Chapter 05

Good to her word and name, Daphne had us sitting in the small lobby of Spiritus Inc at 4:00 PM Monday afternoon. This time the group did not include Scooby Doo. We called ahead with the request to be accompanied by a Great Dane and were presented with a polite but firm 'no'. Apparently, Spiritus Inc was not of a political persuasion that recognized Emotional Support Animals as a 'thing'. Shaggy even had the form that he had downloaded off the internet.

Nothing about the lobby indicated that the owner of the company had enough money to buy a yacht. The walls were 1970's style wood paneling with faded photographs of ships on the walls. The floor was threadbare wall-to-wall carpeting with an odd pattern of mixed orange and brown. And the furniture made me prefer to stand.

There was a little counter sticking out of a hole in a wall next to a door.

Daphne strode confidently to it. "Daphne Blake to see Mr. Pearson."

A middle-aged woman answered "Yes, Ms. Blake. Mr. Pearson is expecting you. Please go through the door to your right and his is the last office on the right."

Daphne flashed her brightest smile. "Thank you so much."

There was no doubt who was going to do the talking on this one.

Daphne led us down the hallway and we found Mr. Pearson standing in the doorway to his office waiting for us. "Miss Blake!... and friends. It is such a pleasure to meet you. Please come in. Would anyone like a soft drink?"

Shaggy started to speak and I kicked him.

Daphne answered for all of us. "No, thank you. We don't want to bother you any longer than we have to."

"Oh, it's no bother at all. Please, have a seat."

The office was a little seedy but large and included a round table with four chairs. We sat and looked to Daphne.

"Mr. Pearson, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. I know that a school project is a silly thing compared to what you do all day but my father is very focused on my grades and we all are very grateful for the help."

"Anything that I can do to help you… and your friends, I am happy to do. What's the assignment?"

We were pretty proud of the lie. "We're supposed to write and record a fictional story based on actual events."

"As a team?"

"Exactly. Each of us has a specific part and mine is to do the research on the actual events. Fred will do the outline for the fictional version. Shaggy will write the draft. We will all edit. And Velma will record it."

"What's the story about?"

"We saw the interview a few days ago about someone saying they've seen the ghost of Captain Cutler…"

"Cutler?... That's hitting a little close to home, isn't it? Jeremy just died last year."

Daphne turned up her smile. "We wanted something current and local. We intend to handle the subject matter with respect and don't intent to offend anyone."

"Is there a chance that Eloise will hear it?"

"No. It's just a school project. No one outside of the school will ever hear it." Daphne lied effortlessly.

I couldn't help myself. "It sounds like you knew Captain Cutler pretty well."

"He was a longtime client. We also ran in the same social circles in Danforth and belonged to the same yacht club. My ex-wife and Eloise were pretty close."

Daphne took back over. I had overstepped my bounds. "Do you know if your ex-wife and Mrs. Cutler are still close?"

"I'm not sure. It wasn't an amicable divorce and the only time I ever hear from her is if the alimony check is late. But I can't imagine that they would be since…" He stopped talking.

"Since?"

"Well, Eloise took Jeremy's death badly."

"And now she's a witch." Somebody had to say it.

"So. You've met her."

Now the floodgates were opening and even Shaggy spoke. "Yeah, like, she seemed pretty nice. Apart from the whole being-a-witch thing."

Fred jumped in. "What do you remember about…"

Daphne cut him off. "Do you know anything about the boat that disappeared?"

Pearson looked at her quizzically. "I know a lot about it. It was my yacht."

"Really? The news reports didn't mention who the owner was." At this point in her life, Daphne was a very good actor. It was only later that she began over-emoting.

"Yes. It was a 42-foot Silverton. When I got divorced and my lifestyle changed, I thought something a little smaller, faster, and sportier might fit my needs better."

At that point in my life, I didn't know exactly what a leer looked like but, judging from Fred suddenly straightening his back and tightening his fists, I was pretty sure that I had just seen my first one from Mr. Pearson directed at Daphne.

Daphne either ignored it or was leered at so much that she didn't notice. "So, you had a bigger boat before?"

"Yep. I had a 96-foot Nordhavn. She was good for dinner parties and entertaining clients but that was always more my ex-wife's bit."

"How do you swap boats like that? Do you just go on the internet?"

I really wished that I could read facial expressions at that point because his changed. "When you're in the yachting world, you know people and they know people and you just arrange things."

Daphne's brilliant smile returned. "I understand completely. My daddy says the same thing all the time." She was nothing if not a performer. "So, your yacht disappeared?"

"Yes. They found this fluorescent glowing water on the pier next to where the yacht had been moored."

At this point, I pulled out my laptop and dived into my world.

My attention was grabbed by a sudden change in tenor of Mr. Pearson's voice. "Kids, I would recommend finding another topic for your story. That homeless guy on the news is not the only one that has seen this glowing whatever-it-is. There are a lot of stories around the club and waterfront right now about it. There seems to be a feeling that it is dangerous. I would stay away."

Daphne was now not smiling. "Jeepers, Mr. Pearson. This is just a school project. None of us wants to get hurt over it. We'll probably take your advice." Daphne only used the word 'jeepers' when she was performing. She never used it in real life.

He smiled. "Good. If something happened to you kids because I didn't warn you, I would never forgive myself."

That appeared to be the end of the interview and we said our goodbyes. We took advantage of the nice weather to stand in the parking lot and compare notes.

Fred looked at Daphne. "Why didn't you ask him about the first accident that killed Captain Cutler?"

"I wanted to see if he would bring it up. That's why I asked so many questions about his new boat which was Captain Cutler's old boat. The fact that he talked about it so much and never mentioned that he was the one who had rammed it means that he deliberately didn't bring it up."

Fred was catching up. "He seemed to be trying to figure out how much we knew."

"Exactly. He's hiding something."

It was my turn. "He mentioned that there was a glowing puddle next to where his boat was stolen. Fluorescent glowing water would mean the presence of dinoflagellates. And, if there were enough dinoflagellate algae in the water for the bioluminescence to be noticeable in a puddle, that would mean that, wherever it came from, it would be very obvious. I checked the local records and found that an algae bloom of dinoflagellate plankton blossomed just off of Rocky Point right before the disappearance of Mr. Pearson's yacht. And it's still there."

"Rocky Point keeps coming up." Fred reacted. "I think that needs to be our next stop."

I let the air out of his tires. "No. There is still a puzzle piece we need." I thought about doing one of my patented dramatic pauses but just kept talking instead. "Mr. Pearson and Captain Cutler were related by business. We need to speak with someone at PiscineCo about how Captain Cutler left things."

"Easy peasy." Daphne pulled out her phone and held it up. "Call PiscineCo general number." The female voice came from the small speaker. "Calling PiscineCo, Riley Headquarters."

After just a few seconds, an answering system came on. "Welcome to PiscineCo. If you know the extension of the party with whom you wish to speak, you may dial it at any time. Otherwise, please hold for the next available operator. Your call is important to us." The music started.

Shaggy spoke for the first time. "It's not important enough for them to staff their answering system with enough people." We all think it. He just said it.

In PiscineCo's defense, we listened to the music for less than twenty seconds.

"PiscineCo. This is Janet. How can I help you."

"Hi. This is Daphne Blake, and I was hoping to set up a meeting with one of your executives."

"What would this be regarding?"

"I'm needing to interview an executive for a school project."

"If I can have your number, someone will contact you."

Daphne's voice became syrupy sweet. "You may want to check with someone about that. Please make sure and tell them that my name is Daphne Blake B-L-A-K-E."

If you look up 'entitled' in the dictionary, I'm sure it references that conversation.

"Just one moment."

More music.

Within seconds the phone was answered again. "This is Jerry Armstrong. How can I help you, Ms. Blake?"

"It's so nice to speak with you, Mr. Armstrong. My study group from school has an assignment which requires that we interview an executive and we would just love to speak with you or someone from PiscineCo."

"I would be happy to help. What exactly are you wanting to speak with me about?"

"We are doing a paper on Jeremy Cutler."

"Jeremy Cutler? I'm sorry. I can't discuss former employees." And then he hung up… on a Blake.