Last Chance Harvey-Finale (Blogophilia 47.11)

Jerry broke the surface and gave the thumbs up. The boat was ready. In a few minutes he was back on board. Paco, the new guy, scurried on the deck of the barge to get ready for the new cargo. First set. Second set. When he got the third done, Jim pulled the gantry lift handle. The numbers on the hydraulic pressure gauge began to rise. Everyone grabbed for the opposite rail as the tug started listing starboard. It happened fast. Screeching cables echoed against the pines on the opposite shore as the motor belched smoke.

It was a glorious morning to be out on the lake, clear skies and somewhat clearer waters. The weather had been calm for days. Long enough to be able to see the tops of the trees ten feet below the surface. Heat bore down on the tug and its crew. It had taken a whole lot longer than planned, but that was neither here or there. With what they knew, The Last Chance should come up in one piece. Pretty lucky for something scuttled with dynamite.

His life had always been a circle. The moon of the investigation had gone through his night time. Now, daybreak had come back around to the boat. He thought of that first dive, finding the hand in the cuffs and wondering if it had been Corrine. The cops coming the day after. Dreams, speculation and wasted time on what was a spectacular con. The dive last week confirmed it was a model skeleton. The skull and spine were under the bed. Just as Tom described.

Poor Tom. Classic case of balls over brains, and look where it got him. Tom was hit through the lung and died a couple of days later. The slug never was recovered, but since it had entered in the front, everyone assumed it was from Corrine. Funny he got to fuck her instead of him. But he had access to money and Jim didn’t. He couldn’t help but laugh. Thank God for poverty and laziness.

Jim glanced up at the cables. No fraying or signs of overheating. Good. Looking down, the bridge was coming into view under the murky surface. It would only be a few minutes before it broke the surface. He warned everyone to brace for it.

Jim had shot twice in the melee. The slug in her hip, a souvenir of her time at Waterworld Marina, probably was his. The cops didn’t say. He didn’t feel bad about it. The shark lived. He got off with self-defense. But he still wondered if there could have been a better way.

The tug shook violently as the big houseboat broke free of its watery prison.

Hall County charged her with fraud and conspiracy. The DA decided to save taxpayer money and let Florida have the first crack before bothering a Grand Jury. Corrine could always come back if they didn’t work out. Orlando P.D. had picked her up on the murder warrant as soon as she was released. According to Angela, she was screamed about Mickey Mouse charges as they took her away. Poor baby. She wasn’t in charge and she knew it.

Jim looked over the console.

Angela. Raven curls flying in the wind. Salmon one-piece contrasting against her tawny skin. She was the epitome of her name. And his new guardian angel. Hard when she needed to be, soft as down when she didn’t. And better than anyone in bed. Neither one had expected the other, but in this rotation, they were filling in each other’s gaps.

The first date had been an accident. He was picking up the clearance papers for the shootout when she came out of the DA’s office alone, exhausted and defeated. A missing child case they had been working on had a tragic end, with no one to charge or blame. Another defeat in a job with many of them and not a lot of victories to offset them. Something moved in him to ask if she wanted to a cup of coffee. The hours passed and it morphed into dinner, then into a moonlight run to Naked Lady on the bass boat.

As the boat swayed, they talked about the missing kid. A three year old girl found after her Daddy killed himself. The mother knew more than she was saying, but there was nothing concrete to work from. She vented about the senior brass and their reluctance to go after the bitch. How she was jealous of her partner and his marriage. About Mark and their break up and how all she wanted was to be held. The tears of frustration and not a little grief welled out of the doe brown eyes. He slid his arm around her shoulders and drew her close. Without prompting, he also began to weep. To release all of what he had gone through, being played for a fool and the loss of a friend. They were one body fused together, racked with grief and pain.

When the storm passed, she lifted her face. The dark curls were matted along her cheeks and what was left of her makeup puddled along her jaw. They eyes locked together, each seeing the trust in the other. Gently, their lips met and they made their rebellious answer to all the crap. They loved the sun into the sky and let themselves be rocked to sleep by the gentle waves of the lake. They awoke sunburnt, sore, and happier than they had ever been in their life. Their die was cast.

He convinced her to quit the force and sail with him. As long as Captain Picard was the Sheriff, a Latina from New York was never going anywhere. Her choices were going to another department and hitting her head on the same walls, or doing something completely different with her life. Keeping books was a breeze compared to case files, and she went home at night to a beer and a loving, faithful man. Even her Mama approved of him, which sounded like a new thing.

She suggested he apply for the marina manager position. She pointed out with his experience and relationships, he was a natural. Yeah, it was a headache occasionally, telling the drunks to pipe down and whatnot. But it kept him on the water. Without the push, he would have moved on to some boring regular job, and that wasn’t him. The fact she was a good cook was a bonus.

Jerry interrupted his thoughts.

“Hey, Loverboy. We’re ready to drop this hulk on the barge.”

The Last Chance was poised over the barge. He revved the tug motor and swung it to port. Pushing lightly on the gantry handle, the massive hunk of cracked fiberglass lowered. Jerry and Paco guided it to the mounting points. It didn’t take long. Everything was strapped down in short order and the barge began to heading to shore for assessment and demolition.

There were real spoils of Harvey’s grand scam, $50,000 in a waterproof container, turned up in the engine compartment on the last dive. They disclosed it to the insurance company and they said keep it. It was all going into refurbishing Haley’s, which Jerry had purchased with some savings he had set aside. He’d been hoping to find a place, and the dry dock was as good as any.

Jerry dropped them off at the marina when it was all over. As the tug began to chug up the shore towards its home, they stood on the dock and smiled. It was a long, hard path,but they were where they both needed to be. Angela squeezed his hand and said “Let’s go home.”

And they did.

THE END

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First off, I wasn’t expecting this to take six months to play out. But it has been fun.

It was Writer’s Choice week, so:

Topic-All My Life’s a Circle

Hard Prompt- Moonlight Run

Easy Prompt-Let’s Go Home

Pic guess: Gerard Villegas

Pic guesses: Shark (in blog) Photobomb, On deck (in blog), Fish story, fishing trip, Bridge (in blog), Smile!,