Gulf Coast Girl aka Scorpion Reef

Seven

We came into New Orleans at ten-fifteen p.m. Through passengers going east were scheduled to change busses, with a layover of forty minutes. I hunted up the baggage room, caught the eye of a colored boy, and gave him my claim check and a dollar.

“See if you can find this bag for me,” I said. “I want to clean up a little between busses.”

He located it. I went around the corner toward the washroom, ducked out a side door, and caught a cab. At a little hotel just off Canal Street I signed the register James R. Madigan and when I was up in the room I looked at the marks on my face. They were better, and in another few hours they’d be hardly noticeable. I drew a basin of hot water and went to work on them again, soaking the hand at the same time. The swelling was going down.

They might find out I’d left the bus, and they might even trail me to this hotel and eventually start looking for somebody named Madigan, but there the whole thing would end. Harold E. Burton was only a check for $15,000, and the last place they’d ever expect me to go would be back to Sanport.

I studied the rest of it. There’d be the station wagon I had to buy to get back to Sanport with all the gear. Abandon it when we sailed? No. Storing it in a garage was a better idea. After a year or so they’d probably sell it for the storage charges, and if anybody ever bothered to look into it all he’d find would be that it had been left there by a man named Burton who’d sailed for Boston in a small boat and never been heard of again. People had been lost at sea before, especially sailing alone.

What about after I’d landed them on the Central American coast? Florida was my best bet now. I could lose myself among the thousands who made a living along the edge of the sea in one way or another, and gradually build up a whole new identity. I tore all my identification into tiny shreds and flushed it down the plumbing along with the remainder of the bus ticket. As soon as I turned out the light and lay down I was thinking of her again.

It was a little after eight when I awoke. I shaved hurriedly, noting my face was almost back to normal now, and dressed in a clean white linen suit. Brassy sunlight spilled into Canal Street, shattering on the chrome and glass of traffic as the sticky New Orleans heat began. I pushed through the crowds, looking at my watch. The banks wouldn’t be open for over an hour.

I got some change in a cigar store and went back to the battery of phone booths. Putting in a long-distance call to Sanport, I caught the yacht broker just as he came in his office.

“Hello,” I said, sweltering in the airless little cubicle. “My name’s Burton. I understand from a friend of mine you’ve got a New-England-built sloop over there, 36 footer by the name of Dancer, or something like that—”

“Yes,” he said. “That’s right. The Ballerina. Good boat, in first-class condition—”

“How much are you asking?”

“Eleven thousand.”

“That sounds high to me,” I said. “But I’m looking for one of her class and I’d go to ten if it’s in top shape. Suppose I come over and take a look at it? I’m in New Orleans now, but I could be there sometime tomorrow morning if you could make arrangements for the boat yard to haul her out.”

“Fine,” he replied. “She’s at Michaelson’s Yard. We’ll be looking for you.”

“Around nine a.m.,” I said.

So far, so good. She hadn’t been sold yet.

When the banks opened I went into the first one I came to, endorsed the check for deposit, and opened an account, asking them to clear it with the Sanport bank by wire. They said they should have an answer a little after noon.

The used car lots were next. I didn’t find a station wagon in the first one and was just about to leave when the idea began to come to me. Part of my mind had been occupied with the problem of getting Macaulay out of that house, and now I was starting to see at least part of the answer. I didn’t want a station wagon; I wanted a panel truck, a black one. I found one in the next lot. After trying it out, I told the salesman I’d come back later and let him know. I couldn’t buy it until the check cleared.

The wire came back from the Sanport bank a little after one. I cashed a check for three thousand, picked up the truck, and drove over to a nautical supply store. It took nearly two hours to get everything I needed here, chronometer, sextant, azimuth tables, nautical almanacs, charts, and so on, right down to a pair of 7 by 50 glasses and a marine radio receiver. That left diving gear. Of course, there was still the aqualung in the back of her car, but the coast of Yucatan was too far to come back for spare equipment if anything went wrong. I bought another, and some extra cylinders which I had filled. At five o’clock the truck was full of gear, and nothing remained but to check out of the hotel and start back.

No, there was one thing more. I went into a dime store and bought an anniversary greeting card.

* * *

I drove all night.

Just at dawn I was approaching the outskirts of Sanport, and stopped at an all-night service station to shave and clean up a little while the attendant filled the tank. I was a little nervous as I approached the downtown area, but I shrugged it off. There was nothing to worry about yet. In the panel truck I looked like any laundry route-man or cigarette salesman.

Michaelson’s Boat Yard lay some three miles from town, in the opposite direction from the Parker Mill. It was on a sandspit running out toward the ship channel beyond the eastern end of the water-front, with only some mud flats between it and the long jetties going toward the open Gulf.

About a block away from the yard gate there was a small cluster of buildings among the otherwise empty lots, a beer joint or two and a cafe and an abandoned store building with a For Rent sign on it. I parked the truck in front of the cafe, locked it, and went inside. It was still early, and a girl was making coffee in a big urn. I drank two cups and ate an order of hot cakes. The morning paper was on the counter. I looked through it, but there was nothing about his body’s being found. It was too soon yet. There would be.

The yard workmen began to drift in. I walked down to the gate and went inside. The Ballerina was hauled out on the marine railway. I stood for a moment, just looking at her. She was long-ended and slimly arrogant, cut away at the forefoot and tapering in sharply under the stern, and she drew nearly six feet when she was afloat, with some 5000 pounds of iron in her keel. I’d never been aboard her, but I’d seen her several times over at the yacht basin, and I was familiar with the design. I’d sailed one of her sisters in a race shortly after the war.

Opening my pocketknife, I walked under her, white linen suit and all, and started probing. It must have been six months or more since she’d been hauled, because she was foul with grass and barnacles, but in half an hour I knew that under all the marine growth she was as sound as the day she was built. I kept on, hardly even aware when calking hammers began sounding on the ways.

Finding a ladder, I went aboard and went on with the inspection. She’d been well kept up. I remembered Carling had bought new sails for her a few months ago when she was over at the yacht basin, so I didn’t have to look at them. The cabin seemed to be all right, with no indication of leaks in the decking overhead. The layout was perfect for the three of us who were going to be aboard. There were two bunks forward, then a head on the port side and a locker on the starboard that formed almost a partition, leaving only a narrow passage. That could be curtained to make two cabins of it. Aft of the head and the locker there were two settees, one on each side, and either of these could be made up as a bunk. A folding chart table came down over one of them, and aft of them were the icebox and locker space of the galley and the primus stove hanging in gimbals.

I inspected the bilges, and took a look at the Gray marine engine, though I couldn’t tell much about the latter until she was back in the water and I could try it out. Just as I was coming down the ladder the man from the yacht broker’s showed up. The yard foreman was with him. I introduced myself.

“Well, what do you think of her?” he asked.

“She’s in good shape,” I said. “I’ll give you ten thousand.”

“He’s still asking eleven.”

“Who owns her?” I asked.

“Man named Carling. Automobile dealer.”

“Well, how about getting him on the phone? Tell him I’ll write you a check for ten in the next five minutes.”

He went off toward the office. I gave the yard foreman a cigarette. He was a big, heavy-bodied Finn or Norwegian. He nodded toward the sloop.

“That one’s built,” he said.

“She’s that,” I said. “But her bottom’s in awful shape. How soon can you get a crew of men on her? I’ll give you the paint specification, and the rest of the work list—”

He grinned. “Hadn’t you better wait till you’ve bought her?”

“I’ve already bought her,” I said. “We’re just arguing about how much I have to pay.”

The yacht broker’s man came back. “Says he’ll take ten five. That’s the bottom.”

I pulled out the checkbook, and nodded to the foreman. “Tell your men to start scraping.”

We went up to the office and the foreman introduced me to the superintendent. We started writing out the work list, and all the time that anniversary card was burning a hole in my pocket. She couldn’t possibly get it before tomorrow, I told myself. But I kept thinking of what she must be going through with nothing to do but wait. That wasn’t all, either. I was wild to talk to her.

I happened to glance out the front door of the office and saw a phone booth just inside the gate on the other side of the driveway. Why not wire an anniversary telegram? It would be faster, and safe enough. No, I thought; they’d see it delivered and just the fact she’d received one would make them watch her that much more closely.

“. . . install new starting and lighting batteries,” I went on to the super. “Put up a twenty-by-fifteen-inch shelf above that starboard settee for a radio receiver, and run a cable to the lighting battery for power for it. As soon as she’s back in the water, run a check on that engine, and make what repairs are necessary. As far as I can see she doesn’t need anything done topside, and as soon as I get to Boston she’ll have a general overhaul, anyway. The main thing is that pasture on her bottom. Do you think we can work out a paint schedule so we can get her back in the water tomorrow afternoon?” And then I added, “With the paint dry.”

He nodded. “Sure. You check it yourself before she goes in.”

I stood up. “Fine. I’ll be around here all the time, so if anything comes up, just yell.”

Just then the telephone rang. The girl at the desk near the door answered it, and said, “Just a minute, please.” She looked inquiringly at the super. “A Mr. Burton—”

“Here,” I said. I could feel the tingling of excitement all over me as I reached for it. “Thank you.”

“Burton speaking,” I said.

“Can you talk all right from there?” she asked softly.

“Oh, hello,” I said. “George told me he was going to wire you I was coming over. How are you?”

She understood. “Everything is the same here. Is there another phone you can call me back?”

“Yes,” I said. “Did George tell you about the boat? I’ve just bought it. And by the way, he wanted me to give you an address. I wrote it down, but it’s out in the truck. Suppose I get it and call you back?”

She gave me the number.

I walked out to the truck and stalled for a minute, and then came back and ducked into the booth just inside the gate. I closed the door and dialed, fumbling in my eagerness. She answered immediately.

“Bill! I’m so glad to hear you—”

It struck me suddenly she didn’t have to act now, as she had the other night, because there was no chance anybody could be listening. Then I shrugged it off. Of course she was glad. She was in a bad jam, and she’d had two days of just waiting, biting her nails.

“I didn’t do wrong, did I?” she went on hurriedly. “But I just couldn’t stand it any longer. The suspense was driving me crazy—”

“No,” I said. “I’m glad you didn’t wait for the card. I was worried about you, too. Has anything happened?”

“No. They’re still watching me, but I’ve been home nearly all the time. But tell me about you. And when can we start?”

“Here’s the story,” I said. “I got back around seven this morning, and wrote out a check for the Ballerina about twenty minutes ago. She’s on the marine ways now, and will be off sometime tomorrow afternoon. Let’s see, this is Thursday, isn’t it?”

“That’s right,” she said. “Then what?”

“As soon as she’s in the water we have to try out the auxiliary. Then later in the afternoon I’m going to take her outside for a shakedown for three or four hours. I hate to use up the time, but you can’t go to sea in an untried boat. I’ve got everything we need out here in the truck except the actual ship’s stores, and I’m going to make a list this morning and have the ship chandler deliver them here Saturday morning.”

“Is there any way I could go on that trip outside with you?” she asked. “I’m dying to see her, and we could plan how we’re going to get away from here.”

I was tempted. I thought of three or four hours out there, just the two of us alone. She could charter a water taxi, meet me down the channel somewhere. No. It wouldn’t work.

“It’s too risky,” I said. “If you’re going to be safe after you get away from here, there just can’t be anything they can remember afterward that would connect you with a boat. Any boat.”

“Yes. You’re right,” she agreed. “But it’s going to be a long time. I keep getting afraid when I can’t talk to you. We sail Saturday night? Is that it?”

“Yes. Everything will be stowed and ready for sea some time in the afternoon.”

“Have you thought of anything yet? I mean, for getting Francis aboard?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’ve got an idea. But something else has occurred to me.”

“What’s that, Bill?”

“Sneaking him aboard isn’t the big job. Getting you here is going to be the tough one.”

“Why?”

“They’re not sure where he is. But they’re covering you every minute.”

It was stifling in the booth, even with the little fan whirring. I looked out the glass part of the doors and could see them scraping away at the Ballerina.

I went on, talking fast. “But Macaulay first. You can help me a little. I think they’re covering you from both ends of that alley in back of your house, as well as from Barclay’s place in front of it, so we can’t just sneak him out the back way. Now your house, as I recall, is the second one from the corner, so Barclay’s, right across the street, must be also, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she said.

“What’s the name of that intersecting street?”

“Brandon Way.”

“All right. Now from Barclay’s house they shouldn’t be able to see down Brandon Way very far, should they? I mean, the angle would be too flat to see much more than the corner itself, and the place where your alley comes out into Brandon would be hidden behind the house next to you. That right?”

“Let me see,” she said. She thought for a moment. “Yes, I’m sure it would.”

“Good. And there are lights only at the intersections of the streets themselves? None around the alley?”

“That’s right.”

“All right. That’s about all I needed to know. I think we can pull it off, but I want to work on it a little more. And I’ve still got to figure out a way to get you.”

“And your diving equipment,” she said. “It’s still in the back of the car.”

“I know,” I said. “I was just coming to that. There won’t be time to fool with it, either, when I come to get you, no matter what kind of plan we work out. So we’ll have to get it aboard first. You’ll also want to bring a few clothes with you. So here’s the way you work it. Put that aqualung in a cardboard carton and tie it. Pack what clothes and toilet articles you can get into another carton, and put both of them in the trunk of your car. Around noon tomorrow call Broussard & Sons, the ship chandlers, and ask if they’ll deliver a couple of packages to the Ballerina, along with the stores. They will, of course. But don’t take them to Broussard’s yourself.

“Take the car to the Cadillac agency. It’s got a squeak in it, or the motor goes purtle-purtle when it should go whirtle-whirtle, or something. As soon as you get inside on the service floor and they’re trying to find what’s wrong with it, you remember those packages you were supposed to deliver. Call a parcel delivery service to come after them. The point of all this hocus-pocus is that whoever’s following you will be outside and won’t see the things come out of your car. If he did they’d be hot on the trail in nothing flat to see where they went. All straight?”

“Yes. Now, when do I call you again?”

“Saturday afternoon about five, unless something happens and you have to get in touch with me sooner.”

It took the rest of the morning to check the gear on the sloop and make out a stores list. Broussard’s runner came down in the afternoon and picked it up. The yard closed at five. I drove the truck inside and parked it. The night watchman was a friendly, talkative old man who reminded me a little of Christiansen. He wanted to know if I was going to sail that boat clear up to Boston all by myself. What happened when I had to go to sleep? The whole thing fascinated him. Here was another problem; as fast as I solved one I had two more to take its place. I had to get them aboard without his seeing them.

I studied the layout of the yard. The driveway came in through the gate where the office and the shops were located, and went straight back to the pier running out at the end of the spit. There were some ways on the right, where they were building a couple of shrimp boats, and on the left was the marine railway itself. The Ballerina, of course, would be out on the pier after I brought her back in from the shakedown. It could be done, I thought; if I backed the truck up to the pier and left the lights on he wouldn’t be able to see them come out the rear doors.

The foreman had given me an extension light and some cleaning gear. By midnight I had the cabin immaculately clean. I switched off the light and lay down on one of the settees.

We put her back in the water a little after one the next afternoon. I kept watch on the bilges for about an hour, and she was all right. With one of the yardmen aboard to give me a hand I took her down the channel against the tide with the engine, after the dock trial, hoisted sail, and went on out. There was a good breeze blowing, kicking up a moderate chop on the bar. I took her back and forth across it and let her pitch to see if she opened up anywhere. When we came back and tied up I pumped the bilges again. In a few minutes she was dry. Baby, I thought, standing on the pier looking at her.

There was still nothing in the morning or afternoon papers about his body being found. When the yard closed I backed the truck down to the pier and stowed all the gear aboard the sloop. The yard work was completed now, and I’d asked them to have the bill ready for me in the morning.

I worked on the charts for a while, stowing away the ones we wouldn’t need in the Gulf. Turning on the radio, I picked up a time tick from WWV and started a rate book on the chronometer. After a while I heard a weather report for the West Gulf: moderate east and northeast winds.

I switched off the light and lay down. It was hot in the cabin. I could hear water lapping against the hull. It was a lovely sound until I started thinking of his body down there somewhere. How much longer did we have? I got off him at last, and tried again to see Macaulay, running into the same old blank wall. He didn’t even exist. Then I was thinking of her again.

I sat up and savagely lit a cigarette. I was being paid, I reminded myself, to get Macaulay out of that house alive, and not to lie there thinking about his wife.

All right. So I’d get him out. I had an idea for it, and it might work, too, if I didn’t get myself killed doing it. But what about her? I still hadn’t solved that.

Suppose I arranged a rendezvous out there on the beach and transferred her to the truck? That was all right, provided she could get far enough ahead of them so I could get her aboard without their seeing it. But if they did see it, we didn’t have a chance. That truck was too slow. And I was pretty sure by now they were trailing her with two cars. They’d murder us.

They were pros; we were amateurs. It was going to have to be good. I dug up and discarded plan after plan, but after a long time I began to see a way I could do it. When I had it all straight in my mind, I looked at the watch. It was a little after four. Sleep was impossible now, so I got up and walked out on the end of the pier. Taking off the watch and the shorts, I dived in and went for a long swim out toward the channel. When I came back I sat naked in the Ballerina’s cockpit, smoking and watching the sky redden in the east. This was the last day. If everything went right, this time tomorrow we’d be at sea.