so drama these days.”
“I already told you that these hands carry exactly two things when I’m wearing camo—guns and dead things. I’m guessing neither would be appropriate for a wedding.”
Gertie threw her hands in the air and flopped into a chair as Ida Belle poured them some coffee. They both looked as bad off as I felt.
“Looks like we could all use another round of sleep,” I said.
“I had cucumbers on my eyes for thirty minutes,” Gertie said. “I finally gave up and pulled out the Preparation H.”
Ida Belle gave her a look of dismay. “Those kinds of problems have nothing to do with a lack of sleep. And we don’t want to hear about them.”
“I put it on my eyes,” Gertie said. “It reduces inflammation. Doesn’t matter if it’s your eyes or the thing you don’t want to talk about. Those beauty pageant girls have been doing it for years. I’ve told you about this.”
“I probably zoned out when you got to the Preparation H part,” Ida Belle said.
Gertie shook her head and looked over at me. “I have some in my purse if you’d like a swipe before Carter sees you looking like a Walking Dead extra.”
“Carter has already seen me,” I said. “I sent that text right after he left and since he didn’t look any better than we do, I’m calling it an equal rights thing and moving on. Plus, I don’t care, which pretty much solves everything.”
Gertie looked at Ida Belle and sighed. “She’s you. A younger, better, prettier you.”
Ida Belle grinned.
“So what did Carter have to say?” Ida Belle asked. “Are we on search duty again? What time are they starting?”
“They’re not,” I said and relayed what Carter had told me. They both frowned but neither seemed surprised by the news.
“I figured we’d go out and do our own thing, though,” I said. “I mean, if you think that’s the best plan.”
“What do you think?” Ida Belle asked. “Does this feel like something more than an accident?”
I shrugged. “I don’t have enough information to know. But I don’t like it. Molly seemed more than capable of handling herself but if you combine her disappearance with that phone call, then it doesn’t sound good. I’d love to know if that blood on the anchor was Molly’s. Because if it was, and it was recent, then no way she slipped and hit her head on it, then fell overboard but somehow managed to put it back in the storage bench before she drowned.”
“Seems like a really stupid thing to do if you were the killer,” Gertie said. “Why not just throw it overboard?”
“Because most criminals are dumb as rocks,” Ida Belle said. “And thank God for that.”
“It might be nothing,” I said. “For all we know it could be from fish or an older injury.”
“If Carter keeps investigating, then we’ll know, right?” Gertie asked.
“I thought the same thing earlier,” I said, “but now that I’ve had a couple cups of coffee, I’m not sure. I don’t know anything about insurance and estates and all that legal mess, but I’d think anyone standing to gain would have to have some sort of evidence that Molly was deceased. I mean, the CIA has its own set of criteria for operatives, but I figure it’s got to be worse for civilian cases, which means he’ll need as much information as he can get for a report, right?”
Ida Belle nodded. “It’s one of the biggest problems around here when it comes to drownings. They don’t find the body a lot, and families are stuck trying to prove that if someone didn’t reappear from a boat trip, then they likely aren’t around anymore.”
“How long do they have to wait?” I asked.
“In general, five years,” Ida Belle said. “But if you have circumstances that indicate death is the most likely event, then you can get it pushed through sooner. In this case, she went out on her boat, she’s missing, and if the blood on the side is hers, then that’s an indication of some kind of accident. Then if she doesn’t reappear and there’s no changes to her cell phone, bank accounts, and credit cards, heirs can make a case for having her declared legally dead before that five-year mark.”
“Which is good,” Gertie said. “Can you imagine being a widow with kids to support and having to wait five years for an insurance payout because your husband is a commercial shrimper or fisherman and went missing in a storm? We saw