Beware the Mermaids Page 14

  Turk dealt each player two cards facedown, and they all made a round of bets. The flop revealed a pair of sixes and a jack of hearts. As Nancy got up to ostensibly check the tiki torch, she glanced at Chuck’s hand—he had a four and a queen. No bueno. She scratched her eyebrow as Ruthie looked up at her. The dipshit would likely stay in. He had stayed in on horrible hands the entire night, foolishly thinking he’d beat the odds. Only he never, ever did. But that’s what Ruthie was for. She stayed in. Ellis stayed in, as did Shep, Mac, and Tony. Captain Horny folded, tapped out. It was the last hand of the night, so the big and small blinds were the largest so far, and you could feel the energy level of the table kick up a notch.

  The betting began with Shep.

  “Raise twenty,” Shep shyly said.

  Everyone put in twenty, including Chuck.

  Mac raised another twenty, and Tony checked.

  Surprisingly, everyone stayed in again. Turk flipped the fourth card, the turn. A jack of diamonds. Another round of spirited bets. Turk then flipped over the final card, the river, which was a three of hearts.

  Chuck wiped sweat from his brow, nervously coughed, and went for his ear again. Anyone with an ounce of poker skill or basic poker knowledge would fold. But alas, he did not. Ruthie paused and looked at each player. She led them deeper into the muck. “Time to separate the boys from the broads. I’m in for a hundred more.”

  A bet like this would normally scare off lesser sorts, but these were liveaboards and they’d proved over the course of the night to be crusty, daring, and hardened from a steady diet of rum and boredom. They lived for this kind of bare-knuckle action. Ellis called. Shep threw in the last of his money. Mac and Tony tossed in their cards. And Chuck Roverson pushed the last of his sweaty dollars into the pot and said he was good for the rest. It all came down to this one hand. Winner take all. The pot was at eighteen hundred dollars.

  Shep revealed a pair of tens, his lucky number. Turk showed his hand next. He gave a shy grin and turned over the six of hearts. With his six, he had a full house and what looked to be the winning hand.

  Ellis sighed heavily and threw his pair of kings into the middle. Not good enough to beat Turk.

  Chuck threw in his pathetic four and queen. The idiot. Nancy saw a shadow of shock cross Chuck’s face as he realized he was all but assured of losing an appendage in the very near future. He suddenly grew pale.

  “Sorry, boys,” Ruthie said as she turned over her cards to reveal she had the jack of clubs. She also had a full house, but better than Turk’s. The pot was all hers.

  There was a collective groan.

  “I don’t usually play with amateurs. I’ll go easier on you next time,” Ruthie said with a wink as she raked in all the cash with her arms.

  “Not bad for a broad,” Turk said as he got up, chewing on the last bit of a cigar in his mouth.

  Mac and Tony each gave Nancy a big hug, said they’d see her soon, and asked her not to hold it against them if they sailed with Roger.

  “Never,” Nancy said.

  Peter Ellis stood, gathered his sunglasses, and downed the rest of his painkiller.

  “Well, I’m going to go sip bourbon on the back of my boat and get a little more comfortable with my loss,” Ellis said. Then he gave a salute to Turk, Shep, and the rest of the boys and turned toward Ruthie and said, “Wanna join me, hot stuff?” He smiled to reveal a dimple in his cheek and a twinkle in his eye.

  A smile curled up on one side of Ruthie’s face. “You old salty dog,” Ruthie said. “Is it good bourbon?”

  “Life is too short to drink any other kind,” Ellis answered as he held out his hand to her to join him.

  Ruthie stacked the cash together and handed it to Nancy. “See ya, sister.” She took Pete’s hand and hopped off. Nancy could hear Ruthie giggle at something Ellis had said. She couldn’t help but smile.

  “Welcome to the neighborhood, Nance,” Turk growled in as friendly a manner as he could muster after his poker beatdown. He shook her hand and found his way off the boat.

  “I’m a sucker for pastrami sandwiches. Much appreciated,” Captain Horny said as he munched the last one, gathered his things, and also wandered off the boat.

  Shep was giving Suzanne one last pet and reached into his pocket for a sardine he had wrapped in a plastic bag for her.

  “Alas, it is time for me to depart, fuzzy one,” he said to the cat. Then, to the humans, “Until we meet again, ladies and gents.” Shep quietly departed.

  Nancy began cleaning up the boat and looked over at Chuck Roverson, who looked ashen and drawn.

  “Oh god,” Chuck muttered, his head in his hands.

  “Chuck—” Nancy tried to interrupt.

  “No, you don’t understand. There’s a pit bull–shepherd mix named Lucy!”

  “Chuck, calm down.”

  “They’ll be waiting for me!” Chuck stood up, ready to bolt. But Nancy put a firm hand on his shoulder and sat him down on the cockpit bench. She handed him eighteen hundred dollars from the poker game, all the winnings. She had also given Ruthie a bottle of bourbon for her skills.

  “It’s all yours,” Nancy said.

  “But Ruthie won all that. It’s hers.”

  “No, no, you don’t have to worry.”

  “She doesn’t have a crazed junkyard dog, does she?” he asked, suspicious.

  “Ruthie did this as a favor to me,” Nancy said, reassuring him.

  Chuck squinted at her, obviously trying to work it out.

  “But how did you know she would win?”

  “Ruthie has a master’s in psychology and she’s a woman. Never underestimate our intuition. Plus, she won a poker championship in Morongo Casino back in the day. Odds were in her favor.”

  He stared down at the money she had just given him. “So, you did this”—Chuck’s brain was processing, albeit slowly—“for me?”

  “Technically, I did it for me. You needed money for reasons I do not need to know. Roger was paying you to run me out of the marina, right? Well, now you don’t have to run me out of the marina, you can still pay off your thugs, er, debts, whatever they may be, and Roger is off your case.”

  “You mean I don’t have to deal with Roger anymore?” Chuck sounded relieved.

  “Nope.”

  Chuck hesitated but then added, “He’s mean, ma’am. Like a snake. He scares me.”

  Nancy nodded. Roger didn’t play nice. He claimed it was his reason for success in business. Balls and brains. But there was real fear on Chuck’s face.

  “You don’t have to deal with Roger anymore, Chuck.” Nancy patted him on the shoulder and gently lifted his elbow so he knew it was his cue to leave.

  Chuck stood up, wadded up the money, and put it in his pocket.

  “You have no idea how excited I am to keep my penis,” Chuck said weakly as he sniffed, his eyes wet with tears and relief.

  “I, uh, can only imagine,” Nancy said as she grimaced. “Now, go pay off those thugs, er, debts, and try to behave.”

  “I will, ma’am. I will. I promise. No more. Screw those loser Chargers!”

  Nancy had no idea what he meant, but she took it as a good sign that Chuck was going to turn over a new leaf. Or at least remain physically intact and gainfully employed.

  Chuck Roverson nearly tripped on the power line lying on the dock as he stumbled back to the dock master’s office. This clumsy move only cemented in Nancy’s mind that Chuck wasn’t a bad man but rather just a well-meaning, lovable doofus who could stand to lay off the sauce a little.

  Nancy watched him go and then took a moment to wipe down the table. She poured herself a small glass of wine and sat down on the bench. She felt that same balmy breeze come into the marina, and as it flooded over her, she faced its warm energy and let it fill her up. She breathed it in and reflected on a lively evening of making new friends, helping a poor soul in need of a leg up, and genuinely having fun. For the first time, she felt safe and as if she might belong here. Plus, her plan h
ad worked. Roger had no hold over her now. Suzanne was happily gnawing on her sardine, and the last thing Nancy heard before she dozed off was the tinkling of ice cubes and the laughter of her best friend Ruthie coming across the water from Peter Ellis’s boat.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  A DEBT FULLY PAID

  It was nearly one in the morning. Chuck Roverson’s thumb hovered over the send button on his smartphone as he read and then reread the text he was about to send to Roger Hadley:

  Thank you, Mr. Hadley, for our arrangement, but I can’t go through with our deal. I can pay you back next month after the Chargers Browns game. Hope we can have a beer soon! ☺

  Seemed friendly enough. He took a swig of warm beer, which gave him the liquid courage he would need to hit send. It wouldn’t be that bad. He was just politely asking to be let out of their arrangement. No harm, no foul. And besides, Nancy was a nice lady and a good addition to the marina. Even the crustiest of liveaboards couldn’t resist her otherworldly muffins and poker nights. Hopefully Roger Hadley would let bygones be bygones.

  Now that he had dealt with the Roger issue, Chuck turned his attention to cleaning up his not-so-little gambling debt. He wadded up the money Nancy had given him plus Roger’s share, a cool, even three thousand dollars, put it in a brown paper bag as instructed, and waited for the headlights to flash from the parking lot. The marina was unnaturally dark. There was no moon in the night sky, plus some of the dock lights were out. Chuck had been so embroiled in his personal problems that he hadn’t had a chance to replace the three broken lights on the dock posts outside. Bright side of that was it would make it easier to see the flashing headlights. He prided himself on how his preoccupation with sports betting and his commitment to procrastination had played to his benefit. Everything happens for a reason, he thought.

  Sure enough, about a minute later, a pair of headlights flashed twice from the parking lot. Chuck took a last swig of beer, put his phone in his pocket, grabbed the brown paper bag, and headed down the dock toward the lot.

  Unfortunately, the ill-lit dock, combined with the inky darkness of a moonless sky, made it hard to navigate. Chuck hurried along and, in his haste, tripped over something thick and wet. He fell flat on his belly, splayed out like a grounded flounder. He got up, the money still tightly held in his fist, and went over to inspect what had caught his foot. He heard a loud snort and suddenly felt a bolt of pain in his ankle. Something bit him.

  “Aaaaagh! Damn it!” Chuck screeched as he yanked up his ankle.

  He inspected himself and saw a large bite mark with a little blood. He looked down at a very large, very agitated harbor seal.

  “Schnoooooft!” The seal huffed a warning that sounded like a foghorn. “Mawwwwr!” A seal’s version of a growl. The seal took an aggressive lunge toward Chuck.

  Chuck freaked out and hopped on one leg forward to try to get away from the seal. Cradling his mangled ankle, his next hop landed him on an errant kayak paddle left on the dock. The paddled rolled and sent him off-balance. He fell backward off the dock and into the water with a giant splash.

  When he stood up, he was in neck-deep water. He checked for the bag of money—no longer in his fist—and desperately searched around in the water as the seal sounded another warning that made Chuck scream like a little girl. Then he spotted it. The brown paper bag full of cash was floating out to sea. He frantically swam to it, grabbed it, held it in his teeth, and crawled up the nearest ladder and back onto the relative safety of the dock. Out of breath and roughly ten feet from the angry seal, Chuck got up, soaking wet, and limped quickly past the seal toward the parking lot.

  “Christ, what else?”

  Chuck stumbled forward and didn’t look back into the black water where he had taken his untimely dip. If he had, he would have seen the fading light of a text from Roger Hadley that read, You will pay, Roverson.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  AHOY, TEEN MATEY!

  It was noon on Friday, and a low marine layer of clouds was threatening rain. Nancy frowned. She didn’t want bad weather to cast a pall on the first day her granddaughter was visiting the boat. Stella was on her way to drop off Charlotte for the weekend. Nancy had taken great measures to make sure Charlotte would not only be comfortable but would actually like it on the boat. She’d stocked the galley with her granddaughter’s favorites: cheese sticks, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and KitKats. She’d made her bed and put a small stuffed orange fish pillow in her berth. And she’d double-checked that the Wi-Fi was working. She was nervous but excited.

  Nancy, however, had been warned that the charming, sweet granddaughter she knew and loved had recently been replaced by a new teen doppelgänger. She looked a lot like Charlotte, but instead of having an easy smile, a cheerful attitude, and a wardrobe that included koala bear sweatshirts, she now wore black T-shirts, a pair of black-and-white-checkered Vans, and a perpetual expression of disapproval under her dark-purple-dyed hair. Her vocabulary had been reduced to one-word answers that Stella classified as glorified grunts. “She’s difficult right now, Mom,” Stella told her before she left the house.

  “I have some experience with teenagers. You were one once.”

  “It’s different now. Smartphones are ruining our kids.”

  “We used to say that about TV with your generation.”

  “Yes, but I grew up addicted to Friends and Seinfeld. These kids watch vlogs about suicide and school shootings. It’s dark.”

  “I’m up to the challenge. See you soon,” Nancy said. She silently wondered how surly her granddaughter could really be.

  Stella pulled up in the marina parking lot just as Nancy walked up from the dock to greet them. Charlotte got out of the back seat armed with a stainless-steel water bottle, a backpack, and a scowl. She was dressed in ripped jeans, a blue Tillys sweat shirt, and, true to Stella’s word, a pair of black-and-white-checkered Vans. Her naturally golden hair was now an unnatural shade of dark purple, and she was wearing black eyeliner that only made her pale skin look more ghostly by contrast. Nancy was alarmed for a split second but hid her shock.

  “There’s my girl!” Nancy opened her arms to hug Charlotte, who remained stiff and barely managed to lift one hand to receive the hug. “Just me and you this weekend, kiddo. You ready?”

  “Mmmm,” Charlotte grunted, as if resigned to her fate. Nancy looked over at Stella, who gave her a thumbs-up and a look of exasperation.

  “Okay, I’m off. Be good to Gran, and I’ll be back on Monday,” Stella said. She gave her daughter a quick, dismissive kiss on the forehead. Charlotte made no move to return the affection.

  “I’ll text you with updates. Have a good trip!” Nancy waved as Stella pulled away.

  “This way, kiddo.” Nancy ushered Charlotte and her sullen attitude, which was big enough to make it seem like a whole other person had joined them, down the dock toward Gypsea. As soon as they got to the slip, Suzanne came out to greet them. She ran up to Charlotte and began to purr.

  “Oh my god, I didn’t know Suzanne was going to be here!” Charlotte exclaimed with no hint of sarcasm. Charlotte was a huge animal lover. She adored all living creatures, from the soft, furry variety to the lesser appreciated critters like scaly lizards and milk snakes. If it was of the animal world, Charlotte wanted to bond, and none would escape her attempt at affection. Nancy had asked her once about her love of animals, and Charlotte had replied, “Animals are better than people. They don’t hurt others unless they have to, and they don’t lie.” Nancy thought her answer was both wise and telling. The purr from Suzanne seemed to melt away all the angst that Charlotte had been carrying with her. For a split second, she was gentle, sweet Charlotte again.

  “Of course Suzanne came with me. Couldn’t imagine being here without her. That little fur ball and I are in this together.”

  Charlotte picked Suzanne up and nuzzled her face and neck. Suzanne purred even louder.

  “Aren’t you afraid she might fall in? Or get attacked or something?”
Charlotte asked.

  “She’s got better footing on this boat than I do. Plus, she’s made some friends.”

  “Friends?”

  “Sure. There’s Leon the pelican that visits every morning after his breakfast. He sits on that pole right over there while Suzanne suns herself on the back cushions. They basically watch each other. And of course, there’s the dolphin.”

  “What dolphin? You have a dolphin?” Charlotte’s eyes got wide.

  “No, but there’s this one dolphin who visits once in a while. He comes to the back of the boat and sort of bobs up and down in the water until Suzanne leans over the railing and sniffs his snout. Her whiskers must tickle him or something, because after a few touches, he nods and makes a high-pitched noise. It lasts for a couple of minutes, and then he takes off again. Or at least I think it’s a he.”

  “Wow,” Charlotte said with genuine awe. She looked at the back of the boat, as if the dolphin would appear at any moment.

  “You never know when he’ll show up. Come on, let’s get you settled below. I made up the berth for you.”

  “Berth?”

  “It’s what we call a bedroom on a boat.”

  “Oh,” Charlotte said. “Sav.”

  Nancy had no idea what that meant, but she showed Charlotte the basics around the boat. How to turn on the lamp in her berth, where the fridge was in the galley, and how the toilet worked in the head. Throughout the tour, Charlotte didn’t say much. Finally, Nancy added, “Oh, and I have Wi-Fi. You want the password?”

  “Maybe later,” Charlotte said. She looked around and finally offered, “This is lit, Gran.”

  Nancy hesitated for a moment, shocked at the lack of fire for the Wi-Fi code and not entirely sure if lit was a good thing. Then Charlotte smiled and said, as if translating, “This is pretty cool, Gran.”

  Nancy’s heart skipped a beat at these five small words of praise. She smiled brightly and said, “Plus, I have your favorite treat. Ruffles and French onion dip. Let’s go up top and indulge.”