Free Adrift: The Complete Novel by C. G. Cooper Page B

night?” I asked, starting to lose my patience.
    “Yes, sir. Like I said, owners can access their boats twenty-four hours a day. Gas and electric are self-service. We don’t staff this place all night.”
    “What about security cameras?”
    She finally looked up at me. “Are you a cop or something?”
    Hollie nudged me. “No, ma’am. We’re just looking for a friend who was supposed to meet us.”
    There was a pause as she pondered clamming up. “What’s his name?”
    “Johnny Laney.”
    Another pause, and then she rolled her chair over to the computer. “You tell anybody I did this and I’ll swear you threatened me.”
    “Don’t worry, this stays between the three of us.” Hollie threw me a wink.
    A few keystrokes later she looked up. “Says he got some gas at two in the morning, the night you were looking for. Does that help?”
    “It does. Would you mind telling us which well he was in? I can’t remember the name of the boat.”
    She huffed and swiveled back to the computer. A few keystrokes later she said, “The Midas Touch. Well 341.”
     
    +++
     
    “They just went into the tackle shop and now they’re headed to…they’re going back to the old man’s boat.”
    “Get out and see,” order Laney.
    “I can’t. There’s no one around. If I go, it’ll be too obvious.”
    “Just do it!”
     
    +++
     
    We found the boat, and with Hollie playing lookout, I climbed aboard. The thing must have been at least sixty feet in length. It was the nicest vessel I’d ever been on.
    It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for.
     
    +++
     
    “Yeah, they’re on a boat called The Midas Touch.”
    “What did you say?”
    “I said, the kid just climbed onto a boat called The Midas Touch, blue trim, chrome portals.”
    Laney mind swirled. That was his boat, but it wasn’t in the right place. He had docked it a week earlier in a friend’s slip across the bay. Occasionally he used the Bay Point Marina, but only when he wanted to shack up with a part-time girlfriend he kept who owned a condo across the street.
    “Keep an eye on them.”
    Max Laney clenched his hands as he walked down the hallway to where Johnny lay recuperating.
     
    +++
     
    I hopped down, landing nimbly on the concrete dock. “Let’s go.”
    “What’d you find?”
    “I’ll tell you in the truck.”
    Hollie followed as I led the way, mind frothing. Familiar contingencies running through my head. Once again operational.
    “What did you see?” Hollie asked, after we’d pulled out of the parking spot.
    I told him.
     
    +++
     
    Max Laney slammed Johnny’s bedroom door open. The prostrate form didn’t move. Anger boiling over, he marched to the bed, looking down at his pathetic excuse for a grandson. Grabbing a Playboy magazine lying on the ground, Laney rolled it up tightly and swung, connecting over and over again against Johnny’s stitched and bandaged face.
    His grandson was soon yelling, curled in a ball, trying to protect his face.
    “You lying sack of shit! Fucking worthless…son-of-a…” The beating continued, this time against the back of the head.
    “What the hell?!”
    Out of breath, Max Laney threw the magazine against the far wall. “Last chance…you tell me…how did you do it?”
    Johnny, hands still protecting his face, rolled over slowly. “What are you talking about?”
    “That girl…how did you kill her…how did…?”
    “Are you okay, granddad?”
    Laney leaned against the wall. “I’m fine. Just out of breath. Now tell me.”
    “I already did.”
    “You said you strangled her and drove to Grayton Beach Park and dropped her in the water.”
    “That’s what…”
    “Don’t lie to me!”
    “I…I don’t remember. I woke up at the Park and drove home.”
    “I’ll tell you what happened! You took my boat, drove into the Gulf, obviously not far enough, didn’t weigh her down, and then docked the fucking boat at Bay Point Marina!”
    Johnny sat up, confusion setting in. He