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your full name and address."
    "Travis D. McGee, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, aboard the Busted Flush."
    "Own it or run it?"
    "I own it."
    "Now you tell me in your own words how you come to find this body."
    "Sam Taggart used to live here. He went away three years ago. He got back today and called me up this afternoon, aboard the boat. I came right over and we talked for about an hour, about old friends and so on. I loaned him forty dollars. He said he was back to stay. I went on back to the boat. I spent the evening alone. I had my phone turned off. I went to bed and went to sleep. At quarter after twelve a woman came to the boat, a friend of mine. She used to know Sam. She said a mutual friend had phoned her and told her Sam was back in town. She thought I might know where he was. She thought it would be a good idea if we both paid him a visit. I got dressed and drove her over here. She left her car back at Bahia Mar. His car was here. I knocked and there wasn't any answer. I tried the door and it opened. I found the light switch. She came to the door and looked in at him too, and she went all to pieces. She used to be pretty fond of him.
    I took her back to her place, phoned in from there, and then came right back here. There's somebody to take care of her at her place. When I got back here, the two deputies were already here. So I waited around."
    "Who is this woman?"
    "She's a local businesswoman. It wouldn't help her any if it was in the newspapers that she was with me when I found the body."
    "I can understand that, Mr. McGee. Who is she?"
    "Nora Gardino. She has a shop at Citrus Gate Plaza."
    "I know the place. Expensive. She knew this type fella?"
    "I guess he didn't have much luck during the three years he was away."
    "Where did he work and where did he live when he lived here?"
    I remembered some of the places he had worked, and a couple of the addresses.
    "Would the law around here have any kind of file on him?"
    "It wouldn't be anything serious. Brawling, maybe."
    "Who phoned Nora Gardino about seeing this man in town?"

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    "A girl called Beanie who works in the Mart, across from Pier 66. I don't know her last name."
    "Do you know where she saw Taggart?"
    "In that Howard Johnson's opposite the Causeway, about eight o'clock."
    "Anybody with him?"
    "I don't know."
    "How long did you know Taggart before he moved away?"
    "About two years."
    "How did you meet him?"
    "Through friends. A mutual interest in boats and the water and fishing."
    "Where has he been living?"
    "In California. And he spent some time in Mexico."
    "And he came back broke?"
    "He borrowed forty dollars from me."
    "What do you do for a living?"
    "I get into little ventures every now and then. Investments. Land deals. That kind of thing."
    "It was sort of a gag, going to call on Taggart so late?"
    "I guess you could call it that. She wanted to see him again, I guess."
    "You didn't see anybody driving away from here or walking away from here when you drove up?"
    "No."
    "Was he the kind of fella goes into a bar and gets in trouble?"
    "Sometimes."
    "I'll have to check this out with Mrs. Gardino."
    "Miss. She might be pretty dopey by now. Sleeping pills. It was a terrible shock for her to see anything tike that."
    "A knife is messy. There's no big rush about talking to her. How about Taggart's folks?"

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    "I wouldn't know. I think he has some cousins somewhere."
    A man appeared at the window on Branks's side. Branks turned the tape machine off.
    "All clear, Ken. We got more prints than anybody needs, most of them smudged."
    "How about that end cabin?"
    "A farmer from South Carolina and a half wit kid. They didn't see anything or hear anything. No other cabins occupied."
    "How about the owner?"
    "He should be here any minute. He lives way the hell and gone out."
    "Runs the gas station?"
    "Yes."
    "Check him on anybody coming to see Taggart. How about Taggart's gear?"
    "I'd give you about twenty-eight cents for everything he owns, Ken."
    "Have Sandy tag