Free Bring Back Her Body by Stuart Brock

was weak and far away.
    Cain looked at her a moment longer and then started to unbutton his shirt. He was on the second button when there was a flash of legs and she was gone onto the deck. He went into the head and turned on the water to cover his laughing and howled until he was all loose inside. Then, wiping the tears from his eyes, he strode up on deck. Honor was modestly dressed in her skirt and blouse. She sat on the railing with a cigarette.
    “Can I have that coffee now, Cain?”
    He got them each a cup and handed one to her silently. He filled his pipe and took the chair Lisa had vacated, putting his feet on the railing. She wouldn’t look at him; her eyes were studying something important in her coffee cup.
    “I saw her on Whidby last evening.”
    “I thought she’d left there.”
    “I guess she came back.”
    “You had your telescope on her?”
    “No, it was too dark. It was a little before you came. I was over there with the runabout.” She looked at him now. “And Toby saw me!”
    He let her tell it. At first she was disorganized but soon she had it all in order and it came out easily. She had received a telephone call from her sister. Paula had asked her to bring some clothing to Whidby at a certain time and had sworn her to secrecy. Honor took the clothing to the dock on Whidby at the specified time and found Paula there. They talked a few minutes, Honor trying to find out where Paula had been and why she was hiding but had got nowhere.
    “You didn’t learn anything?” Cain asked in surprise.
    “Just that Toby was giving a party but Paula wasn’t going,” Honor said.
    “Did she say why?”
    “No. But if she was hiding, obviously she wouldn’t plan to go.”
    Cain let her go on. She explained that she was curious and a little frightened by Paula’s actions and when she left she went around the point and idled there a while. Before long a launch came from the direction of the peninsula and docked. Figuring she was far enough away not to be seen, Honor swung into open water and looked through her field glasses. Toby had come in the launch and he was on the dock, talking to Paula.
    “How could he see you?” Cain wanted to know.
    “I was right out there in the open,” she said, “and even if it was dusky, I stayed so long that he got suspicious and I saw him put the glasses on me. Like a fool, I ducked and hightailed it for home and that gave everything away.”
    “And then?”
    “I don’t know,” Honor said. “But he saw me and now he knows I know he’s been seeing Paula.”
    “What’s so terrible about that?”
    “After he’s been denying he saw her since that party almost two weeks ago?”
    “What is her relationship with Toby?”
    “I don’t know,” Honor said frankly. “Sometimes I think she’s afraid of him, awfully. But I notice that she hangs around him a lot.”
    “What about Munger? Did she ever mention him?”
    “Yes,” Honor said. “Not long ago she told me he had cheated her.”
    “I can believe that,” Cain said dryly. “It’s hardly news.”
    Honor set down her cup. “All I know is that she said, ‘Damn him! He cheated me, but I’ll get it back if it kills me.’ ”
    There was no more. Cain asked a few questions but Honor had evidently dredged up all that she knew. Her fear, he saw now, was that Toby had killed Paula last night and had done something with her. Honor’s relief that it had been a wax dummy in the coffin had been obvious.
    Cain studied the pinkish-gray cast the setting sun laid over the quieting water of the Sound. Then he said, “Why did you lie to me, Honor? You gave the impression you weren’t sure Paula was around.”
    She looked very lost, very much the small girl. Then she lifted her head and looked defiantly at Cain. “Because Paula’s in some kind of trouble and I want her helped. I — I thought if I could get you to start on the problem, we could find some way to help her.”
    “Because I wouldn’t do it for Paula