Wilmington, NC 05 - Murder On The ICW

talk about things like stress and drag, vibration, spiraling low-pressure cavitation voids, wedges, and negative pressure.
    Melanie laughed out loud, her effervescent self again, and I hoped it was Cam's influence. "Come on, Ashley, let's go down to the galley, uncork a bottle of bubbly, and I'll tell you about the latest technological breakthrough in pantyhose. There's no drag unless you haven't shaved your legs in days. And they only vibrate if the right man comes dangerously close."
    Cam grinned from ear to ear, we all laughed, and as I followed Melanie off the bridge, I heard Cam say, "I love that woman."
    Jon laughed. "Yeah, and I love the other one. Lord help us, Cam."

    We cruised into a cove off Greenville Sound, cut the engines and dropped anchor. Then we gathered in the galley/dining area for lunch. From a full-height refrigerator, Cam withdrew an assortment of sandwiches and salads that the Seventeenth Street Deli at Landfall had prepared for us. I love their salad sampler -- tuna, chicken, and egg salad -- and went for that. We settled on bar stools around a granite-topped island. And although my salad plate was tasty I was only able to nibble -- my appetite had gone the way of my marriage, down the tubes.
    Cam's yacht was as luxurious as any finely-appointed home. Three steps down lay the salon, carpeted in pale beige with off-white deeply-upholstered furniture. The paneling and built-ins were made of sleek cherry wood veneers. The headliner was decorated with cherry inlays.
    "Are you going to enter your boat in the Holiday Flotilla?" Jon asked Cam.
    "Already registered," Cam replied. "Would you like to co-pilot with me?"
    "That'd be great," Jon said. "I love the flotilla. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the Holiday Flotilla to herald the season."
    "And you, Ashley? Will you join us?" Cam asked me. Then beamed at Melanie. "And you, pretty lady?"
    Melanie and I looked at each other. "Sure," I said. "Sounds like fun."
    "Count me in," Melanie said. "If I'm not in jail."
    Cam moved closer to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Don't even say that. What could those idiots be thinking?"
    Melanie rubbed her cheek against his hand.
    Cam didn't know what I knew. Melanie had been stalking Joey Fielding. I crossed my fingers under the counter and prayed he'd never find out.
    "Let's take this champagne out on the sun deck," Jon proposed. "It's glorious out there."
    "These inlets used to make ideal hiding places for pirates," Jon said about the cove where we were docked.
    Melanie stretched her legs out into the sun. She had on pale yellow shorts and a matching tee shirt and sun visor. Her bright hair was tied up in a pony tail . "All of my out-of-town clients want to know where Captain Kidd buried his treasure chests," she said. "I tell them Money Island and point it out to them. So many people have been out there digging, the island must look like a sieve. And you know there's no treasure there."
    "But it's an important local legend," I said, "part of our heritage. The folklore is that Captain Kidd and his trusted colleague Captain Redfield buried two iron chests filled with gold on Money Island in two deep holes, then planted trees in the holes. Redfield remained behind to guard the treasure while Kidd sailed off. And remember Kidd's treasure has never been found."
    "Maybe not just a legend," Jon said. "Researchers are raising cannons from a sunken ship off Atlantic Beach that they believe is Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge."
    Already the sun was slipping behind the trees. The days are short in November and once the sun goes down the air cools.
    "How's the television and film business these days, Cam?" Jon asked. "You guys have been going through a tough time."
    "What I don't understand," Melanie complained, "is why they didn't film Cold Mountain here since the book was set in our North Carolina mountains ? Instead they shot it in somewhere in the Balkans. Yugoslavia, was it?"
    "I don't get that either," I said.
    "It's the bottom line they're looking at," Cam replied. "A delegation of film and television executives that included Frank Capra Jr. and myself met with the state Senate to seek incentives for the industry, tax breaks that are similar to those offered by other states. The bill passed and I predict better days ahead for us.
    "Ashley, have you heard anything more about the skeleton you found at the hunting lodge?"
    "Not a word," I replied, "and the place is off limits to us