Bloody Point Read Online Free Page A

She turned to Jake,
“Rick is a certified captain. He delivers boats for people, you know, when they
buy them one place and want to keep them at another.”
    “They buy ‘em, I sail ‘em!” Maxwell said. “And no, Cassie,
I’m staying right here for now. See you fine people later.” He put his hand to
his brow in an odd semi-salute, then turned and walked away.
    Jake shook his head as he watched him leave. “I don’t know,
Skeet. He sure is different.”
    “Him? Why?” She cocked her head.
    “Kind of prissy, wouldn’t you say?”
    Cassie frowned. “He’s very bright. I’ve known him since high
school.”
    Jake’s eyes narrowed and followed Maxwell all the way to the
parking lot, and even as his car was leaving. “Really? Did you date him?”
    She laughed. “No, he was a player, even then. Wanted me to go
out with him big time but I refused. He went to college, and spent some time in
the Army. My dad said he went to the Middle East for a while. It’s just a
strange coincidence that he ended up working as a captain, and having a boat at
this marina.” She turned her attention to Jake. “So what’s up with you?”
    “Let me see your boat,” he said, avoiding a direct answer.
    She realized she’d just been put off, but what could she do?
“Sure,” she responded. They stepped back on board, and she noticed how much
smaller the sloop felt with more than one person on board. “Come on down,” she
said, leading the way down the companionway and below deck.
    “This is called the salon,” Cassie said. “Those settees, the
couches, make up into beds. The head, bathroom, is in there, and I sleep up
there, in the V-berth.”
    “It’s tight,” Jake grunted. At almost six feet tall, he couldn’t
quite stand up straight.
    “Yep.”
    “No shower?”
    “There’s a shower in the land head.”
    “The what?”
    “There’s a bathroom up near the entrance to the marina. There
are showers there.”
    “How convenient,” Jake muttered.
    “I take it you’re not ready to sign on,” Cassie said as they
emerged again on deck.
    He looked at her, his head tilted. “No offense … but I don’t
know how you can stand it.”
    She laughed. How could she stand it? It was simple, that’s
how. No muss, no fuss, no room for anything. Alone, for the most part. No
furniture to deal with, no neighbors to pretend to be friendly with, none of
the detritus of life, like photos or old movie stubs. Or journals. It was
simple and clean. Cassie motioned to the cockpit seats. “You want to talk?”
    Jake looked around. Over sixty boats bobbed in their slips.
Four slips over, on Cassie’s dock, a man with a bucket was washing down his
craft. Gulls sat on pilings, one after another, like peas in a pod. No other
people were visible but the hatches and ports on several of the boats nearby
were open. “Let’s go someplace more private. Why don’t we go to dinner?”
    They headed north, to a place on the Magothy River that was
one of Cassie’s favorites. “So what’s up with you, Cass? What are your plans?”
Jake asked as they drove.
    “Finish working on the boat.”
    “And then?”
    “Mike had a lot of life insurance. I can live off that until
I figure out what’s next.” She braced herself.
    His silence registered his disapproval. She felt anger rising
in her, even though he hadn’t said anything. Cassie shook her head hard, as if
to dislodge some uncomfortable thought, and turned her eyes toward Jake.
    He was focused on the road. “I got a call from Paul Loughlin,
the fire marshal,” he said. “That boat that burned the last time I came down?
It was arson.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah. He told me somebody tampered with the automatic bilge
switch and some hoses. The bilge filled up with water and when the switch
activated, its spark set off some propane which had settled in the bottom of
the boat.”
    Cassie frowned. “So it was intentional.”
    “Yes, and I just think it’s odd. That guy, Schneider,