Murder Walks the Plank by Carolyn Hart Page B

somebody could have caught her?”
    Before Billy could answer, Annie clapped her hands together. “Caught her? If there was anybody close to her, they pushed her!”
    Cole took another step back. One eyelid jerked in a tic. “Why would anybody do that?” His voice shook.
    The question hung in the air.
    Annie looked at their startled faces. Max’s gaze was puzzled. Emma yanked on a silver curl as if an answer might pop forth. Ben was an incredulous gnome. Mavispressed one hand to her lips. Billy frowned, his good humor gone.
    Annie lifted her chin, looked at each in turn. “I don’t know why. But nothing else makes sense. If Pamela was unconscious when she went over the railing, how did she get over the railing?”
    â€œOh, Annie.” Billy heaved a sigh. “Come on. You got too many mysteries in your head. For starters, maybe she was conscious when she went over and then banged her head. If it was an accident, maybe she felt seasick—”
    Annie wanted to point out that the Sound was mirror smooth.
    â€œâ€”or maybe somebody spilled something on the deck and she slipped and got knocked out, and the way she went down, she flopped through the rails. Accidents can be weird. We may never know what happened. Or maybe she’ll wake up and tell us. But people”—his look at Annie was patient—“do the damndest things. Maybe she was down in the dumps and didn’t tell anybody. Maybe that’s why she came tonight, thinking she’d jump off and no one would even notice.”
    Annie clenched her hands into fists. To suggest that Pamela came on board with the idea—Annie stood still, her thoughts whirling. “Wait a minute. Wait a minute . Billy, that’s not why she came.” Annie spread out the words as if she were dropping diamonds on a velvet cloth, each one distinct and separate, hard and shiny and inescapable. “She…came…because…she…got…a…free…ticket.”
    Emma’s piercing blue eyes narrowed. Max glanced toward the still form on the table. Ben fingered hisbristly chin, pursed his mouth. Mavis nodded, murmured, “Just like us.” Billy shrugged, unimpressed.
    The excursion boat’s whistle shrieked.
    Ben clapped his hands together. “Coming in. I’ll go see to the gangway—”
    Billy was abruptly official. “I’ll hold back the crowd till we get her off.”
    Annie reached out, caught his sleeve. “Billy, don’t you see?” Her words tumbled faster and faster. “Pamela didn’t plan on coming. There’s no way she could have planned to be here tonight. She got a free ticket”—Annie tried hard to remember Ingrid’s report of her telephone conversation—“and she just got it today. She thought it was from me, but it wasn’t. That means somebody wanted Pamela to be on board tonight.” Annie could almost accept Billy’s insistence that somehow in a freak accident Pamela had fallen overboard and was unconscious because she banged her head as she fell. Yes, but that didn’t explain the free ticket. And if Pamela was enticed onto the boat and came close to dying, might yet die, the possibility of an accident seemed remote. Annie discounted it absolutely. “Somebody deliberately—”
    Billy shook off her hand. “—did a good deed. Just like you, Annie, giving tickets to me and Mavis. Sure she thought the ticket came from you. Anybody would think that.”
    He was moving toward the port doorway.
    Annie was on his heels. “Billy, before you go down to do crowd control, tell me one thing.”
    â€œSure.” He was patient, even though he obviously thought her deductions out of line. “What?”
    She met his gaze, held it. “If somebody pushed Pamela over, that person is still on board. Right?”
    â€œYeah, yeah, yeah.” He grinned. “In the event we got a maniac