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The days were already starting to shorten and it was well after dark when Dan got back to Dreamspeaker, but in spite of the long hours he had been putting in he didn’t feel like sleeping. There was too much adrenaline pumping in his veins. He was close. He could feel it.
He switched on the computer and plugged LaSalle’s name into the search engine, found the website for the business, but no photo of Lasalle himself. Not that it mattered. Dan already knew what the man looked like.
He looked at the card again. Import-Export. That could explain the connection between LaSalle and Masterton. LaSalle’s company might bring in the plastic products Masterton sold and if the two men were business associates rather than friends, it might mean Masterton was clean—although not necessarily. There were still questions to be answered, but tomorrow, when Maureen and Rediger were back in the office, he would get them to help him fill in a few more of the gaps.
He took a beer out of the fridge, and sprawled out on the settee. Added a little Charlie Parker to mellow out his synapses and closed his eyes. Maybe if he thought about Claire . . .
He woke to the sound of someone banging on the hull. Light was streaming through the windows and a quick glance at his watch told him he had slept for almost six hours. He stood up and ran his hands through his hair. If he didn’t get a haircut soon he would have to start wearing his hair in a ponytail like Eric. The thought galvanized him into alertness. Today just might be the day he closed the case.
“Coming,” he yelled as he slid open the doors to the aft deck and walked over to the railing. Willie Pete was standing out on the float.
“Willie!” Dan couldn’t remember Willie ever visiting him before. “Everything okay? You want to come aboard? I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”
Willie hesitated for a minute, and then smiled. He had long ago lost all his front teeth and the smile showed wizened gums. “Okay. Coffee sounds real good.”
In spite of his age, Willie was remarkably agile and it took only seconds for him to scramble onto the stern grid and climb the ladder up onto the deck.
He cackled as he peered into the cabin through the open door. “Pretty fancy in there! I better stay out here. Might dirty it up.”
Dan laughed. “Come on inside Willie. It’s more comfortable in here.”
Willie ignored the invitation and settled onto one of the bench seats on the deck. If it wasn’t for the difference in age, Dan thought as he poured the coffee into two thick china mugs, Willie Pete and Walker would have a lot in common.
He carried the cups outside, handed one to Willie, and sat down beside him.
“Anything I can help you with?”
“Nope. Not a damn thing,” Willie answered. “But I’ve got something for you.”
Dan raised his eyebrows in a query. Willie often gave him a crab or a fish, but that was usually later in the day when he was walking past Willie’s boat, and this morning the man had nothing in his hands.
“Had a visitor last night,” Willie said, obviously pleased by the reaction he was getting. “Never seen him before, but he knew who I was. Said he came to see you, but you were still out.”
“Did he tell you his name?” Dan couldn’t think of anyone who was likely to come down to the float and give Willie Pete something to pass on to him.
“Nope. Kinda scruffy looking guy.” Willie looked down at his own clothing and cackled again. “Even scruffier than me! Tall. Skinny. Long hair. Looked like he hadn’t washed it in a while.”
Dan frowned. There was no one he knew who would fit that description. “Native? White?”
“White guy,” Willie said. “Lot younger than me. Maybe even younger than you, but it was hard to tell.”
“So what did he give you? Information about something?”
“Hell no. He gave me this.” Willie slid a grimy hand inside the old sweater he was wearing and pulled out an envelope. “Said he’d heard I was a friend of yours and asked me to give it to you. Said you’d know who it was from.”
The envelope looked almost as tattered as Willie who was watching Dan eagerly, waiting for him to open it, and as he looked at it Dan suddenly had a hunch about what it contained, and who the man had been.
“Oh yeah, I know who it was. It’s just an address I needed. Thanks for bringing it over.” Dan laid it down on the bench beside him and moved the conversation in a different direction. “Listen, I don’t suppose you know anyone who could sell me a couple of big Chinook salmon do you? I promised a friend I would get some.”
“Might do. Might do,” Willie said. “Gonna have to ask around though. You gonna be here tonight?” The fishing regulations for aboriginals were different then those for non-natives and while they applied only to a food fishery, Dan knew that if you had friends within that community it was possible to find someone willing to sell any fish they deemed extra to their needs.
“Should be,” Dan answered. “Let me know the price.”
Willie gave another of his cackles and stood up. “Sure will. Thanks for the coffee.”
“No problem. Any time.”
***
DAN WAITED UNTIL WILLIE had disappeared back up the dock before he went into the cabin and opened the envelope. If it was what he thought it was he didn’t want Willie asking questions about it, and he certainly didn’t want the ‘kelp vine’ to get wind of it.