Darby slid the towel under the waistband of his knee-length shorts, fisted his hands on his narrow hips. “I think you’ve gotten your wires crossed somewhere. I didn’t argue with him.”

“But you did crash?”

His eyebrows lifted, but he didn’t answer.

The smile was back, though, but this time it didn’t quite make it to those gorgeous eyes. He chuckled slightly. “I had no beef with Tim, and I certainly didn’t crash any party. I stopped by to take a look at his paintings, maybe buy a piece. I thought it might cheer him up.”

“Did he need cheering up?”

Darby, again, let a moment pass before he answered. Did he measure every move, every response, before he made it? Why? “He was a little down, but you’d expect that. I can’t go into specifics about a client. It wouldn’t be ethical.”

“He was dying,” I said, watching for a reaction. “And he was estranged from his family.” Darby drew back ever so slightly.

“He had a lot to deal with,” he said.

“But you were on the boat?”

“I stopped by, but like I said, it was about the paintings. When I saw he wasn’t in a good place, I left. There were a lot of people there. He seemed to be into some things, recreational things. I’m not into that, so I took off. I couldn’t have been there more than ten, fifteen minutes.”

“Long enough to pass out your business card,” I said.

Darby shrugged, grinned. “Hey, they might have all been stoned, but business is business. It’s a shame what happened to him.” He flashed the smile again. “But when I left, he was literally feeling no pain, definitely not in the mood to get into an argument with me about anything. Whoever you’re getting this other stuff from is pulling your leg.”

“It sure looks that way, doesn’t it? Still, I had to ask.” I moved to leave, Darby reached for the door to step inside. “Sorry. Almost forgot. After you left, because Tim wasn’t in a good place, and stoned, do you remember what time you boarded your own boat? The one with the blue canopy? And were you in for the rest of the night, or did you go back out later, say around midnight? I ask only because, if you did go back out, you might have seen something or someone out of the ordinary hanging around Tim’s boat.”