Death of a Hot Chick (19 page)

The book didn’t hold my interest. I turned
out the light and snuggled into the pillow.

“
Nicole, who killed you,” I
murmured.

So sleepy.

Nicole, her silk blouse shimmering
brilliantly, walked through the boat. A light from behind blazed,
leaving her features in the dark, barely seen.

She spoke. “Did you find my killer?”

“
No, Nicole.”

“
What will you do about
it?”

“
A trap. We’ll set
traps.”

“
Rat traps? I like
that.”

Nicole sat at my feet, running her hands
through her hair. Strands clung to her fingers. She held her finger
out and plucked strands away. The strands flew, thick in the air.
“She saw me, you know.”

The light shimmered, changed, lifted
overhead. Nicole raised her hands and held the sun. The light
changed again, turned black. A bubbling, florescent glow covered
Nicole as she sank.

“
Remember. You owe
me.”

Chapter 14

Thursday morning, July 27

Crazy dream, but somehow, the memory
wouldn’t go away. I’d jogged, done a grocery store run, and
breakfasted royally on Grape Nuts Flakes and sliced banana. Still,
the dream lingered as I smoothed the blue sheets over the mattress,
then reached down to flip the bed into position up against the
bulkhead. I saw something shiny. A trick of light? No, a long,
nearly white strand of hair—lying across the sheet.

Nicole’s hair.

It wasn’t a dream.

I knelt on the floor, picked up the strand,
and coiled it in my hand. Carefully, I placed the strand of hair in
a plastic bag, then into my pocket. It had to be only a dream. The
hair was Nicole’s, but she certainly left it there before she died.
A ghost can’t leave parts of herself behind. Can she?

Okay, so I’m a bit nutty, collecting
conduits to a ghost. I gathered my supplies and left for Bayside
Marina and another day’s work.

~
~

“
Ready for a lunch break?” I asked
Slim. When he nodded, I added, “I spent every penny I earned
yesterday on groceries.” I plunked my rags and wax into the bucket.
“I really splurged. Lettuce and tomato for a sandwich with a tall
glass of cold milk. Be back in half an hour.”

“
You go for all that healthy stuff,”
Slim said. “Me, I’ve got something better.”

“
Don’t tell me,” I said and stepped
over the life line and onto the ladder. He thrived on donuts, cold
hot dogs, Tastykakes, and yesterday’s pizza. I headed for
Snapdragon
with visions of washing my
hands with hot water and soap. I almost made it to my finger
pier.

I heard the car door slam, then Mom rushed
me from the City Marina parking lot. “Good. We found you,” she
said.

Kaye trailed her with an expression that
either meant, “Mom’s on a mission,” or, “So what could I do?” Or
both.

“
Would you like some lunch?” I asked,
with the absurd hope that I could step aboard
Snapdragon
and forestall way too much helpful
advice.

“
We’ll stop for lunch on the way. You
girls must come with me for a family intervention. Your father is
absolutely no help,” Mom said. “Granny wants to go to clown school.
She’s actually sent her application into some...some... some school
for a thirty week course.”

“
Granny going to clown school? Is that
what this is all about?” Kaye asked.

“
That’s great. Maybe she’d like to be
a sailing clown.” I could picture the two of us, headed south in my
boat, which had become a yellow sailboat, stopping along the
way.

But Mom wasn’t listening to me, or Kaye. She
sputtered, “And your father! He suggested she take a one-week
course instead at some other school.”

“
Mother, you know Granny will do
whatever she wants to do,” Kaye said.

“
No, you don’t realize it, but you can
convince her otherwise. After all, she’s doing this for you girls.
Call me crazy, but how else can you explain it? You’ve got to
convince her that you are actually fulfilling her
prophesy.”

I looked at Kaye. She shrugged. I said,
“Mom, you mean because of our names? Because I’m named for a dancer
and Kaye is named for a singer?”

“
Kaye, didn’t you join a church chorus
once? And Cyd, I think aerobics for you. That’s really modern
dance. You could both tell her you’ve been practicing secretly and
you see real progress. At least, Cyd, you could. Actually, she
doesn’t hold out much hope for Kaye because we misspelled her name.
How did I know some old singer was named Kay Starr? I blame myself
for giving in to Granny over your names in the first place, but
they just seemed to fit.”

“
At least that lets
me
off the hook,” Kaye said with a
sly gleam in my direction.

“
Won’t work, Mom,” I said, and reached
for the edge of the pilot house door. “Granny came to all the
recitals and she knows I’m not the next Cyd Charisse no matter how
long my legs are.”

And, being Mom, she jumped to another pitch.
“I worry about your grandmother,” she said. “Think of the way she
drives. And going off to some school, she’d have no family, no
support system. What if she had a stroke or a heart attack? What if
she is developing Alzheimer’s and got lost? That happens to people
more than you think.”

“
She’ll be a great clown. She could
entertain kids at birthday parties.”

“
Or, maybe she won’t even be
accepted,” Kaye added. “Did you ever think of that?”

“
At least give her a call. Cyd,
especially you. She has a special concern for you, as the baby of
the family. And aerobics is healthy. There’s a class forming
tomorrow.”

“
I get enough exercise without
aerobics,” I said.

“
But you will come with me and plead
with Granny?” We both shook our heads. “Then, at least call. Or,
may I relay a message?” she added with sudden
inspiration.

“
No message,” I said. “I’ll call.” I
knew exactly what would happen to any message I sent. It would
definitely gain something in the relaying.

“
I’ll call too.” Kaye turned and
walked away. Fortunately, Mom followed. I watched until they both
got in Mom’s car and left the marina before I stepped aboard and
unlocked my door. Then I called Granny and told her what a great
clown she’d be. I almost agreed to attend clown college with her.
So much for my persuasive talents.

~
~

After a hot day polishing teak I cleaned up,
ate some chicken nuggets, grabbed my book and went to class. Head
down, I scurried into the room. “Hello to you, too,” I heard. I
looked up. Gregory stood just inside the door, his arms crossed,
that lazy smile on his face.

“
Oh.” I hesitated, then asked, “I
suppose there’s a reason you’re here?”

“
Encouragement. Proving to all the
beginners that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

“
You’re recruiting?”

“
Don’t worry. Your position is safe.
I’m not recruiting—not yet. Just showing another possibility for
those with captains’ licenses.”

“
I’ll be all ears,” I said and headed
for my favorite seat.

“
And lovely ears they are, too.”
Gregory followed me and lifted the hair that barely skimmed my left
ear. “Um, yes.”

I felt the flush on my face, remembered the
time when his touch dissolved me. I took a deep breath, then biting
my lower lip, I sat and opened my notebook. I didn’t look up until
I heard Ike say, “Class, welcome to the final session of this
training course. Tonight we won’t spend all our time reviewing. We
have a guest, Greg Norris, one of Smith Harbor’s leading citizens.
He runs a Sea Scout program, but even more important to you, he
owns Norris Charters. He hires licensed captains to operate his
charter fishing fleet.”

“
Greg,” our instructor had called him.
Gregory would hate that.

“
I’ll sit in for a few minutes, then
answer any questions.” Gregory sat behind me. Brandon entered a
moment later, hesitated at the door, then sat in the front row. Had
Gregory laid his claim and Brandon accepted it? Or, had Brandon
finally decided to turn his attentions to some gal a bit more
receptive? I opened my notebook to a new page, put the date on top,
and tried to concentrate.

It wasn’t easy.

The teacher had charts. He had a spiel. He
had information that I needed. Behind me, Gregory commented as
other students posed questions, but so quietly he must have been
leaning close.

“
Let’s review the final chapters,” Ike
said, “then we’ll ask Greg to comment.”

I raised my hand and the instructor
reluctantly called on me. “Why don’t we listen to Gregory now. I’m
sure his few allotted minutes have lapsed. I’d like to know how
many captains he hires.”

“
Good question,” Gregory said from
behind me. I glanced back as he stood and moved to the front. “I
have a roster of twelve qualified captains, but none are
full-timers. In fact, several will only take a job if I’m in a
bind.” From the front, he winked at me before he continued. “Three
are regulars, which means they show up for the scheduled trips. But
my unscheduled fishing trips are the larger part of my charters.
So, it’s a constant struggle, going down the list calling the next
one. Of course, I take my turn as well, but you can see that I do
have openings.”

“
Listen up class, you have something
to aim for,” Ike said. “Now, Greg, since you’ve heard some of the
students’ comments, how well do you think they are prepared for one
of your positions?”

“
They get the ticket, I give them a
chance.” He pointed at Brandon, who had waved his hand. “You have a
question?”

“
Are there other venues in Smith
Harbor for employment? Or, must a licensed captain look elsewhere?”
Brandon asked, which I thought a bit rude, especially with his tone
of voice.

“
Opportunities come and go. Some of
you may want to start your own business. I look forward to the
competition.”

“
You may run into more competition
than you can handle,” Brandon answered.

I stared at my doodles. Were those two still
talking about boats? Possibly our teacher wondered, too. He said,
“Greg, when you hire a new captain, one who just received his or
her license, do you see any problems with their abilities?”

“
If I do, they’re gone.” He pointed to
someone else. “Got a question there?”

“
How much does a captain make? Like,
for an all-day trip?”

“
Come get a job and I’ll tell you.
Next?”

“
Was Chester Foltz one of your
captains? I heard he died in an auto crash.”

Gregory’s face darkened. “Don’t know the
man,” he said. But from the sudden rush of questions, he was the
only one.

I waited for someone to say there’d been no
body in that fiery crash. Instead, the questions, and a lot of
irrelevant chatter, were all about the flaming accident. Why had
anyone even brought up his name? Because it was the latest
news?

Finally, someone asked a question about
charters and the class calmed down. Eventually, after more
questions, Gregory left. I was glad. He wouldn’t be there when the
class was over.

But when I scurried out to avoid Brandon,
Gregory spoke from a bench outside the door. “Nice try. But I
didn’t take the hint, did I?”

“
Oh,” I said. “I thought you had to
leave.”

He stood. “I’ve got to admit, my leaving was
not a bad idea. Sit down a minute.”

I hesitated. “Why?” I asked.

He said nothing, just indicated a part of
the bench three feet from him. I sat.

“
You know, you are over-reacting. I’m
not putting the moves on you. I know you don’t want that. But,
can’t a guy be friendly? Don’t get all wound up because we used to
date. You and Al were my friends as well. And Al didn’t treat you
right. You’re still my friend.”

I stared at my stretched-out feet. I was a
fool, in a big way. I was not irresistible, especially not to
Gregory. The past was ancient history. “Yeah. You’re right.
Sorry.”

“
But you’re damn teaseable,” he said
and hopped up. “Let’s go.”

And he
was
irresistible. Unfortunately. “Go where?” I
asked as he took my hand and pulled me to my feet.

“
To celebrate the completion of your
course. Cup of coffee? Ice cream cone? Movie?”

“
Ice cream,” I decided. That would be
quickest. We’d get the cone at the window overlooking the corner,
walk under street lights while we ate, and arrive at my boat
without complications. No gazing into eyes over a table, or holding
hands in the dark movie. I had to watch out. Not for his moves, but
mine. Be friendly, but don’t fall. Not again.

~
~

“
We should have gotten napkins,” I
said as I licked my fingers. “My cone had holes in it.”

“
Nah, it dripped over the side. Mine
did too. But I have napkins.”

“
Oh, good. Give me one.”

“
What do I get in return?”

“
You won’t give me a napkin?” I spread
my sticky fingers and reached for Gregory’s shirt.