Winter in June by Kathryn Miller Haines Read Free Book Online Page A

crowded during the time of the murder and several individuals reported hearing a gunshot, shore patrol were unable to determine if anyone had witnessed the crime. If you believe you may have observed something or someone associated with Miss Zinn’s murder, you are asked to report to the captain’s office.
    â€œThere you are.” Jayne appeared at my side as I closed the newsletter. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
    â€œSorry. I had to get out of that cabin. How was breakfast?”
    â€œDelish. Real eggs, bacon, toast. Real coffee, too, strong enough to take the rust off the ship. I’m sure we can grab you something if you want it.”
    My stomach churned a warning. “Thanks but no thanks. My goal is to keep my insides inside. Tomorrow I’ll worry about food.”
    I tucked the paper beneath my arm and followed Jayne back to the vacated mess hall, where we were scheduled to have our first rehearsal. Violet was on her feet, trying to demonstrate a series of dance steps. As we arrived, she paused, and Gilda greeted me with a warm smile. “Good morning. Feel any better?”
    â€œI’m on my way. That pill of yours sure did the trick.” I set the newsletter on one of the tables. “Where’s Kay?”
    â€œShe went in search of a pianist. Rumor has it there’s a fellow in the dental corps who did two semesters at Julliard,” said Gilda.
    â€œA musical dentist?” I asked.
    â€œYeah, he plays everything in the key of pain.” Violet snagged the newsletter and started tearing through it as if she was searching for a review of a play she was in the day after opening night. “The corpse has a name,” she said. “Irene Zinn. She was a Wac.”
    â€œA former Wac,” I said. “She left the military a few months ago.”
    â€œWhat’s a Wac?” asked Gilda.
    â€œThe Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps,” I said. “It’s the women’s division of the U.S. Army.” The WAAC, the WAVES, and SPAR were the female divisions of the different armed forces (army, navy, and army air force, respectively). Recruitment posters were all over the home front, urging us to join the WAVES and “free up a man to fight” or “speed them back, be a Wac.” Only the Wacs got to travel abroad—the other divisions were strictly stateside for the time being—though rumor had it the WAVES might get to see the other side of the ocean before the war was over.
    That was an unsettling thought: the war had gone on long enough that the rules made at its beginning were now being changed out of necessity. What would happen next? Would we run out of men and send our women to fight?
    Gilda smiled at me with such appreciation you would’ve thought I had just pushed her out of the way of a runaway streetcar. “Thank goodness they were able to identify her,” she said. “I wonder if she came to see someone off.”
    I’d been wondering the same thing. Why else would Irene have been in San Francisco that day? It’s not like Los Angeles was a hop, skip, and a jump away. “I’ll bet we were the only ship headed for the Solomons yesterday. If that’s where she was stationed before, it was probably someone on this boat she came to say good-bye to.”
    â€œOf course, if that’s the case, why didn’t she have any personal belongings with her?” asked Violet.
    It was a good point. If it weren’t for the dog tags, it was very likely Irene would still be an unidentified body.
    â€œWho are you talking about?” asked Kay. Behind her was a short, sturdy man loaded down with sheet music. Even from a distance I could see that he had perfectly straight chompers.
    â€œThe dead girl in the water,” said Violet. “They identified her. Her name’s Irene Zinn.”
    Kay faltered. In slow motion she began to lean backward, forcing the pianist to drop