If you live aboard your sailboat in the winter and have to use the head, you use the one on shore, not the one on the boat. Even with the diesel heater, you feel the dampness. So I climb out of the sleeping bag, open the companionway and peer out at the weather. I pull on sweatpants and boots, and stumble into the cockpit up on deck and onto the dock. If there's no wind there's usually frost on the dock. The dock is covered in a white film of frost.

It's high tide, so I can see the Time and Temperature Building with the clock flashing its 18 foot high numbers 5:09, then -3, then WMTW. Up the dock, and the gangway, to the head.

On the way back to the boat, I'm thinking I'm not going to go back to sleep when it's this cold. So I grab my toiletry kit and up to shower, shave and change. I walk over to the car, and start it up. Thank goodness for heated seats.

I drive out of the DiMillo's parking lot and turn left onto Commercial St. Becky's Diner is the only place open  at this time of morning.

I park in front and grab a Press Herald from the machine. A buck and a quarter. This is why newspapers are dying. I walk inside and upstairs. I used to like this place when it was just on one level, but that's progress.

I sit at the counter and order a number 3, with home fries and onions. Service at this time of day is remarkably swift. Coffee and juice are delivered as I see the headline: Little Diamond Island Murder.

Murder is an uncommon occurrence in Portland. Usually it can be a domestic dispute, drug related (rare) or alcohol related (most commonly a DWI). The bacon and cheddar omelete arrives and I dig in.

Not until I finish eating do I look at the paper. I almost fall off the stool when I see, "Police Captain Vince Mailot is being held as a suspect in the island homicide." Vince is my best friend. The rest of the article describes the calls from the island around 8 pm. The police respond about an hour later and find Vince at the home of the deceased, an attorney named Chelsea Dexter.  He is covered with her blood.

He's being held at the Cumberland County Jail.

To be continued.