Nothing but Trouble_ A Kevin Kerney Novel - Michael Mcgarrity [79]
Kehoe picked up the photograph and adjusted her glasses. “Indeed it is. Charming man. I hope his family troubles won’t be devastating to him.”
“His father died,” Sara replied, “and his presence is needed to help settle complex issues regarding the estate.”
“How sad.”
Sara nodded solemnly in agreement.
“May we have a copy of your records?” Fitzmaurice asked.
“Yes, of course,” Kehoe replied.
“Also, if you could furnish us with a list of the organizations who offer the yachtmaster training schemes, that would be lovely.”
After Kehoe left to make copies and gather the information, Fitzmaurice turned to Sara. “Apparently, our George is well on his way to establishing himself as a charming and agreeable member of the Dún Laoghaire yachting set.”
“If he has put out to sea on a cruise around Ireland,” Sara said, “what are our chances of finding him?”
“Hit or miss would be my guess. I’ll ring up the Coast Guard and ask them to start looking.” Fitzmaurice glanced at his wristwatch. “If we’re going to keep vigil while Paquette meets with the builder at the villa, we need to leave straightaway.”
On the drive to the villa Fitzmaurice kept one hand on the wheel as he called the Irish Coast Guard to get a search under way for Spalding’s yacht, and then made another call to the passport office in Dublin. He was still on the phone when he parked the car down the street from the villa.
When he finished the conversation, he turned to Sara and said, “Passport records show that Spalding, either under the name of Bruneau or McGuire, has spent seven of the last twelve months in Ireland.”
“Did you get the exact dates?” Sara asked.
Fitzmaurice rattled them off from memory as Sara wrote them down.
“Interesting,” Sara said, scanning the paperwork Kehoe had provided. “From what Kehoe gave us, soon after Spalding bought Sapphire, he started coming back to Ireland to take the coastal and offshore land-and sea-based training classes. To qualify he spent almost four months in class or at sea. To get his ocean certificate he needs to log another six-hundred-mile, nonstop trip. I bet that’s what his voyage around Ireland is all about.”
“There’s no need to be checking marinas and yacht clubs for him if he’s at sea,” Fitzmaurice said.
“We don’t know that.”
“You’re right, of course,” Fitzmaurice said.
“How far are we from Bray?”
“A few kilometers.”
“Telephone this number.” Sara read it off. “It’s for a company called Celtic Sailing. They offer the yachtmaster ocean certificate course.”
Fitzmaurice punched in the numbers, put the phone to his ear, listened, and shook his head. “Closed for the day. No matter, I’ll have an officer find the owner and arrange for us to interview him.”
He made the call, put the phone on the dashboard, and said, “It may interest you to know that Spalding paid for his passport application with a cheque from a Galway bank. Quite possibly he’s moved his assets there. I’ll query the bank in the morning. With any luck we may be able to trace his current movements through his cheque and credit-card transactions.”
Fitzmaurice stopped talking when a builder’s van rolled to a stop in front of the villa, and a stocky man with gray hair, holding a roll of blueprints, got out and waited by the side of his vehicle. He wore work boots, blue jeans, a plaid shirt, and had a bit of a potbelly. Joséphine Paquette arrived shortly afterward in her hired car, accompanied by her driver. While the driver waited, Paquette talked briefly to the man at the front of the van, who quickly unrolled the blueprints on the bonnet of his vehicle and pointed to something that made Paquette nod in approval. The builder smiled, rolled up the blueprints, and followed Paquette into the house.
A half hour passed before they came out, Paquette talking and gesturing with her hands while the builder scribbled notes on a clipboard. Finally she waved a good-bye, got into the waiting car, and left.
The man walked to his van, sat in the driver’s seat with the door open, and continued to make notes.
“Here we go, then,” Fitzmaurice said as he got