Master of the Game

"Yes…"

"He’s done a vanishing act."

"He’s what?"

"Disappeared, vamoosed, gone." He waited while Peter digested the news.

"Did he take anything with him? Money, clothes, passport?"

"Nope. According to the report we got from Maine, Mr. Mellis just melted into thin air. You’re his shrink. I thought you might have some idea why our boy would do a thing like that."

Peter said truthfully, "I haven’t any idea, Nick."

"If you think of anything, let me know. There’s gonna be a lot of heat on this."

"Yes," Peter promised. "I will."

Thirty minutes later, Alexandra Mellis telephoned Peter Templeton, and he could hear the shrill edge of panic in her voice. "I – George is missing. No one seems to know what happened to him. I was hoping he might have told you something that might have given you a clue or – " She broke off.

"I’m sorry, Mrs. Mellis. He didn’t. I have no idea what could have happened."

"Oh."

Peter wished there was some way he could comfort her. "If I think of anything, I’ll call you back. Where can I reach you?"

"I’m at Dark Harbor now, but I’m going to return to New York this evening. I’ll be at my grandmother’s."

Alexandra could not bear the thought of being alone. She had talked to Kate several times that morning. "Oh, darling, I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about," Kate said. "He probably went off on some business deal and forgot to tell you."

Neither of them believed it.

Eve saw the story of George’s disappearance on television. There were photographs of the exterior of Cedar Hill House, and pictures of Alexandra and George after their wedding ceremony. There was a close-up of George, looking upward, with his eyes wide. Somehow it reminded Eve of the look of surprise on his face just before he died.

The television commentator was saying, "There has been no evidence of foul play and no ransom demands have been made. The police speculate that George Mellis was possibly the victim of an accident and may be suffering from amnesia." Eve smiled in satisfaction.

They would never find the body. It had been swept out to sea with the tide. Poor George. He had followed her plan perfectly. But she had changed it. She had flown up to Maine and rented a motorboat at Philbrook Cove, to be held for "a friend." She had then rented a second boat from a nearby dock and taken it to Dark Harbor, where she had waited for George. He had been totally unsuspecting. She had been careful to wipe the deck clean before she returned the yacht to the dock. After that, it had been a simple matter to tow George’s rented motorboat back to its pier, return her boat and fly back to New York to await the telephone call she knew Alexandra would make.

It was a perfect crime. The police would list it as a mysterious disappearance.

The announcer was saying, "In other news…" Eve switched the television set off.

She did not want to be late for her date with Rory McKenna.

At six o’clock the following morning, a fishing boat found George Mellis’s body pinned against the breakwater at the mouth of Penebscot Bay. The early news reports called it a drowning and accidental death, but as more information came in, the tenor of the stories began to change. From the coroner’s office came reports that what at first had been thought to have been shark bites were actually stab wounds. The evening newspaper editions screamed: MURDER SUSPECTED IN GEORGE MELLIS MYSTERY DEATH…MILLIONAIRE FOUND STABBED TO DEATH.

Lieutenant Ingram was studying the tide charts for the previous evening. When he was finished, he leaned back in his chair, a perplexed expression on his face. George Mellis’s body would have been swept out to sea had it not been caught against the breakwater. What puzzled the lieutenant was that the body had to have been carried by the tide from the direction of Dark Harbor. Where George Mellis was not supposed to have been.

Detective Nick Pappas flew up to Maine to have a talk with Lieutenant Ingram.

"I think my department might be of some help to you in this case," Nick said. "We have some interesting background information on George Mellis. I know this is out of our jurisdiction, but if you were to ask for our cooperation, we’d be happy to give it to you, Lieutenant."

In the twenty years Lieutenant Ingram had been with the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department, the only real excitement he had seen was when a drunken tourist shot a moose head off the wall of a local curio shop. The George Mellis murder was front-page news, and Lieutenant Ingram sensed a chance to make a name for himself. With a little luck, it could lead to a job as a detective in the New York City Police Department, where the action was. And so now he looked at Nick Pappas and murmured, "I don’t know…"

As though reading his mind, Nick Pappas said, "We’re not looking for credit. There’s gonna be a hell of a lot of pressure on this one, and it would make life easier for us if we could wrap it up fast. I could start by filling you in on George Mellis’s background."

Lieutenant Ingram decided he had nothing to lose. "OK, you’ve got a deal."

Alexandra was in bed, heavily sedated. Her mind stubbornly refused to accept the fact that George had been murdered. How could he have been? There was no reason in the world for anyone to kill him. The police had talked of a knife wound, but they were wrong about that. It had to be some kind of accident. No one would want to kill him… No one would want to kill him… The opiate Dr. Harley gave her finally took hold. She slept.

Eve had been stunned at the news that George’s body had been found. But perhaps it’s a good thing, Eve thought. Alexandra will be the one under suspicion. She was there, on the island