John D McDonald – Travis McGee 07 Darker Than Amber

“Coming in past the breakwater now.”

“When will we get off, darling?”

“Eleven, I guess. I want to get up there in a few minutes and make sure Terry gets off without creating any disturbance.”

“He’ll creep off like a rabbit, believe me. Why worry about him?”

“Also, I want to see if there are any cops waiting for the two of you. If this thing is coming apart, they might have more than you know. I can watch and see if anybody takes him when he gets off. That might change the whole picture.”

She stopped chewing and through a wad of sweet roll said, “How will it change if?”

“If they ask the ship’s officers about you, the room steward is going to put two and two together and immediately turn chicken.”

She began chewing again, slowly. “Hell, they couldn’t get that close to it so soon. No.” She winked at me. “But they’ll sure get close fast when they get the confession. Hey, what’d you do with it?”

“Printed the address on it, put the stamps on it, and gave it to my friend to mail when he gets ashore.”

“Honey, I think we should have mailed it. What if he gets curious? I’d be curious about a letter addressed to the cops.”

“I make the decisions. And what do you do?”

“I… I do what you say. Okay, darling. That’s the way it will be. That’s the way I want it, too. You’re the boss man.”

I gulped the second half of my cup of coffee, warned her about not answering any knock, relocked the door from the outside. I went down to the promenade deck.

They were easing the starboard up to the big wharf. There were about a hundred people in their bright clothing and sun-brown skin standing behind the chest-high hurricane fencing in the morning sunshine, awaiting the passengers and crew of the last cruise of the season of the Monica D. They were waving. I could hear the yelps of greeting. Cars glittered in the parking area. The deck crew heaved the big hawsers, and the shore hands dropped the loops over the big iron bollards. The deck winches groaned and took the slack and slowly snubbed the length and weight of her against the wharf. Her deep rumbling of the main engines stopped, leaving the thinner sound of her generators supplying the shoreside ship’s services. Two gangplanks were swung up and latched, and as the ship’s captain and two of his officers went down the gangplank in spotless whites, carrying small handbags and briefcases, the PA system aboard blared that all debarking passengers should gather on the promenade deck at the amidships gangplank prepared to leave the ship as soon as all the luggage was off.

I moved aft to a place where 1 could see the ship’s end of the passenger gangplank, and I saw Meyer there, belly firm against the rail, first in line. He did not see me. He looked very resolute. The cargo hatch in the lower hull had been opened, and the gravity roller conveyor set in place. Baggage was coming down and the porters were filling the first big hand truck. They would roll it into the shed and begin filling the next one, while in the customs shed other porters would hustle it, according to alphabetical name of the passenger on the tag, to the proper customs section. One out of every three pieces coming off seemed to be one of the straw liquor baskets. The passengers were lined up, clutching customs declarations and proof of vaccination, the ones wedged near the rail peering over and trying to identify their own pieces of luggage. The shoreside PA system began to wham out a series of marches, the speakers so overloaded much of it was just an overlapping resonant blur. A few favored passengers were paged and directed to go forward to the other gangplank. They were the ones with a little political leverage. They had to walk down the wide wharf corridor between the wire fence and the side of the ship, past their fellow passengers whose impatience to get off was further stimulated by this demonstration of privilege. The one-class ship in the last minutes of the cruise had become a two-class ship, and the favored dozen walked a little stiffly under the pleasant burden of importance, chatting together with excess animation. In the shed they would get a head start on the inspection.

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