Tom Lynch sat quietly, looking at the two detectives. His mind was working a mile a minute and he was visibly uncomfortable.
"All right. One more time. But if you want to talk to me after this, it will be with my lawyer present. Keep that in mind," he said.
Janecek nodded. Philliponi rose and went to a water cooler, bringing back two cups of cold water, placing one in front of each of the two men before returning to get one for herself.
Janecek opened the file in front of him and passed several pages to his partner. Tom could see that the top page showed Coast Guard letterhead. It was a copy of the statement he gave the morning after the accident. He showed no sign of concern.
"We were entered in the Southern Straits race as we had each year for the past six years," Tom began. "This year the weather was expected to be rough, but not anywhere near as rough as it turned out to be. My boat is well equipped with radar and GPS, plus both Veronica and I had plenty of experience in bad weather, so I wasn't too concerned.
"We took turns at the wheel, with four hours on and four hours off. I set it up so that I took the midnight to four am watch, while Veronica got some sleep. In fact, I didn't plan to wake her unless she woke up herself. I had coffee in a thermos and some energy bars to keep me going.
"Shortly after I took over, the storm started getting more intense and I could see on the radar that it was going to be stronger than forecast. I checked the reports on the various light stations on the marine radio and they confirmed it was going to be a rough night. I put my survival suit on and hooked up my tether, just in case. I left Veronica's suit at the bottom of the companionway so that she wouldn't come on deck without it. That was standard operating procedure for us.
"Everything was fine until just before two am. I had been feeling poorly since midnight, but now I was having internal cramps. They felt like bowel cramps. I've had them before if I've had some tainted food, but these were getting worse. I knew I wouldn't make it until four am without relief, so I pushed the alarm bell for Veronica to let her know I needed her right away. Five minutes later she was on deck, wearing her survival suit. I explained the situation, and she immediately took over, telling me not to come back until I was better.
"I made it to the head and relieved myself. Whatever was bothering me had given me diarrhea and it took a while to purge myself. I could hear something banging on the deck I thought something had come loose and was causing the racket. I was sure Veronica wouldn't leave the helm until I returned, so I cleaned myself up as best I could and suited up to go back up on deck. When I got up to the cockpit, there was no sign of her. I turned on the big deck light and called her name, but there was no answer."
"How long were you away from the cockpit?" Janecek asked.
"I'm not sure. Maybe ... fifteen or twenty minutes. No more."
"Carry on," the detective said.
"The boat was on self-steering, which was unusual. We seldom use that when we are in bad weather. The noise I heard was the inflatable. One of the oars had come out of its cradle and that's what I heard below. I went below again to make sure Veronica hadn't gone to the other head or into one of the cabins, but there was no sign of her. I guess I was in shock. It hadn't quite sunk in that she had gone overboard. It took me a couple of minutes to decide what to do.
"I dropped what little sail we had and started the engine. I circled back the way we had come using the GPS plotter to determine my course. I turned on the deck light again, and began calling her name. I knew it was futile, but I had to do something. While I was motoring, I made a distress call to the Coast Guard and told them what had happened. I'm sure they'll have a recording of it.
"I went back and forth over the area I thought she might have fallen in, but there was no sign of her. With the waves and wind at the time, I'd have to have been very lucky to spot her. As time went on, I began to lose hope. She could last for a while in her survival gear, but with the water temperature where it was, I doubted it would be long enough for us to find her alive.
"The Coast Guard cutter turned up just before four am, and by then I was a basket case. They checked my GPS to confirm the area where she disappeared and began their own search, but I knew just by talking to them that it was hopeless. I had lost her. Somehow, someway, she had fallen overboard and she was gone."
"Your wife's body has never been found?" Philliponi asked, knowing the answer.
Tom Lynch shook his head, looking sadly at the two police detectives.
"Is there anything else that you can think of that might help us clear up this case?" Janecek asked.
"No ... I'm as confused as you are about the ... cheating thing. I don't see how it could be related to her disappearance."
"As I said before," Philliponi stated, "An angry husband might be prone to take revenge on a wayward wife. If she was planning on leaving you for her lover, maybe you figured out how badly you'd come out in the divorce. She'd get half of everything, including your business. So, if you did know about the two of them, you'd have a pretty strong motive."
"No! How many times do I have to tell you? I didn't know anything about her affair. I had no reason to kill her. It was an accident ... that's all. A tragic, horrible accident."
The two detectives sat quietly watching the distraught man in front of them. Was he telling the truth? They had no evidence to the contrary, but he had a motive if he knew of his wife's cheating. Was it just a coincidence that she went overboard, missing without a trace? They were taught not to believe in coincidences.
"That's all for now, Mr. Lynch. We'll contact you if we need to talk to you again. In the meantime, if you're planning any trips out of town, please let us know. This file is not yet closed."
Tom Lynch stood, looking at the two angrily.
"If I'm down here again, I'll have my lawyer with me. I'm not going to be your personal whipping boy while you try and make two and two equal five."
With that, he turned and walked out of the interview room. The pneumatic closer prevented him from the slamming the door as he so desperately wanted to.
"What do you think?" Janecek asked his partner.
"Don't know. It really hinges on whether he knew about her fooling around on him, doesn't it? I guess that's what we have to find out. Did he know?"
Janecek nodded. Any case at all hung on that one question.
Chapter 2 Carrying On
It was more than three months since he had lost Veronica. Three months of turmoil. First the grieving, then, a month ago, the revelation of her affair with someone in her office. What was his name? Collingwood ... Collingworth? He had come to understand why the police were interested in him. He would have motive if he knew of her affair. It put an end to his inward grieving.
Veronica's parents were distraught, of course. Losing their eldest daughter had been very traumatic and they had yet to recover from the shock. Tom sensed that they blamed him for the accident and he felt their withdrawal from him over the past weeks. His only support came from Veronica's younger sister, Connie. She had always been a close friend, having had a crush on Tom when she was a teenager. She was seven years younger than her sister, but now, at thirty-three, was a bright, self-reliant young woman running her own successful interior design business.
Tom's mother was upset at Veronica's death, but not to the extent Tom might have expected. She had accepted the accident as just that, a tragic unforeseen event. It was the second time they had lost a family member. Tom's father had died six years ago on a business trip to China. He had been robbed and murdered near his hotel in Shanghai. The three men were quickly captured, tried, convicted, and executed. It had been little consolation to Marion Lynch or Tom, their only child, or to Tom's family.
At the young age of thirty-two, Tom Lynch had become president and CEO of Lynchpin Plastics. Now, with the death of Veronica, his mother transferred all her affection to him and her grandsons, believing they needed her support and love. Tom had yet to decide what to do about his future. The twins, Vern and Tony, were in their final year high school. Vern was writing for an academic scholarship to a local university, while Tony planned to take plastics technology at the nearby technical college. Tony saw himself as his father's natural partner at Lynchpin.
The two boys had seemed to be handling their mother's death more easily than their father. Tom had told no one about his wife's infidelity or the police interview, and saw no reason to reveal what he had been told. They had held a memorial service for Veronica three weeks after her disappearance. A plaque was placed at a shady site in a park near her parents' home after a small service for the immediate family, conducted by their local minister. That small gesture was well received by her father, but Veronica's mother was still distant and cool toward Tom. Only her grandsons felt her love and sorrow.
