I got in because I was scared to say no. The thought of Shelly chasing me down and dragging me feet-first into her Jeep was not appealing.
As I fumbled to put on the seat belt, she peeled out of the driveway and raced toward Highway One. It was a while before I got up the nerve to ask where we were going.
“Why? You got a hot date or somethin’?” she said.
I decided not to mention the silver-barreled gun that lay on the console between us.
“Shelly, is something wrong?”
She laughed sourly. “You don’t miss a trick, do you?”
Even though she was wearing black sunglasses, I could tell she’d been crying. She was still sniffling and her voice sounded scratchy.
“‘Member what I told you about Lice runnin’ away?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, turns out I had it wrong,” she said.
“Did he come home?” I asked.
Shelly shook her head. “They finally towed the Jeep back from Cutler Ridge. Two hundred bucks—I had to pawn my promise ring to pay for it,” she said. “Know how I spent my morning, Noah?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Scrubbing bloodstains off the upholstery!”
I had thought it felt damp on the seat. “Blood? You sure?”
“See, I missed a spot.” Shelly pointed to a dark reddish smudge on the dashboard. “I don’t think Lice ran away,” she confided. “I think he got snatched. And”—here she made a hard left turn, nearly spilling the gun onto my lap—“I think whoever snatched him killed him.”
“What!”
“That’s right, Noah.” She buried her nose in a tissue. “And I think it’s all ‘cause of your daddy and that gamblin’ boat.”
I’d never been so close to a woman with a tattoo—or, I should say, a tattoo I could see for myself. Rado claimed that his older sister had gone off to college and gotten a tiny zebra butterfly tattooed on her butt. Thom and I had to take his word for this, since neither of us had ever seen enough of Rado’s sister to confirm the story.
Strange as it sounds, the more I stared at the tattoo on Shelly’s arm, the more natural it looked. The barbed wire definitely suited her personality.
“Relax. The pistol ain’t real,” she said. “It’s a lighter.”
When she pulled the trigger, a bright blue flame flared from the barrel.
“It looks pretty bad, though, huh? Bad enough to scare anybody tries to give me trouble,” Shelly said.
For more than an hour we’d been heading down the highway, obviously to nowhere in particular. Shelly kept saying she had more to tell me, but then she’d get worked up about Lice Peeking and what a “total zero” he was, and how she must be a fool to care about him. Afterward she’d cry and sniffle for a while, but just when I thought she had a grip on herself it would start all over again.
We were all the way to Sugarloaf Key before she turned the Jeep around and grumbled, “Where the heck was I goin’?” On the way back she pulled into the parking lot on the Marathon end of the old Seven Mile Bridge. The place was full of tourists who were tinkering with their cameras, getting ready to shoot pictures of the sunset. It was too cloudy for a green flash, and besides, I was too distracted to stand there and look for it.
“What makes you think Lice is … you know …”
“Dead? Number one, he hasn’t called up beggin’ to come home,” Shelly said, “which is totally not like him. Number two, none of his local party pals have heard from him, not a peep. Number three was that ugly bald gorilla who came to the trailer that night, and number four was the blood in my car.”
Again she pointed at the stain on the dashboard. I tried not to stare at it. Shelly being so worried made me worried, too.
“But who would kill him? And what’s it got to do with my dad?” I asked.
She sighed impatiently. “Noah, you got any idea how much money Dusty Muleman makes off the Coral Queen?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Between fifteen and twenty grand just from the casino tables,” she said. “Subtract the food for the customers, the pay for the crew, and he’s still clearin’ ten thousand, minimum, every night.”
“Dollars?” I couldn’t believe it.
“Gambling is a mega-huge business, kid, because the world is crawlin’ with suckers,” Shelly said. “Don’t forget that Lice had a big mouth. Suppose he blabbed to somebody that he was gonna help your daddy, and suppose Dusty found out. He’d have a cow if he thought the feds were gonna rush in and shut down the Coral Queen. How far do you figure he’d go to stop that from happenin’? You’re a smart boy, Noah, think about it.”
I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to believe that Dusty Muleman had murdered Lice Peeking, all because my father had made a deal with Lice to get his testimony.
She said, “Don’t worry, I’m still gonna keep my promise. I’m gonna help you clear your daddy’s name.”
“But why?”
“Maybe ’cause it’s the right thing to do. Or maybe ’cause now I’ve got a dog in this fight.”
“You want to nail Dusty, too.”
“If he hurt my man, you bet I do,” Shelly said. “If he harmed one hair on that lazy, worthless, lice-covered head …”
She was either tougher than I’d thought, or crazier than I’d thought.
“It’s way too dangerous,” I told her. “Forget about it.”
“Too late.”
She stuck the gun-shaped cigarette lighter in the waist of her jeans and got out of the Jeep. She was still limping slightly from kicking the toilet bowl, but apparently her foot wasn’t broken. I followed her onto the old bridge, where we leaned against the warped railing and looked down at the green-blue water ripping through the pilings. The sun was halfway gone, and all around us the cameras were clicking.
“What else did you want to tell me?” I asked Shelly.
“This morning I went to see Dusty.”
“Alone? That’s nuts!”
“Noah, I used to live with the man. We were engaged to be married, for God’s sake,” she said. “Anyhow, I asked could I have back my old bartending job on the Coral Queen. I gave a big sob story about Lice bailin’ out on me, and how I was hurtin’ for money.”
The breeze delivered a whiff of Shelly’s tangerine perfume, which actually smelled pretty nice. I noticed she was wearing only two silver hoops in each ear, and I figured that maybe she’d pawned all the others, like her promise ring.
“Did Dusty give you the job?” I asked.
“Yup. I start tomorrow night.”
Shelly had guts, no doubt about it. She was going undercover to nail Dusty Muleman, the man she suspected of ordering her boyfriend killed. It was odd, but she looked more sad than scared.
I said, “Please don’t do this. Stay away from that boat.”
“What if I told you I really did need the dough.”
“It’s not worth it,” I heard myself say. “I don’t want something bad happening to you, too.”
“Aw, nothing’s gonna happen.” Now she sounded like the old Shelly, incredibly calm and sure of herself.
“If you’re not afraid, how come you’re carrying around that fake gun?” I asked.
“Good question.” She took the lighter out of her jeans and casually tossed it off the bridge. “I was gonna start smokin’ again, but you just talked me out of it. Thanks, Noah.”
She smiled, and then did something totally outrageous. She leaned over and kissed the top of my head, the way Mom used to do when I was small. It was just a quick peck, but I felt my face turn red.
“My momma used to say, ‘Keep your friends close, girl, but keep your enemies closer,’” said Shelly. “Don’t worry about me, Noah. I know how to handle Captain Muleman.”
A few of the tourists started clapping, which they sometimes do in the Keys at the moment the sun disappears over the horizon. Why, I’ve got no earthly idea. Sunset on the water ought to be a quiet and easy time, but I guess
some people can’t stand a little silence.
“Speaking of mommas,” Shelly said, “yours’ll start freakin’ out, we don’t get you home pretty soon.”
That night, before bed, I took the rust dust out of my pocket and showed it to Abbey. I told her all about the bogus sewage tank at the boat dock; about Lice suddenly disappearing and the bloodstains in the Jeep; about Shelly going back to her old job on the Coral Queen to help us nail Dusty Muleman.
Abbey was her usual skeptical self. “You’re saying that the same goon who grabbed me at the marina kidnapped Lice Peeking and snuffed him? No way.”
“It’s a possibility,” I said.
“In Miami, yeah. But this is the Keys!”
When I told her how much money Dusty was making from the casino boat, Abbey’s eyes widened.
“What if we went to the police and told them everything?” she asked excitedly.
“They’d think we’re a couple of whack jobs. We need witnesses, Abbey, not just a hole in a sewer tank.”
“Does this Shelly person have a plan?”
“We’re still working on it,” I said.
“We? Oh, great.”
“Any ideas would be welcome.”
“Noah, this isn’t a game,” my sister said. “If there’s a killer out there—which I doubt, but if it’s true—there’s only one possible plan.”
“Which is?”
“We pack up and move to Canada immediately. You, me, Mom, Dad—we drive straight to Saskatchewan and move in with Grandpa Kenneth and Grandma Janet. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Good night, Abbey.”
I was so tired that I fell asleep in my clothes. Right away I started dreaming about fishing, which wasn’t unusual for me. In the dream I was alone in a small wooden boat, hooked up to a humongous tarpon that was dragging me out to sea. The water was getting rougher, and the salt spray was whipping at my cheeks and stinging my eyes. Before long it got dark and I couldn’t see a thing.
All I had to do to save myself was let go of the stupid fishing rod, but it was the biggest tarpon I’d ever seen and I wanted desperately to catch it. The fish was pulling so hard that the little boat was plowing and lurching through the waves. Somehow I managed to steady myself in the bow, leaning with all my might against the muscle of the fish. Every so often the line would hiss upward, slacken, and then a tremendous splash could be heard in the distance. I knew it was the sound of my tarpon jumping, trying to shake out the hook.
Eventually the black gloom was broken by a bright white burst, and I realized we were passing the lighthouse at Alligator Reef. In the dream I started thinking about all the monster barracudas and sharks that lived on the reef, and what a bad thing it would be to tumble overboard there.
Next, something terrifying happened. The boat was lifted by an enormous claw-shaped wave and tossed like a toy, high in the air. The spinning rod flew from my grip and I pitched backward, expecting at any moment to crack my skull against the planks of the transom.
But instead I just kept falling, as if tumbling through a high mountain canyon. I tried to wake myself but I couldn’t, which is the worst feeling when you’re in the middle of a bad dream. As I fell, something invisible began rocking me back and forth—lightly at first, but then harder and harder until I was flopping around like a rag doll.
With both arms I swiped out blindly, groping for something to cling to. What I ended up grabbing was a round, mossy-topped rock—or so I thought, until the rock started speaking.
“Noah,” it whispered. “Please let go of my face.”
I opened my eyes. “Dad?”
“Sorry if I scared you.”
I bolted upright and reached for the lamp. There was my father kneeling by the bed, still wearing the orange jail-house jumpsuit. He was definitely not part of my dream.
“It’s good to see you, buddy.”
“Good to see you, too,” I said. “But what are you doing here?”
“I escaped,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“Escaped? From jail?”
“I’m afraid they left me no choice.”
I didn’t bother to ask who he was talking about because it didn’t matter. This time he’d gone too far.
“Does Mom know you’re out?”
“Not yet. I wanted to wake you and Abbey first.”
Sure, I thought, because he wanted protection. Mom wouldn’t throw any heavy objects at him if we kids were in the room.
“It looks bad, I know,” he admitted, “but I can explain.”
I doubted that seriously.
“Here’s an idea,” I said. “How about you try out your story on me, before we go see Mom?”
Dad grinned in relief. “I knew I could count on you, Noah.”
NINE
Breakfast was surprisingly civilized, all things considered.
Dad had slept on the floor of my room, then surprised Mom first thing in the morning. She cried some at first, and they hugged for a long time. Abbey and I slipped out of the kitchen and parked ourselves in front of the television, which still wasn’t working.
The TV-dish repair guy showed up while my mother was making eggs and pancakes, and he was still banging around on the roof when we all sat down to eat. I didn’t volunteer any information about the broken satellite dish, and Mom didn’t ask. Her attention was fixed on my father.
At first there was lots of easy talk and even a few laughs. He asked Abbey about her piano lessons. He asked me for a fishing report. He asked Mom if the washing machine was still leaking, and if Grandpa Kenneth had gone ahead with his double-hernia operation.
Finally, Dad set down his fork and said, “Look, I want to apologize for all the grief I’ve caused. I’m not sorry I sunk the Coral Queen, but I admit that my judgment was clouded by frustration and impulsiveness and … well, anger.”
So what else is new, I thought.
“Have you ever heard of a gag order?” he said.
Abbey glanced at me irritably. I looked at my mother, who was obviously waiting for Dad to explain why escaping from jail was such a grand idea. At her request he’d taken off the orange jumpsuit and put on a pair of jeans with a T-shirt. To a visitor he would have appeared completely normal.
“The sheriff got a lot of flak from Dusty Muleman and his buddies after I went on Channel 10,” Dad was saying, “so he decided I couldn’t do any more interviews. Basically he gagged me! Not literally, but you know what I mean. Meanwhile Channel 7 is calling, the Miami Herald, even NPR! That’s National Public Radio!”
“We know what NPR is,” Abbey said thinly.
“Go on, Paine,” said my mother, her voice tight.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. None of the deputies at the jail were talking to me anymore,” Dad said. “So I just sat alone in my cell, reflecting on the fact that this country was founded on the bedrock of free speech. It was colonized by people who’d been forbidden to express themselves in their homeland, and were determined to build a new society that was open and free.”
“Unless you happened to be a slave,” I pointed out.
“A valid point, Noah. The settlers who came to America weren’t saints, that’s true,” said my father, “but the principles they put into law were solid and just. And here I was, rotting in jail, deprived of my freedom to speak out by some small-minded, small-town bureaucrat with a badge. It was just wrong, so wrong.”
Dad wasn’t acting. He truly believed that even a jailbird has a constitutional right to go on television.
“Last night, after they brought me dinner—if you could call it that—there was a bad car accident on the highway in front of the sheriff’s station. Some drunk rolled his convertible. All the deputies ran outside to help.”
“So you just waltzed out the back door,” Abbey said.
“They forgot to lock my cell!” Dad looked to me for moral support. “It was one of those moments that called for a split-second decision.”
“You could’ve decided t
o relax and eat your dinner,” I suggested.
“But how could I stay there, muzzled like a dog?” my father said. “What good could I possibly do, stuck in that situation? People need to be told what’s going on around here. They need the truth!”
He paused, as if waiting for someone to applaud. We didn’t.
“So I hid for a couple hours in the woods behind the hardware store,” he went on quietly, “and then I made my way home.”
Abbey picked at her pancakes. I poured myself another glass of orange juice. We’d heard his whole story the night before. Now it was time for Mom to weigh in.
She said, “Paine, there’s something you ought to know. Mr. Shine got some interesting news yesterday about the Coral Queen case.”
“Like what—Dusty confessed?” Dad said dryly.
“No, but he agreed to drop all the charges. He promised not to prosecute if you promise to stop spreading stories about him. He also wants you to get some psychological counseling,” my mother said.
“That’s good news? He wants me to play like I’m crazy?”
“It shouldn’t be hard,” Mom said tersely. “Whatever it takes, I want you home. And so did the sheriff, by the way. He called yesterday to tell me they were bringing two prisoners up from Big Pine for a court hearing and they needed both jail cells. He’d planned to release you this morning, bail or no bail. He’s already lined up a judge to sign the order.”
“Meaning …”
“Aw, don’t tell me.” Abbey slapped a hand to her forehead.
“That’s right,” my mother said. “Paine, you didn’t need to escape. They were getting ready to evict you.”
Dad slumped in his chair. I looked over at him and gave a sympathetic shrug. “Bad timing,” I said.
“But are they allowed to do that?” he asked miserably. “Can they kick a person out of jail, even if he refuses to put up bail? I don’t think so.”
Mom said, “In this county they can. Trust me.”
For several moments we all stared at our cold eggs and pancakes and thought about the absurdity of the situation. Eventually my father said, “Oh well. It all turned out the same anyhow. No harm done.”