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I smiled even though she couldn’t see it. My team. Team Elias Lake. Rah-rah-rah.
I tossed my phone to the dock, slipped into the water, and saved the pawn from floating out to sea with the tide. Actually, I used it as a floatation device and bobbed around in the water for a good long time, letting the sea push and pull at me until some kid came down to the dock and asked me if I was playing chess with a mermaid. I handed the pawn up to him.
“Nope, no mermaids,” I said as I passed it up. He stared at me, his nose burnt and peeling, and then ran off with a plastic pawn as big as he was. Ah, to be young and carefree. To still believe in mermaids and superheroes. Pity time had to march on to strip us of the things that we once believed in so strongly. Right now, I’d be all kinds of tickled to play chess with a mermaid.
***
Suffering from a funk the size of Captain Norville’s whale watching boat, I biked the island that day. Starting at the inn, I rode up to the bridge, parking to enjoy the sailboats and small bass boats passing by as the bridge swung open and shut. After a slim sailboat with a bunch of rowdy passengers moved past, I biked over the bridge, thrilled at the sound of the metal bridgework under my bike tires. Guess some things never got old.
Portman eyed me warily as I parked my bike by his shack. I took off my shades but left my ball cap on just in case someone pulled up. I reallywastrying to lie low.
“Bonjour, mon Capitan!” I called with as much cheer as I could muster, which wasn’t much. “Do you happen to keep a log of any sort?” He slammed the window shut. I rolled my eyes and rapped on the streaky glass. “I can see you in there.”
His lips puckered. The window flew open. “I got no time for nonsense.”
“I understand. It’s been incredibly busy today.” If you called three boats in two hours busy.
“Ah-yup.”
“Do you keep a logbook of all the cars that go back and forth over the bridge?” I asked again with a bit more information for him to chew on.
“Don’t need a book. I got things all locked down tight in here.” He tapped his bicorn hat.
“You keep the logs in your hat?” I asked just to twist his knickers.
“In my head. I keep things in my head.” He glanced around me. I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see a car, but there was nothing but two gulls staring at us. “Kick them in the ass.”
“If I kick them in the ass, will you tell me if you’ve seen anyone suspicious in the past week?” He mulled over that for a moment and then nodded. I walked up to the gulls. “Beat it, guys,” I said as I waved my hands. They took to wing and then landed on top of his shack. I walked back to the window. “Okay, they’re gone.”
“You didn’t kick them in the ass.”
“It’s a new law that you can’t kick seagulls in the ass. Seagull rights groups are up in arms. All you can do is ask them politely to leave the premises.” He stared at me as if I had a square dancing cat on my head. “Hand to God.”
“Stupid laws. Yeah, I seen two cars that weren’t islanders. One was that bread truck that carries all them buns to the inn. He didn’t have a pass. Said he was new. I figured the baker on the mainland would supply passes to them to cross my bridge. Told him I’d let him go this time if he gave me a bagel.”
Great. So the guardian of Kesside Isle could be persuaded to let creepy people in with an onion bagel.
“You said two.” I held up a pair of fingers.
“Yep, two. The other was a green car. One man with a funny accent.”
“Funny accent. Do you know what kind of accent it was?”
“Not Mainer.”
Well, that narrowed it down. I scrubbed my face so hard it hurt.
“What did this guy with the not Maine accent drive?”
“Green car. I said that already. This is why you kids don’t make good bridge supervisors because you don’t pay no mind to nothing unless it’s on one of your cellular phones.”
I pulled my sunglasses back on. “Sorry, I meant what make was his car?”
“Green.” That cleared things up. Not. “Didn’t have a pass. Tried to talk me into letting him go over without one. I told him to take his fancy-ass camera back to the mainland and not come back without a pass.”
Fancy-ass camera. That piqued my attention. “Did he saywhyhe wanted to come over?”
“Who?”
