Yesterday's News

the ocean. “This space used to be a chart room, but I wanted a screened area for enjoying the sea breeze at night. Plus with the sun deck beyond it to the stern, I can sit outside so long as the bugs cooperate.”
    “Looks like you’ve got everything.”
    “Gets better. Come on.”
    There was an outside gangway on the port side of the porch. Resting on two hooks drilled into the wood was a spear gun. A nasty metal arrow about eighteen inches long already was lodged in the channel on top of the tube.
    I said, “The weaponry original equipment?”
    She laughed. “Ever live on a boat?”
    “No.”
    “What’s the biggest rat you’ve ever seen?”
    “I think I get the point.”
    Liz took the gun from the wall, playfully stretching one of two, thick rubber bands near a notch on the shaft itself. “I’m allergic to cat fur, and a bullet would do as much damage to the boat as to the rat. With this thing, the shaft goes through and sticks the little pest to the wall or deck. That still keeps him at arm’s length from me as I scrape him off on a cleat and into the water for the crabs.”
    “Lovely. The other rubber band makes it two-barreled?”
    “What... oh, no. See this second notch on the shaft? If I nock both slings and pull the trigger, I get twice the power, but I’d never get the damn shaft back out of the wood.”
    I told her I was ready for the rest of the tour, and she put the spear gun back on the hooks.
    At the top of the gangway was another, smaller sun deck, with lounge chair and metal table. “I come up here when I want to tan all over.” She smiled saucily. “This the wheelhouse?”
    “Yes.” Rendall opened a small door by turning a brass ring to undo the latch.
    Inside, her bedroom stretched to the curved glass-front parlor from which the helmsman would guide a working tug. “I had them extend the wheelhouse aft, even though it meant cutting down the smokestack. I didn’t have much choice about that, though, unless I wanted a bedroom the size of a walk-in closet. This way, I can have a full bath up here as well as downstairs forward of the galley.”
    She’d kept most of the wood and metal, even the wheel itself and the handled ratcheting device that instructed the engine room on speed and direction. The bed was queen-sized and built with its headboard into the wall.
    “Everything but a two-car garage.”
    Liz sat back onto the bed. “I even have that. My deal with Joe includes renting out a garage behind his store. Nasharbor isn’t in Boston ’s league as far as stolen cars are concerned, but there’s no sense in tempting anybody with the Alfa. This way, you can’t see it from the street.”
    I nodded. She drew her right leg languorously across the comforter till it tucked under the left one.
    “In fact, you can’t see much of anything from the street. That’s why I can go out on the upper deck in the altogether.”
    “And tease the sea gulls.”
    “Among other visitors.”
    I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorjamb. “Who’d you call about me?”
    “Who’d I?...”
    “Call. You said you checked me out.”
    “Oh, nobody in particular. I just thought as Jane’s executrix, I ought to find out a little about you.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like you haven’t had the easiest time of it. You lost your wife young, you hit the booze but you’re not a drunk.” The saucy smile again. “Like you’re technically available but you’re dating some lawyer.”
    “You’re being straight with me, let me be straight with you. Six months ago, you might have been the one. You look enough like my wife to be a sister. But the lawyer’s the one for me now, so why don’t we just have a nice professional dinner?”
    “Meaning you’re not married, but you might as well be.”
    “Like that.”
    Liz stood up and leaned in close, just brushing my neck with her lips. “Minds were meant to be changed.”

    * * *

    “The stuffing?”
    “Portuguese-style French bread for the base, minced lobster, a little dill. It’s not hard.”
    “It’s great with the cod.”
    Liz put down her fork and sipped the wine. “So is this. The lawyer teach you?”
    “No. My wife liked wine and learned about it. She taught me enough to know what I enjoy and what to look for.”
    “My ex never taught me anything, except how to cash an alimony check.”
    “You married long?”
    “Three years. Seemed like three hundred. We lived in New York . He was a stockbroker, fifteen years older. It was