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“I’ll dive. So will Jim Tattinger.”
“Tattinger’s a squirrel.”
A squirrel was a neophyte diver. It was a grave insult. A
“I take it you don’t care much for Jim?” A
“If he did his job, I could overlook his naturally repugnant self. He’s a number cruncher, a bean counter. He couldn’t care less about preserving the wrecks.”
“He used to work in the Virgin Islands.” A
“I know.” Hawk opened a beer and took a drink. He looked over the bottle at A
“What do you do to relax, A
She smiled at the answers that rattled through her mind and he smiled back. “Music,” she said finally. This evening it was not her first choice but it was the most socially acceptable.
“Put something on the tape deck for me. Anything but a sea chantey.”
A
A distant growl in the cha
But she waited, her eyes on the cha
“They’ll have to camp at Belle Isle,” A
The boat came into view: a natty green runabout trailing a frothy wake. “Looks like Patience Bittner’s boat,” Hawk said.
A
“Know the boat. We’ve seen it over here three or four times when we’ve been out with clients. She’s always alone, never stops to say hello. De
“De
Hawk laughed. “One of De
“That kind of vision won’t get you elected Most Popular Senior Boy,” A
“De
A
There was no place left on the dock and the runabout pulled alongside the 3rd Sister and rafted off. Patience, her pale hair dyed red by the sinking sun, crossed the deck and stepped onto the dock.
“Amygdaloid gets any more popular and we’ll have a floating city to rival Hong Kong’s,” A
“Looks like I’ve got company,” A
“I’d better check on Holly. Those three clotheshorses think she’s part of their adventure.” Briefly, Hawk touched A
“Sure.” I’ll pray for foul weather, A
Suddenly A
ELEVEN
Patience stopped at the foot of the steps and looked back over her shoulder at Hawk’s retreating form. “Am I interrupting anything?”
“Not a thing.”
“Too bad,” she said and they both enjoyed the view a second longer.
A
When she returned to Houghton in the fall, A
“I’m out on a domestic mission tonight,” Patience said. “Carrie’s disappeared.”
A
“Moderately alarming. Carrie’s started acting out this summer. In ten years some therapist will discover it’s all my fault. In the meantime I’m blaming her. We are not having fun. She’s been coming home at two and three in the morning with that damp, rumpled look. I can’t get a word out of her. She’s turned from a nice little girl into a sullen tramp. God!” Patience rested her head in one hand. “Sorry. I don’t mean that. I’m alternately pissed off and worried sick. It’s very tiring.”
“Do you think she’s out with her boyfriend tonight?”
“I’d bet on it. She was supposed to be home by five-thirty. She knew I had a date. She just doesn’t give a damn about anybody but herself. Oh! I sound like a selfish shrew, don’t I? Vaguely, I seem to remember promising myself I wouldn’t say things like that if I ever became a mom. I just don’t want her getting into trouble. I got married too young. I was seventeen. What a fool! She’s thirteen and only just barely, All she’ll get out of it now is AIDS.”
A
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? If she’s got to be such a little slut-” A
“You checked Belle?”
“On the way here. And Merrit Lane, Duncan Bay, and Lane Cove,” Patience listed the campgrounds between Rock Harbor and Amygdaloid accessible by water.