he had opportunity.”