Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me

55

Hawk and I drove to the southern tip of Cat Island early that evening, the windows down in the aging rental, pulsing electric dance music on the radio. Hawk seemed to be enjoying it, tapping out the rhythm on the steering wheel.

“Whatever happened to the Montagu Three?” I said.

“Coconut water with rum, tastes like candy.”

“Makes you feel so dandy.”

The single-lane road curved and twisted along the beach, the palm and coconut trees whizzing past the windows. The little houses along the beach were bright blues, yellows, and greens. The sand blinding white in the late-afternoon sun, the ocean going from a sky blue to a deep navy. Cat Island sure beat summering in Chelsea.

“What a horrible place to spend time.”

“Good place to shake loose those cobwebs,” Hawk said.

“You want to tell me where we’re headed?” I said. “Or just taking in the sights?”

“Godfrey brought in a woman works for Steiner,” Hawk said.

“How recently?”

“Today too soon?”

“Today works.”

We made our way down to the same marina where we’d left that morning. I followed Hawk across a crushed-shell lot and up to a bright yellow clapboard building on stilts. He knocked on the door and Rex answered, ushering us inside.

Godfrey sat at a small table playing dominoes with a woman wearing a blue utility dress. She was of a plus size, with thick arms and thighs. Her face was broad and pleasant, and she made jokes with Godfrey as she carefully placed her domino against the pattern on the table. She had a large rose tattoo on her left arm and wore a golden chain with a cross around her neck.

“Sit,” Godfrey said. “We’re about done here.”

“Not so fast,” the woman said. “Godfrey boy.” She had a big, infectious laugh.

I took a seat in a metal-and-vinyl chair like you’d find in a motel conference room. Hawk stood by the door, watching the game being played and checking the window that looked out onto the small marina. The walls were cheap wood paneling, buckling from the studs, tacked with fishing charts, islands maps, and posters from past marlin tournaments. It was the kind of place that would’ve made Papa proud.

Rex kept a small cluttered desk opposite Godfrey and the woman. His metal desk overflowed with empty cups, foam plates, and an old fan rotating back and forth. He hunched over a laptop computer, typing with massive index fingers.

Rex looked like he could deadlift two-fifty using only his pinkies.

“Don’t you ever count me out, Mr. Godfrey,” the woman said. She laughed more.

Godfrey pushed his dominoes into the center pile and shook his head.

“Too much, Shona,” he said. “Too much for me.”

Godfrey looked over to me and Hawk and ushered us closer to the table. I brought the chair with me. Hawk stood while Godfrey introduced us to Shona.

“I don’t want no trouble,” she said.

“For your trouble,” Godfrey said, passing along a thick wad of bills across the table.

I reached for my wallet, but Godfrey held up his hand and shook me off. I looked over to Hawk and he nodded.

“You were there today?” I said.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “I work four days on Bonnet’s Cut and two days off. I cook, I clean, I take care of the island business.”

“Mr. Steiner is on the island now?” I said.

She nodded. “Arrived two days ago,” she said. “With Miss Palmer. They’re planning a party for the weekend. VIPs, we’re told. Flying into Nassau.”

I grabbed my phone and showed her a photo of Carly Ly.

“Yes,” she said. “She’s there. With five other young ladies. Special guests of Mr. Peter who perform special duties for the VIPs.”

Shona appeared to have lots of distaste for those special duties. She shook her head and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath.

“And what are those duties, Shona?” Hawk said.

“We are not permitted to say,” Shona said. “It’s in our agreement with Mr. Peter. But I can say, what else would an old man want of women so young? Yes, I have seen things. Things that I wish I could wash from my mind. Where are these girls’ parents? Why would they come to such a place and be able to stay so long? Many don’t speak English. But this girl, the one you showed me, is American.”

“She’s from Boston,” Hawk said. “Needs to get back to Boston.”

“Are you going to hurt Mr. Peter?” Shona said. “Whatever his personal tastes, he is good to us. I’m paid and treated well. Not like Miss Palmer. I think she enjoys screaming at the staff. Throwing things. I saw her once slap a guard for moving too slowly on the dock.”

“What happens to Mr. Peter is up to Mr. Peter,” I said. “How many guards?”

“Five,” Shona said. “Plus a new man. A white man who works very closely with Mr. Peter.”

“Does he have gray hair and wear gray clothes?” I said. “Goes by the name Ruger.”

“The man I’m speaking of is called Mr. Grey.”

“Cute,” Hawk said.

“As a button,” I said.

“He arrived with Mr. Peter and Miss Palmer,” Shona said. “He has a cold face, as if it’s never seen the sun.”

“What about the staff?” I said.

“Eight,” she said. “Many more on Friday to set up for the weekend party.”

Godfrey walked over to Rex’s cluttered desk and found a yellow legal pad. He swept away the dominoes and set it in front of Shona. “Draw us the rooms in the main house,” he said. “Show us where this man Steiner eats, sleeps, and stays. And this Gray Man, too.”

“He carries a gun,” she said. “All the guards have guns. They speak as if someone might be coming.”

“And they’d be right,” Hawk said.

Godfrey looked to us over the table as Shona began to sketch off squares with notes on the legal pad. He reached into his pocket for more cash and set it in front of her. “Take off the next few nights,” he said. “You have a cold. You got hurt. A family member is sick.”

“Yes, sir,” she said. “You’ll be coming to the party?”

“Always enjoy me a good party,” Hawk said.

Godfrey walked out the front door. Hawk and I followed. Godfrey picked up a half-burned cigar and lit it again. The sun was going down over the marina, twenty or more fishing boats and pleasure boats huddling into their narrow slots. Godfrey blew smoke in the wind. The sun big and shimmering over the ocean and Bonnet’s Cut, forty miles away.

“When?” Godfrey said.

Hawk looked to me. I nodded back.

“Can you be ready to go after midnight?” Hawk said.

Godfrey nodded. They pounded fists.

We walked down the steps and back to the rental. The skies were darkening with a slate-black line of clouds approaching from the south. Hawk shielded his eyes with the flats of his hands.

“Hmm,” Hawk said. “Red skies this morning.”

“Remind me to skip dinner.”