The shaded light was on the paneled wall above us, the glow of it yellow-orange. She turned her head toward me, looked up from under the white straw brim, green eyes in shadow.
“He knows I didn’t want to get into this. But what he had done, you see, he had listened to too much about it, and they told him that we knew so much it wouldn’t be healthy not to get into it. I guess it isn’t so healthy now. Not for anybody. I bet he knows what he can expect too. It could be making him drink so much. He’s always been too proud of his body to drink so much. If they’re closing the store, how long will Ans and Frankie Loyal last?”
“She didn’t mention Frankie.”
“He works with DeeDee. Worked with DeeDee. He’s more like Ans, sort of. Jittery, kind of nervous about the whole deal. Griff is different. He’s closer to Mack and Nogs. Griff is more like helping run the thing, and he worked with Mack and Nogs before, and I think he gets cut in on all three teams too. There’s one thing about Griff, he isn’t nervous about a thing. A person to him is a bug, and if it is where your foot comes down, that’s the way it crumbles. At least, if he gets me, he will make it just as easy for me as he can. I know that. He’s always liked me. He’s hinted a couple of times we could change the teams around.”
“What kind of a name is Nogs?”
“I don’t know his real first name. It’s some kind of a joke about eggnogs and a Christmas party years and years ago. Nogs Berga is his whole name. I heard Mack say Nogs has a lot of things going for him, a lot of things straight things, like monkey jungles and ‘gator farms and frontier towns, and Mack runs our operation for him, getting the credit reports on the guys we line up, and saying what boat to get the tickets on, and fixing it so the postcards get mailed from faraway places from those guys so it won’t be a lot of guys disappearing from around this area, which could make a lot of heat after a while. What am I going to do? What do you think I should do?”
“Can you handle yourself so Ans won’t suspect you now?”
She gave me a quick glance, with an ugly twist to her fatty little mouth. “There’s been plenty I haven’t wanted him to suspect, friend.”
“But if he does and thumps it out of you, it could put me in the bag, Del.”
She shrugged. “I’d tell him I was in a place where a radio was on Miami news, and I heard about Tami and DeeDee and figured it out from the funny way he’s acting. Anyway, if you don’t want to, why take the boat? You found me. You did the favor. I don’t even know your name. Fly back.”
“The name is Travis McGee, and I am in Stateroom Six on the Lounge Deck, and I can give you one idea of what you could do. Will he drink enough to pass out?”
“That’s the way it’s been going this trip, and he’s getting a good start while we’re talking.”
“Leave him a note. Say you heard the Miami news and figured it out. So you’ve decided to go over the rail. That would cover you in case Griff has orders to meet the ship and take over right away.”
“So then what?”
“So then I give a good piece of money to the room steward, and he’ll know a way to fix it so you don’t have to disembark with the others. We’ll give him a reason he can appreciate. Like a husband waiting outside the customs shed with a gun. Ans Terry isn’t going to show anybody that note, not with what you say in it. There’ll be a short count on the passengers getting off. Short by two, you and me. But the steward can use a piece of his piece of money to keep anybody from getting agitated. Ans will take your stuff off through customs, and I have an acquaintance on board who’ll take my gear off. Then when the whole turmoil is over and everybody gone, we walk off.”