Death of a Hot Chick (9 page)

If she heard, she didn’t answer.

The best part of the working day was gone.
Everyone at the marina took off Saturday, except for someone at the
fuel dock. I needed a paying job, but there’d be no one at Bayside
to hire me.

I had to try. I loaded my rags and teak oil
and took the short cut between the marinas. I walked between boats
up on the hard, past work buildings closed, and around an overload
of parked cars that had brought sailing families to their boats for
the weekend. However, the manager’s office door was open.

I poked my head inside and rapped on the
door frame. “Anybody here?”

“
Barely.” The voice came from the back
room. “Just leaving. What’s up?” Monty, the Bayside manager, came
lumbering through the door. “Oh, it’s you.”

“
That job still available I worked on
yesterday?”

“
Slim’s on it. And I’m not going to
dig out anything else right now. It’s too damn hot to
work.”

“
I thought he took the weekend
off.”

“
Didn’t work out, I guess. He’s a
sucker for punishment. You and Slim are two peas in a pod. Work all
the time. He didn’t even take the weekend off like he said. He’d
likely cotton to a helper.”

“
I know the way.”

I found Slim, a broad-brimmed hat protecting
his head, his bony shoulders moving in time to his humming as he
rubbed oil into the teak.

“
Hot work,” I said. “Want some
help?”

He tried to look stern. “Sure you ain’t out
to take over all my jobs?”

I shook my head, then lifted my right hand,
fingers flat out. “Cross my heart.”

“
Okay.” The grin broke out. “Same deal
as before.”

I nodded. He’d explained it once, years ago.
The deal involved halves and quarters, and piles of change, and him
being the boss, all with absolutely no calculator to arrive at, as
far as I could see, an eminently fair division.

After we started work, I said, “I looked for
you yesterday, but Monty said you have a lady friend.”

Slim’s eyes crinkled as he chuckled. “Yeah,
that’s what he thinks. I ain’t telling him any different.”

“
You don’t have a lady
friend?”

Slim grinned, but he didn’t answer, just
kept on rubbing teak, changing rags often.

“
Want me to sand the next bit?” I
asked, and with his nod, I started working. The two of us worked
easily together, and Slim would talk when he wanted, not before.
However, he didn’t mind a bit of chatter.

“
I’m fixing up my boat.
Snapdragon
. Takes a lot of
money.”

“
Yeah. Heard that.”

He had already known? “Just curious. Who
told you?”

Slim started whistling, but he didn’t
answer. Twenty minutes later, he said, “You want some water? I got
me my thermos here.”

“
Sure.”

As he poured, he said, “You know her,
too.”

Aha. He couldn’t keep quiet, but was this an
answer to my question? “Yeah?”

“
That newspaper gal that just got that
there night-time column.”

“
Teddy! She’s the lady friend?” Not
the secret source of knowledge.

Slim gulped water before he answered. “Yep.
She done me a favor once. Put in a word for me, she did.”

I didn’t ask. “Good to have friends like
that.”

“
You bet. And she likes to hear stuff
I hear. Lotta times she puts it in the paper.”

“
She’s always looking for stories.” I
brushed sawdust off the teak. “Do you want the deck sanded and
varnished?”

“
No varnish, the guy said. Just oil.
Some more teak along this here way.” He picked up supplies, and
added, “I told her about your boat, you know.”

I gathered my supplies and followed Slim.
“That I have it, you mean?”

“
Nah. I din’t know t’was yours then.
Told her about that there fool Chester. He thinks that uncle of his
wants the boat back just because it’s a boat.”

We’d moved around to another area of
weather-beaten teak. I chose a square of sandpaper. Slim was
finally eager to talk and I wanted to hear it all.

“
And he doesn’t?“ I didn’t look
up.

“
Way I see it, Pop got some kinda
secret hid in that boat.” Slim lined up his supplies.

“
Like loot or something?”

Slim started sanding. “You got it.”

“
And Chester doesn’t know it? But
Teddy does.” And now I did, too. Just a rumor, or an actual fact?
Had Nicole known about any supposed loot in the boat? Maybe she
believed the rumor, told someone. Looked for it—found it, or didn’t
find anything. Was that why she’d been killed? “So, what else do
you tell Teddy?”

“
Oh, stuff. Like who goes off for a
weekend. You know.”

“
Uh-huh.” Like maritime shack up, I
guessed.

“
Maybe what Monty says.”

So, what could Bayside’s marina manager say
to interest Teddy? “Yeah?”

Slim poured more teak oil on the wood and
rubbed a good five minutes before he answered. “Monty didn’t want
that little lobster trawler you got staying in his marina. Not
after Chester got rid of her. I figure, ’cause of Pop. ’Course, he
didn’t tell that Nicole gal any of that.” Slim cackled, pleased
with some secret joke. “Told her about a million things, he did.
About a convention of boats coming in. About a big down-payment for
new contracts. About a waiting list a mile long. Don’t remember
what all.”

I smiled and nodded to encourage Slim. “Then
he told you?”

“
He don’t tell me nothing. He got a
loud voice and I got ears, is all.”

~
~

Kaye’s voice came from outside. “It’s later.
I’m here.”

Later was right. I’d just put my supper
dishes away. I opened the door and said, “You’re supposed to say,
‘Permission to come aboard.’ And then I say, ‘It’s too late.’ ”

“
I brought pineapple upside-down cake
and a thermos of hot chocolate,” Kaye said as she waltzed past me
and into my floating home.

“
Okay. So, what do you want
now?”

“
You are so suspicious.”

“
No more than usual.” I got two forks
and two mugs. I’d pay, one way or another, but I couldn’t pass up
Kaye’s home-made goodies. “You will join me, right?”

“
Just the hot chocolate.” Kaye swirled
the thermos, then filled the two cups. “I had my cake earlier.” She
watched me take a bite. “Good, right?”

“
Always. And you know it.” I savored
the first bite, then took another. Almost as good as her cherry
cheesecake. Sleep could wait.

Kaye sipped cocoa, stared at the walls like
she was waiting for something. I took another bite. Kaye smiled.
She was definitely waiting for the perfect moment to spring
whatever surprise was coming. “Yummy,” I said. Kaye nodded and
watched with that everlasting smile while I finished the final
crumb.

She leaned forward and placed one finger on
the table. “Something is hidden on this boat, and you and I will
find it tonight.”

Had she been secretly following me all
afternoon, listening in as I talked to Slim? “Like I said, it’s
late.”

“
Tomorrow is Sunday, a day of
rest.”

I put my dishes into the sink,
stretched, and yawned for good measure. “So, tomorrow is an
excellent day to find hidden stuff. It’s dark now, and the lighting
in
Snapdragon
is not the best.
Haven’t you noticed that?”

Kaye placed her mug in the sink, then,
instead of gathering up her thermos, she sat down. “I copied the
names on the title before we took it to the bank. The former owner
was named Chester Foltz.”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
I never heard of him before, but his
address was included.”

Since Kaye intended to talk, I said, “Maybe
that’s who she saw.”

“
Who
who
saw? Not that I’m an owl, or anything. I
guess you mean the ‘who’ Nicole planned to borrow thirty dollars
from. Right?”

“
Um, sure.”

“
Okay, out with it. What else were you
going to say?”

Sisters could be a drag. They knew too much
about one’s moods, about, oh, about every darn thing.

“
Okay, come on,” Kaye almost sang. “No
secrets.”

I’d really meant Lizzie when she saw my
intruder, but I went with Nicole. “I’ve never seen ghosts
before.”

Kaye stared, mouth open. But not for long.
“Don’t tell me. Your latest imaginary creature is Nicole?”

“
I’m not sure.”

“
You’re not sure it’s
Nicole?”

“
It’s Nicole all right. I’m not sure
she’s imaginary.”

“
I don’t think I believe in
ghosts.”

But she had always accepted the imaginary
creatures of my childhood? “Okay.”

Kaye ignored the whole subject of the spirit
world and jumped to her most recent favorite subject—my mental
health. Which, when I stopped to think of it, wasn’t much of a
switch from me seeing ghosts. “Now, I know you refused to see a
counselor, but such an action isn’t a sign of weakness. Professor
Reynolds isn’t certified, but she is a sympathetic ear.”

“
Hey, she doesn’t want to hear about
my problems. If you don’t mention your professor, I’ll shut up
about ghosts. Deal?”

Kaye tucked her lower lip in, breathed
heavily for a few moments, then said, “Just think about it. That’s
all I ask.”

“
Deal?”

“
Yes. Deal.” Kaye flashed her hand
over her face, changing the frown to a smile. “Now, I did come with
an ulterior motive. We need to search right now. Something is
hidden on this boat. Anything we find could be of immense value in
solving Nicole’s murder.”

“
I’ve searched. You’ve searched. We’ve
both searched. See the piles in the V-berth?”

“
Then we’ll go through them again.
Fresh eyes, you know.”

Was it possible we could find some clue to
Nicole’s murder? “Okay. Half an hour.”

Kaye nodded. We started going through piles.
Kaye, caught up in the mindless task, muttered. “Risky actions. But
she was independent. Didn’t worry about consequences.”

“
Who?” I asked. “Are you talking about
Nicole?”

“
Nothing.” Kaye shook her head. But a
few minutes later she told herself, in the lowest of tones, “That
loan. She must have known he couldn’t pay it back. ‘Like taking
candy from a baby,’ she’d said.”

Was Kaye starting to change her mind about
Nicole? I could understand completely. Nicole could tell people
pink was green, and they’d believe it.

Then, suddenly realizing what she’d said,
Kaye backtracked like crazy. “Forget what I just said. She was
determined, decisive. Perhaps she didn’t think through all the
downsides. Perhaps I could have helped, counseled her. But, I do
see, that if she were buying all of her father’s outstanding stock,
it does make sense that she didn’t have thirty dollars in cash to
give you.”

So she believed me. Belatedly. Big whoop.
“I’m tired,” I said. “Don’t you think we’ve looked enough for
whatever you think we might find?”

Kaye nodded. We’d made all new piles of the
junk, but found nothing. She said, “No evidence of what the thief
might have been looking for.”

“
What evidence? A hole in this mess
that says,
‘Look, there used to be
something immensely valuable right here.’
”

Kaye stared at me, not the stare that
used to shrivel me into a jelly-mass. I’d seen a lot worse lately.
Starting with the Coast Guard pictures of my burned-to-ashes
boat
Honey
, and ending with
Nicole the ghost.

Then Kaye grinned. “Okay, I’m through. Go to
bed. You look like hell. Speaking in a loving manner, of
course.”

“
Of course.”

~
~

I really meant to go right to bed. I was
certainly tired enough. I put on my jammies and thought about that
soft mattress we’d uncovered in the V-berth. I tossed a pillow on
top, pushed the piles to one side and climbed up, pulling a blanket
over me.

Yeah, this was the life. The slight movement
of gentle waves could always lull me to sleep despite my worries.
There were no killers, no intruders, no empty purses. I stared up
through the hatch overhead. Too much light from the one pole light
at the marina office to see the stars like I would at an isolated
anchorage. I leaned my head back ’til I could see the anchor locker
nestled in the bow.

The anchor locker. We hadn’t searched
that.

I grabbed the flashlight, hunched myself
around, slipped a finger inside the catch, opened the door, and
turned on the flashlight.

The coiled anchor rode smelled musty, even
though it was completely dry. Little colored plastic tags lay,
woven into the fiber to measure off the feet as the line payed out.
Would I have to remove all that line to see if there was anything
underneath? Not tonight. Too much trouble. I flashed around the
interior one last time. There was a small piece of paper stuck low,
under a few coils of the rope. I pulled it out.

That’s when I heard her voice.
“Well, it’s about time.”

Chapter 7

Slowly, I transferred the note to my left
hand and looked up. In the dim glow from the flashlight, I saw a
shadow of Nicole, sitting on the edge of the V-berth. She tipped
her head, pushed a few strands of her long hair behind her ear,
brushed an invisible spot from her silk blouse.