Chapter 14: The Missing Man

The investigation into Frank Delgado's disappearance took Nessa in a direction she hadn't expected. The Mary Beth's sinking had been ruled an accident — a storm, a boat that couldn't handle it, three men lost. But the absence of Delgado's remains changed everything. If he hadn't been on the boat when it sank, then he had left the boat before it sank. And if he had left, the two crew members who died had been alone on a boat that sank for reasons that weren't accidental. Nessa's team examined the wreck more carefully. The hull showed signs of deliberate damage — not storm damage, but damage consistent with someone opening the sea cocks or otherwise scuttling the vessel. The Mary Beth had been sunk on purpose. Someone had scuttled the boat with two men sleeping in the forward cabin. Nessa went back to the family. Margaret Delgado was sixty-eight, retired, living in the same coastal town where she'd grown up. 'My mother never recovered,' Margaret said. 'After my father died — after he was reported dead — she fell apart. She drank. She died in 1972, when I was sixteen. I raised my younger siblings.' 'I'm sorry,' Nessa said. 'I need to ask you something difficult.' 'About my father,' Margaret said. 'About whether he really died.' Nessa nodded. Margaret was quiet for a long time. 'There were rumors,' she said. 'After the sinking. People said they'd seen him — in San Francisco, in Los Angeles. My mother didn't believe them. She said he would never have left us.' 'But you're not sure.' 'I was eleven when he disappeared. I believed what my mother told me — that he died at sea, that the sea took him. I believed it for fifty years.' She looked at Nessa. 'Are you telling me he survived?' 'I'm telling you his remains weren't on the boat. I'm telling you the boat was scuttled deliberately. And I'm telling you that the two men who were on the boat died because someone sank it.' Margaret Delgado's face went through a series of emotions that Nessa recognized from years of delivering difficult news to families. Shock, denial, grief, and finally — in this case — anger. 'He left us,' Margaret said. 'He killed his crew and he left us and he let my mother die thinking he was dead.' 'We don't know that yet,' Nessa said carefully. 'We need to investigate further. But Margaret — your father may have faked his death in 1956.' Margaret stood up. 'Find him,' she said. 'If he's alive — if he's been alive this whole time — I want to know.' Nessa looked at her. 'If he's alive,' Nessa said, 'he's ninety-seven years old.' 'I don't care,' Margaret said. 'Find him.'