“I received a phone call from Chuck Chandler, a local tennis pro, who was the previous owner of the boat. He said that while cruising on his new boat, he saw Mr. Keating’s boat anchored near Fort Jefferson. He didn’t see anyone aboard, and he didn’t fi nd anyone ashore, and he was curious as to why the boat seemed abandoned.

“There had been a previous attempt on Mr. Keating’s life by a person or persons unknown, and I became concerned for his safety. Lieutenant Tommy Sculley of the Key West PD came with Dino and me in a seaplane, which landed near the boat. Tommy and I swam to Mr. Keating’s boat, broke into it and searched it, fearing that he and his girlfriend might be aboard, injured or dead. We also broke into the stern locker of the boat and found what appeared to be a large quantity of drugs.

“At that moment, a Coast Guard cutter arrived and the captain joined us aboard. We had a conversation, then we left the boat in the charge of the Coast Guard, and they impounded it.”

“Did you call Mr. Keating immediately?”

“No, there was no cell phone service that far out. I called him after we returned to Key West.”

“Thank you, Mr. Barrington,” Corelli said. “Mr. Keating, how did your boat come to be anchored and abandoned at Fort Jefferson?”

“My girlfriend, Gigi Jones, and I cruised out to the fort, where we snorkeled and went ashore to see the fort. We had dinner aboard and spent the night. The following morning I called my grandfather, Eli Keating, in Connecticut, and he told me that my father, Warren Keating, had been found shot to death a short time before.”

“Mr. Keating, Mr. Barrington has just told us that there was no cell phone reception at Fort Jefferson. How did you call him?”

“I have a satellite telephone, which works very well at Fort Jefferson.”

“I see. What did you do upon hearing the news of your father’s death?”

“I called a seaplane service at Key West airport. They came and fetched us and flew us to Miami, where we got a commercial fl ight to New York, then rented a car for the drive to Connecticut.”

“And you just abandoned an expensive boat anchored at Fort Jefferson?”

“I didn’t feel I had a choice; my grandfather needed me. I locked it, and when the seaplane arrived, we took the small rubber dinghy from the stern locker and used it to paddle to the airplane. The plane couldn’t come alongside without a wing hitting the superstructure.”

“Did you lock the stern locker after removing the dinghy?”

“No, there was no padlock for it. The old one had corroded and was no longer workable, and I had not yet replaced it.”

“What else was in the locker besides the rubber dinghy?”