“That means calling Florida for every record available,” Dan reminded him.
“I will get everything transferred,” Ryder promised. He looked at them both. “I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry,” he said to Katie.
She nodded. “Thank you. If you need me to describe what happened, what I found on the boat that day, I can do so.”
“I don’t see a need to make you go through that now, Miss Delaney. When I’ve read all the reports...well, I may ask you to come back in.”
Katie nodded. There was nothing else she could do. She stood. “Thank you,” she said to Ryder. It somewhat pained her, but she turned to Dan Oliver, who had risen as well, and said “Thank you” again.
Ryder also rose. They all just stood there for a few seconds, and Katie turned to leave at last but then turned back.
“Are you a cop here now?” she asked Dan.
He seemed to take a long time to answer. “Private investigator.”
“Ah. Well, please, don’t forget, if I can give you anything at all, do call me.”
She didn’t ask them to keep her abreast of any information.
She was just a civilian. They wouldn’t tell her anything.
She headed out of the office and the police station at last.
Outside, she walked to her car, a little SUV that allowed her to tool around the city, including the French Quarter, with comparative ease.
Sitting in the vehicle, she couldn’t help but relive the awful day when her parents had been killed. And the trial when George had been accused of the Orlando murders.
Something inside told her the killer was the same.
And while a half dozen law-enforcement agencies had searched for information on Dr. Neil Browne and Jennie, nothing, nothing had been discovered on them. They might have been ghosts—except they hadn’t been. They’d been flesh and blood.
They had either become shark food in the Atlantic, or...
They had been the killers. George said he didn’t know much about them. Yes, he had said they were friends. He and Anita had met them at a dockside bar in Coconut Grove. They’d been so nice. They’d claimed they were from New York. Thinking back, he’d never even asked if they were from New York State or New York City. They had simply been so friendly, so engaging, that George had asked her dad if it was all right to ask them out on the diving adventure they’d planned.
She was startled, jumping in the driver’s seat, by a tap on her window.
She turned. It was Dan Oliver.
Katie rolled down the window.
“It’s the same guy,” he said flatly. “Or duo. I don’t think more than two people could be involved.”
“George didn’t do it,” she said.
He shrugged. “Let’s hope he didn’t. I mean, your testimony was so passionate, I’m pretty sure it’s the reason he got off.”
She forced a smile over clenched teeth.
“Or he might have gotten off because you had nothing but circumstantial evidence.”
“Well, if it proves he’s not in New Orleans, I’ll believe you.”
“George isn’t in New Orleans. After the trial, he said he was moving far away. He wanted to forget everything, change careers even, anything that could fill his mind with something else. He...he hasn’t stayed in touch. He needed a new life.” She hesitated. “I know he lived just about a block away from the house where the people were murdered in Orlando. And he was on the boat when my parents were killed. But George isn’t a killer. I knew him well.”
He nodded. “Well, you might prove to be right. One way or another, I sincerely believe we need to rehash everything. Something has to give this guy away.”
She nodded.
But Dan didn’t leave. After a moment, he said, “I have a question. I still don’t understand how George knew nothing at all about what happened when, as you said, he was on the boat.”
Katie sighed. “Yes, he was on the boat. He knew another boat was approaching, but Anita was coming up on the dive platform, and the other boat was sidling along on the forward port side. I’m sure you read his testimony.” She paused. “According to George, Anita came up worried because the two of us had become separated. My father was a stickler for diving dos and don’ts, such as you always dive with a partner. So George was talking to Anita, trying to calm her down, assure her I did know what I was doing. Next thing he knows, he gets a blow to the head. He was still looking at his wife, in midsentence. Then nothing. He woke up on the beach with vague memories of realizing he was in the water and had to survive somehow. How he got there, I don’t know. Luckily, somehow, maybe he grabbed onto a piece of flotsam, and it brought him in to Annie’s Beach. He’s a great swimmer and diver—or he was. He’s like me now. He hasn’t been in the water since. Anyway, he made it to Annie’s Beach. That’s where he was found. He was airlifted to the hospital on the mainland. His doctors can tell you that he sustained a serious blow to the head.” She paused again, staring at him hard. “You know all this. You have every report on what happened. You have his statement. I don’t understand what it is you don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand a blow to the head,” he said. “There were six people on the boat. Your parents, George and Anita, and the mysterious Dr. Browne and Jennie Whoever. Browne and Jennie, disappeared. Your parents and Anita, dead. And George, alive, survived an axe murderer and the open ocean all the way to the beach while only semiconscious?”
“Think what you want. This is going to make you think again,” she said.
“Maybe your good buddy will prove to be innocent,” he said. “I promise you, though, whether he had anything to do with any of the murders or not, I won’t stop this time. I won’t stop until we have the truth and solid, irrefutable evidence.”
“But you’re not even a cop anymore. Or an agent of any kind.”
“No, I’m not. I’m a licensed private investigator.”
“And living in New Orleans?” she asked dryly.
“Yeah. I have family here, too.”
“Right,” she muttered. “You knew I was here. Is that why you came?”
“What?”
“Were you following me after the trial, trying to see if I’d crack or something?”
“What? No, God no! I told you, I have family here. Don’t be so...full of yourself!”
She controlled her temper and gave him an icy smile. “Right. Well, anyway, excuse me. I need to get back to work. I’m sure you do, too. Private eye, huh? Guess you’re on the big cases!” she said in a mocking tone.