Tacitly, and knowing what was inevitable, they slowly began to undress each other. Fervent kisses were rendered to each other and when all clothes were discarded lying on the floor, they fell upon the mattress. Mary let the tingling sensations reigning from his kisses engulf her. Her mind stopped thinking, and her body took control. They made love several times before dawn. The sun’s rays slowly began filtering through the portholes in the bedroom.
John woke up first and without waking Mary, took a quick shower and went quietly up the steps to the upper deck. Mary rolled over and woke up. Realizing where she was, and that John was no longer in bed, she quickly showered and dressed, and began her way to the upper deck. Once she reached the kitchenette, she smelled coffee brewing. She could see John in the captain’s chamber steering the boat and sipping on coffee.
Mary poured herself a cup of coffee and sat in the white leather chair beside John. She said, “Good morning.”
John stood up, went over to Mary, bent over and kissed her sweetly and said, “Now, that’s a ‘good morning.’”
Going back to his position behind the wheel he asked, “Did you sleep well?”
Mary smiled and said, “Yes, I did. Did you sleep well?”
John replied, “Indeed, I did. I haven’t felt this energized in many years. You give me a shot of adrenalin every time I look at you.”
Mary blushed.
Logan and Lucy had made their way to the upper deck, and Logan called out, “Coffee smells good. Would you happen to have anything of substance to eat in your pantry?”
John replied back, “Sure. Help yourselves to any crumbs available.”
They reached Port Lucy about four hours later. John refueled the boat while Mary, Lucy, and Logan went to the convenience store and bought more provisions and odds and ends.
There was a great hamburger joint a block away from the pier, so they ate lunch there and then decided they couldn’t hide from the press forever and that it was time to go back to Fernandina Beach. Mary was worried about Prince being a nuisance to her kind and generous neighbor’s hospitality. Lucy and Logan were worried about taking too much time off from their jobs. They got back in the boat and travelled north to Fernandina Beach, Florida
Chapter Eleven
A week later, the closing of the sale on Mary’s house took place in her attorney’s office at the prescribed time, and John Fielding was now the owner of Mary’s home. Because of the incident on Tiger Island, Mary did not want to be alone, nor did she have the motivation to look for another place. John suggested that she just stay at the house until the murder was solved. The two of them could share the costs of food and electricity. That sounded like a wonderful deal to Mary. Plus, she was beginning to like John more and more as she spent time with him. Any eligible female in her right mind would. He was handsome, caring, attentive, great in bed, and “rich to boot.” Even her dog thought the man “hung the moon.”
John would fly back to Boston every other weekend, but when he was in Fernandina Beach, the two of them would go out to dinner or the movies, or just take walks on the beach, talk, and enjoy each other’s company. John told Mary he also was engaged once before. Both he and his fiancé had gone to Harvard and had dated all four years in college before they got engaged. When he decided to stay in Cambridge, Massachusetts and earn his MBA at Harvard, she decided she was tired of Massachusetts. She had been accepted to Yale University located in New Haven, Connecticut and wanted to become an architect. She moved to Connecticut, and they kept up their long distance relationship for about six months until one day he got an e-mail from her saying she had met someone who was also majoring in architecture who had stolen her heart.
She could have told him face-to-face, which might have been less painful. Either way, it sucked. John told Mary it had taken ten years, but that he had gotten over this. He had put all of his energy and focus into becoming a prosperous businessman, and he had succeeded. John was a patient and prudent man. He was just waiting for the right woman to come along and make his heart “sing” again.
Chapter Twelve
The Sheriff’s Office and detectives found out the identity of the young deceased woman. Her name was Joanne Marie Jones. She was twenty-three, a graduate student at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida studying to be an actress, and living in Callahan, Florida, which is still in Nassau County, Florida. She still lived with her parents, James and Sarah Jones, so she could save on tuition costs and commute to school. Her dad had just retired from the Rayonier Paper Mill where one-third of the men in Nassau County, Florida worked. She had a brother, Gabe, younger by five years, who also lived at home. The family and Callahan community were devastated by the loss of Joanne. She was a talented actress who was very ambitious. Her goal was to get a job acting at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida, and later possibly teach drama in a college.
Her funeral took place on a rainy Sunday afternoon at the Callahan Presbyterian Church. Nothing, however, had been mentioned in the newspaper or on T.V. for that matter, about the cause of death. It was as if Joanne’s case had been forgotten by the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office.
John and Mary continued meeting frequently with Lucy and Logan. It was as if they shared a secret pact together. They would often take short weekend excursions together on John’s yacht down the southern coast of Florida to Port St. Lucy or Fort Lauderdale. The four of them even travelled on John’s yacht northward to Beaufort, North Carolina, a small historic and tourist town, during the Thanksgiving holiday. By this time, most everyone on Amelia Island, Florida knew the four of them had discovered the body on Tiger Island, Florida. However, “stepping on eggshells,” no one ever brought up the subject around them.
Sitting at the bar at Bret’s Restaurant on Friday night of the second week of December, John, Mary, Lucy and Logan saw Sergeant Haddock, Sheriff Benson, and two deputies they didn’t know come in for dinner. The sheriff and his entourage sat in the north corner of the restaurant where they could see the boats come and go on the waterway.
John was the first to speak, “Hey, Matt! Who are the other two guys that are sitting in the corner with the sheriff and sergeant?”
Matt replied: “The shorter one with the bald head is Deputy Simon Cox. He’s about fifty and has been at the department about two years. The taller one holding up his menu is Deputy Ben Benson. He is the sheriff’s son and is in his early thirties. Ben has been at the department about five years. They eat here together a lot for lunch, and occasionally for dinner, depending on their shifts. Rumor has it that they often go over to the sheriff’s garage behind his house on Saturday nights and play poker for mid to high stakes. They are still friendly towards each other so they must ‘break even’.”
John looked pensively at the four lawmen and said, “I have a negative feeling about the Sheriff’s Department in general. I don’t know about the deputies because I haven’t met them. However, I’m pretty perspicacious. Doesn’t it seem odd to anyone that the cause of death was ‘undetermined’ for the girl who was found on Tiger Island? You know that they must have found some DNA evidence, and results should have already been disclosed. The Sheriff’s Office was supposed to have gotten back with us for any follow-up information or evidence. Did anyone here get a call from the Sheriff’s Office?”
Mary, Lucy and Logan looked at each other quizzically and shook their heads, “no”.
Chapter Thirteen
Fernandina Beach, Florida
December 11th
There were two more weeks of shopping before Christmas. Mary had her tree nicely decorated, and the fireplace had garland draped down in loops from the wooden mantle. There were three stockings hung along the wooden mantle with Mary, John, and Prince written on them.
John