CHAPTER 24: FROSTYFROSTY STONEMAN LAY ON HIS back on a narrow sofa-c*m-berth, head toward the bow. In the dim light filtering through the cabin windows, he might have been laid out on a cathedral bier. Only his right arm hung over the wooden frame, elbow bent.
His fingertips would have brushed the gray-carpeted floor, if he’d had fingertips.
Drawing in a cautious breath, Detective Pete Altman took inventory. The dead man’s face was clean-shaven, mottled and faintly bluish-green as if reflecting the ocean outside. A fine white cotton shirt and khaki trousers covered most of his body. Both feet wore Topsiders. Above one white sock showed a hairy band of skin; above the other, a steel tibia.
From this angle, Stoneman appeared to be missing half his right leg, three fingers of his right ha
