Murder in the Raw Read Online Free PDF

performed cosmetic surgery on Sabine five years ago. He called his clinic in Vienna and compared the findings with his records. The blood type was a positive match.”
    “He’s a cosmetic surgeon?”
    “One of the best in Europe.”
    Rex found it surprising that the doctor with the round face and protruding belly was an aesthetic surgeon. He looked more like a psychiatrist or pediatrician.
    They headed back toward the resort, where the beach attendants were putting up the yellow umbrellas.
    Rex pointed to the island in the mouth of the bay. “What’s out there?” he asked Winslow.
    “Just piles of shells and a couple of half-sunken wrecks. You can snorkel across.”
    “What about sharks?”
    “Mostly blacknose and reef sharks. A big barracuda may skim the sand alongside you. He’s just curious. Barracuda won’t bite humans in clear water unless you’re wearing something shiny or swimming in a school of fish. Then they might strike by mistake, same as a shark.”
    Shielding his eyes from the sun, Rex turned to face the direction in which they had come. “What about on the other side, beyond the promontory?”
    “I wouldn’t go out there unless you’re a good swimmer. There’s a strong undertow. Looked calm enough this morning, but the waters around the island can get quite rough, which limits visibility for diving.”
    “Do you dive?”
    “Occasionally. Brook’s my scuba partner. Penny and Sabine used to pair up. We’d go on shark dives where you feed them and they swim between your legs.”
    Rex shuddered. “You’d never catch me doing that.”
    “It does take nerve.”
    “I worry about my son surfing in Florida.”
    “Shark attacks are pretty rare,” Winslow consoled him, unsuccessfully.
    After agreeing to get together later in the day, they diverged in front of the cabanas. As Rex entered his living room through the sliding glass door, Brooklyn was just leaving by the main entrance, dressed in a lightweight suit.
    “I left a couple of croissants in the oven for you and some coffee in the pot.”
    “Thanks. Off to town?”
    “I have a meeting in Philipsburg. Catch you later.”
    Rex took his breakfast to the patio table where the previous day’s Daily Mail was anchored by a conch shell in case of a sudden gust. Ordinarily, he took exception to the tsk-tsk style of the Daily Mail , but today he viewed it as a friend from home and eagerly turned to the Sudoku puzzle, which he completed in eight minutes flat. He wished the mystery of the missing actress were as easy to solve.
    The full sun on the bay gave the effect of a blue mica mosaic. It looked inviting now, beckoning him for a swim. He prepared for the beach. His concession was to wear a white towel about his waist as though partaking of the Turkish baths. He did not feel comfortable conducting an investigation in his birthday suit, although the public nakedness of others bothered him less than he would have thought.
    “The Pillsbury Dough Boy,” Duke Farley joked as Rex passed him on the way to the beach. The Texan said it with a pleasant laugh, and Rex didn’t take offense.
    “You should have seen me before I got to Miami.”
    Farley, in nothing but flip-flops, clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t forget the sunscreen,” he advised. “You don’t wanna get fried.”
    Rex assured him he would do just that and went to find an unclaimed umbrella. The slabs of flesh on the lounge-chairs arranged along the beach reminded him of bodies at a morgue. The women had not gone so far as to discard their jewelry. Mrs. Winslow wore a heavy gold necklace in a Greek key pattern design that must get uncomfortably hot in the sun.
    Sabine Durand’s ankle bracelet had been found beyond the outcrop of rocks. Rex pondered the significance of that. The blood on the torn strip of pareo, discovered in the same location, had proved to belong to her too. Something had happened out there. But what?
    The absence of a body was not necessarily a bar to a murder