Payback by Keith Douglass Read Free Book Online Page B

level rail of Platform 27 and stared out where the platform boss pointed.
    â€œHell, Hal, you’ve known me for ten years. All I can say is the last thing Arnie told me last night before I went ashore was that he didn’t like what was going on out on Rig Number 4, right out there. We’ve all seen the big ships that anchor just off the platform. Nobody can figure out why freighters would stop there. The platform has its own resupply ship that makes daily runs. Why in hell those big freighters? Arnie was getting worked up about it, but I said not our business, nothing we can do about it anyway.”
    â€œYou telling me that Arnie’s drowning has something to do with that other platform?”
    â€œNot saying that, Hal. That just the only thing I can think of that might be connected to Arnie dying. Hell, the men liked to work for him. He was good at his job. Got a good day’s work out of everyone including himself, and I can guarantee not a man on board would try to kill him.”
    â€œHey, nobody said anything about Arnie getting killed. He was diving, he got tangled up in that wire, and couldn’t get any air. I’ve seen a hundred reasons why people drown.”
    â€œTrue, Sheriff. But I know Arnie. He was on a championship college swim team, almost went to the Olympics in the freestyle. He teaches scuba at the Y here in town. He takes a herd of kids free-diving every Saturday. Arnie is the last guy in the world who would drown, especially caught in a bunch of wire right around one of our platform legs. Part of his job was to dive down those legs once a week, all the way to the bottom, and remove any debris that might have hung up there. I can assure you that yesterday there was no mess of wire on the leg that held Arnie underwater. If he drowned, it’s because somebody surprised him and killed him. There’s no other way to look at his death. Arnie was murdered. That I’m sure of. Now I’m trying to figure out why.”
    Sheriff Kirkendol rubbed his chin the way he had been doing lately when he had a case he couldn’t figure out. Atlast he nodded at the oil driller. “Okay, Pete. I’ve known you long enough to believe what you say. I didn’t know the swimming background on the dead man. You say he was murdered. That puts a whole new spin on the case. Why? Why was he killed? That’s the next thing we have to find out.”
    â€œMaybe the answer is out there on Number 4.”
    â€œNow you’re making a lot of assumptions, Hal. First you’re saying Platform Number 4 out there has something to hide. Next you indicate that it’s so secret that they will kill anyone who tries to find out about it, even a late-night swimmer around their platform. They would also have to use some kind of a security system that would warn them when any unauthorized boat or swimmer entered the protected zone around their tower. In the water that would have to be highly sophisticated. Then you’re saying that they have the killer or killers on the platform who could do the job. Those are a whole shitpot full of assumptions. Proving any or all of them is going to be one hell of a tough job.”
    â€œRight, Sheriff, and that’s why you get the big bucks to do that work.”
    Sheriff Kirkendol rubbed his chin a moment, then the back of his neck with his right hand. As soon as he realized he was doing it, he stopped. One of his women detectives had told him that the repeated gesture was a dead giveaway that he was worried, troubled, or stumped.
    â€œSo I take two men and go visit Platform Number 4.”
    â€œYou have jurisdiction?”
    â€œDamn right. It’s in my front yard. So it’s wet. It’s still my own front yard. I’ve got a murder to solve and I’ll do what I have to and let the lawyers yell about it later. You want to come along?”
    â€œNot a chance. I’ve got a rig to run. Besides, I don’t even want to