Wilmington, NC 05 - Murder On The ICW

or maybe he threatened to go to the authorities if he didn't get more money -- so Boleyn silenced him. Ballantine may have even thought he could cut a deal and have his charges reduced in exchange for information about the smuggling ring."
    "But I remember Boleyn saying he was out at sea during the day of the murder," Jon said.
    "He wasn't," Crystal said. "He made me lie for him. We were in port. I was with Ali and David used that against me to make me lie for him. I swear, you've got to believe me, I didn't know until the very end that David had killed anybody. I knew he was bribing elected officials, but he told me the cartons of cigarettes were gifts for political friends."
    Melanie patted her shoulder. "We believe you, honey bunch. Just look at what that dreadful man did to your pretty face, but you're all healed now, and he's gone and not going to hurt you ever again."
    Crystal cried, "I never believed that he'd really try to kill me. I always felt that deep down he really loved me, in his own possessive way. But out on that sport deck, he aimed the gun at me and was actually going to kill me. I struggled with him and it's amazing how strong you can be when you are fighting for your life. The gun seemed to go off by itself.
    "Then we were both down on the decking and he was on top of me and dead weight. It took one of the coasties to pull him off me."
    "Crystal turned over Boleyn's money to the authorities," Scott said.
    "And she's been completely exonerated," Melanie said. "The police investigated and decided it was self-defense. You had only to look at her to know she was up against a mad man. Why he even shot me!"
    "Thank goodness, that was just a superficial wound," Cam said. "And she's had the best plastic surgery, so she might not even have a scar. Not that I'd love her any less if she did." He was sitting on the arm of her chair and he leaned in to kiss the top of her head.
    Walt Brice had joined our little party as well. "The police are now sharing some information with me about the case," he said. "Joey Fielding had parked his car a few streets over from the Bitterman residence on Point Place. Their guess is that Fielding did not want to drive his new car by the construction that was going on next door, maybe afraid of picking up a roofing nail in his tire. So apparently he arrived at the house on foot, then let Boleyn in. They think Boleyn anchored his yacht in the sound and took the tender to the Bitterman boat dock. After he killed Fielding, he sailed out into the sound again where he watched for Melanie to arrive. When she did, he called in an anonymous tip to the Wrightsville police, knowing they were only minutes away. By the time they arrived, he was back on the yacht."
    Jon said, "He must have used the same M.O. when he met Mickey Ballantine at Melanie's house, both Mickey and Boleyn arriving by small boat."
    "Mickey kept the key to Melanie's even when I demanded that he give it back to me," I said. "He handed me a bogus key, maybe a key to his old nightclub, who knows?"
    Melanie chimed in, "And when David Boleyn heard the garage door open, he knew I had come home. He turned out the lights and waited for me to come in from the garage. Then he knocked me unconscious with my paperweight. Maybe he was trying to kill me, I don't know. But I showed him! I survived! And my hair is growing out nicely. By the time it is long again, David Boleyn will have been forgotten."
    Walt said, "The lab found traces of your hair and blood on the paperweight they took from your house, even though he tried to wipe it clean."
    "He killed Ali because of me," Crystal said softly and dropped her chin. "I knew he was jealous but I never dreamt he'd resort to killing. I can't believe Ali is gone, that I'll never see him again." Tears formed in her eyes.
    "Walt, did you ever find out who Brie Bitterman and her father met with in Charlotte the day Joey was killed?" I asked.
    "Our investigator finally pieced that together. Brie is signing up with a major multi-media company. They're working on getting her a TV show and movie contracts. She didn't want Ali to know she was talking to them."
    "Does anyone know how David lured Ali to Joey's apartment?" Melanie asked.
    Privately, she had confided in me that she didn't know how she had become so besotted with Joey Fielding. She said that now that she was in a real relationship with a man who was her equal, she looked back on that period of her life as an aberration.
    "The police