“What do you mean that’s what I do? Since when—”

Marta threw her hands up. “It’s what you do. You’re like a one-woman stray-dog rescue society.”

I stared at her, mystified, my temper flaring. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Marta sighed. She looked done-in, but after the last crack, I’d lost some of the sympathy I had for her. “Look,” she said, “this isn’t personal. I know you’re solid, a thorn in my side, but solid. Still, I’ve got a job to do and Byson’s on my radar.”

“And I’m back to the lack of a dead body on that boat,” I said. “Where do you fit in all this? It’s a boat trespass, or did I miss a step?”

Marta didn’t answer. She just stood there, fuming. And I got it. “Oh, wait. I get it now. It’s the Ayerses. That’s why you’re here. No one’s dead, but the boat’s got their name on it, so you’re hovering over this whole thing so nothing blows back their way, that it?”

“I’m doing my job,” Marta growled.

“I know,” I said. “And I, for one, appreciate it, but c’mon. Think about this. Things are not adding up—things that have nothing to do with Jung.”

Marta stowed her notebook away and fastened her jacket, a signal she wanted to end our conversation. “They add up just fine from where I’m standing.”

“Then you know Tim had an argument with a guy named Vince Darby a few days before Tim died, but when I asked Darby about that, he flatly denied it. Also, a witness to that argument says Darby boarded one of those boats over there, one with a blue canopy. If he’s living out here, and knew Tim, don’t you think he’s worth at least talking to?” I gestured toward the slips. Marta turned to look. “Being so close, he’d certainly have no problem getting around security cameras.”

“And you’ve got evidence that puts him on the boat when Ayers fell off it?” she asked.

I paused. She knew I didn’t. I knew I didn’t.

“See? Evidence gets me an arrest. Evidence I can build a case on and hand off to the DA. Anything less isn’t good enough.”

“You had no problem taking Stephen Ayers’s word as evidence. He bold-faced lied to your face. None of Tim’s meds were for depression, bipolar disorder, or anything like that. No one I’ve talked to puts him under a psychiatrist’s care.”

“He took the meds from his own cabinet.”