Chapter 1

She was over an hour late for work at the diner. She had on large sunglasses and the makeup looked an inch thick on her cheeks. Crystal moved as if she were hurting in her back. Nan had reported for work as usual at five AM and after clocking in and found that Crystal was not at work she had expected to have the morning breakfast rush to take care of all by herself. She was glad when Crystal came in.

Between nine and eleven there were hardly any customers in the Lunch Box Diner, the help could eat then. Crystal had just scrambled eggs and toast. Nan sat with her with a big breakfast. Nan reached across and took Crystal's sunglasses off, under them were two black eyes. Nan asked "That bastard been beating you again?" Crystal nodded. Nan asked when she was going to get away from that son of a bitch and make a new life for herself. Crystal said that Carl had promised to kill her if she ever tried to leave him, she thought that he would if she did. Nan told Crystal to get away from Carl before he killed her anyway. Crystal said she wished there was a way she could.

A customer came in for coffee and pastry and Crystal served him. She stayed away from Nan the rest of the morning, she did not want to talk of her troubles any more.

Carl and Crystal lived in a shabby old trailer on land his father owned. There were no neighbors near. A tidal swamp was behind it and a city transit line was in the street in front. That was how Crystal got to and from work. She worked the hours of from five in the morning until one in the afternoon. She worked six days a week. Crystal had been saving money from her tips for months, she had eleven hundred dollars hidden in that house trailer. She had made up her mind she was going to run when she had around two thousand saved.

Two weeks later on a Friday evening Carl came in drunk and began beating on Crystal again. He knocked her out and was drunk enough to think he had killed her. He thought he would get rid of her body. He carried her out to his pickup and dumped her in back. Carl was going to drop her body in the river, she would never be found if he tied a weight to her.

Carl drove out on the old bridge, when the new one had been finished ten years before the center of the old bridge had been removed. What he was on was now a fisherman's pier.

Carl botched an already fucked up evening when he wired a smooth section of steel pipe to Crystal's ankle. The pipe slipped out of the stiff wire loop and hit the water before Crystal did. The tide was moving the water fast enough so that when Crystal came back up she was under the bridge. Carl did not see her. He had left the noisy engine running on the truck and did not hear her coughing the water out of her lungs.

Crystal had never learned to swim, she could keep her head above water with a clumsy 'Dog Paddle'. She saw a rope tied around a concrete pier and paddled to it with sincere appreciation of some fisherman.

Crystal knew she could not hold on to that rope for long. A block of Styrofoam floated within her reach, there was a rope tied around it. She pulled it to her and while still holding on to her rope tried to see if it would support her in the water. It would keep the upper part of her body floating, she let go of the rope and drifted toward the bay. It looked as if the shore to her right was the closest, she began kicking toward it. An hour later she was near the shore, the moon was up and the shore was a tidal swamp. Ahead she saw a light on a pier. There was some kind of large boat tied to it. She drifted down to it and crawled out on a float. Crystal could smell coal smoke and hear music. There was a pickup truck and a car on a paved parking area on shore. Crystal mounted an inclined walkway to a concrete pier, on the other side of it was a large barge type houseboat.

Patrick Colson lived aboard the houseboat. He was a single guy, twenty-five years old and the owner of his own business. Pat worked on pumps. He had a complete shop less than a hundred yards away fronting on Bay Shore Drive. He had enough business to keep himself and three others busy. He lived alone with a large black Lab dog named Rob.

Pat had been born and raised near by and had learned his trade from his dad and uncle. Both had retired and moved to south Florida. They gave Pat their business. Pat had bought with the help of the bank the six bay automobile repair shop he now had his business in. He had lived in a small travel trailer behind his shop for three years. The first of that year the man who was building his houseboat home had died. Pat had bought the nearly completed houseboat from his widow.

Pat had moved aboard and finished it.

Pat did not smoke but some evenings he enjoyed a pipe with a beer before his coal fire. That was what he was doing when Crystal came aboard his ship.

Rob came un-glued and was barking at the door. Pat saw a face at the window, it was a woman's face and she knocked. Pat was wearing only a clean pair of underwear shorts he had put on after his shower. He got his gun and opened the door. Crystal begged to be let in, she said she was very cold. Pat stepped aside and let her in. She went to the tiny ships heater and basked in the warmth of the coal fire.

Pat asked her what she was doing here wet as if she had been in the bay. Crystal told him her story. Pat wanted to call the police and let her swear out a warrant for Carl. Crystal said he would swear in return that she was lying and there would be nothing done. She would have Carl to deal with then. Crystal said that she had a chance to be rid of Carl now and she wanted him to think she was dead.

Pat asked her if she would like to get out of her wet clothes, he offered her dry ones. Crystal said "That would be nice." Pat got her out a new sweat suit that had shrunk after he washed it. It was still large for her but she thanked him. Pat asked if she would like a hot bath to warm up from the bay. Crystal said "That would be wonderful." Pat started the water in the whirlpool bathtub and tossed in some bubble bath beads. Crystal said that she could not take a bath with him looking at her. Pat promised to turn his chair so he could not see her. Pat kept his word and turned his chair. Rob sat beside this stranger in his master's tub. When she was through Rob gave her room to dry off and put on Pat's sweats. When Crystal was covered she went to the couch and put her feet up.

Pat turned his chair around and asked Crystal if she would like a beer or a drink. Crystal replied that a drink would finish warming her up. Pat zapped some lemonaid in the microwave and poured in a liberal dose of vodka. He served that in a tall coffee mug.

Pat asked if he could take her someplace for the night. Crystal asked if she could spend the night on the couch she was sitting on, she said she had no money for a motel room. Pat told her she could. He explained that the couch made a bed and helped her to fold it out. Pat found her pillows and a double sleeping bag for her bed.

Two hours later Pat got up to put more coal on the fire. Crystal had Rob snuggled in that sleeping bag with her, he was in her arms and backed up against her. Crystal's eyes came open when Pat put the lump of coal in the fireplace. She said "Rob is my bed warmer." Pat grinned and put on one more piece of coal. He went to the open bath area, pissed then went back to bed. Crystal waited until she thought Pat was back to sleep and went there to have a pee.

At six AM Pat was out of bed making a pot of coffee. Rob got off the bed with Crystal and went to the door, he wanted out. Crystal woke and sat on the side of the bed. She was still wearing the sweats and her feet were in the socks Pat had loaned her.

Pat let Rob out and put more coal on the fire. The coffee was ready and Pat asked Crystal how she wanted her's. She liked it black like he did. Pat brought it to her and sat in the recliner in front of the fire.

Pat asked her if she had decided what she wanted to do now that her husband thought he had killed her. Crystal said she had planned to leave town soon to get away from Carl but had not saved enough money to leave him yet. She said "I would like to get the over a thousand dollars from that trailer, at least I would have some money." Pat suggested that he could take her there when Carl was gone and she could get it. Crystal said she would like to get her clothing and a few other things but Carl would know she was not dead if she did.

Pat suggested that she could get her things and he would set the trailer on fire. Carl would never know her things were not in the ashes. Crystal said "Yeah he would lose every thing he owns but what he was wearing or was in his truck."

Pat said "Today is Saturday, I do not open my shop on weekends, what does Carl do on Saturdays?" Crystal said he usually slept late and shot pool most of the day. Pat said that he would take her there after Carl was gone.

They spent the morning house cleaning and talking. They learned a lot about each other. They began to feel comfortable together. Crystal washed and dried the clothes she had been wearing when Carl threw her in the river. She had been wearing women's bib overhauls and her billfold was in the bib. She had her driver's licensee, SS card and ten dollars in it. Both were still with her maiden name on them. Her picture was taken when her hair was dark brown. Her date of birth would make her twenty years old.

At noon they left in Pat's pickup truck, Crystal had her blond hair stuffed up in a cap and was wearing mirror sunglasses. Pat drove them through town and up river a few miles. Carl's truck was gone when they got to the trailer. Pat drove behind the trailer so his truck could not be seen from the road.

Crystal found a hidden key to the door and let them in. The first thing she did was pull out a drawer and take an envelope taped to the back of it. The drawer had her under garments in it. Pat dumped it into a canvass bag he had brought. Other drawers were dumped in it. When the bag was full he zipped it closed and they filled the second one. Crystal put on a pair of shoes and put the rest in the bag. There were clothes on hangers, those went on the jump seat in Pat's truck. After every thing was loaded Crystal looked around and said "I guess that we have all of my things and we can go now." She went to a drawer and took a small pistol out and put it in her purse with a box of shells for it. Pat emptied a can of lighter fluid on the bed and struck a match. Instantly the flames were filling the room. Pat drove away and took them to his houseboat.