Free Wreckers' Key by Christine Kling Page A

cross the narrow cabin to check, she sat up and swung her feet off the bunk. I was amazed at her agility despite what looked like a basketball hanging on the front of her body. Her eyes were rimmed with red and her long black hair, which was usually tied back in a ponytail, now hung about her face like a frizzy halo.
    “Hi,” she said. “Thanks for coming by.”
    The way she said it sounded as though she hadn’t expected me, and that made me feel like a real louse. Had I given her reason to have such low expectations of me? Probably. On the very day she lost her husband, I hadn’t believed her.
    I didn’t want to ask her how she was. It would be a stupid question under the circumstances. But as I leaned against the door frame, I didn’t know what else to say to her.
    “Have you eaten anything today?”
    “No,” she said, stretching her arms wide and yawning. “I’m just not hungry. Besides, there is not much to eat on the boat. They cannot run the refrigeration when the boat is hauled out.”
    “Then let’s go to town.”
    She reached for a slip of paper on the table next to the bunk. “Debbie brought this to me earlier. She said the police want to talk to me.”
    “That’s normal.”
    “Debbie thinks I should get a lawyer, but I cannot afford one. I have not worked in several months, and we can only just pay our expenses with Nestor’s paychecks. I don’t even know how long I will be allowed to stay here on this boat. But I cannot take the bus back to Fort Lauderdale until I have taken care of my husband.” She closed her eyes and turned her head to one side. I could see from the tension in her neck that she was fighting against her need to weep.
    “Look, Cat, let’s take things one at a time. You will be allowed to stay aboard this boat until we get back to Fort Lauderdale. I made sure of that. I talked to Berger.”
    At the sound of his name, the corners of her mouth dropped and she set her chin forward. I tried to ignore her reaction.
    “As far as the cops go, I don’t think you need a lawyer. They just want to talk to you. I’ll go with you—but only if you promise we can stop for something to eat first. I’m starving.”
    She pushed herself up off the bunk. Her movements were graceful as a dancer’s, but cautious, as though she thought her body might break if she moved too quickly. The child she carried was now the only tangible remains she had of her husband. She stroked her belly, smoothing the print blouse over the bulge.
    “She has been kicking today. It is as though she is upset, like she knows something terrible happened.”
    I didn’t know what to say to that. I’d never felt a baby kick. There had been a time when I felt a life within me— and I’d worked hard to ignore it. But that was different and in another time that I now did my best to forget. Anytime something happened that caused that memory to poke its little head out, I changed the subject and stuffed it back into the darkness of lost memories.
    Catalina took the two steps to the head. With the door open, she quickly splashed water on her face.
    “Do you know for sure it’s a girl?” I asked.
    “No, we decided to wait and be surprised.” She paused, the hairbrush in midair, and stared at her own reflection. “Now ...” She let her voice trail off, and I could see the muscles and bones of her jaw working under the skin. She smoothed the hair back and restrained it with a black clip. Her usually lush lips were stretched flat. Stepping back out into the cabin, she reached for a sweater that was hanging on a bulkhead hook. “Seychelle, I know you don’t want me to talk about Nestor, about what I believe happened to him.” She swung the sweater over her shoulders, the sleeves hanging down in front, and I noticed again just how lovely she was with her smooth brown skin. When she turned to look at me, her eyes were wet and glistening and there were dark red spots coloring her cheeks. “But right now, the only thing