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“I didn’t go down into the hull, so I couldn’t tell you whether the bomb was there or not,” Ted said. “But I took a group of sightseers all around Orcas Island, and we had no problems.”
“Who was your crew?”
“Cal McKinnon. He works full-time, year-round. He didn’t do this.”
“We have to talk with everyone. Cal passed our initial background check, but he canceled his shift last minute on Friday.”
“Cal and his fiancée had an argument. He didn’t get into what it was about, but Jamie had left, taking off to her dad’s place on the other side of the island with their daughter, and Cal wasn’t handling it well. I was surprised, to be honest, because Cal and Jamie have been together for five years, almost since Cal moved to the island. They’re not, I don’t know how to say it, a problem couple.”
Lynn said, “What Ted means is they don’t have drama. The idea of them arguing about anything substantive is almost laughable.”
John asked, “Did Cal tell you what the argument was about?”
Ted shook his head. “I didn’t ask, just told him if he needed anything to let me know. Cal is family. Not by blood, but family just the same.”
Matt didn’t see a motive yet, but Cal might know more than he was saying. The charge of “accessory after the fact” could be a powerful motivator to encourage someone to talk.
Which brought up another problem with small communities—they tended to protect each other. They didn’t want to believe the worst of their neighbors, and the idea that someone they knew could have killed nine people was foreign to them.
“And have you talked to IP?” Adam said. “Because they’ve vandalized our property before. Printed libelous accusations in the newspaper. They’ve—”
“Adam,” Ted said. “John knows what he’s doing.”
“They are behind this! I know it. That Valerie bitch—”
“Adam, that’s enough,” Lynn said.
“Donna is stubborn and idealistic,” Ted said, “but she’s not violent.”
“Donna? She has no control over these people.” Adam waved his hand generally toward the front of the building. “Two of her people vandalized our dock last year.”
John said, “And they paid for it, Adam. They’re still on probation.”
Adam wasn’t backing down. “It cost over seventy thousand dollars to repair and the insurance doesn’t cover all of it. Not to mention our rates went up because of all the little bullshit those people have done to our property—things we couldn’t get them on.”
“They’re paying restitution,” John said. “Graffiti and chanting is a long way from murder.”
“Maybe they didn’t plan for anyone to be on the boat,” Adam said. “It malfunctioned or something and went off.”
Matt didn’t need people to start speculating and talking about this outside of the investigation. He said, “We are investigating every threat made to West End. What I need from you is information. You gave the sheriff all the threats you’ve received, correct?”
“Yes,” Lynn said. “I’ve been tracking them, and anything that seems over-the-top I send to John right away. On Saturday, I gave him copies of everything we have.”
“Have there been threats aimed at any of you personally, not specifically the business?”
They all shook their heads.
“If you receive anything—mail, on the phone, a computer message—no matter how innocuous, I need to see it. No one has taken credit for the bombing, which suggests it’s probably not politically motivated. We’re also looking into the lives of each of the victims. Other than Neil and Kyle, did you personally know anyone else on the boat?”
“I knew Pierce Jeffries pretty well since he bought vacation property here on the island five years ago, after he married Madelyn,” Ted said. “He wanted to retire here, at least part-time, but that was years from now. He’s a good man. Both him and his wife are avid sailors. We had a lot in common, so sometimes had a drink at the West End club. He shared business advice freely—he could have charged a fortune for his counsel. In fact, two years ago, when we had the recall issue that ended up leaking oil and caused IP to target us in the first place, he gave me a game plan to fix the problem, both on the business end and the PR end. I followed it to a T, and we’ve been doing very well, even after the economy tanked.”
That was Matt’s unasked question. Though he wouldn’t rely solely on Ted Colfax’s assessment—he wanted outside verification of West End’s financial strength.
“And did you know Madelyn Jeffries?”
“Pierce never came to the island without her. Quiet, beautiful young woman, very nice. I didn’t know her as well as I knew Pierce, but he seemed devoted.”
“And what about his family? Was there friction that he married someone that much younger than him?”
