Ships in the Night: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery

Jeff and Zee's want to go on a date always seems to be placed on hold due to other time commitments, now as they volunteer their time for the island's annual regatta, which includes a fundraising auction. Britt has arranged the donation of an art piece from the Winchester Galleries for the auction, the gallery owned by Lila Winchester. As Britt, Zee and Jeff go to the gallery first thing one morning to pick up the donated piece, they are sidetracked when they discover a dead body inside the otherwise locked and security alarm activated gallery, it an obvious case of homicide. Especially seeing as to his direct involvement, Chief Madieras asks for Jeff's unofficial assistance on the case. What little Jeff and Zee know of the victim is that she was a difficult person, meaning many who may have wanted her dead. She was also going through both personal and professional problems, some of those problems well known, which also could be motives for murder, some straddling the realm of the personal and professional. They also have to look into the possibility that the victim was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, as it could have been a case of a robbery gone awry, only one piece, one in series by local artist Carl Kilburn that looks to be missing. If they are to discover the murderer, they will have to look farther afield into the work of Zee's retired mentor, Dr. Eli Leichtner who is in the process of developing a revolutionary dialysis device he didn't want to patent but rather have as open source meaning access to the masses who would need it. Through it all, Jeff is in contact with his former colleague, Detective Andy Lau, for any leads on who killed Jeff's partner, and who fired the gun with the bullet that is still lodged close to his spine.—Huggo