Cindy didn’t tell the Captain she was coming. She heard he was on his boat all day, every day, and had been for years. Even though he’d just been fired, he hadn’t packed up his things and left yet.
Dalia had told her to be careful. “He can be a crusty guy when he wants to,” she said. “But it will be better if I don’t go with you. You’ll get more out of him that way. ”
“What do you mean?” Cindy asked.
The question had annoyed Dalia, “Just go and see him and find out for yourself,” she quipped.
Cindy felt Dalia’s attitude towards her changing as the days went by. More and more, Cindy was beginning to feel like a hired hand, to be moved around at Dalia’s will. She didn’t like that. She’d come down to help a friend, not to take flak from an employer, who wanted power over her. Dalia’s moods shifted like the wind and she seemed to increasingly feel that Cindy had to account for her every move.
As she dug deeper, Cindy was unwilling to do that. Who did she really have to account to, Cindy wondered? Dalia didn’t seem stable enough, and the more Cindy discovered about Ames, the deeper her feeling grew that his life had tentacles that reached into dark places that Dalia knew nothing of at all.
Cindy decided to text Mattheus and let him know she was going to visit the Captain. Then she borrowed Dalia’s car and drove down to the dock where Ames’s fleet was moored.
Five large boats lay there, rocking gently in the water. Dalia had told her that the Captain’s office was on the largest one.
As Cindy walked down the plank to the Captain’s boat, she passed a few local dockhands piling cargo onto a boat. The hot sun beat down on them and they were sweating, laughing, talking to each other as they worked. As Cindy walked up the plank to the Captain’s boat, a few of them looked over her way.
One called out, “Hey, honey, Captain’s boat’s not sailing today!”
Cindy was uncomfortable. His tone was too familiar and had a sleazy edge. She kept walking up the plank.
“Stuck up bitch,” another one called out, and they all laughed in unison, like strange birds squawking across the sky.
Thankfully, she got onto the boat and out of their sight before anything else happened.
Inside, the boat was immaculately clean, large, airy, with polished wooden floors. She turned to the right, as Dalia had instructed, walked a little and then saw a cabin a few steps below with the door open. The Captain must be in there, she thought.
The stench of cigar smoke flooded the air as Cindy grew closer. When she came to the door, she saw a large, heavy man, balding and puffy, sitting at the desk, ruffling through papers, chomping on a cigar. He looked up immediately, when Cindy appeared.
“Who the hell are you?” he said, shocked
“May I come in?” Cindy asked matter of factly.
He half got up to greet her, then thought better of it and sat down again. He seemed to decide she wasn’t worth the trouble.
Cindy walked into the cabin and stood opposite him at the desk.
“Who the hell sent you here? What do you want from me now? ” He squinted his eyes and looked at her closely. His eyes were bloodshot and his bottom lip hung down at the edge. She wondered if he’d been drinking.
“I’ll only take a little bit of your time,” Cindy said.
“Yeah, yeah,” he waved his hand at her, as if it didn’t matter a damn what she said. “So, what’s a young lady like you, coming to visit an old guy like me?” He grinned at her then, lasciviously, looking her over from head to toe.
Cindy shuddered, but stayed calm. “I’m a friend of Dalia’s,” she started.
“Oh brother,” he said and shook his head. “One uptight lady if I ever met one!”
His reaction surprised Cindy. She never thought of Dalia that way.
“If ever I knew a broad who wanted to cling to her guy, that lady is it! She wouldn’t let Ames breathe, if you asked me. ”
Cindy was interested to hear whatever he wanted to say.
“Want a glass of rum?” he asked, pointing to a bottle on the edge of his desk. It was opened, and clearly he’d been having some himself.
“No thanks,” said Cindy, “not right now.”
Cindy watched him pour himself another glass.
“Okay, shoot,” he said. “What brings you here? No, wait a minute, let me guess. You’re trying to help your friend find her husband. You think maybe I got him stowed away here? ” At that he laughed. He had a loud, raspy laugh, that sounded something like a seagull that got caught on the edge of the boat, calling out for help.
Despite his raucous manner, there was a sadness about him. “I heard you and Ames were very close,” Cindy said softly.
“Hell, yes, we were. For lots of years,” and he gulped down the rest of the glass in a second. “So?”
“What happened?” Cindy asked directly.
“Wait a minute,” he said, holding his hand up in front of him. “You came here and tell me you’re Dalia’s friend, and now you want me to tell you what happened with me and Ames? That lady’s a bitch. ”