“Well, yeah.”
“Do you recall seeing anything that answered the description of Choke?”
Dino thought about it. “Now that you mention it, no.”
“That’s because ninety-nine percent of all boats in Key West are white plastic tubs. There aren’t that many 1930s craft around.”
“But at least we have a boat name now.”
“Probably not,” Tommy said. “It’s awful easy to change the name on a boat these days. You don’t have to wait for a guy to paint it on—you just go to a graphics shop and they print it out on a sheet of polyethylene, and you slap it on the stern of your boat. The whole 6 5
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thing takes maybe a couple of hours, and that includes lifting the old name off with a hair dryer. If Keating doesn’t want to be found, you can bet he’s changed the name of his boat.”
“Now I’m feeling glum,” Dino said.
“You’ll feel better when Genevieve gets here,” Stone said.
“She isn’t coming; she couldn’t get the time off.”
“Okay, so we’re both glum.”
“I don’t know why you’re glum; you’ve got the Swedish doctor.”
Stone brightened. “That’s right, I do. We’ve already made dinner plans for tonight.”
“Where are you going?” Tommy asked. “You need a recommendation?”
“Nope, she’s cooking.”
“What’s she cooking?” Dino asked.
“Who cares? I’m sure it will be delicious, and if it isn’t, she will be.”
“I’d call that an evening with no downside,” Tommy said. “What’s her story, anyway?”
“She’s Swedish,” Stone explained.
“Oh.”
“You seem to have gotten over Tatiana pretty easily,” Dino said.
“I thought you were all broken up.”
“I was,” Stone replied, “and more than I’d realized at fi rst. But it’s easier to pick up the pieces if there’s somebody to help rearrange them.”
“And he isn’t talking about you, Dino,” Tommy said.
“You think I didn’t know that? It’s a pity, really. This Tati was a beautiful woman. And the killer is, she went back to her awful ex-husband.”
“They’ll do that,” Tommy said. “No guy can ever understand why a woman would go back to her ex.”
“Do you have an explanation for that phenomenon?” Stone asked.
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