The Clam Bake Murder: A Windward Bay Mystery Read Online Free

prepared to face it.
    “I’m sorry to tell you—she’s dead. Her body was found in the bay a few hours ago.”
    The words pierced deeply and icily. Hearing them from the lips of the Chief of Police suddenly made the news feel too real and unreal at the same time, like the time Uncle Sean had told us his cancer was inoperable, that the time he had left was shorter than a baseball season.
    “But...but I was with her yesterday. At the clam bake. We drank appletinis together.”
    Kramer sneezed, then apologized for the timing.
    “We’re trying to piece together everything that happened from that point on,” Mattson explained. “Specifically, what caused the fight between her husband and Ray Moreno. And where everyone went afterwards. Is there anything you can tell us, Sylvia? Please, take your time. I know how hard this is.”
    Mentally rewinding the series of events at the Cache found way too many gaps. We’d been idiots, Alice and me. We’d gotten drunk, we’d said and done idiot things, and somewhere in there Ray, another idiot, had appeared, which had prompted Gordo, arguably the biggest idiot of us all, to fly off the handle. But I decided to water it down for my official statement. “Alice and Ray had words, I remember that. A lot of that stuff goes a long way back, as I’m sure you’ll remember.”
    “When you say they had words, what prompted it? Who triggered the argument?”
    “I honestly can’t remember. But I think, no, I’m pretty sure, Alice was shooting her mouth off—that’s what got Ray annoyed. And it just snowballed from there. The next thing, Gordo chinned Ray, and the two of them went at it.”
    “So Gordo attacked Ray?”
    “Yes, he struck the first blow. I guess we should have seen it coming.”
    The Chief tilted his head to one side. “Why do you say that? Did Ray and Gordo know each other?”
    “Um, not that I know of. I mean they must have been aware of each other, through Alice. But I don’t think they’d ever actually met, not properly.”
    “Then why should you have seen it coming?” asked Kramer.
    “Well, because of Gordo. What he was like.”
    “How do you mean?”
    I scrambled to get it all straight in my mind: the bits and pieces Alice had spilled, the gaps my intuition had filled in, the fact that she wasn’t going to be able to answer these questions in her own words. It was up to me to speak for her.
    “Based on what she told me yesterday—and she only hinted, mind—I think Gordo has been an abusive husband. I think he’s controlled her, manipulated her, and I think he drove her nearly out of her mind. That’s why I started us on the appletinis. She was so uptight and scared of what he’d say, I had to get her loose. I had to remind her what the old Alice used to be like. And for a while there, we were those kids again. I’m glad about that. I’m glad she got to experience that before...yeah.
    “But it only emphasised how much she’d changed since she’d married Gordo. I’m telling you, it was tough to recognise her, and I’m her cousin.”
    The two officers were very thorough, very patient with their questions, and didn’t leave till they were satisfied I’d told them everything I could remember. On their way out, they promised to be in touch. But I realised they hadn’t told me much of anything, and damn it, Alice was my cousin. “So you have Gordo in custody, right?”
    “Actually, no. I should have mentioned that,” replied Mattson. “He’s missing. We have an APB out on him. But if he should contact you, for whatever reason, ring my office right away. Is that okay, Sylvia?”
    “That part is, Chief. But I’d like a little more information before you go. I felt Alice was reaching out to me at the clam bake, in her own troubled way, and I want to do everything I can to help with the case. She would want me to.”
    Mattson shook his head emphatically. “Not a good idea. With Gordo McNair being such a big shot, the State Police will want