They settled into an unoccupied visitors' lounge, and the Trouts were asked to tell what happened. The senior man was named Mac- Farlane. In a classic good-cop, bad-cop pairing, he was the friendly one who tut-tutted, while his partner, a man named Duffy, was the belligerent officer who tried to pick holes in their story.

After replying to a particularly pointed question, Gamay, who could never be mistaken for a shrinking violet, stared at Duffy and gave him a smile. “I may be wrong, Officer, but it sounds as if we're being accused of something.”

MacFarlane fidgeted with his hands. “It's not that, ma'am, but look at it from our point of view. You and your husband arrive in town from out of nowhere. Within twenty-four hours, a fisherman you were seen with goes missing, along with his boat. Then four men are killed in a very unusual accident.”

“Damned bloody death plague if you ask me,” Duffy growled.

“We've told you everything,” Paul said. “We were on vacation, and went out with a fisherman named Mike Neal, whom we met at a waterfront restaurant. You can check with the bartender. Mr. Neal was looking for work and offered to take us out for a cruise.”

“Pretty expensive cruise,” Duffy sneered. “The boatyard says you paid offNeal's bill of nearly a thousand dollars.”

“We're both ocean scientists. When we learned about the problems the fishermen had been having with low catches, we asked Mr. Neal to do some survey work.”

“What happened next?”

“We stayed overnight at a bed and breakfast. The next morning, we learned that Mr. Neal and his boat had been lost. We were con- tinuing our trip, when we were caught between two very bad driv- ers driving two very big cars.”

“From what you said,” Duffy said, making no attempt to hide his

skepticism, “it sounds like these folks were trying to run you off the road.”

“It seems that way.”

“That's what we can't figure,” Duffy said, scratching the stubble

on his chin. “Why would they try to kill a couple of innocent tourists?”

“You'll have to ask them,” Paul said.

Duffy's ruddy face went an even deeper red. He opened his mouth to respond.

MacFarlane raised his hand to shush his partner. “Those folks are in no condition to answer questions,” he said with a wan smile. “But you see, this presents another problem. The young lady here stopped at a general store and asked about a fish plant in town. The four gentlemen who were killed were all employees of the same plant.”

“I'm a marine biologist,” Gamay said. “My interest in fish is noth- ing odd. I don't mean to tell you how to do your job,” she said, in a tone that indicated that was exactly what she was doing, “but maybe you should talk to someone at the plant.”

“That's another funny thing,” Duffy said. “The plant's closed.”