Part 3 (1/2)

I did not feel the inner knots unwind until I had returned the pickup to Sam Dandie, stowed my gear, bundled my sweaty khakis into the laundry sack, taken a long shower in my stall aboard the Busted Flush, big enough for a bridge game, dressed in cool whites and fixed myself a hearty flagon of Boodles over ice. I took the drink topside and sat on the sun deck and watched the lazy life of the marina and the homebound bustle of traffic over an the avenue.

Then I let myself think about being young and dying. One of the basic ingredients of good and bad poetry, good and bad drama the world over. The end of all as life is ere begun. A waste of the firm, springy, young flesh, of all the spices and juices. Tens of thousands of the young kill themselves every year. A pity. I wondered if it could be some kind of Darwinian design, getting rid of the ones unsuited for the rest of the ride. But that would leave out the earthquakes, the floods, the little and big wars, the famines and the deadly diseases that knock off the millions without regard to age or merit: No matter how many dead ones you see, indifference is never achieved except by the butchers. The dead young women had rocked me. A cruel waste. The dentist's daughter and somebody else's daughter. Grownups had helped each of them learn to walk, and had cried out their pleasure when the toddler, face screwed up in anxiety, had come tottering into the waiting arms. Somebody had proudly repeated their first words, read their first school papers, bought their first party dresses. And some people somewhere would have a wrenching, stinging, insatiable sense of loss.

I saw Meyer coming along the dock area and so I got up and walked back to the stern rail of the sun deck and asked him to come aboard. He said he would, as soon as he delivered one fine slab of dolphin to Slip E-10, to the Petersens aboard the Rubiyacht. I told him to step below and fix a drink and bring it up. The long twilight is a fine time of day in October.

When he was in the neighboring deck chair I said, ”May I tell you about my day?”

”Please do.”

And that was another way of unwinding.

Five.

THE WEATHER held fine for the tag end of October and on further into November than we have any right to expect down here on the Gold Coast. The story of the murders and recovery of the Sundowner was a mini-sensation which died quickly. Buried in the gaudy news report was speculation about the ident.i.ty of the anonymous tipster who had phoned the Coast Guard with such knowing details about the ident.i.ty of the vessel and the bodies aboard it. It was a.s.sumed that he had something to do with the murders and that it was related to the drug trade. There have been so many drug murders and so many deaths of the young in southeast Florida that nothing much new can be said.

There was another little flurry when the third victim was identified as Gigliermina Reyes y Fonseca, of Lima, Peru, daughter of a Peruvian diplomat. She had been traveling in Mexico with a companion and had been reported missing a month before the body was found.

On November 7, a Wednesday, Billy Ingraham called and said he had something far me, and I could come and get it anytime before Sat.u.r.day. I drove up there the next morning and went up to the penthouse duplex at the top of Tower Alpha at Dias del Sol. Billy's tan had faded a little. He looked heavier and he seemed abrupt, almost surly. He led me into a little study on the lower floor of the duplex. He didn't ask me to sit down. He handed two thick manila envelopes to me. ”What's this, Billy?”

”Your money, MCGee.”

”How much?”

”Why don't you count it and find out?”

”What the h.e.l.l is going on?”

”I'm paying you in cash. Isn't that the way you people like to get it?”

I sat down without invitation and tossed the two envelopes onto his desk. I began to realize what had happened. ”Billy, I told you not to go look at the boat. But you did, didn't you?”

He perched a hip on a corner of his desk and looked dolefully down at me. ”After the authorities were through with her, the yard sent a couple of men down. They got her cleaned up some and operating and brought her around to Jacksonville. Millis and me, we don't want that cruiser anymore. It's finished for us.”

”Going to get another one?”

”I don't know. Maybe not. It's a lot of work and responsibility. Millis, she wants to spend the winter in the South of France.”

”Why treat me so hardnose, Billy?”

”I don't know. s.h.i.+t. You're part of the whole picture somehow. And that G.o.dd.a.m.n dentist calling me up and crying over the phone, and why did I leave the keys in the boat, his daughter would still be alive, and that d.a.m.n insurance outfit saying take seventeen thousand three hundred or nothing at all, and people asking me how it felt to own a boat people got killed on. McGee, I just don't feel like being sweet and nice to anybody at all.”

”How much is in the envelopes?”

”One ninety-three five.”

”Okay.”

”Don't you want to ask any questions?”

”Why should I? You're not the kind that screws friends.”

”You got a right to know. It took eighty-eight thousand to get her back in decent shape to peddle. Part of that eighty-eight was the little piddle the insurance gave me. The yard says they can get four hundred and seventy-five for her. She nets out in recovery condition at three eighty-seven and you get half of that. Here's how I make out, if you care.”

”I care.”

”I had seven twenty in her that I put in. I put in a net seventy thousand seven hundred to get her in shape to sell. That makes seven ninety and seven hundred. Out of that I get back a hundred and ninety-three five hundred. In other words, McGee., I take a bath for five ninety-seven two.”

”A boat is said to be a hole in the water into which the owner pours money.”

He smiled for the first time, but it was a tired smile. ”Bet your buns,” he said. ”The deal with you wasn't the best one I've ever made. I can't tell you how many times Millis has told me that. It never occurred to me that three d.a.m.n kids could do eighty-eight thousand dollars' damage to a boat just living in it.”

”And dying in it.”

”Yes. That too.” He sighed. ”And I didn't know a custom boat would drop so much on the market. We designed it to suit us. People who can afford it, sooner get one built for their own tastes and lifestyle. And word got around it's the murder boat. That hurts chances of selling it. Superst.i.tion of the sea or something.”

”Billy, you're breaking my heart. Want to renegotiate?”

”And you would, wouldn't you?”

”Just say the word.”

He stood up and laughed and belted me on the arm hard enough to numb my fingertips. ”s.h.i.+t, McGee, I've got more money than Carter had pills. I just like. to moan and groan. A deal is a deal. Don't insult me.”

I got up and said, ”Has anybody been by to find out who located your boat for you?”

”Three dapper little guys in three-piece suits about a week ago. Only one of them could speak English, and not a lot of it either. I told them the Coast Guard found my boat. They were some kind of Latins. They said somebody told the Coast Guard where to look. I said that was interesting, but I didn't know anything about it. They said that the person who tipped the Coast Guard knew whose boat it was. I said that was interesting too, and maybe it was my insurance company.”

”Nice going. Thanks.”

Millis sauntered in. She was wearing some kind of black silky jogging suit, and she smelled expensive. ”Travis McGee! How good to see you!” she cried, and she did it so well I could almost believe her. ”How clever you were to find the Sundowner for us.”

”Just dumb luck,” I said.

”I guess more luck for you than for us,” she said. ”Can you stay for lunch? Please?”

”Thanks, but I've got to get back.”

Billy took me to the door. He said they were flying up to New York on Sat.u.r.day because there were two shows Millis wanted to see, and also a friend of hers was having a show of his paintings in one of the galleries and they'd been invited to the opening. I told him I hoped he'd have a fine time. He said he hoped so too, but he didn't look as if he believed it.

I decided to give Mick the twenty rather than be picky and cut him to ten percent after expenses. I phoned him on Thursday to be sure he'd be in and then drove over with it. I gave it to him the same way I got it, half hundreds and half fifties in a manila envelope. He undid the clasp and peered in and then he beamed at me, and for an instant I saw how he must have looked as a little kid when he heard he was going to go to the movies.

”Hoo weee!” he said. ”Makes my teeth hurt.”

”Some well-dressed little Latin types came to my client to find out who found the boat.”

”n.o.body has come to me.”