Free Too Much Stuff by Don Bruns

fence, and put our shovels in the ground.”
    “It sounds like what we should do.”
    “Then it’s a plan.”
    “Good to go, James.”
    “Dude, when is she getting here?”
    I gave him a blank stare.
    “Come on, man. I heard part of the conversation. I saw the look in your eye. Em’s coming down to give us a hand, am I right?”
    “She got a note, James. Somebody wrote her and said if we didn’t drop this project, all three of us were going to get killed.”
    “Jesus.”
    “Em has good ideas. You know she does.”
    He rolled his eyes. “Seriously? Someone wrote her and said they were going to kill us?”
    “They did.”
    “What about Mary?”
    “
What About Mary
, a movie staring Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller—”
    “Not this time, pally. I’m asking what you’re going to tell our employer?”
    “She knows Em. They work out at the same gym. Em’s the reason we got this job.”
    “It’s another mouth to feed, Skip. Are we going to have to share the wealth?”
    “We’ll worry about it later. Right now, we could use the help.”
    “Oh, it’s all right. I get along so well with your girlfriend.”
    He didn’t. But I was anxious to see her, and with two separate rooms back at our resort, this could be a good time.
    It’s just that I hadn’t seriously planned on someone really trying to kill us.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
    We picked up two shovels and a big flashlight at the Overseas Ace Hardware on Highway 1. The plump female at the register kiddingly asked if we were digging for treasure. We just laughed.
    We headed down U.S. 1, James saying he was surprising me for our evening meal. He’d found a special place. James worked for Cap’n Crab, a fast-food restaurant in Carol City, so his culinary tastes should have been suspect, but he was a culinary major in college. The guy knew good food. He’d picked a restaurant where we ended up having a very expensive dinner.
    “Dude, she’s paying for it.”
    The restaurant was a place called Ziggie and Mad Dog’s on the Overseas Highway. World famous by the way. Lots of things in the Keys were apparently world famous. Who knew?
    “Why did you pick this place?” There were a lot of places cheaper than Ziggie and Mad Dog’s.
    “Did a little Internet research back at the library, Skip. Way back, when this was a saloon, they had casino games here. Al Capone even played cards in the back room. Now, one of the owners is Jim Mandich. This guy played for Michigan, then forthe Dolphins. He played in two Super Bowls, seventy-one and seventy-two. When he was with the Dolphins they had a perfect season in seventy-two.”
    “This Mandich was Mad Dog?”
    “Is.”
    “The nickname says—”
    “He’s a crazy man. On and off the field.”
    That made sense. James Lessor is a crazy man. He tends to gravitate to people like that.
    “So we’re eating here because?”
    “We can tell people we did. It’s world famous.”
    For James it was a magical evening. Apparently Jim Mandich occasionally came into his restaurant and pressed the flesh with the locals and tourists. We saw no signs of celebrity this evening.
    I was not alive in seventy-one or seventy-two, and Mandich’s history had no relevance to me. James, on the other hand, wanted to immerse himself in the experience.
    Upon arriving back at Pelican Cove, James walked over to Rumrunners, a multilevel, tiki-style building with the main bar on the second level.
    I waited for Em. She showed up half an hour later in her new black Porsche Carrera. Em worked for her father, a very wealthy contractor, and she lived on a different plane than I did. She’d offered to get me a job with Dad, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to do it. And besides, who would look out for James?
    “I missed you.” She kissed me in the parking lot. Then kissed me again.
    “It’s only been two days.”
    “I missed you.” She kissed me again, and I started to get interested. Em can be a very persuasive girl.
    I hesitated to ask, but I