Chapter 1

Day One: Sunday

"Fred this is Steve Clement on Fishin' Fool. Can you copy?" I still wasn't convinced that Fred wouldn't be at Navarre Marina when I made the dock. I had iced my fish down and spent most of the inbound trip cleaning them so I wouldn't end up doing that around the dock when I returned. Again there was no answer.

"Anyone at or about Navarre Marina? This is Steve Clement on Fishin' Fool, please acknowledge." I didn't want to motor all the way over from Gulf Breeze to Navarre if the place was closed down or something. Once again the radio was silent. Perplexed, I keyed the microphone again.

"Anyone on the Intracoastal between Gulf Breeze and Navarre? This is Steve Clement on Fishin' Fool. Please copy."

Finally, my receiver crackled to life.

"Steve, this is Chuck Nagley on Emma's Toy. I'm nigh on to the coastal side of Midway and there's nobody around anywhere. People I usually wave to on the way in are not there. Nobody at any of the docks along the way, either. I've never seen anything like it. Even late in the evening when I swing by I always see someone at Reggie's but no one is anywhere today. It's like the damn earth just swallowed everyone up. I'm hoping to find the missus at home watchin' TV but she ain't answering the ship to shore and my cell phone ain't getting any signal. Hell, I can see the tower right over there. Are you in close enough to try your cell yet?"

"Chuck, I left my damn cell at home. Today was supposed to be my day off and I didn't want any of those damn fools from work calling me out on the boat. I don't have any family and everyone knows that if there is a real emergency they can call Fred over at Navarre and he'll patch them through so I don't bother to bring it with me."

Chuck's voice seemed somehow weaker as he replied, "Steve, I would say you're lucky not to have someone around here now. I'm worried. I don't know what I'd do without my missus. I've got a bad feeling about this."

I tried to imagine how bad he must be hurting and replied, "I'm sure she's okay Chuck. You just take it easy driving home. No use you getting hurt by some idiot not watchin' what he's doing. She'll be there when you get there."

There was no reply for a few minutes and I thought I had heard the last when Chuck came back and said, "I hope you're right, Steve. None of this feels right, though."

That was the last time I ever heard from Chuck. He was a smart old salt who I had run into many times while out. He was retired and now that he was retired he spent most of his time out on the Gulf, usually with his wife. I envied him most times but this wasn't one of them. About 15 minutes later I got close enough to see the Emma's Toy tied up at the dock at Midway. The dock area was deserted and that was all I could see from my vantage point. I hoped he got home okay to his missus.

Fifteen minutes later, I was pulling into the dock at Midway, or at least I was trying to. Some fool had half-ass tied up their boat. The aft line had pulled loose and the boat, a 32-footer from the looks of it, was being pushed out by the wind and being rocked back by the tide. The Navarre Mariana had only a few spots that you could tie and gas up and this damn boat was blocking all of them. The only thing I could do was put Fishin' Fool in her berth and gas up later. I was mad as hell when I finished securing my boat. That was a damned landlubber trick, and the fool would be lucky if the bow line didn't pull off as well. Fred must be gone because I knew he'd pitch a hissie fit at anyone doing anything that stupid.

I walked through the Marina and didn't see a soul. Finally I walked through the parking lot to the bait and tackle / fish market / restaurant / bar on the north side of the parking lot. I've told Fred many times that I thought having all those things under one roof was unhealthy. He'd call me a stupid city boy from the north end of the county and say, "That's all you damn-Yankees want to do, come down here and tell us good ol' boys how to run our business."

Fred never could stand constructive criticism.

Anyways, I thought the joint was abandoned and I'd struck-out again, but that was because my eyes hadn't adjusted to the light at the back of the bar. I had decided to get in my car and leave when I heard a chair scrape on the cement floor. That was followed by a female voice hollering, "Hey wait! Don't leave us."

Now I'm a right handsome guy, 6'2" and 220 pounds with most of my jet black hair still stuck to the top of my head. I work outside for a living and most of the 220 is well tanned muscle. So when a woman hollers at me, it's not unexpected. Why, it happens about once every five or ten years at least.

My eyes were still having a bit of a problem adjusting to the dim light, so when I finally saw two beauties running through the tables towards me I didn't completely let my jaw drop and there was no more than the usual amount of drool dripping down my chin. Seriously, I am afraid of beautiful women, always have been. My wife was pretty, but she was no raving beauty, and other than my two daughters, she was the only woman I had ever been close to. I had married her while in the Navy and had spent so much time off on deployment that I hadn't really ever gotten close to my daughters as they grew up. After my wife died two years ago, I had spent my time working and fishing with occasional nights out with the boys. The current love of my life was my boat and my talented right hand. I didn't look for things to change much.

I know staring is not polite and my momma raised me better than that, but these two women were gorgeous. I think southern women are pretty as a group and most are trim until they have their fourth or fifth child, but these gals were knockouts. If I described them in the order of things I noticed it would be the bushel basket of titties that were about medium cantaloupe in size. I could see a lot of those titties too, because these gals were wearing two of the skimpiest bikinis I had ever seen, even counting my last Mediterranean cruise. True, they were wearing beach wraps, but those were very thin and not even buttoned. Hell from the size of their titties I wasn't even sure if they could be buttoned. Like I said, I was staring as they jiggled up and I wasn't exactly making eye contact, if you know what I mean. They were obviously Yankees because the first thing one of them said was, "Hey Jethro, look up here at my face when I'm talking to you."

I glared up into the prettiest blue eyes I had ever seen so I guess that was the second thing that I noticed. The bad thing was that those eyes were boring through me as if I was something she needed to scrape off the bottom of her shoes. I guess maybe I had been pretty rude, staring at her tits and all. Blue Eyes spoke, again in a demanding, schoolmarm voice saying, "Do you work in this shit hole?"

It surprised me that such vulgar words could erupt from such a lovely mouth. It also pissed me off big time, but since they were the first people I had seen since early this morning, I tried to be polite when I answered. "No ma'am, I just rent a wet slip here. Fred's the guy you're looking for and I haven't seen him since I came ashore."

The other woman spoke up and said, "Damn Julie, I told you we should have tied up at Mel's in Gulf Breeze. You had to get pissed because the guys weren't waiting the minute we got to the dock. Hell, now they're not answering their cells and we can't even get a dial tone on the phone at the bar."

Julie turned to me and sweetly asked, "Do you think you could be a dear and gas us up? Our tank's on empty and it looks like we need to get back down to Mel's before dark"

I didn't want to piss her off again but I just had to ask. "Is your boat the 32-footer that's swinging in the wind and about to slip free down at the dock?"

I almost busted a gut laughing as Julie screamed and sprinted out the door and across the parking lot. The other girl looked up at me with limpid brown eyes and smiled, then jogged out after her friend. I was thinking that I would love to have seen them run from the front or the side but the bouncing of their rear chassis wasn't all that bad either.

I strolled out after them and headed back over to the docks. I started jogging myself when I thought of the fun I would have watching them pull their boat back in and secure it properly. When I arrived at the dock it was to a sight that could have been a cartoon in Boater's World. Julie was precariously balanced on the gunnel with her long blonde hair blowing in the wind as she slowly edging her way back along the side of the boat to get the aft line. The other woman, who seemed to be an auburn haired goddess, was on her knees with the bow line trying to pull the boat closer to the dock by the outboard edge of the gunnel. For an instant I was mesmerized by their beauty even though it looked to me as if one, or maybe both of them, might be going swimming soon. I hollered, "Julie, get in the boat or you're going to fall overboard."

At that moment Julie's tried to take a step forward while whipping her head around to look at me. At the same time, a wind gust rocked the boat and that was all it took, Julie was in the water. She was lucky that it was a clean fall and she didn't hit the side of the boat or the dock. The problem was that she was in between the boat and the dock and the wind gust that had rocked the boat started pushing the boat towards the dock. I immediately went over and pulled the boat hook off of the other side of the dock and used it to hold the boat off. The other woman came up to help and I gave her the pole. Julie had come up between the boat and the dock and had grabbed onto one of the old tires that served as fenders. It looked as if she was disoriented.

I hollered, "Julie, can you swim to the boat ramp at the end of the dock?" She didn't even look up at us, she just held onto the old tire. The immediate danger was that if we didn't hold the boat off her she could be crushed between the boat and the dockside. The other woman was calm and using the boat hook to keep the boat at bay.

Against my better judgment I lay on the dock and reached down to try to pull her up from the water. It would have worked but when I tried to get her to grab my hands she ignored me and clung even more tightly to the tire. I knew that there was only one way to do this and started taking my shoes off and pulled my wallet from my pants pocket. I looked at the other woman and said, "Just keep that boat pushed away until I get her clear."

With that, I dropped into the water next to the dock. I pulled myself along by the tires and quickly came up behind Julie. As soon as I put my hands around Julie she let go of the tires, turned and started trying to climb me as if I was a ladder out of the water. I did what any good junior lifeguard would do and went underwater swimming away from her, the boat and dock. When I came up Julie was flailing on the surface. I swam behind her and grabbed her from the back in a carry hold and began swimming with one arm pulling her to the boat ramp on the other side of the dock. As soon as we were out from between the boat and the dock, the other woman had the presence to pull the boat to the dock with the boat hook, tie her off, and run down to help us.

As soon as her feet touched the ramp Julie fought away from me and started crawling out of the water. I sat there on the concrete ramp still in the water, breathing hard, momentarily too exhausted to move. It only took a moment for Julie to snap out of her daze and leap to her feet. As soon as she was up she turned to me and screamed, "You bastard. You made me fall in the water on purpose then you tried to drown me out there. You probably think this is damn funny. I could have been killed."

She looked like she wanted to strangle me. I was too exhausted to respond and that seemed to make her madder still. Her friend looked at her like she was crazy. She said, "He jumped in and saved your life, don't you remember."

Julie glared at me and said, "All I know is that I wouldn't have been in the damn water if that son-of-a-bitch hadn't distracted me and then rocked the damn boat. Then the shit-ass pulled me away from the dock and ducked under the water and tried to drown me again."

Her friend continued, "Julie, he didn't touch the boat, that was the wind. He was trying to warn you, not distract you. He grabbed the pole and had me keep the boat away from the dock and then jumped in the water and had to pull you out after you froze holding onto the tires. Then you panicked and tried to drown him instead and he had to let you loose and grab you from behind to drag you back to shore."

By that time I had my wind back, so I stood and walked back up to the dock. I ignored Julie and told the other beautiful woman that she could gas up from the pump at the dock as it wasn't locked. I told her to leave her money on the counter in the office. As I walked by her she grabbed my arm and said, "Thanks for trying to help us. My name's Irene Crawford. Could you please stick around for a few minutes and make sure we don't screw up again." Glaring at Julie she continued, "Julie acts like a bitch when she's upset. I'm sure she'll regret it later."

I looked at both of them and said, "Okay, but if I'm gonna stick around you should know my name's Steve Clement, not Jethro. Julie, I'm sorry if I startled you when you were on the boat, that wasn't my intention at all. I also apologize for staring at your uhmm ... figure earlier. Actually, I was surprised that you were in the building. When you walk into that place out of the sunlight you can't see a damn thing. Then when what looked to me like two fashion models stepped out of the darkness after all the other strange things that have happened today, well ... let's just say it slowed my reactions down a tad."

I grinned at them and said, "Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it."

Julie looked at me kinda funny but didn't say anything. Irene glared at her and turned back to me, smiled and said, "Steve, Julie is also a bit pig-headed. You didn't do anything you need to apologize for. In fact, you saved our bacon. I'm afraid that it's too dark for us to try to navigate over to Mel's on the boat anyway. I know it would be asking a lot but could you take us to where we could get a taxi over to Mel's? The phones don't work here for some reason and my cell isn't getting a signal."

I looked at Irene and said, "I'll do better than that. I'll drive you over to Mel's myself. I want to find out what happened today. It's crazy with Fred not being here and, well, believe it or not this place is usually buzzing this time in the evening. Maybe somebody over there has an answer."

My car was still in the parking lot. I had an old 2004 Sebring convertible, red with a black top and cloth seats. I don't know why the car wasn't more popular than it seemed to be. I'd read a lot of people had problems with the Sebring but you couldn't prove it by me. All it took was regular oil changes and filter replacements and it ran like a champ. I had 82,000 plus miles on it and unless you looked you would swear it had just come off the showroom floor. I put the top down and expected to hear a bevy of complaints about their hair getting messed up but both women seemed happy for the ride. I felt like king of the road with the two most beautiful women I had ever had in the car with me. Julie sat in the back seat and Irene rode shotgun. The radio was on but it just came up quiet on all presets. I flipped it over to AM and got a lot of static but nothing that I could call a signal. There was some stuff fading in an out on AM but I wasn't sure whether it was a station or just weird static.