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and then drew back.
    Carefully, I used my driver’s license from my pocket to lift a few of the scales and put them on a piece of cardboard I found in the trash. I put that in my pocket and kept walking.
    I was thinking about the coral horn and the mermaid I’d seen from touching it. Was it possible there were already seafolk in Duck?
    Gramps was more than eager to go to the police investigation when I got back to Missing Pieces. He wanted to know everything I’d seen and heard at the ship, also convinced I knew something more about the crime.
    “That’s all I know. I hated seeing him dead. The ship surgeon said he drowned. His stateroom was wet like he could’ve drowned right in there. I know that’s not possible.”
    “All right. I’m going down there. I’ve rescheduled the charter for tomorrow.” He hugged me. “It wasn’t your fault, Dae. You couldn’t have known what you’d find there. I’ll see you later, probably at home.”
    Several of the shop owners had come out on the boardwalk to talk about the gossip regarding Captain Lucky’s death. It was already filtering through town.
    Mary Catherine Roberts, who was the new owner of the Pet Emporium, was holding the smallest Yorkie I’d ever seen. She glanced up at the sky, and a gull landed on the edge of the gutter close to her head.
    She nodded as the bird squawked a few times. “Captain Lucky has been killed? Why, that’s horrible.”
    Vergie Smith who had been the postmistress for Duck since before I was born, paused on her way into the Duck General Store. “Hear that, August? The captain of that stupid gambling ship is dead.”
    August Grandin, who owned the general store, came to the open door. “I knew that ship was going to be a big mistake. Now someone’s been murdered out there. I can’t wait to hear what the mayor and the town council have to say about that.”
    Mary Catherine walked into Missing Pieces. “What’s going on with Captain Lucky?” She took a seat on my burgundy brocade sofa.
    “I don’t know. I found him dead on the ship. I’m sure you heard as much as I know from your gull friend.”
    She laughed. “Gull friend. I get that. That particular gull is female too. I don’t think she saw what happened to Captain Lucky, but she told me that he was here with you for a while earlier.”
    “Is there anything you don’t hear from birds, fish, or rats?”
    “Not much. They’re naturally inquisitive and they love to gossip.”
    Mary Catherine was a colorful, middle-aged woman who had a flamboyant sense of style—and could speak to any animal on the planet.
    It was a gift, like mine, that she was born with. People called her the Pet Psychic. She’d used the name for years as a radio talk show personality. Now she was semi-retired and ran the Pet Emporium where she counseled owners and their pets when the need arose.  
    She’d been surprisingly busy.
    Today she was wearing a green and purple caftan with matching shorts and long, faux emerald earrings. She almost always wore her large tabby cat draped around her neck like a scarf, but Baylor had been left behind, possibly because of the Yorkie she’d been holding on the boardwalk.
    “I only said something about Captain Lucky’s visit here to Chief Michaels. I’d appreciate it if you’d ask your friends not to spread that information around.”
    She laughed and walked to the door. “I don’t think anyone else can understand what they say anyway, but I’ll mention it to her. Now I have to go back and try to work out the problems my little Yorkie friend is having with his people.”
    “Maybe he just needs to eat different food,” I suggested. “I took your advice about Treasure, and he’s like a new cat.”
    “Good to hear,” Mary Catherine said. “But I’m afraid the Yorkie—his name is Samuel—is far more disturbed than Treasure. He was a rescue dog, and even though he’s with a good family now, he’s having some lingering issues that cause him to