Janine Marie - Rigging a Murder 01 - The Single Shoe Mystery Read Online Free

us. I think we were all wondering the same thing—was this the hired captain or the owner? Yet as soon as this man had stepped out it was clear that he was the owner, and by his docking job in wind, current, pelting rain, and very little visibility, it was clear that he knew how to run his boat… pardon me, I should say yacht, as a 100-foot Hatteras is definitely a yacht.
    “Hi Trent,” came the accented deep voice. “Thank you all for being so kind in moving your boats. I know the maximum size is 55 feet and I can’t thank you enough for being so accommodating, it’s my wife you see, she doesn’t enjoy boating.” He stopped there, as if that was a reasonable explanation for the huge boat needing to tie up to a dock. These boats can easily ride out storms, especially in such a protected basin as we were in. They have water makers and loud generators, as they require tons of power to run all their electronics.
    “You are all Yacht Club members,” he continued looking at our dropping wet burgees dropping in the rain.
    “Yes, I’m Thomas Jags,” said my husband, “and this is my wife Janeva and our good friends Greg and Stephanie Writeman,” breaking the silence that this man’s presence seemed to uncharacteristically induce in us.
    “Always a pleasure to meet fellow Yacht Club members,” he said in an accent I now recognized as Italian. “My name is Lorenzo and I insist you all join us for dinner tonight.”
    “Thank you, but we couldn’t possibly,” started Steph.
    “No, I insist. Our cook is excellent and we have plenty of food.”
    “What time?” asked Trent eagerly, clearly not wanting us to talk Lorenzo out of his generous offer.
    “Excellent, Trent! I look forward to seeing your lovely wife again.” Looking at his watch, the big Italian pronounced, “See you all at 7 pm” with finality and turned to leave. I realized that he had taken Trent’s reply to speak for us all.
    “Excuse me, Lorenzo, but we have an 11-year-old daughter,” I ventured to say.
    “Good. I’ll have the Wii set up for her.” he replied over his shoulder as he walked away.
    We turned back to our boats feeling a bit stunned. It was like being summoned!
    Back on Greg and Stephanie’s boat we crowded around the Yacht Club yearbook to find out Lorenzo’s last name.
    “Who is he,” asked Thomas, “and how did he make his fortune?”
    “Italian” was all I could think to add.
    “He knows how to run his boat,” added Greg with appreciation
    “Well I don’t know about you, but if we’re going for dinner on a yacht tonight I’m going to have a shower and do my hair,” I said, running a hand over my wet head.
    “Groan…what will we wear?” Steph added.
    “The best I have is a sundress,” I laughed, thinking of the pouring rain.
    Later, Steph and I surveyed each other. We had shared various scarves and jewelry, and were rather pleased with the result.
    “You look very elegant,” said Steph as I spun around for inspection. “Definitely the brown flip flops” she finished.
    I had borrowed a tan sweater to go over the thin straps of my brown-and-gold Tommy Bahama sundress, added a silver necklace, and put my hair up, since no matter how much I tried it still looked frizzy from all the rain. But the end result was surprisingly good.
    “So do you,” I replied surveying her up and down. “That dress really looks great on you. I think I’ll have to give it to you now because it has never looked like that good on me!” I had loaned Steph a straight, ankle-length grey sundress. She had added a folded dark blue sarong over her shoulders and looked great. People often remark that Steph and I could be sisters. We’re about the same height, and we both have medium-length light brown hair with the obligatory highlights; the main difference is that Steph is a few years older than I am and where I have soft curves she is lean and athletic.
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    “Permission to come aboard!” Greg yelled, as we