Investigate the Sailboat

With a destination in mind, I grabbed Katja and we took the SUV down to the marina.

When we arrived, I parked in the nearby strip mall’s parking lot, pulled my shirt over the semi-familiar shape of the Glock holster, and I was about to begin the search for “F Dock” when Katja stopped me.

“Let my friends check the area first.”

“What are they looking for?” I asked, but didn’t get an answer.

“Okay, let’s go,” Katja said a moment later.

I shrugged and just chalked it up to Katja being her usual odd self as we headed down the marina, passing dock after dock. When we came to “F”, it was free of people, presumably too late for the dawn rush and not early enough for the afternoon crowd, allowing us time to look at one sailboat after another.

Finding the boat in Miguel’s photo, it seemed bigger than I expected, with a big mast and tons of cables that I’m sure had something to do with the sails. Additionally, it had two large engines at the rear that seemed to give lie to the name sailboat.

Not seeing anyone aboard, I stepped onto the ship, or boat, I’ve honestly never been sure where the distinction lies. I turned to offer my hand to Katja, but she leapt aboard, landing with both feet in a jolt that slightly shook the boat.

“Katja, we don’t want to attract any extra attention.”

“Oh! Right, sorry. I just really wanted to jump onto a boat one day,” she said, because apparently we were in the business of fulfilling childhood fantasies.

Wondering if I brought the right partner for this, I moved back to the wheel and began looking around for a GPS device or anything that would tell me where the boat had been. The only thing close to that was a digital depth sensor that wouldn't turn on.

Next, I looked around for a place to plant the tracking device MJ had given me. I decided that the most innocuous place for the small great square was to stick it on the column thing that came up from the deck and held the steering wheel. I placed it below where the steering wheel attached and, while it wasn't exactly covered by anything, it was also out of plain sight and yet able to broadcast whatever signal it used.

I found Katja below deck examining the boat's collection of **** and drink mixers.

"Find anything," I asked.

"Lots of ****. I was thinking that mimosas are morning drinks, right?"

"As much as I would like a drink, we shouldn't leave any evidence, like missing ****, orange juice, and dirty glasses."

"I know," Katja said.

Moving on, the boat has a small bathroom and a bedroom at the back. I checked both for clues and didn't find anything. I silently wished that I could dust for prints, but I didn't bring a kit and thought it best not to improvise.

"Katja, are there any dirty dishes, especially ones with prints?"

"Nope, just these clean glasses."

Grumbling about how cleanly criminals were the worst, I found a hatch to some sort of storage company, but it was locked.

"Katja, you don't happen to have a lock pick, do you?"

"Yep."

I blinked, "Uh, really?"

"Badger gave it to me. He was showing me how locked work, with all the little pins. Turns out, it's easy."

Okay, score one point for Badger, I mentally noted and gestured for Katja to open the compartment.

She was slow, but did manage to get it open and, using her phone for illumination, she stuck her head and looked around.

"Just this and some rope and cables," she said, handing me a cooler.

I opened it to find a mix of bottles containing an array of ****. I snapped a photo of the labels, many handwritten, to show to David later.

I handed the cooler back to Katja, who replaced it and closed the storage compartment.

Examining the room to ensure we didn't leave any clues, I decided we were good and we left the boat. Or, at least, I left the boat. Katja stopped on the deck, closed her eyes and did the weird whistling thing.

I looked around for some of her "friends" and spotted one high on the mast and another near the bow. Fortunately, this also reminded me to note the boat's name, Paraíso Perdido.

When we got back to the car, I sent the photos of the **** to David and we drove back to the hotel.