weeks ago. He said he’d finally hit the jackpot.”
“Another water-taxi service?”
“No, this was different. This time he wouldn’t tell me what it was exactly. He just said that as soon as he made his first bigchunk of change we would get married, and then I would never have to worry about money again.”
“Was he involved with someone locally? Like, in a business deal or something?”
“I don’t know. He spent a lot of time at the bar with Russell and the other guys, shooting pool, but that was nothing new.”
“Russell?”
“Russell Lynch. One of his old friends.”
“Did he have many friends in the area?”
“A few. There’s not much to do in Kawshek. ’Round five o’clock every afternoon, folks start coming in from the water. Most of them hang out in either the bar or the store. In a way, everybody is friends with everybody else.”
“I understand.”
Shayna let out a deep breath, pushing her new bangs from her forehead. She looked exhausted.
“What about Hank?” I asked.
“Hank?”
“The guy you had been dating before Eddie Ray came back to town.”
“How’d you know about him?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Gossip. Weren’t you dating him previously?”
“We went out a few times,” she said, “but I kind of broke it off.”
“Why?”
This time she shrugged.
“Hank’s a fisherman. Ready to live his life out in Kawshek in a little one-room apartment. I don’t want that life. I want out of here. So I stopped things before they ever really got started.”
“Do you think he could’ve killed Eddie Ray? Out of jealousy?”
Shayna actually laughed out loud.
“Hank Hawkins? He wouldn’t kill a fly with a flyswatter. No, there’s no way. He may look tough, but he’s really very sweet, likea giant teddy bear. We broke up a couple days before Eddie Ray came back. There were no hard feelings.”
I nodded, doubt still lingering in my mind. I tried to picture Hank as I had seen him last night, ruddy and huge, with that nasty scar across his chin.
In any event, I knew our time here was just about out, so I approached things from a different tack, concentrating back on Eddie Ray’s latest plan for making big bucks.
“Shayna, do you think it’s possible Eddie Ray was working as a mule again?”
I thought that if he had been a drug runner before, there was a chance he was involved with something like that again. In an area like the Chesapeake, where hundreds of ships from all over the world passed by on the waterways every day, smuggling had to be rampant. The kind of people involved with drug smuggling probably wouldn’t think twice about committing murder—or stuffing a dead body into the nearest trunk.
“I doubt it,” she replied. “He hated smuggling before. Besides, he never made much money from it anyway.”
I asked her other questions about Eddie Ray’s moneymaking plan, insisting he had to have let something about it slip, even if he’d primarily kept her in the dark. She thought for a while before finally looking up at me in surprise, her eyes wide.
“The nickel!” she said. “It all started with the nickel!”
“The nickel?”
She nodded vigorously.
“Callie, there was this thing, this little wooden disk, shaped like a coin. On one side it said ‘Don’t take any wooden nickels.’ I think with a picture of an Indian’s head. And on the other side was an advertisement for something. A website, maybe. Something about treasure.”
“Treasure?”
“Buried treasure. I thought it was hokey, but Eddie Ray took the nickel, and then pretty soon after that he started acting all secretive and weird.”
I sat back, stumped. Buried treasure?
“Where did this wooden nickel come from?” I asked.
“From you!”
I pulled back, surprised.
“Me?”
“Yeah, sort of.” Shayna looked down, her face coloring. “In the blazer you gave me, the first time I went to Advancing Attire. There was a little pocket, up here,” she said, patting her chest,
“Another water-taxi service?”
“No, this was different. This time he wouldn’t tell me what it was exactly. He just said that as soon as he made his first bigchunk of change we would get married, and then I would never have to worry about money again.”
“Was he involved with someone locally? Like, in a business deal or something?”
“I don’t know. He spent a lot of time at the bar with Russell and the other guys, shooting pool, but that was nothing new.”
“Russell?”
“Russell Lynch. One of his old friends.”
“Did he have many friends in the area?”
“A few. There’s not much to do in Kawshek. ’Round five o’clock every afternoon, folks start coming in from the water. Most of them hang out in either the bar or the store. In a way, everybody is friends with everybody else.”
“I understand.”
Shayna let out a deep breath, pushing her new bangs from her forehead. She looked exhausted.
“What about Hank?” I asked.
“Hank?”
“The guy you had been dating before Eddie Ray came back to town.”
“How’d you know about him?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Gossip. Weren’t you dating him previously?”
“We went out a few times,” she said, “but I kind of broke it off.”
“Why?”
This time she shrugged.
“Hank’s a fisherman. Ready to live his life out in Kawshek in a little one-room apartment. I don’t want that life. I want out of here. So I stopped things before they ever really got started.”
“Do you think he could’ve killed Eddie Ray? Out of jealousy?”
Shayna actually laughed out loud.
“Hank Hawkins? He wouldn’t kill a fly with a flyswatter. No, there’s no way. He may look tough, but he’s really very sweet, likea giant teddy bear. We broke up a couple days before Eddie Ray came back. There were no hard feelings.”
I nodded, doubt still lingering in my mind. I tried to picture Hank as I had seen him last night, ruddy and huge, with that nasty scar across his chin.
In any event, I knew our time here was just about out, so I approached things from a different tack, concentrating back on Eddie Ray’s latest plan for making big bucks.
“Shayna, do you think it’s possible Eddie Ray was working as a mule again?”
I thought that if he had been a drug runner before, there was a chance he was involved with something like that again. In an area like the Chesapeake, where hundreds of ships from all over the world passed by on the waterways every day, smuggling had to be rampant. The kind of people involved with drug smuggling probably wouldn’t think twice about committing murder—or stuffing a dead body into the nearest trunk.
“I doubt it,” she replied. “He hated smuggling before. Besides, he never made much money from it anyway.”
I asked her other questions about Eddie Ray’s moneymaking plan, insisting he had to have let something about it slip, even if he’d primarily kept her in the dark. She thought for a while before finally looking up at me in surprise, her eyes wide.
“The nickel!” she said. “It all started with the nickel!”
“The nickel?”
She nodded vigorously.
“Callie, there was this thing, this little wooden disk, shaped like a coin. On one side it said ‘Don’t take any wooden nickels.’ I think with a picture of an Indian’s head. And on the other side was an advertisement for something. A website, maybe. Something about treasure.”
“Treasure?”
“Buried treasure. I thought it was hokey, but Eddie Ray took the nickel, and then pretty soon after that he started acting all secretive and weird.”
I sat back, stumped. Buried treasure?
“Where did this wooden nickel come from?” I asked.
“From you!”
I pulled back, surprised.
“Me?”
“Yeah, sort of.” Shayna looked down, her face coloring. “In the blazer you gave me, the first time I went to Advancing Attire. There was a little pocket, up here,” she said, patting her chest,
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