Page 34 of Bait and Switch
The figure—or was it two people?— paused, then lurched, and something heavy landed on the deck with a thud. The cat was doing its best to claw its way out of the towel, but Gabe held on tight, risking disembowelment. Flames shot skyward caused by whatever the asshole had tossed aboard theTicket.
“Motherfucker!”
There was no time. Gabe rushed up the causeway and out into the cold night. Somehow still managing to hold on to the cat, he jumped to the pier and, instead of running after the men, headed the other way, towardThe Barbara. He risked one look over his shoulder. Even with the flames lighting up the night sky, he couldn’t quite tell if it was one or two people racing down the dock. Then, instead of going through the gate, the shadow veered to the left and jumped into a waiting boat. The sputter of the outboard motor had Gabe running faster.
“Casey! Fire!”
Just as Gabe neared the end of the dock, the pier rocked under his feet from the percussion of an explosion. He staggered but caught himself before he fell to his knees. The cat yowled. Gabe blinked and coughed as burning fragments fell into the water around him. A light came on insideTheBarbaraand then Casey was there in front of him, dragging Gabe and, by association, the cat onboard.
“Stay here,” Casey ordered.
He disappeared outside again. Gabe heard his footsteps thumping around on the deck overhead.
“What the actual fuck? What the fuck just happened?” he whispered.
Within a minute, Casey was back, and Gabe figured he must have been untying the lines that heldTheBarbarato the pier; they were floating away from the flames and to relative safety.
“You saved the cat.”
“Of course I saved the cat! I’m not a monster!”
The cat wiggled and this time Gabriel set it down, blanket and all. It was hard not to laugh at the bedraggled beast. Gabe was shocked when, instead of finding someplace to hide or scratching the hell out of him, the cat jumped up next to him and started to purr.
Then, for the second time in less than forty-eight hours, he heard sirens screaming as emergency vehicles raced toward the marina. The cat hissed and ran into Casey’s bedroom. Clearly had good instincts.
“Ugh, the cops again.”
“At least the fire department is less shitty than Rizzi or Spurring,” Casey said as he stood at the window watching the red and white lights get closer. “You still deciding this isn’t the Colavitos?”
Gabe wasn’t sure of anything, so he shrugged. “Believe me, it’s hard to consider letting them off the hook. But this seems abit dramatic for them. They aren’t the arson type. And if it was them, why would they go for theShangri-Lafirst?”
“What happened? Did you see or hear anything?” Casey asked, his attention still on the emergency vehicles.
“Can’t say for sure. I was asleep. The cat woke me up and less than sixty seconds later, I was running your direction.”
Casey’s cell phone rang. “That’ll be Elton,” he said before he picked it up off the sill and pressed Accept.
“Yeah. We’re both fine. Pretty sure we’ll be awhile, no doubt there will be questions.TheBarbarais fine, but theShangri-Lais totaled for sure. We don’t know yet about theTicket, but I suspect it’s also a goner. We’re out in the bay, Gabe’s with me and Bowie. As soon as we end this call, we’ll row in. Yeah, I love you too, old man.”
An hour or so later,it was clear that theShangri-LaandThe Golden Ticketwere both lost causes. TheShangri-Lawas reduced to merely a few boards floating in the dark water. TheTickethad taken less of a hit, but even if he could get it back to a livable state, Gabe knew he’d never feel safe aboard it again. Maybe it hadn’t burned to the waterline like theShangri-La,but it wasn’t from lack of effort on theTicket’spart. It was obviously a sign from somewhere thatThe Golden Ticketwasn’t the place he was meant to be.
And why throw good money after bad?
Once the fires had been put out, Casey mooredThe Barbaraat a buoy meant for visiting boats and rowed them to shore, away from the emergency vehicles. Bowie came with them, but the cat had declined, glaring its disapproval from underneath one of the bunk beds in the second cabin. “It’ll be fine,” Casey said, locking the cabin door behind him.
Elton was waiting for them in his truck, because of course he was. No one was going to tell Elton he couldn’t park off to the side of the emergency vehicles. And he wasn’t accepting Casey’s word that they were all okay.
“Can Bowie hang with you while Gabe and I answer questions?” Casey asked.
“That’s a stupid question.” Elton patted the seat next to him and Bowie leaped into the cab, settling next to Elton, one paw across his skinny thigh. “We’ll be right here.”
“We still need to look into a dog for you.”
At that, Elton just rolled his eyes. “We can share Bowie.”
The fire chiefwas a solid-looking man in his late thirties, five o’clock shadow or whatever it’s called after midnight, and bright blue eyes. His name badge declared him to be Simeon Greery. Compared to Deputy Spurring standing next to him, who looked like he’d sucked a lemon and then eaten it rind and all, Greery was a saint. Even better, his presence seemed to discourage Spurring from his normal role of asshole cop, although only by a little.
“I’m getting a bit tired of seeing you, Karne.”
