Chapter 6 - Someone Remembered the Red Boat
The next morning I drove to Lake Mercer.
Not to a lawyer.
Not to the police.
Not yet.
I went to see Frank Delaney.
Frank had maintained boats at that marina for thirty-two years. He had known Claire since she was twelve.
When I showed him the blue-and-red fragment, he turned it over twice.
His face changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“Owen built a toy with it.”
“That isn’t toy wood.”
“I know.”
Frank rubbed his thumb over the red streak.
Then looked at me.
“You remember Travis’s old runabout?”
I did.
Small.
Fast.
Red hull.
He sold it shortly after Claire died.
My mouth went dry.
Frank continued.
“I always wondered why he sold that thing so quickly.”
“Why?”
Frank hesitated.
“Because I saw it that night.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“Claire left in Blue Heron. Maybe ten minutes later, Travis and Natalie took the red boat out.”
Every sound around us seemed to disappear.
“That’s impossible.”
Frank shook his head.
“No. It’s what I saw.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Nobody asked me whether Travis took another boat. Police asked when I last saw Claire. I told them. By the time I realized his statement said he stayed ashore, the case was already being treated like an accident.”
I looked down at the red streak.
For the first time, the simplest explanation became the most frightening one.
A second boat had been on the lake.
A red one.
May you like
And both people who had denied being there were now raising Claire’s son together.
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