Free Fallen Out: Jesse McDermitt Series, The Beginning by Wayne Stinnett Page A

Jimmy said. “That’s almost double what anyone else charges and he didn’t hesitate. Who you got in mind to help out? Rusty?”
    “I’ll ask around,” I said glancing out the starboard porthole. “Why don’t you take off? Get to bed early this evening and meet me here at 0300. We can get everything ready by 1100 and get a few hours of sleep aboard in the afternoon.”
    After he left, I went up to the bridge with a cooler of beer. The Richmond sisters and Wood were rowing toward the dinghy dock. Once they tied off and started toward Dockside, I stood at the rail and lifted my beer. “Got a minute, Captain?”
    Charlotte kept walking, her nose in the air, as I’d hoped she would. Savannah and Wood stopped at the transom and Wood said, “Catching a flight in about an hour, but that’s plenty of time for a beer I guess.”
    “What about you, Savannah?” I asked. “Have a beer with a couple of boat bums?”
    “Boat bums are my favorite people to drink with,” she said then turned to her sister and called out, “I’ll catch up in a minute, Sharlee.”
    The woman never broke stride, just waved over her shoulder and kept going. Wood vaulted over the transom and offered his hand to Savannah, who ignored it and stepped lightly to the deck in her bare feet. I wondered if she ever wore shoes.
    “Come on up,” I said. I switched on the stereo, turned very low and clicked the CD changer’s remote switch a few times. The sound of John McLaughlin’s double neck guitar started to quietly fill the bridge, as if from nowhere.
    Wood noticed the new sonar screen and said, “That’s way cool, Gunny. Sonar?”
    “Just installed, it can scan forward, backward, and to the sides. Should make picking my way through holes in the reef a lot easier. Have a seat.” I offered them both a bottle of Kalik and they both accepted.
    “What’s a gunny?” Savannah asked.
    “It was my rank, before I retired,” I said. “Just wanted to have a farewell drink, Wood. Savannah said you were flying out.”
    “I appreciate the hospitality ,” he said. “It’s always good meeting a fellow Jarhead.”
    I extended my bottle and he clinked the neck of his to it.
    “Is that Mahavishnu?” Savannah asked.
    “Now look who’s dating themselves,” I said. “How is it that you know McLaughlin?”
    “He still tours. I caught him in Munich last summer.”
    Turning back to Wood, I said, “I also wanted to ask if you’d like a job, Wood?”
    “What kind of job?”
    “I have an all-night dive charter tomorrow night that came up suddenly, a group of photographers. My First Mate will be busy between dives helping them edit photographs. I could use someone to help pilot the boat, while I hook up the air compressor to refill the tanks for the next dive. Depart before dusk and back by sunrise.”
    “Wish I could help you out, but I’ve already been gone longer than I figured on.”
    I looked over at Savannah and said, “You’re a licensed skipper, right?”
    She thought about it for a second and said, “Sure I can help you out. Hanging around with Sharlee all night can get a bit tedious anyway.”
    Wood had a flight to catch, so they left soon after to collect Charlotte at Dockside . I noticed the three of them leave a few minutes later and get into a red convertible, obviously a rental, with Savannah behind the wheel.
    Thirty minutes later, the red convertible pulled back into the parking lot with only Savannah in it. She got out and went inside, emerging five minutes later. As she walked toward the dinghy dock I called down, “What happened to your sister?”
    “Got any more beer?” she asked.
    I invited her up to the bridge, where she told me that Charlotte had booked a flight at the last minute for San Francisco. So she’d rented a slip and would be staying awhile.
    “She booked a flight to Frisco without any baggage?”
    “She’ll just buy whatever she needs when she gets there. It’s not the first time she’s done