“But it wasn’t mutiny?”
Arturo shook his head. “No. The Coasties dismissed the idea. Unless they did it very quietly, there was no mutiny. No signs of violence. It just looked like the crew grabbed what they could and got the hell off her. Twenty-two men. None of them were ever heard from again. Including Maxton’s wife, Virginia, who went on every voyage.”
“Spooky.”
Arturo nodded. “Thing is, Charlie, I’m tired of this shit. I’ve had that tub six months now and I’ve lost one contract after another because of these fucking superstitious sailors. I need to put a crew aboard or get rid of her. But I’m not taking it up the ass. I want some return on my investment. Just the investigations and accidents alone have put my goddamn marine insurance rates right up in the stratosphere.”
Charlie crushed out his cigarette. “Okay, let me guess. You’re tired of this shit and you want out, so you want me to board her tonight and torch her so you can collect the insurance.”
“Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. What do you think I am? A hoodlum? It’s nothing like that.”
“Okay, then what? You want me to go out there and exorcise the ghost of Captain Hook?”
Arturo shook his head. “Nope. I want you to spend the night on her. Alone. Just you and the ghosts.”
“You’re kidding me.”
But Arturo did not look like he was kidding. In fact, he had never looked more serious. “No joke, Charlie. You spend the night, I quash your debt. It’s strictly win-win for you.”
“Unless that thing comes knocking at my cabin door at midnight.”
Arturo grinned. “Yeah, except for that.”
2
For about five minutes after Arturo said that, Charlie just sat there staring at him. Of all the crazy-ass things. Spend the night on a haunted boat. This was rich. This was just rich. Hey, Stephen-fucking-King, I got one here for you.
It had to be a joke. Guys like Arturo didn’t give up money like that so easy, not fifty grand. There had to be a catch. “Just spend the night there… that’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“And you wipe out my debt?”
“Just like that. Gone.”
Charlie had to have another cigarette. “Okay… why? So I can prove there’s no ghosts out there?”
That was it. That was it exactly, Arturo explained. That last crew he’d put aboard, the foreign one, were all set to weigh anchor in the morning, but in the middle of the night, they ran off. They wouldn’t spend the night on her. Didn’t matter how much money was in the offing. There was something wrong with that ship, they claimed. They wouldn’t say much more.
“See, I got a guy that’s got another crew all lined up for me. And I got a contract to move some zinc ore that’s worth a bundle. But my boy won’t put his crew on. Doesn’t think it’s safe. I had the ship checked stem to stern, see if there were any gases or anything that might drive guys nuts. Nada. She checks out. My boy is ready to put his crew on, but some of ’em are spooked. Now, if I get a guy… guy like you… to spend the night on her and you come off in the morning and your hair’s not white or anything, the crew’ll board the Addams and sail her. I get one good voyage under her belt, I’ll be able to sell her full price. Between that and the ore shipment, I’ll make a mint.”
Now it was making sense. “Why me?”
“Why not you, Charlie? Like I said, you got balls,” Arturo said, sweetening it a bit. “Now, some of those sailors, they’re pretty tough boys. But sailors are sailors, right? And some of ’em are scared of the dark like little old ladies. But not you. You got balls, you gotta haul ’em around in a wheelbarrow. You don’t spook. I watched you a long time, Charlie. You’re the real thing. You came in here today knowing you might not walk out again and you still didn’t even flinch. No, you’re the boy for this. You spend the night and tomorrow morning you leave free and clear.”
“And that’s it? That’s all I got to do?”
“Sure. The sailors say that whole ship is bad, but particularly the captain’s cabin. That’s where I want you to spend the night. In that cabin.”
“Alone? How about I bring a girl with me and have some fun.”
“No dice. You do it alone. That’s important. If a guy alone can spend the night there, then there’s no reason a crew of swabbies can’t.”
“So I spend the night in a cobwebby, rat-infested floating haunted house.”
Arturo shook his head. “It’s not like that. Everything’s been cleaned out. She’s been mopped and empty for years now. I had a fresh mattress and bedding put on her for you. There’ll be food and drinks. There’s no juice on her right now because the plant is down, but I’ll have some lanterns there for you. You might want to bring a radio or something to keep you company.”
Charlie just sat there for a time. You couldn’t ask for an easier set-up than that. He didn’t believe in ghosts and he didn’t scare because of bumps in the night. He’d lock himself in, bring a .45 with him and catch some Zs. $50,000 worth. “And that’s all there is to it?” he asked one last time.
“That’s it, my friend,” Arturo said. “Just spend the night on a ghost ship in a haunted cabin.”
3
A ghost ship.
Now that really took the old cake and sucked up the frosting to boot. It was like something from an old movie. I’ll give you $50,000 if you can spend the night aboard her. Wasn’t there an old movie with Vincent Price like that? Charlie couldn’t remember, but it seemed familiar.
Arturo thought Charlie had some real balls and, truth be told, he did. Usually. It was just good that Arturo didn’t know how Charlie was feeling on the inside when he walked into his office: absolutely white with terror. He wasn’t worried about the gambling debts. A guy like Arturo had ways of collecting in other ways and especially with someone like Charlie. There was always pick-up work to be done, maybe a robbery here or there, some package moved over the state line, a torch job or two. Things that fell between the cracks that his hoods didn’t have time to deal with.
So, it wasn’t the debt that was bothering him.
It was Pam.
Pam was Arturo’s wife and Charlie and she had been banging skins for like three months by that point. It was a very discreet arrangement. The sort that was born out of mutual physical attraction rather than any emotional entanglements. Simple. Straight forward. They met in out of the way places and only when Arturo was down in New York City or Miami, out in Chicago or Kansas City. Nobody knew about it but the two of them.
Of course, Arturo was powerful. He was also jealous, greedy, and suspicious by nature like all made guys were. Charlie wouldn’t have put it past him to have his wife followed. If that had been the case, though, there was no way in hell Charlie would have walked out of his office alive. Arturo would have had a couple heavies waiting there. They’d slug him, shoot him up with something, take him out somewhere peaceful to finish it up.
But nothing like that had happened.
Charlie had been sweating bullets when he went to see Arturo, but he had seen nothing that tipped him off that the man was onto him.
Still… he was paranoid.
A ghost ship? A fucking ghost ship?
It seemed too unbelievable, too staged. Then again, if Arturo wanted to whack him, why all the melodramatics? Unless, of course, that was part of the set-up. For all he knew, Arturo might have a couple meat-eaters waiting for him on the boat. Bing, bang, done. But Charlie wasn’t naïve. He had told three people where he was going and who he was going with. If something bad came down, Arturo would be looking at twenty years for murder conspiracy.