Anything Goes

Robert said, waxing romantic. “Poor Uncle Horatio, sitting at a battered oaken table, making paper sailboats and moaning, ‘Who am I?’ while the widow, a mere slip of a girl, makes oatmeal for him and hems things.“
    “Robert, stop being so silly,“ Lily said. “Mrs. Prinney might hear you.”
    Robert looked slightly contrite.
    Jack handed Lily the transcript of another article from a later paper. The piece said that the yacht had been raised out of the water by the Coast Guard, for fear it would drift into the main channel and cause a hazard, and the body of Horatio Brewster, late of Voorburg-on-Hudson, had been found in the galley section of the cabin. He had died, not of drowning, but of a severe blow to the top of his head. Several heavy objects remained in the galley, but the submersion of the yacht had obliterated any evidence of what object he had struck his head against.
    Lily passed the paper to Robert, who read it and said, “Or what object had been struck against his head. There’s a world of difference. And there’s still no direct mention of murder.“
    “My editor’s awfully upright about news being only the bare facts,“ Jack said.
    They fell silent for a moment, then Lily said, “Mr. Summer, what was our Uncle Horatio like?”
    “You don’t know?“
    “We only met him once, when we were children,“ Lily said.
    “And he left you his house and fortune?“ Jack exclaimed.
    “In a manner of speaking,“ Robert said. “We must have been his closest living relatives besides Claude Cooke, and nobody in their right mind would leave him anything. What sort of chap was Uncle Horatio?”
    Jack thought for a minute. “I didn’t know him, really. Just to see around town and hear about. Nobody liked him much, but I don’t know that anyone especially disliked him. He was very formal and polite, but he wasn’t friendly. But everybody who had dealings with him said he was a fair man. Never cheated anyone. Never got cheated, either. He irritated a couple local folks who thought he might pay more for food and gas and such, just because he had the money. He set them straight.”
    Jack paused to rummage around in his memory. “I don’t know where else he lived, but he wasn’t here all the time. Mostly when he was in town, he had people staying with him up here in the house.“
    “Lots of parties, then?“ Robert asked.
    Jack shook his head. “Not parties that I ever heard of. Business people, I think. Old guys with paperwork under their arms. I guess that’s why he didn’t bother keeping up the grounds. He wasn’t trying to impress society types and figured if a businessman like him didn’t care what the outside looked like, none of his cronies would either.“
    “So that’s probably the sort of guests who were on the boat when it sank,“ Lily said. “No women involved.“
    “Nobody but Mimi Smith,“ Jack said.
    Lily was shocked. “Our Mimi Smith? She was on board? She wasn’t mentioned in the newspaper article.“
    “She’d been hired to serve drinks and food,“ Jack said. “Servants don’t count with Mr. Kessler, I guess. Billy wasn’t mentioned either.“ He paused. “Wait. I remember something about that. Horatio Brewster had his man hire a pilot and waitress...“
    “His ‘man’?“ Robert asked.
    “Yes, a sort of butler, valet, houseman. And I heard there was some kind of wrangling about it when they were setting out.“
    “What kind of wrangle?“ Lily asked.
    “I’m not sure,“ Jack said. “I heard it third hand and didn’t pay much attention. Apparently Mr. Brewster didn’t approve of the houseman’s choice of Billy and Mimi, but it was too late to hire anybody else. He moored his boat in town, you see. So there were the usual Nosey Parkers hanging around, watching them set out.“
    “So he didn’t want either of them?“ Robert asked. “I can understand not wanting Billy around. From what you and Lily say, he’s a real blot on the landscape. But what was wrong with Mimi being the waitress?”
    Jack shrugged. “No idea.“
    “Did the houseman go along?“
    “I don’t think so,“ Jack said. “He wasn’t mentioned in the newspaper articles.“
    “But neither were Billy and Mimi mentioned,”
    Robert said. “Only the toffs. Is the houseman still around?“
    “No, he put out a big spread for the funeral, then vanished,“ Jack said.
    “How about the three of us trying to find out more about this trip?“ Robert said.
    Jack was certainly