Death in Donegal Bay Read Online Free PDF

went for four and a half million.”
    “At six percent,” I said, “that reads out to two hundred and seventy thousand dollars. You ought to buy that bait store.”
    “I own the building,” he told me stiffly. “My nephew and his live-in girl friend run the tackle shop and boat rental that you keep calling a bait store. They don’t pay me any rent. Now, God damn you, get off my back!”
    I patted his knee. “Okay, Duane. I apologize for the things I said. “I was embarrassed. I … overreacted.”
    He smiled. “I should have expected that. I’ve watched you overreact plenty of times on the field. Trust me, you dumb jock! I’m your fan. Now I’m going to take you over to meet my only nephew. He was a footballer, too. An all-state high-school tight end. He played in the North-South Shrine game.”
    It was the blond youth I had seen at the Rusty Anchor. His name was Jeff Randolph. He shook my hand and asked, “How are the Rams going to do this year?”
    “All right, if they can settle the quarterback question. Are you going to college now?”
    He shook his head. “I had a year at S.C. That was enough. This is my life, the surf and the beach and the sailboat.”
    A girl came out from the storage room at the rear of the shop. It was the blonde I had seen with Jeff. Duane said, “And this, Brock, is Laura Prescott, Jeff’s bride-to-be.”
    She shook my hand and smiled. “Don’t mind what Uncle Duane says. We’re trying to drag him into the twentieth century.”
    As we walked toward my car, Duane muttered, “Twentieth century! Don’t they think I ever played house? But you can’t go on like that forever. What if they have kids? They’ll be bastards!”
    “They mean a lot to you, don’t they?”
    “Jeff does. I have no kids. And I like Laura, too.” He shook his head. “Oh well, they can change. We can hope.”
    I gave him my phone number, he promised he would keep a watchful eye open for Corey, and we parted better than we had started. That ferret face of his, that was what had made me suspicious. Why did I trust him now? Maybe he had called it right; I was a dumb jock.
    I phoned the Raleighs when I got home and asked Mr. Raleigh if their son had phoned again.
    “He did. He phoned about twenty minutes ago from Lompoc and told us not to worry. And the missus and I decided it’s maybe time that we stopped being so … so protective. But, as you know, he is an only child and—”
    “I know,” I said. “I was one, too.”
    Felicia had gone on to her friends in Lompoc after a stop in Donegal Bay. If it had been an overnight stop, there was reason to believe Mike Anthony had been her host. Which made the case what it had originally seemed to be—adultery. Which could be grounds for divorce. Yet Baker had claimed that he didn’t want one. Why hadn’t he assumed the obvious? It’s not easy to con a con man. Unless, of course, he’s in love.
    When Jan came home, I asked her if she remembered Duane Detterwald.
    She nodded and smiled. “I remember him well. When he first came to school, the boys called him Weasel. But they soon quit calling him that.”
    “Don’t tell me he scared them out of it, a man his size.”
    “Mike Anthony put a stop to it. They were inseparable.” She frowned. “How do you know how big Duane is? Where did you meet him?”
    “In Donegal Bay.”
    “I knew you would go up there. Did you find Corey?”
    “Not up there. But I phoned the Raleighs, and Mr. Raleigh told me Corey is in Lompoc now. Your old classmate Mike Anthony runs a bar in Donegal Bay. I wonder if Felicia spent the night with him.”
    Jan smiled. “Felicia—does that mean faithful?”
    I shook my head. “You’re thinking of Fidelia. Felicia means happiness.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “How do I always know? I looked it up.”
    I was making a lot of assumptions on Corey’s case that were based on the obvious. The obvious is one of my strengths (or weaknesses). I was assuming facts not in evidence,