"Who chose those places?"

"Well, Otto wanted to go to Cabo, and San Diego was just the halfway point on the trip back. We always take it slow going back."

"What happened in Cabo with Otto?"

"I told you, he had a little something on the side down there. Both nights he got cleaned up and went into town. I think he was meeting a senorita there. He had made some calls on his cell phone."

"Is he married?"

"Far as I know. I think that's why he liked the four-day charters. His wife thought he was out there fishing. She probably didn't know about stopping in Cabo for a Margarita-and I'm not talking about the drink."

"What about Terry, did he go into town?"

He answered without hesitation.

"Nope, Terry had nothing going in that department and he would never leave the boat. He'd never even step on the dock."

"How come?"

"I don't know. He just said he didn't need to. I think he was superstitious about it."

"How so?"

"You know, the captain stays with the vessel, that sort of thing."

"What about you?"

"Most of the time I hung with Terry and the boat. Every now and then I'd go to town to one of the bars or something."

"What about on that last trip?" "No, I stayed with the boat. I was a little short of bread."

"So on that last trip, Terry never got off the boat?"

"That's right."

"And nobody besides you, Otto and him were ever on the boat, right?"

"That's-well, not exactly."

"What do you mean? Who was on the boat?"

"On the second night going into Cabo we got stopped by the federates. The Mexican Coast Guard. Two guys came on board and looked around for a few minutes."

"Why?"

"It's sort of a routine. Every now and then they stop you, make you pay a little tariff, then they let you go."