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Ed sighed, the sound of a hippo sitting on a beach ball. “You wait. Stay on phone.”
Co
Sid brought another draft. Co
“Yeah, right,” Sid said. “Don’t make me laugh.”
Co
Ed came back on the line. “Okay, I got something. Maybe good for you. You got a pencil?”
Co
Odeski told him a phone number. “This man might have work for you, Samson. You call. His name is Derrick James. Okay. You call. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“You call,” Ed said. “Tell him my name. Ed Odeski.”
“I’ll tell him,” Co
“Is nothing.” He hung up.
Co
Co
James Boat & Nautical Supply was tucked away at the grimy end of the industrial shipyards in Mobile. Traffic was light, and Co
“Come in.”
Co
“You must be Samson,” he said.
“That’s me.”
“Derrick James.” They shook hands, and James motioned Co
James was so tan and crusty, his face looked like a catcher’s mitt. Well-groomed salt-and-pepper hair. Big white horse teeth. He was trim, tall, wore khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt with too many buttons undone. He sported a nifty shark-tooth necklace. Somehow, he was making believe he wasn’t at the tail end of his forties, maybe fifty.
Co
“I know Ed Odeski pretty well,” James said. “I trust his judgment.” He opened his top desk drawer and fished out a manila folder. “He said you were the man for the job.”
“I’m your man.”
James opened the folder and slid a color picture of a sailboat across his desk. It wasn’t a real picture. Printed on computer paper, but it was clear, and Co
“That’s the Electric Je
Co
“And she’s got the works,” he said. “New radar, GPS, depth finders. Hell, she’s even got that new state-of-the-art air-conditioning. You know how hard it is to keep a boat’s air-conditioning up and ru
“I know.”
“Sleeps seven, no problem.”
“Nice.” Get on with it.
He shuffled papers again, came out with a statement, columns of numbers. “I held the note on fifty-eight thousand dollars. He bought the Je
“He’s only late on one payment?”
James said, “I took the boat as collateral on a shitload of equipment for some guys who were starting a marina. They went belly-up, and I got stuck with her. I was glad to hold the note as long as somebody was making payments. But I ain’t the Federal Reserve. I want my money on time. I got my own bills.”
James shoved a stack of papers to one side, revealing an expensive-looking cherrywood humidor. He flipped it open and grabbed a cigar. A Macanudo. He bit off the end and spit it in the trash can, stuck the cigar into his mouth without removing the band. He lit it with a disposable lighter. Co
James nudged the humidor toward Co
“Please.” Co
“Thanks,” Co
James waved away the gratitude. “I probably wouldn’t be so hot to sic a repo man on the guy, but circumstances make me think we need to act fast.”
“How so?” Puff-puff.
“Believe you me, I’d much rather have Folger just pay on time than go through the hassle of taking the boat back. So I had my girl out front call him. A friendly reminder.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything,” James said. “That’s the trouble. My girl calls him at home, but the number’s disco
“Uh-huh.” Man, this cigar is good. Smooth. Co
“So I call around,” James said, “and find out his business has gone under. Okay, so the guy has hit the skids. A repossessed boat is the least of his worries, right? He rents a slip at a marina in Gulf Shores. I go down there with a padlock and a photocopy of the finance agreement. I hate to do it to the guy, but I can read the writing on the wall. If he’s belly-up, I’ll have to take the boat back.”
“But when you got to the marina, the boat wasn’t there.”
“You’ve heard this story before.”
“Variations on a theme.”
“I’ve called disco
Enter Co
“So here’s the deal,” James said. “You bring back the boat, and I can pay you four thousand dollars. Call it a bounty or reward or whatever. I’ve done some arithmetic, and I’m confident I can make that back when I turn around and sell the boat again.”
Okay. Here’s the tough part. Co
“Screw that.”
“I’ve done this kind of work before, Mr. James. If it were just a matter of sneaking into some guy’s yard and stealing a Chevy with the spare key, that would be one thing, but you don’t know where the sloop is. You don’t know where Folger is. All you know for sure is that you got a big, expensive, missing boat.”
“I know this already.”
“It’ll cost to look for the boat. Expenses. I need something up front.”
“I gave you a cigar.”
“That won’t fill my gas tank.” The fumes left in Co
James sighed, leaned in his seat, and pulled a wallet from his back pocket. He fished out five hundred-dollar bills and gave them to Co
“That’s not half,” Co
“That’s what you get.”
“Deal.” Co
“You get thirty-five hundred more when you bring in the Je
“I understand.”
“I hope you do. I don’t fork over five bills to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Only because I know Ed Odeski.”
Yeah, Ed’s church folk. “Can your girl photocopy Folger’s file for me? It’ll help.”
“Sure. Sit tight. Hands off the cigars.”