CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
pulled up to the marina, parked Jordie's car, and checked my phone before getting out. There was a message from my father telling me that he was still waiting to hear from the city desk about the questions he'd posed to the report about Lydia's law firm dealings, and there was a call from Dax with no message. I assumed he must have butt-dialed me, so I deleted it and got out of the car.
Roger's car was parked over in the far corner of the lot, and it was locked. I knocked on the trunk, feeling foolish for my detective show suspicions, but thought that it was better to be safe than sorry. "Roger?" I called a couple of times, and when no one answered, I moved on.
It was a cool evening and the sun had just begun to set. The water glowed with pinky-orange light that reflected on the sails of the boats in the harbor. I walked down the path to the manager's office and knocked on the door. When no one answered, I peered through the window to see if there was any movement. I saw nothing, so I decided to explore on my own.
As soon as I set foot on the dock, I cursed myself for not having gone home and changed clothes. The heels of my stilettos, while great for indoor surfaces in an office, stuck between the weathered boards of the dock and made it difficult to move quickly. I had the urge to take them off, but it didn't seem like a good idea to walk barefoot on the rough wood. I settled for walking a little slower than I wanted to.
Surprisingly, there didn't appear to be much activity on the dock. I would have guessed that on a day as nice as this, there would have been a lot of people out using their boats. Since I'd never owned or even sailed a boat, I assumed that my knowledge was lacking. It was peaceful in the harbor as I walked around, looking for a sign of Roger.
"Roger?" I called as I walked down the dock. I wasn't sure if he was still around or if he'd gone off with some woman he'd met. For all I knew, he had hitched a ride down the coast with some hippie surfer and was catching a wave in Malibu after marrying her at a little chapel. I silently cursed him if he was doing those things because it would prove once and for all that he was an irresponsible jerk who couldn't be trusted to run a business – and it would make me feel like an old fuddy-duddy who was boring and predictable.
I checked out a few boats and quickly saw the difference between ones that were actually being used and the ones that sat in the harbor for show. I walked down the second offshoot on the dock and saw a boat with its sails still up and its deck wet from what looked like someone scrubbing it. The name on the side read Isabella and when I called out, "Roger? You in there?" I heard some kind of noise coming from the boat. I waited a few seconds and then called again, "Roger?" Again, I heard a noise coming from what sounded like the interior of the boat.
I looked around to see if anyone was watching and then stepped up onto the deck. It took a moment for me to get my footing, as the water made the boat rock back and forth and the heels I was wearing didn't help matters. I quickly reached down and pulled them off, pushing them off to the side where no one would trip over them if there were others on this boat.
"Roger?" I called. "You on this boat?"
This time, I heard a distinct pounding coming from someplace under the deck. I looked around and saw a door that most likely led down to the cabin below. I knocked and then pulled it open and descended down into the belly of the boat.
"Roger?" I called quietly. I heard a pounding sound on the other side of the door at the opposite end of the cabin. I tiptoed over and listened to the door before turning the knob and pulling it open. Out fell Roger, wearing nothing but his boxers, bound and tied with orange rope and gagged with a bikini top that was tied behind his head. I burst out laughing because he looked like part of a porn flick gone horribly wrong.
"What the hell happened, Rog?" I laughed as I reached around and untied the bikini so he could talk.
"Brooke! Look out!" he yelled, just before everything went dark.