Page 17 of On the Line

I tried to sound nonchalant. “I’ve been saving up.”

Ellie’s eyes narrowed. “I know you have a bank account. I’ve seen you deposit money into it. Why do you have…” She thumbed through the stack. “Thousandsof dollars stashed in your closet?”

“It’s cash money. My dad said if I put it in the bank I have to pay taxes.”

She blinked disbelievingly, then glanced down at the pearl conch ring adorning her finger. Her eyes hardened as she lifted her gaze. “I’m not stupid, Spencer. Does this have anything to do with the bales found at George’s?”

She’d already put two and two together. “Not exactly,” I stammered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded with a fiery look in her blue eyes. “Come clean or I’m out of here.”

I stared at her, dumbfounded and literally at a loss for words. Her face twisted in anger as she shoved the package into my hands.

“It’s not what you think,” I insisted. “I’m not running drugs. I just stand lookout.”

I reached out as she started toward the hallway, but she shook off my hold as she paused to fume. “That’s supposed to be less criminal?” Her disappointment in me drilled to my core. “You'll end up in prison like the rest of them,” she said with a cold resolve that sent a chill up my spine.

“It’s not like that,” I said, trying to keep my cool. “I don’t touch the drugs or the money. I just sit out there with a VHF making sure it’s all quiet when they’re making a run.”

“Does your buddy Mateo have something to do with this?”

“He’s involved,” I answered, unsure how much to divulge in my coming clean. “He does it too,” I admitted.

She glared with cold fury. “You've got a stack of drug money in your closet, Spencer. I hope you’re as slick as everyonethinks you are,” she shouted. “You need to be to get out of this one. But I don’t want any part of it.”

I looked up toward the ceiling, my parents just one floor up, and hoped my mother wasn’t there to hear the commotion. I kept my voice low. “I know it looks bad, but I don’t touch anything until everything is said and done. I get paid after the fact and never have my hand on any money or any drugs during the process.”

She stared a hole through me. “Are you that dumb?” I guess she decided I must be, because when I didn’t have an immediate answer, she spun on her heel and beelined for the door. She paused in the entryway, her aunt’s van parked in the driveway behind her. “That night you were supposed to be bait fishing, that’s what you were doing, wasn’t it?”

I nodded, ashamed.

“And the time before that you said you were night fishing way out in the Everglades with the guys? Then too?” She asked, way louder than I could have liked.

Ellie was catching me in all my lies. There was nothing left to do but to admit it. “Yes,” I said, dropping my head.

It was like a bad dream watching her wiggle the ring I’d given her off her finger. “You are a liar and a cheat, Spencer Rodman,” she hissed. I watched in horror as she hurled it into the pea gravel. “I can’t believe I was dumb enough to give you my virginity.”

My heart sank into my stomach as I watched the van peel out the driveway so fast that gravel sprayed up off the tires.

CHAPTER 9

Thinking she needed time to cool off, I waited a day before calling Ellie’s aunt’s house. Her Aunt Val answered but said Ellie wasn’t available. I tried again the next day. And the next. For four torturous days, Ellie refused to take my calls. Finally Val told me that I’d best stop calling. Ellie wasn’t going to change her mind.

I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I went through the motions with a couple of charters I had booked, but it seemed like my misery was fish repellant. Nothing had been biting worth a damn all week. My luck had run out.

Not knowing what else to do, I drove over to Waylan’s house. His dad was working on the outboard of an old John boat on a trailer in the driveway. “Howdy, Spencer,” he said, looking up from the motor. His smile faded as he took in the sight of me. “Everything okay?”

I looked down at my stained T-shirt and worn out board shorts. “Yeah, everything’s great,” I said as chipper as I could. “Just been fishing a lot.”

“That why you look so tired?” He asked, concern in his eyes.

“Yeah, early mornings and late nights will do that to you,” I said, shifting nervously while looking into the open garage for any sign of Waylan.

“Fishing is a hard life,” he nodded. “You ever think about going to college to get a degree so you won’t have to fish for a living?”

Oh how I wished my problems could be solved with a college education. I was clearly too stupid for that, though. Or for anything, for that matter. But I couldn’t tell him how badly I’d fucked my life up. “I don’t think college is for me.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” he said, taking an even more paternal tone. “The choices you make now will affect the rest of your life.”

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