Jack Beale 00 - Dangerous Shoals

respirator from his face. He inhaled deeply. After several hours of breathing stale, tasteless, filtered air, he found that the fresh air had a sweetness that was sublime. He flexed and relaxed his muscles in an attempt to regain circulation and movement. He had been on his hands and knees for over two hours, finishing the final coat of varnish on the bright work, and now he was done. He looked up at Irrepressible and mentally went over his checklist of things to do before launch day. He smiled, knowing that soon he would be sailing again.
    A celebratory beer was in order, but first he had to take care of the brush and varnish. He went into his shop and put the brush in a pot of boiled linseed oil. It was a trick that an old timer had taught him. This way he didn’t have to clean out his varnish brush each time he used it. He just put it in the oil and then before the next time he had to use it, he had only to strike it out and was good to go. The bristles stayed soft and it eliminated a lot of extra work and mess. The varnish was put back into a can and sealed.
    As he climbed the stairs to his apartment, he could hear the phone ringing. “It’s probably Max,” he thought to himself. It was the first time in weeks that they hadn’t slept together, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Last night she and Patti and some of the other girls from Ben’s had gone out, and she called him late to let him know that they were all staying at her place. From the laughter and noise in the background, he could tell that none of them should be driving, so he slept alone.
    By the time he picked up the phone, the ringing had stopped. He looked for the number on his caller ID. There wasn’t one; it merely said UNKNOWN CALLER. “Hunh. Probably a wrong number or a telemarketer,” he thought. Cat had followed him upstairs and was begging for some food. He went to the fridge, got a beer, and grabbed the partial can of cat food. Beer first. Cat was insistent and kept talking to him while walking in circles under his feet. In her mind she was far more important than any beer and was put out that he would serve her second.
    “All right, Cat. I got the message. You know, I worked hard for that beer. All you did was lie around all day doing nothing.” He put his beer on the counter and scraped the cat food into her dish. She raced to it, stuck her nose into it, stopped, looked up at him with complete disdain, and walked off. Jack watched her and muttered under his breath, “Bitch.” Cat stopped and looked back at him as if to say, “I heard that.” That’s when the phone rang again.
    He picked up the receiver. Before he even got the phone to his ear to say hello, he heard Max shouting. “Jack! I saw him!”

CHAPTER 8
    “WHO?” ASKED JACK in as calm a voice as possible. Famous people were always coming into the bar, and he expected that this was the case.
    “Daniel. I saw Daniel.”
    That was not what he expected. He stood there, silent, phone in hand, as a numbness washed over him. “You saw Daniel,” he was finally able to force out.
    “Yes. I saw him.”
    Jack took a deep breath. His hand began shaking as he fought to understand what she had just told him. “What is he doing here? Why show up again? He disappeared. He chose to abandon Max. Why?” These and other darker thoughts flashed through Jack’s head. After a moment that felt like an eternity, he exhaled. Regaining his composure, he managed to take the quiver out of his voice. “Okay. Now, slow down and tell me what you saw.”
    “Okay … Okay. You know that last night Patti, me and some of the other girls from Ben’s had a girls night out.”
    Jack remembered her late-night call. “Yes,” he said slowly.
    “Well, this morning we decided to go into town for breakfast. None of us were feeling very well, so we thought a good breakfast would do the trick. Anyways, we were just going into the Blue Iguana. Patti was behind me, pushing me in the door. I turned back toward Patti to tell her to cut it out and that’s when I saw him. He was across the street. I grabbed Patti and spun her around to look. By then, he was gone. Patti thinks I’m crazy, but I know I saw him.”
    “Where are you now?”
    “I’m at my house.”
    Jack, still trying to comprehend what she had just told him, asked, “When are you coming home?” His voice offered a sober counterpoint to her excitement.
    “As soon as everyone’s gone. They’re leaving now. Gotta go.”