Afterwards, trying to remember, I couldn’t be sure whether he’d actually said lighthouse, or if I’d just got the impression that was what he’d intended to say. Anyway, he was silent for a bit; then he went on: ‘Ah, forget it, Sis. I’m probably just imagining things. I’ll call or write from St. Thomas. Be good.’ ” She drew a long, ragged breath. “Harley was always telling me to be good, as if he were the older one instead of me.”
There was a little silence. At last I said, “He was really planning to sail clear around the world?”
“Yes. Through the Panama Canal and down into the romantic South Seas full of beautiful dancing girls with grass skirts.... No, damn it, I won’t make fun of it, and I won’t let you make it sound foolish, either! Hundreds of small boats have done it since Slocum, why shouldn’t he? Would you think it smarter if he’d stayed on shore and fulfilled his dreams with marihuana or heroin?”
“No criticism or ridicule was intended,” I said.
This wasn’t quite true, of course. I mean, after all, the damned world is twenty-four thousand miles around. In a small sailboat jiggling and rocking and splashing along at fifty miles per day, or even a hundred, that’s not a voyage, that’s practically a career. My Scandinavian ancestors may have been seafaring folk, but that was a long time ago; and while I enjoy fishing, I’m not all that crazy about water. As far as I’m concerned, when you’ve seen one ocean you’ve seen them all.
Lacey didn’t speak. I said, “Okay, so much for the lesson in seamanship and navigation and boat-building and stuff. It’s been very educational; and I guess we’d better plan on taking a look at that Faro Blanco place. However, that’s a couple of hundred miles away, back across the Gulf Stream in the good old U.S. of A. Before we leave Nassau, it seems to me there’s a bit of unfinished business we’d better attend to. Something you’ve been very careful to avoid mentioning either to me or to the cops; and a snoopy journalistic character can’t help but wonder why.”
She didn’t look at me. “I... I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure,” I said. “You just rented a bike and took your camera and went sightseeing. You just happened to be in a certain place when a certain unsavory character just happened to wander by with a gun....”
“It was a phone call,” she said. “A woman. She called me at the hotel. She asked if I was the young lady who'd lost something at sea. She said if I was interested in getting it back, I should be on the orchestra platform in the Royal Victoria gardens at two o’clock the following day. She said for me to put on something white with a blue scarf—I could wear that any way I liked just so it showed—and somebody would get in touch with me. She said... she said the relative about whom I was concerned had got into serious legal difficulties down in the Caribbean, and if I ever wanted to see him again, I’d better be careful not to call his predicament to the attention of the local authorities any more than I’d already done by my blundering inquiries.” She hesitated, and went on: “That was why I was willing to do, well, practically anything, Matt, to keep the police from asking me any more questions.... The woman never gave me a name. I don’t see how we can trace her. I’m sure I’d never heard her voice before.”
“Was it a British or a Yankee voice?”
“I’d say American, but refined. Eastern seaboard, maybe a little south but not very. What do you think we ought to do?”
“Well,” I said judiciously, “right now I think we should concentrate very hard and decide what wine goes best with this roast duck with oranges they’ve got listed on the menu....”
The food, when it arrived, restored my faith in the culinary abilities of the Bahamians; and I added the Café Martinique to my list of such establishments as Stallmästaregården in Stockholm, Sweden, and La
There was a little silence. At last I said, “He was really planning to sail clear around the world?”
“Yes. Through the Panama Canal and down into the romantic South Seas full of beautiful dancing girls with grass skirts.... No, damn it, I won’t make fun of it, and I won’t let you make it sound foolish, either! Hundreds of small boats have done it since Slocum, why shouldn’t he? Would you think it smarter if he’d stayed on shore and fulfilled his dreams with marihuana or heroin?”
“No criticism or ridicule was intended,” I said.
This wasn’t quite true, of course. I mean, after all, the damned world is twenty-four thousand miles around. In a small sailboat jiggling and rocking and splashing along at fifty miles per day, or even a hundred, that’s not a voyage, that’s practically a career. My Scandinavian ancestors may have been seafaring folk, but that was a long time ago; and while I enjoy fishing, I’m not all that crazy about water. As far as I’m concerned, when you’ve seen one ocean you’ve seen them all.
Lacey didn’t speak. I said, “Okay, so much for the lesson in seamanship and navigation and boat-building and stuff. It’s been very educational; and I guess we’d better plan on taking a look at that Faro Blanco place. However, that’s a couple of hundred miles away, back across the Gulf Stream in the good old U.S. of A. Before we leave Nassau, it seems to me there’s a bit of unfinished business we’d better attend to. Something you’ve been very careful to avoid mentioning either to me or to the cops; and a snoopy journalistic character can’t help but wonder why.”
She didn’t look at me. “I... I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure,” I said. “You just rented a bike and took your camera and went sightseeing. You just happened to be in a certain place when a certain unsavory character just happened to wander by with a gun....”
“It was a phone call,” she said. “A woman. She called me at the hotel. She asked if I was the young lady who'd lost something at sea. She said if I was interested in getting it back, I should be on the orchestra platform in the Royal Victoria gardens at two o’clock the following day. She said for me to put on something white with a blue scarf—I could wear that any way I liked just so it showed—and somebody would get in touch with me. She said... she said the relative about whom I was concerned had got into serious legal difficulties down in the Caribbean, and if I ever wanted to see him again, I’d better be careful not to call his predicament to the attention of the local authorities any more than I’d already done by my blundering inquiries.” She hesitated, and went on: “That was why I was willing to do, well, practically anything, Matt, to keep the police from asking me any more questions.... The woman never gave me a name. I don’t see how we can trace her. I’m sure I’d never heard her voice before.”
“Was it a British or a Yankee voice?”
“I’d say American, but refined. Eastern seaboard, maybe a little south but not very. What do you think we ought to do?”
“Well,” I said judiciously, “right now I think we should concentrate very hard and decide what wine goes best with this roast duck with oranges they’ve got listed on the menu....”
The food, when it arrived, restored my faith in the culinary abilities of the Bahamians; and I added the Café Martinique to my list of such establishments as Stallmästaregården in Stockholm, Sweden, and La
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