What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(41)

“I did, yeah.”

“Did you on occasion dock the Egregious at the Diamond Marina in Lake Union?”

“I did on occasion,” Flynt said. He looked to have settled in.

“Do you recall the name of the harbormaster?”

Flynt looked to the ceiling and strained, then shook his head.

“No.”

“Does the name David Slocum ring a bell?”

“Was he the harbormaster?”

“About five foot eight with a ponytail?” Tracy said.

“Yeah. He’d be the guy.”

“Did you pay David Slocum cash for the slip?”

Gordon sat forward. “I’m going to object, Detective. What relevance is that?”

“I’m just asking how he paid, trying to establish I’m in the correct universe.” Tracy had spoken to enough inmates and suspects with their counsel present to know when an attorney was just demonstrating to his client that he was earning his pay.

Gordon nodded to Flynt. “I always paid cash,” Flynt said.

“Do you recall how much you paid?”

Flynt chuckled and shook his head. “That was a long time ago.”

“Did you pay Slocum more than the asking rate for the slip?”

Gordon shook his head. “Again, Detective. What is the point of the question? There’s nothing illegal with paying more than the going rate.”

“I agree,” Tracy said. “There isn’t.”

Gordon acted perturbed but waved to Flynt. “Go ahead.”

“Yes.”

“Did you know that David Slocum was not recording your moorage in the Diamond Marina’s books?” Tracy didn’t know for sure but suspected this based on what Dennis Hopper told her.

“No,” Flynt said.

“Before 2002, did you run drugs in the Egregious, and on occasion moor overnight at the Diamond Marina?”

“I’m not going to let him answer that,” Gordon said.

“I’m asking him about before 2002, for which the six-year statute of limitations to bring any drug-related action has long since expired.”

Gordon gave her comment a moment of thought. “Go ahead,”

he said to Flynt.

“Before 2002 I did use the Egregious to run drugs, and I did on occasion moor overnight at the Diamond Marina.”

Each answer added credibility to Dennis Hopper’s hearsay statement that Slocum told him the Egregious had been raided.

Tracy didn’t want to go there yet. “Did you have a crew?”

“Usually.”

“How big a crew? How many?”

“Usually, just me and one or two others. It didn’t take more than that to run the boat.”

“Were these regular crew members or did they change?”

“They changed.”

“Was a crew member placed on board the ship to keep an eye on the product for whoever supplied it?”

“Yeah. That happened.”

“Two Mexican men?”

“Again, usually.”

“Were you ever raided at the marina in Lake Union?”

“Don’t answer that,” Gordon said.

“Before 2002, while you moored the Egregious at the Diamond Marina, were you ever raided?”

“He’s not going to answer that.”

Tracy got a hunch and played it. “Per the terms of the confidential plea agreement?”

“Per the terms of the confidential plea agreement,” Gordon confirmed.

A light flickered. The plea agreement had not been reached to get Flynt to reveal information, but to conceal it. Tracy opened her file and removed a multipage document stapled in the corner. She acted as if she were reading it, flipped over a sheet, and continued reading. In her peripheral vision she could see Gordon shifting in his chair.

“Per the terms of this agreement entered following the seizure of the Egregious by US customs and the Coast Guard in March 2002, you agreed not to mention a raid that took place on your boat on November 18, 1995, and in exchange for that agreement, your sentence on felony drug trafficking was reduced from twelve years to five years. Is that correct?”

“He’s not going to discuss the terms of that agreement,” Gordon said. “The written document is the best source of that information anyway.”

“How much product was on the Egregious the night it was boarded?”

“Don’t answer,” Gordon said.

“What was the street value of that product?”

“Again, don’t answer.”

“Where was the Egregious taken to offload that product the night it was raided?”

“Shilshole—”

“Don’t answer that question.”

Tracy wanted to get back to questions Flynt would answer. “You were the captain of the Egregious from roughly 1989 until it was seized March 10, 2002, correct?”

Flynt looked to Gordon, who again nodded. “That’s correct,”

Flynt said.

“Prior to 2002 your boat was never impounded by United States or Canadian authorities, correct?”

Another nod from Gordon.

“Correct,” Flynt said.

“You didn’t see the faces of the officers who raided your boat on November 18, 1995, because they wore face coverings; did they not?”