Lethal Legend (9 page)

“Why didn’t they row around to this cove and make the dive as soon as they’d checked the equipment?” Diana asked.

“Graham wanted to be present. He said he had some business to take care of first.” Miss Dunbar was careful not to meet Graham Somener’s eyes. Somener himself kept mum, busying himself with drying his hair and beard with a corner of his blanket.

An ugly suspicion crossed Diana’s mind. Where had Graham Somener gone after the midday meal? She was all but certain there had been a romantic relationship between Miss Dunbar and Mr. Ennis. Had Somener been jealous? Had he—

“You’ll have to send for the sheriff,” Ben said, interrupting her chain of thought. “It’s up to him and the county coroner to decide whether Ennis’s death was accidental or not.”

“Damnation, Ben. An investigation into a suspicious death is the last thing I need.” A mulish expression on his face, Somener looked ready to argue against it till doomsday, but Ben was not about to change his mind about reporting a crime.

“If there is even the slightest chance he was murdered, you have no choice but to report his death to the law.”

“It can’t have been deliberate,” Somener insisted. “If it was, that would make one of us a cold-blooded killer.”

“Precisely.” Leaning on Diana, Ben removed his wet, sand-caked stockings and shoved his bare feet into his congress boots.

“Your friend Mrs. Spaulding managed to creep ashore without being noticed,” Somener said. “Someone else may have, too.”

“If so, then the authorities will find signs of it.” Handing the blanket to Diana, Ben shrugged back into his coat.

Diana studied each of the company in turn: Ben’s old friend Graham, Miss Dunbar, Mr. Carstairs, George Amity, Mrs. Monroe, MacDougall, and Landrigan. Their faces were singularly unrevealing and no one obliged her by blurting out a confession.    

“I don’t like the idea of police tramping all over my island.”

“You don’t have to like it, Graham. Neither do you have any choice. You aren’t a sovereign nation. Keep Island is part of Hancock County. When the
Miss Min
arrives, tell the captain to go for the sheriff. He’ll call in the county attorney and the coroner. I expect they’ll want to come here to view the body and they’ll bring with them at least six local men in order to make up a coroner’s jury.”

“That’s unacceptable. And unnecessary. Just ship the body and the diving gear to the mainland and let them look into things there.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Graham. The law—”

“If you want the law involved so badly, Ben, go and fetch the sheriff yourself. Captain Cobb’s got his own schedule to keep.”

“None of us, myself included, should leave here until the coroner has been and gone.”

“The sheriff’s in Ellsworth. My steamboat is berthed in Bucksport.”

“For God’s sake, Graham. A man has been murdered!” Mutually disgusted with each other, the two men strode off in opposite directions. Somener’s blanket, wrapped around him like a cape, flapped as he went.

“Why is Mr. Somener being so stubborn about this?” Diana murmured, addressing no one in particular. He had been more forthcoming than Miss Dunbar, but only in spurts. That hair-trigger temper of his alarmed her and he seemed unduly concerned about keeping people away from his island.

They’d all gravitated to one spot, as if to draw comfort from each other in the aftermath of tragedy, and had ended up standing in a cluster halfway between the body and the two quarreling men. In spite of their proximity, Diana was surprised when Prudence Monroe answered her question.

“He values his privacy,” the housekeeper said.

Or he had something to hide, Diana thought.

“A true friend would understand Graham’s reluctance to have strangers come here,” said Serena Dunbar.

“I am sure Ben understands perfectly,” Diana shot back, “but there are principles at stake. Ben believes in abiding by the law. He’s sworn to uphold it in Bangor.” He took his duties as one of that city’s coroners very seriously.

“Not gonna let it go,” George Amity opined, nodding his shaggy head in Ben’s direction. Ben had turned around to pursue Graham Somener. He caught up with him just out of earshot. “Yep. Seen his sort afore. Most times it’s a good thing.”

Moments later, when the two men rejoined the rest of the group, it was clear that Ben had taken charge. “MacDougall will row the tender to the landing,” he announced. “It will be easier to carry the body and diving gear up those stairs than to take them by way of the path,” he explained to the others. “I’ll go with MacDougall. The rest of you—”

“Leave the other boat, if you please,” Miss Dunbar interrupted. Her face was still pale but Diana could now detect not the slightest sign of grief or distress. The lady archaeologist was all business. “We need to clear out the sleeping tent and secure the equipment in the other.” She directed a pointed look at the blanket Graham Somener still had wrapped around his shoulders to ward off a chill. “You look ridiculous, Graham. Frank’s clothing should fit both you and Dr. Northcote. Go borrow his spare trousers and shirts. He certainly has no need of them!”

The others waited in awkward silence until the two men returned in dry clothing. Graham Somener glowered while Ben finished sorting everyone out, but he did not object to the arrangements. Landrigan would stay with Miss Dunbar for protection. Somener, Mrs. Monroe, and Diana would return to the house the way Diana had come.

“I’ll meet you at the steamboat landing,” Ben called to Graham Somener from the tender as Paul Carstairs gave the boat a shove to send it back into the water. “We’ll wait for the
Miss Min
together.”

As Diana watched MacDougall row away, she belatedly remembered the other boat, the dory that might or might not have been spying on them. She scanned the water but there was no sign of it now.

Pointedly ignoring everyone else, Graham Somener strode off in the direction of the path to the promontory. Diana let Mrs. Monroe set their pace, one much slower than Somener’s, but her mind raced ahead.

Murder. Terrible as it was to contemplate, still more appalling was the possibility that Graham Somener had committed the crime. Diana sent Mrs. Monroe a sidelong glance as they picked their careful way over the uneven shore. The woman looked harmless enough, but old family retainers tended to be loyal to the death.

“I did not understand about the
Miss Min
,” Diana ventured, thinking this topic might provide a way to ease into questions about Graham Somener’s motive. “Is there some particular reason for Mr. Somener to object to his captain fetching the sheriff?”

“Steamboat leaves here, she’s supposed to go back to Bucksport. The water route to Ellsworth—that’s the county seat, where the sheriff is—that’s in the opposite direction. Ellsworth’s a ways inland, too, up the Union River from the coast. Makes no sense to send Captain Cobb so far out of his way. Prob’ly take him eight or nine hours to get there.” She picked her way around a boulder, holding her skirts away from the barnacles.

So much for the idea that Graham Somener had deliberately been trying to delay the arrival of the law. “Captain Cobb said he didn’t bring Ben here on the
Miss Min
. Was he telling me the truth?”

“Honest as the day is long, is Amos Cobb. When those men got sick, Mr. Graham took his own boat over to the mainland to send a telegram to Bangor.” She paused in the climb to catch her breath. Her face was flushed, indicating that she was unaccustomed to so much exertion. “Waited for him in Belfast and brought him back himself,” she added after a moment.

“I didn’t realize Mr. Somener had a boat. In fact, I had the impression he never left the island.”

“Where’d you get a fool notion like that?” Mrs. Monroe chuckled. “He just
prefers
to stay here most of the time is all.”

“You’ve known him a long while.”

“Long enough.”

“Would you say he’s an honest man?”

“Why would you think he isn’t?”

“Well, given the evidence, I’d have thought he’d suggest sending for the police himself.”

Frowning, Mrs. Monroe paused again to catch her breath. “‘Spect he was upset by what happened. Not thinking clearly.” Her brow creased in a frown. “Don’t know why else he’d think he’d have to send the
Miss Min
way over to Ellsworth when he’d know the captain could send a telegram from Bucksport.”

Or perhaps Graham Somener had been thinking
very
clearly and had been trying to give himself time to hide evidence. “Seems to me Mr. Somener still hopes to convince people that Mr. Ennis’s death was an accident.”

With a shrug, the older woman resumed walking. “Mr. Ben
could
just sign the death certificate, if he was of a mind to. Save us all a lot of fuss.”

“You don’t know Ben very well if you could think he’d ever do that. It would be the same as condoning murder. If there’s a killer loose on Keep Island, don’t you want him to be caught?”

“Ain’t no madman running wild here! Someone musta come in from away. Or else it
was
just an accident. Makes no sense otherwise.”

“Unless someone had it in for Frank Ennis.”

Ignoring the comment, Mrs. Monroe surged ahead. For the next few minutes, both women needed all their breath for the ascent. Conversation ceased.

Diana emerged at the top of the promontory just in time to spot the
Miss Min
steaming past the cove. She’d have to circle the island to reach the wharf on the north side, but Diana made no attempt to get there ahead of her. If the sheriff could not arrive on to Keep Island any sooner than the next morning, then it seemed certain that she and Ben would not be leaving today.

“I expect I’ll have to spend the night here,” she said to the housekeeper, who had waited for her at the top.

If Mrs. Monroe bore any resentment towards Diana because of her earlier critical comments about Graham Somener, it didn’t show. “I’ll put you in the blue room,” she said, “right next to Miss Dunbar.”

* * * *

Ben went aboard the
Miss Min
as soon as she docked, still wearing Frank Ennis’s trousers and shirt with his own coat and still chilled from his dip in the bay. He quickly apprised Captain Cobb of the situation.

Cobb seemed to take the news, as well as Ben’s odd appearance, in stride. “I’ll send the telegram to Sheriff Fields as soon as I get back to Bucksport,” he promised. “And I’ll go to Mr. Fellows’s house myself.”

Oscar Fellows, Ben recalled, was the county attorney. He’d met him once or twice on social occasions. “I don’t know Fields,” he said to Captain Cobb.

“Dorephus L. Fields. Prob’ly forty-five or so. Ordinary lookin’ fella. Lives in Ellsworth and has done for years. Was a deputy afore he was elected sheriff.” Cobb shrugged. “That’s pretty much all I know ‘bout the fella.”

Ben was about to disembark when he remembered that he had another question for Cobb. “Did you pick up any mail here on Tuesday afternoon?”

“Hasn’t been any outgoing mail in over a week.”

Ben wondered what had happened to his letter to Diana. Obviously someone on the island that day had been responsible for its disappearance. The custom on Keep Island was to leave letters or packages for the mainland in a box at the landing. If Cobb had opened it and found it empty, that meant the letter had been removed between the time Ben placed it there and the arrival of the
Miss Min
. But who? What difference could it possibly make to anyone here if a visiting physician wrote to his fiancée?

That same fiancée was waiting on Graham Somener’s veranda when Ben returned from the dock. Ben led her around to a side door, and after a quick glance to be sure it was unoccupied, escorted her into the room Graham had outfitted with exercise equipment.

   A punching bag hung at the center, showing evidence of hard use. Graham’s fencing foils were housed in a special cabinet on the far wall. He’d been delighted to have the chance to practice, especially with Ben, who had learned the sport from the same teacher.

“We’ll have to stay here overnight,” he said.

“I know.” Diana’s eyes widened as she took in the room’s furnishings. Ben did not suppose she had ever been in a gymnasium before. Such places were the exclusive province of men. She tentatively hefted a five-pound weight and quickly replaced it. “Mrs. Monroe has given me a lovely room.”

“Do you have everything you need?”

“I brought a gripsack. I suppose I should have thought to pack for you, too.”

He looked down at himself and grimaced. “I keep a change of clothing and some toiletries at my surgery, in case I have to stay with a patient overnight. I brought those things with me and Graham generously loaned me everything else I required.” He waited. There was something on Diana’s mind and he doubted it was concern over whether or not he had fresh linen.

“Serena Dunbar and Frank Ennis quarreled twice that I am aware of, once in the infirmary and once on the beach.”

“Professional differences?” he suggested.

“Perhaps. But it appeared to me to be personal. Miss Dunbar called him by his first name.”

Ben had the uneasy feeling he knew where this conversation was headed. “She is an ... unconventional female. I believe she is on a first-name basis with all her crew.”

“She is an
attractive
female. I have no difficulty at all imagining her with more than one suitor. Your friend Graham seems quite taken with her.”

“I did notice that,” he admitted.

“Are his intentions honorable?”

He smiled at the sarcasm in her voice. “They might be.” He took an experimental jab at the punching bag. It had been years since he’d boxed. “I did not ask.” He hit the bag again.

“Then he might have regarded Frank Ennis as a rival.”

“Are you saying you think
Graham
killed Ennis?”

“Jealousy is a powerful motive.”

Giving the bag one last poke, Ben turned to face Diana. “It seems to me that you’ve made a better argument for Serena Dunbar to have killed Ennis. She might have been afraid he would interfere in her plans. Marriage to a rich man is a tempting prospect for any woman.”

She punched
him
on the shoulder. Hard. “All right, Ben. Let them
both
be suspects. But you must admit that Mr. Somener exhibits contradictory behavior.”