Final Jeopardy

“They ask you anything about me and Iz?”

“Yeah. They asked me some things, and I know they’ve been talking to a lot of other people about you, too.”

“They tell you what they know about me, I mean, besides me being like in the movies?”

“They haven’t told me everything. I know they talked about your bad temper, your fights with Isabella-‘ ”Shit, that’s nothing to talk about. That is zero, nada. You know these cops. They any good? Or are they complete fuck-ups, like the ones in L.A.?“

“I don’t really know them. There’s some jerk from the FBI who thinks he’s ru

“Yeah, Luther Waldo or something like that. Did they find out anything about you they didn’t already know?”

Boy, am I the wrong one to ask.

“Yeah, actually, they did.”

“Something bad?”

“Very bad.” Put Tina on again, Maureen. Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?

Now Joh

“D’you have something to hide?”

“I didn’t know it at the time, Joh

I had started to confide in him, and he leaned further into my face to return the favor by trying to trust me with his secrets.

“I didn’t have anything to do with killing Isabella and, man, you know she coulda driven me to it but I;y got things I don’t want nobody to know about. We all do,, don’t we?” “You bet.”,s “They’re go

“Well, I got nothing to tell them about that. I’m not go

“Hey, Joh

He tried to absorb that for a minute.

“Well, I don’t have to lie to them, I could just take the Fifth, right?”

“Well, not exactly.” I tried to explain the difference between being questioned by the police and being on the witness stand in a court of law. Forget about it.

I decided to try the direct approach.

“Maybe it’s not all that tough, Joh

That was a one-way street.

I smiled sweetly at him, and hoped it looked warm and fuzzy as he stared back at me through his alcohol filled haze.

He propped one elbow on the table and rested his chin in the palm of his hand.

“You know The Tempest?”

“Shakespeare?” The Gorilla and I are go

“No, not the movie. The boat, the yacht.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Sir Robert Ardmore’s yacht. That one?”

What unlikely shipmates: Joh

“Yeah, Alice, that one. It’s like an ocean liner. I don’t know Ardmore, but you could say I’m a good friend of his wife.”

Garelli smiled.

“When Iz dumped me, I thought I’d drown my sorrows in the ocean.”

Ardmore ’s fifth wife, a twenty-six-year-old stripper whose instep was reputed to be higher than her I.Q., had met the elderly billionaire when he was in Vegas, doing a site inspection for a series of shopping malls. He was still married at the time, and his fierce batt leto retain the remarkable yacht which had originally been named for his fourth wife in the divorce proceedings led to its lavish rechristening as The Tempest.

“So you and Tiki Ardmore were together last week?”

“Obviously, that goes no further than this table, right?

Her husband’s got a lousy sense of humor, if you know what I mean. Really straight guy. Jeez, I’ve know Tiki since she was working the door at Motion’s.”

I think Lord Ardmore and I could do very well together, sailing off into the sunset, faithful and loyal like a pair of cocker spaniels.

“Where was the boat?”

“I flew on board by helicopter when Ardmore went back to London last Monday. I was in Easthampton, and the boat was cruising off Montauk, at the end of Long Island.”

Fifty-five miles from the Vineyard, as the crow flies.

“Well, at least you’ve got witnesses, Joh

“Are you kidding? Those dinky little islands can hold stinkpots and Sunfishes, but not a yacht the size of this one. The Tempest needs its own dock. Nah, last thing we wanted to see was other people.”

I guess Tiki Ardmore was a snake-charmer, too.

Joh

The rain had started to come down heavily while we were eating di

It was only a ten-minute ride down the drive to my place.

Garelli leaned his head back against the seat cushion and let the alcohol do its work, while I played out the visions of a helicopter or a speeding launch whisking him from The Tempest to the Vineyard, to kill Isabella, while Tiki Ardmore soaked in a bubble bath. The logistics of it were certainly possible, as any navigator could tell you. I had gotten the basics for Chapman and his team they would have to go the distance.

I thanked Joh

“You guys must be starved, watching me eat all that food while you just sat at the bar the whole time I’ll send out for a pizza for you.”

“One glass of wine and three bottles of Pellegrino water, just to keep our glasses looking full. I’ll be ru

“What d’ya get?” Mike asked.

“Nothing memorable. Has no use for cops, plans to lie to you guys tomorrow and stonewall you about where he was. Has a thing going with the wife of a billionaire, so he doesn’t want you to know the truth and blow it for her by going public. And yes, in fact he was on the East Coast the week of the murder, cruising in the Atlantic Ocean on his personal ”love boat,“ not too far from the Vineyard. He’s a superb marksman, especially good at moving targets.

Don’t remind me that I’ve been fooled before, Mike, but somehow I don’t think he killed Isabella. Too stupid to have actually formulated and carried out something that needed to be pla

We went into my apartment and I showed Maureen where to freshen up while I went into the den to call Steve’s Pizza. It was only ten-thirty, so I called David Mitchell, too, to ask him to join us. I’ve got two detectives with me. Is this a good time to come by and talk things over with us?”