Last Chance Harvey-Part 18 (Blogophilia 38.11)

Ray and Angela exchanged glances and began taking notes. Nothing was inconceivable. Jarrett voice dropped to a whisper.
“I stopped for a bite after work. Sat in the back cause I don’t like to get bothered.” He looked like he had seen a ghost. “I hadn’t got settled good when the Flapper Queen dances through the door. She had on this black lacy dress and a hat, but it was her.”
Scribbling, Angela nodded and asked,“What gave her away?”
“The necklace.”
“Describe it, please.”
“Some kind of a fly, with rounded wings.” Jarrett looked up at a picture on the far wall. “A dragonfly, I think. She’s modest in the bodice, but it drew your eyes in to paradise. ”
The detectives grinned. Best left handed compliment they’d heard in a while. Angela made a quick sketch of a dragonfly from memory and showed it to him. Jarrett saud the piece looked something like it. Ray continued with the next question.
“How about the face.”
“She sat at the bar, so I didn’t get a good look. But I’m telling you it was Corrine.”
“Did she see you?”
“No, like I said, I was in the back. She sat next to this biker at the bar. They talked about a minute, then they left together.”
Ray popped up. “This might sound a bit rude, but how much did you have to drink before she came in?”
The question didn’t faze Jarrett. “I just got my first beer.”
*********************************************************************************
Jerry was alone as he looked toward the fog coated shore.
The Zombie was a salvage tug Jerry kept near Browns Bridge. A black and gray gantry bowed up from the deck. It looked like an accident waiting to happen. The thing looked like a tow truck with pontoons. Looks were deceiving. The ballast shelves below could take a ton, which would keep it upright in the worst conditions. Jerry and Jim had pulled cabin cruisers and bass boats out of some deep places.
But Last Chance was the largest boat he’d ever salvaged.
When Lloyd told him what he had in mind, Jerry didn’t think much of it. The big houseboat would get stored up at Pilgrim Mill until the heat blew over. Then he’d have it towed to another lake where no one knew him. Simple and stupid, a scheme a scared two bit hustler would use to get out of a jam. Which, of course, was what Harvey Lloyd was. Success wasn’t inconceivable, but Jerry had seen more than one like it end badly.
When the 46’ houseboat disappeared, he drove by the dry dock to see if it was on the rack. That’s how he knew it had been sunk. The insurance adjuster did a cursory interview with him, asking whether he knew anything. Of course, he didn’t. And there was only one place it could be. Naked Lady was the only place on Lanier deep enough. That it took six months to find it was a testament to Lloyd’s cleverness.
Salvage projects are expensive, even when you own the equipment. You still have to pay divers and rent floaters and such. Jerry wasn’t quite ready to go there, though. Yesterday and today was radar mapping, marking the exact coordinates. It would have been nice to have Jim here, but given the cops sudden interest in Corrine and they agreed it would be better for him to stay out of it.
He had seen them come down the road when he left the marina to get Zombie. Jerry knew the first place they’d go was the office. They would grill Tom and then ask around for him. But he wasn’t going back today. There were enough provisions to keep him on the water until tomorrow, then he’d stay at the shed.
It was the least he could do for Corrine.
***************************************************************************************
Why think of everything you’ve gotFor you will be here tomorrow,Your dreams may not.
The earworm played in Jim’s head as he watched The Zombie from the far shore, unseen. The pattern of the chair he was in was indistinguishable from the mat of hickory and oak leaves littering the shore. The thought occurred to him, it was hunting season and he was acting like a scared doe, sniffing the air and listening for the crack of the careless hunters.
Lopez and Williams were those hunters and they weren’t going away. He couldn’t for the life of him how they figured out she was here. Corrine wasn’t a person to leave a paper trail. Harvey paid all the bills and she just did his bidding. He thought a moment. There was the time the cops were called down to the boat after one of their fights. Normally, he wasn’t curious, but he was on a boat a couple of rows over having a beer when they showed up. There was something about a gun, but none was ever found and they left.
He couldn’t get the handcuffs out of his mind. Was it some prank or did Harvey tie her up and let her drown? The thought was inconceivable. Nobody was that cold, that inhuman.
Or, were they?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Topic-Jay Sole
Pic-Christine Wichman
Pic guesses: Lacy (in blog), Flapper (in blog), Modest (in blog), Choices, Stepping out, Fresh, Toppers, Fedora,

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