Free Huckleberry Finished by Livia J. Washburn Page B

I’d never thought that bar peanuts were particularly sanitary, but right then I didn’t care. I picked up a handful and forced myself to eat them slowly.
    â€œWhat happened?” Mark asked. “Why did the captain want to see you?”
    I wasn’t sure how much I ought to tell him. Detective Travis probably wanted the facts of the murder kept quiet while she was conducting her investigation. On the other hand, the rumor that somebody had been killed would be all over the boat by morning. I was sort of surprised that it wasn’t already.
    As I hesitated, Mark went on, “This has something to do with the police coming on the boat a little while ago, doesn’t it?”
    â€œYou know about the police being here?”
    â€œThe word went around the crew pretty quickly,” he said with a nod. “You can’t keep trouble quiet.”
    That was true enough. So I said, “One of the passengers was killed.”
    Mark’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” he said, then shook his head and went on, “Sorry. Of course you wouldn’t kid about something like that. Do you know what happened? Was it an accident?”
    â€œThe police are looking into that now.” That was sort of skimming past giving him a truthful answer, but it wasn’t an outright lie, either. “Captain Williams notified me because it was one of my clients.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œBen Webster.”
    I didn’t see any sign of recognition in Mark’s eyes when I told him the name. There was no reason for him to know who Ben Webster was. I hadn’t told him about the run-in Webster had had in the casino that afternoon.
    â€œThat’s terrible,” Mark said, slowly shaking his head. “You say the police are investigating?”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œThe Hannibal PD?”
    â€œThat’s right. A detective named Travis. And they have people from the State Police there, too.”
    Mark nodded. “Crime scene techs, more than likely. Small-town departments usually aren’t equipped to handle murder investigations without some outside help.”
    â€œI didn’t say it was murder,” I pointed out.
    â€œNo, but the possibility must exist. The local cops wouldn’t have called in the State Police if it was an obvious case of accidental death or suicide.”
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “For an actor, you seem to know a lot about police investigations.”
    â€œI used to be a lawyer, remember?”
    I did recall that, now that he mentioned it. “Criminal law?”
    â€œSome people say all lawyers are criminals,” he replied with a grin. “But yeah, the firm I worked for handled a lot of criminal cases.”
    â€œSo you were a defense attorney.”
    He shrugged. I could understand why he didn’t want to come right out and admit it. A lot of people didn’t like defense attorneys. Me, I just wished society didn’t have any need for them. Divorce lawyers, too.
    But I didn’t want to start brooding about that. Anyway, I was pretty much over my divorce, and there were plenty of other things going on to occupy my attention. So I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and said, “Well, I don’t care what you used to do. Now you’re Mark Twain.”
    â€œThat’s right. And Twain said everyone is a moon and has a dark side that he never shows to anybody.”
    I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, so I ate some more peanuts. “Is there anywhere on this boat a person can get an actual meal at this time of night?”
    â€œI suppose we could raid the galley. I’d invite you back to my cabin for a late supper, but we just met, and besides, I don’t have any food there anyway.”
    I was sort of glad he didn’t invite me to his cabin. I wasn’t sure what my answer would have been. There was a 99 percent chance I would have declined, but I didn’t quite