Walking to the back of the bar, I put my hands on James’s shoulders.
“James, we need to talk.”
“We can talk here.”
“No.” I motioned to the stairs that led to the mini-tiki huts one flight up.
He leaned into Amy, saying something in her ear. She shrugged her bare shoulders, and we walked up the steps.
I told him about the body double, and he gave me a skeptical look.
“Skip, I’m about as positive as I can be that the dead guy in our room was Jim Weezle.”
“And I saw him today. I swear I saw Weezle.”
“Impossible. He was dead. That wasn’t some sleight of hand trick. Some magic. I mean, I got hauled down to that jail because they thought I had something to do with it and-”
“I know. I know. But James, somehow there are two different people. One dead, one alive.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Em’s calling the sheriff’s office right now. We’re going to confirm the dead guy’s real name.”
James didn’t even smile this time. He sipped his Bud and stared out at the water over the railing.
“Got a thought, amigo.”
“About the ghost?”
“No. About the boat.” He turned and looked at me. “We got nothin’ till tomorrow morning when we hopefully get to read that letter.”
“Agreed.”
“Well, I say we make another trip to the vacant property this morning. Three thirty in the a.m.”
“Are you crazy?”
“We position ourselves on that residential side and watch through the openings in the trees. I want to see if another boat comes in.”
“James-”
“We don’t have anything else to do, Skip.”
“Sleep might be a good thing.”
“You can sleep anytime.”
“And what’s it going to prove? If we see the boat?”
“Then we’ll know it’s a regular occurrence. We’ll find out if it’s the fishermen who are in that tournament. We’ll pay more attention. And, before all the stores close, why don’t you go to that camera store up by O’Neill’s and Malhotra’s office and get a couple pairs of binoculars?”
Running up and down the highway, we’d seen the store three or four times.
“James, those cost some serious money.”
“Dude, we need the equipment. It’s for the job. If the lady is willing to up our pay to two mill, she’ll spring for the glasses.”
“And why aren’t you going to get the binoculars?”
“Skip, this is Amy’s last night in town. We want to make the most of it.”
There are times when I want to punch him right in the face, but he wouldn’t understand.
We drove to the camera store, then to the drugstore for the nail file.
“The guy who was killed came up as Peter Stiffle.”
I kept both hands on the wheel. I didn’t want to piss Emily off by driving with one hand, and besides, the car felt more alive when I was totally engaged in the driving process. I know, it was about a two-mile round-trip drive, but hey, it was a Porsche Carerra. And this time I was in control.
“Damn. So it must be Weezle that we saw.” She stared out the windshield.
“Who is Stiffle?” I asked more rhetorically.
“No idea.”
“By the way, Mrs. T. went online and put five hundred more dollars on the debit card. She thinks we’re onto something. That’s how we got the binoculars.”
“Skip, I hope we are on to something, but you do realize that investing fifteen hundred dollars in a venture that is expected to gross forty-four million isn’t exactly a commitment of faith.” She watched me, either to gauge my reaction to her comment or to make sure that I was treating her precious auto with the proper care.
“I get that. But she hasn’t said no to anything so far.”
“When daddy has a multimillion-dollar project, when anyone in our business has even a million-dollar project, there’s a lot of up front money. The lady should be happy to come up with whatever you want. The return on investment is going to be huge. Unbelievable.”
Return on investment. I remembered enough of my college business courses to know she was right. One hundred percent right.
And I remembered the story of Mel Fisher, who searched the bottom of the Florida waters for sunken treasure. His oldest son and his daughter-in-law were both killed in a dive while looking for gold. Now Mel was someone who seriously had an investment in his project.
She picked out a six-dollar file when cheap emery boards would have done the trick, but I guess she can afford it, even without the debit card from Mrs. T.
“So we’re going tonight?”
“James thinks we need to get to the bottom of the boat thing. Find out why O’Neill threatened us.”
Em took a deep breath as I pulled into the Cove. “I think he’s right.”
“Really?”
“I do.”
James was agreeing with Em. Em was agreeing with James. That almost never happened. I looked up above to see if the stars were aligned, but it was still daylight. I made a mental note to check on that later in the evening.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
We walked almost half a mile, the humidity so thick you could cut it with a knife. I’d worked up quite a sweat when we finally arrived.
“They could still identify the truck,” James said. “I think it’s best that we parked way back there.”
So far no one had noticed the plate. I mean, how often do you check your license plate? The guy we took it from had a white truck, we had a white truck. He had a Florida plate, we had a Florida plate. Unless we got stopped by the sheriff for some violation, we were good. And the other guy, whoever he was, would never be the wiser. Until he went to register for a new plate.
“Em, are you sure you want to be a part of this?”
“I’ve told you before, Skip, you need someone to bail you out if you get in trouble. I’ve kind of grown used to the job.”
In the dim light, I saw James frown. At least he didn’t agree with everything she said.
“It’s just three o’clock. Three o’clock, it’s lines up.” Em walked down the tree-lined street looking for clearances we could see through. “The boat should be here soon.”
“This isn’t private property, correct?” James was right in checking.
“Shouldn’t be. It’s a public street that runs right down to the water. And this is the public sidewalk that runs along this short section of the street.” I was pretty sure about this.
“So no doctor or guy on a golf cart can run us off?”
“I suppose they could, but we can stand our ground.”
“You guys have binoculars,” Em said. “I’ve got this.” Reaching into her purse, she pulled out the Colt.38 snub-nosed revolver.
“Preparation gets the job done.”
“And we’ve got the tools.”
We knelt across from a cement block house, a dim porch light eking out a meager halo. The rest of the street was dark and the moon was barely evident in the cloudy sky. Perfect for our hiding.
Talking in hushed voices, we swatted at mosquitoes and made plans if someone saw us.
“The dogs, what if they recognize the smell? What then?” James was thinking of those bare fangs.
“They didn’t bother any of the passengers. I think they only attack when they’re told to.” Em had already figured it out.
The night was deathly silent, only an occasional vehicle humming along back on the highway. I thought about the sound of a steam locomotive and the long blast of the engine’s horn as it traveled down to Key West. Chugging along, some of the cars would have carried the common folk, Skip and James. Crowded together with screaming children and their parents.
Then there would have been cars for the wealthier set, like Em and her dad. And finally there would have been cars for the railroad execs and the superrich. Must have been quite a time.
We heard the truck, the muffler maybe a little loose. The beams swung from the main road and even though we couldn’t see it, we knew someone was pulling into the motel. Or the suites. Or whatever they were. And I could hear high-pitched whines, like someone almost crying.