Claire Gulliver #02 - Washington Weirdos (22 page)

“Boyd, do you visit London frequently?” Jack asked.

“Well, as a matter of fact, we do. Edie’s sister married a Limey and they live there. So, of course, we have to visit often or the girls will break us with the phone bills. Those girls have to talk and talk.” He grinned wryly as he announced his game and began dealing.

“Are you and Edie staying tonight?” Claire asked Boyd in an effort to direct the conversation away from London last spring. While Jack and Neil knew about the incident, she was certain Boyd and Hal didn’t, and thought Maude probably only knew a little. And besides, she didn’t want to talk about it.

“No, we’re leaving tonight. But we only live a half hour away and with me retired, we don’t have to worry about getting up tomorrow to go to work.”

“Hal and I are staying because neither of us is good at night driving. We’re leaving early tomorrow. Hal is dropping me off,” Maude offered as she smiled at Hal.

Claire wondered suddenly if their relationship was more than distant cousins.

“Well, I’m working. But I’m not going in until the afternoon. I have an appointment in Annapolis in the morning.” Neil grinned with obvious anticipation of that meeting.

“Well, well, well. Does that pile of chips in front of Boyd mean that he’s winning again?” David came into the solarium and headed straight for the empty chair. He handed over his twenty and stacked his chips.

“Grandpap look how much we have. Great Auntie Maude and I are going to get it all, aren’t we, Great Auntie Maude?”

Her great aunt nodded in agreement, her eyes twinkling.

“Well, you’re going to have to hurry, because Gramimi said you have a bedtime coming up.”

“Oh, no. We were gonna win it all. Can’t we stay up later?” Amy’s face was woebegone and JoJo couldn’t hide her disappointment either.

“Tell you what. We’ll play around the table once, which means each person will deal once more. Then you have to go get ready for bed. Agreed?”

They all agreed despite the sad look on the two young faces. “Don’t worry, Amy,” Auntie Maude whispered. “It’s the one who wins the last few pots who wins the most. You’ll see.”

Claire admired the Lickmans’ library while she scanned the book titles. MiMi had told her to help herself when she mentioned she thought she would relax on the terrace and read. She felt tired. Too much food, she thought, remembering the feast provided yesterday. And of course her dreams didn’t help. All these discussions of the happenings last spring kept her mind in turmoil. This was the second night she had dreamed about Liz. That was disturbing. Liz had been difficult enough in real life. She had been the one member of the tour who didn’t fit. And, in fact, her presence and her antics caused Claire no end of problems until she was sent back home after taking a nasty fall and breaking her collarbone. Claire never wished her harm, but couldn’t help feeling relieved when she was gone. Maybe her guilt over that was haunting her; because she knew there had to be a reason for the dreams.

That was perhaps what was most disturbing about them. Subconsciously she was processing something that had to do with Liz, or that time. Claire shook her head in frustration, as if she could fling all those disturbing memories into their correct slots and come up with the right answer. She was going to talk to Jack about this when she saw him. Maybe they should review all the pictures from that trip. Maybe something would trigger a memory for her to solve this mystery.

But now she reached for a book on the shelf in front of her. She had heard about this book; it might be an interesting enough read to distract her.

She paused, staring dreamily out the window. Life was just full of surprises, she mused, and probably none more surprising than finding two handsome, exciting men suddenly interested in her. She grinned; the
forties,
it seemed, was going to be a good decade for her.

Jack had stayed late, supposedly to make sure the security was in place after all the guests were gone. Claire smiled to herself remembering his good-bye kiss – well, if she was honest, kisses. No pecks on the cheek last night, and Claire suspected that might have been one of the reasons he had lingered to the last.

She snapped out of her daydream when she noticed the big boat approaching the Lickmans’. It cautiously nosed up to the dock. Someone jumped down to tie the bowline tightly to the dock, then the stern. The man then turned and headed toward the house.

It was Neil.

What a gorgeous boat. Gleaming white in the hot sun it dwarfed the other craft tied to the dock. In fact, it carried its own little boat suspended from arms on the back. And it looked like the kind of boat Neil would own.

She remembered seeing him in his Porsche; he obviously liked the best. Well, more power to him. He had a responsible position, earned top salary and with no family to support, he may as well spend his money and his time on the toys he enjoyed.

She watched him a minute, once more puzzled by that nagging thought she knew him from somewhere. It was very annoying that she couldn’t quite place him.

When he disappeared from her view she took the book she had selected and moved out through the solarium to the terrace. She found a chair in the shade of the balcony, got comfortable and was immediately absorbed in the author’s world.

“Oh, Claire, there you are.” Amy was always seeking Claire out. “Did you sleep well?” Her solicitous manner was a parody of her grandmother’s, but she couldn’t contain her exuberance long. “Wasn’t that a great poker game?”

Amy and Maude had managed to win about ten dollars, which Maude generously donated to Amy’s piggy bank. Now Amy was enthralled with the game. Claire had won about a dollar and a half so she was able to easily repay Jack his twenty. She wasn’t sure about everyone else but, of course, somebody lost or Amy and Maude couldn’t have won.

“I was really good, wasn’t I?”

Claire laid the book on her lap realizing Amy wanted to have a conversation. “I think so, maybe because of your skill in playing Yahtzee. It’s kind of like poker, don’t you think?”

Amy nodded, very serious. “Great Auntie Maude said I’d be able to play by myself when I can count better.” Then she added, parroting Maude’s rules, “And when I play with my own money and I don’t cry when I lose. But you didn’t play with your own money, did you? I saw Jack give you some.”

“Well, really I did. He was just loaning it to me so I didn’t have to go upstairs to get my purse. And I did pay it back, didn’t you see?”

“Oh yeah! Well, I can’t wait for school to start. We get to learn to add this year, so it won’t be long until I can play. I really like poker.”

Claire just nodded as Amy rattled on with her perception of the nuances of last night’s game.

“Ooh, Claire, look!” She was pointing. “Neil is going to give Grandpap a ride on his new boat and JoJo is going too. Can I go? Can I?” She was jumping up and down with excitement. She wanted to go really bad.

Claire saw Neil and David heading for the dock and JoJo was right behind them. Amy was right; it appeared as if they were going out on the boat. For some reason she felt a stab of alarm and without even thinking why, she stood up and grabbed Amy’s arm just in time to prevent her from dashing after her sister.

“No, Amy, wait! You know your mother doesn’t allow you to go out on the water without her.” She pulled that out of her memory and it sounded good.

“But JoJo’s going.” Amy wailed. “If she goes, why can’t I?”

“JoJo is not going!” Claire was firm. “I’ll go down and send her back. You better go check with your Gramimi to see if she needs help getting ready for Tuffy. I’ll go talk to JoJo.”

Glumly, Amy turned to go back in the house, casting one last disappointed glance at her sister, who had already reached the dock.

Claire hurried across the lawn, waving her hand at the trio. “Hey, guys, where are you going?” She was breathless, partly from alarm and partly from running to the dock.

“Hey Claire, see my new boat.” Neil, already halfway up the ladder to the steering platform, gestured expansively at the gleaming cabin cruiser. “David is going out with me for a little test run before I make the final commitment. Want to join us?”

“Oh, but David, Jack called and said he was on the way out. He had something he wanted to show us. He said it was important.” She lied but it was the only thing she could think of on such short notice.

“We’ll be back before he gets here. We’re just going out on the Bay and try a few maneuvers. Come on, it will be fun.” Neil urged her, eager to show off his new possession.

She was torn. She didn’t want David to go out on this boat with Neil, but she didn’t have a good reason why he shouldn’t. And it was apparent that he was going to go.

“David,” she called out over the sound of the motor Neil had just started, “MiMi doesn’t want JoJo to go. She has something she wants her to do.”

JoJo’s face fell from her disappointment.

“JoJo, you heard Claire. Gramimi wants you.” His smile for JoJo was a promise as he projected his voice over the sound of the motor. “Don’t worry, Neil will come back and take you out some other time, won’t you, Neil?”

“Sure. After I buy it, I’ll come and we’ll take the whole family. Maybe we’ll motor over to the Club for lunch.”

JoJo climbed onto the platform on the back and jumped to the dock.

Claire took her arm and bent her head over hers. “Listen, JoJo, I need you to do something important. Can you do it?”

JoJo nodded gravely, understanding from Claire’s tone it really was important.

“I want you to hurry up to the house and find Charlie.” JoJo nodded. “Tell Charlie to call Jack, right now. He should call Jack and tell him to see if he can get copies of Liz’s pictures. You got that?”

“Get Liz’s pictures,” JoJo repeated. “Okay.”

“Right away! Tell him we need them immediately.” JoJo nodded her understanding. “And Charlie should tell Jack I went with your grandfather and Neil on his new boat, but we should be back in an hour or so. Can you remember all that?”

JoJo nodded soberly.

“Do it now! You have to find Charlie, right away! Will you do that?”

JoJo nodded again and moved toward the house spurred to action by Claire’s intensity.

“Claire, are you coming?”

Neil had already untied the line from the front of boat and he was working on the stern line now while David was at the controls. Claire made up her mind just as the boat started to glide away from the dock, leaping onto the platform, scrambling through the little gate and up the steep stairs to the bridge where David was deftly steering the boat toward the opening into the Bay.

She moved out of Neil’s way as he followed her up the stairs and turned and waved one last time to JoJo before she disappeared into the house, feeling a little foolish now about the urgency of sending that message to Jack. But at the same time she felt relieved for having set in motion a possible solution for the dreams she had been having.

“Well, you’re dressed for a sail.” Neil nodded with approval at her shorts and tennis shoes.

“What do you think?” He was in an expansive mood. His grin was wide and his eyes sparkled. Even the tick in his eye was barely noticeable.

“It’s a wonderful boat,” she agreed looking around her at the comfortable table and banquet behind her and the posh chairs in front of the console where David sat.

“Motor-yacht. It’s a motor-yacht, not a boat,” he explained proudly, eagerly taking over control of the boat while describing the features of the craft to David. “It’s got a 15’4” beam and draft of 57 inches...” then noticing Claire behind him, “Go downstairs and check it out. Here, take the forward stairs.” He pointed at the door beside his chair.

As she headed carefully down the steep stairs he called out behind her, “When you come back up, bring some beers. We need to christen this vessel.”

Claire was astounded by the main cabin. It was like a small townhouse. The kitchen was fully equipped with stove, refrigerator, oven, microwave and even a dishwasher. There was a large TV and a stereo somewhere, because light jazz was playing softly. She moved forward and looked at the console under the windows. It appeared to be equipped with the same electronics she had seen up top, but maybe there were more things here. She admired the buttery soft leather banquet, which wrapped around behind the console so guests could sit and kibitz with the person driving. Then she considered her choice of words. She wasn’t sure “driving” a boat was correct. Maybe “piloting” was the right word.

She moved down another level to the master bedroom with a king size bed, its own bathroom and a little office. It looked very comfortable and certainly organized. There appeared to be very little room to acquire clutter on a boat. People who lived on boats must be disciplined not to buy useless knick-knacks at every port they visited. The second bedroom was in the bow and the bed was tucked up into the pointy part. Still it looked comfortable.

She was awed by the grandeur she saw. She had very little knowledge of boats, but after seeing how luxurious this motor-yacht was she couldn’t even imagine what the yachts owned by billionaires looked like. They must be mind-boggling.