“I have a credential.” I fished my private investigator’s license out of my wallet. “I’ve asked a lot of people a lot of questions based on this.”

His wooden expression didn’t change, but he turned red to the roots of his pale blond hair. “I think I should go over with you and introduce you to the right person.”

“You want to swing by the Lucella with her, too, Mr. Phillips?” Margolis asked.

“Not particularly. I’m running late as it is. I’ll have to go back to your office, Pete, and call Rodriguez from there.”

“Look, Mr. Phillips,” I put in, “I can take care of myself perfectly well. I don’t need you to interrupt your schedule to ferry me around.”

He assured me it was no problem, he really wanted to do it if I thought it was necessary. It occurred to me he might be worrying that I would turn up some witness suggesting that Eudora Grain had been negligent. In any case, he could smooth my path at Grafalk’s, so I didn’t mind his tagging along.

While he went back through the elevator to use the phone, Margolis took me down a narrow iron ladder to the wharf. Close up, the ship looked even dirtier. Heavy cables extended from the deck and tied her up fast to large knobs sticking out of the concrete wharf. Like the ship, the cables were old, frayed, and none too clean. As Margolis led me to the rear of the O. R. Daley, I notice how badly the paint had cracked above the waterline. “O. R. Daley. Grafalk Steamship Line. Chicago.” was painted in chipped white letters near the back.

“Your cousin was probably standing here.” The concrete had ended, replaced by faded wood planks. “It was a sloppy day. We had to stop loading every few hours, cover the hatches, and wait for the rain to end. Very long job. Anyway, wood like this—real old, you know—gets very slippery when it’s wet. If Boom Boom—your cousin, I mean—was leaning over to see something, he might’ve just slipped and fallen right in. He did have that bad leg.”

“What would he be leaning over to look at, though?”

“Anything. He was an inquisitive guy. Very interested in everything and anything about the ships and the business. Between you and me, he got on Phillips’s nerves a bit.” He spat expertly into the water. “But, what I hear, Argus got him this job and Phillips didn’t like to stand up to him.”