eyes?”
“He was wearing sunglasses. I couldn’t see his eyes.”
“Short, tall, fat?”
“No. He’s about your height. He looks like he keeps in shape.”
“Accent? Anything like that?”
“He’s from the South. You can tell.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Just met him yesterday.”
“And he decided to pay you to kill us? Just like that?”
“Just to kill one of you.”
“Which one?”
“Guy named Royal.”
“Why try to kill both of us?”
“I didn’t know which one of you was Royal.”
“That’d be me,” I said. “Who set you up with the guy with the money?”
“Big Tony, the bartender, knows that I do this kind of work sometimes. I think he told the dude I’d handle it for him.”
“You’ve killed people before?”
“No. I just talk about it.”
“Talk about it?”
“Yeah. There’s some bad biker guys what hang out at O’Reilly’s, and I don’t want them to think I’m some kind of pussy. So I tell stories.”
“Where’d you get the ATV?”
“Stole it from one of the houses up the beach. Fool people left the keys in it.”
“How did you know where to find us?” I asked.
“I was watching your house. Saw you come out and head for the beach. I followed you.”
“Did he pay you up front?”
“Gave me two hundred bucks. He’s going to pay the rest when you’re dead.”
“Where are you supposed to meet him to get the rest of your money?”
“O’Reilly’s.”
“When?”
“When you’re dead.”
“How are you supposed to let him know you’ve finished the job?”
“He gave me a phone number to call.”
“What’s the number?”
“It’s on a piece of paper in my pocket.”
I looked at Jock. “Anything else?”
“No. Let’s get the police down here.”
I shook my head. “I want to try that other number first.”
I turned to my would-be killer. “Stand up, pea brain.”
He did.
“Now, reach slowly into your pocket and get me the phone number.” He did.
“You got a cell phone?”
He pulled one out of his pocket.
“Give it to me.”
He did.
“I’m going to call your boss. I’ll give you the phone and you tell him you’ve killed me and want to meet him this afternoon to get the rest of your money.”
“Okay.”
“You blow this and my friend here is going to break your neck.” “Okay.”
I used Bates’s phone to dial the number. I got a recorded message. I closed the phone and started laughing. “You idiot. There is no such number.”
“That’s the one he gave me. He wrote it down himself.”
Jock laughed. “You’ve been had, my friend. That two hundred bucks you got is going to cost you about twenty years in prison.”
I pulled my cell phone out of a pocket and dialed the Longboat Key Police Department.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Officer Steve Carey came walking down the lawn behind the nearest house. I’d been able to give the police an exact address on Gulf of Mexico Drive because the street number was also painted on the seawall that protected the property from the Gulf.
He stopped at the end of the grass and stood surveying the scene. “So Jock, you causing trouble again?”
Jock laughed. “Good to see you, too, Steve.”
The cop walked on down to where we had Bates sitting on the sand. “What’ve you got here?”
I pointed to Bates. “This is Mr. Clyde Bates. He tried to kill us. He’s not too smart.”
“He can’t be too smart if he tried to kill you two.”
I told Steve what had happened and what we’d found out from Bates.
“I’m sure Detective Duncan will want some formal statements. She’ll be here in a minute.”
“You guys okay?” The question was shouted from the lawn. I looked up and saw J. D. Duncan coming our way.
“We’re fine,” I said.
I watched her make her way down the lawn and over the short sea-wall. There was a grace about her even when she was wearing the big pistol on her lovely hip. I was not above fantasizing about her, but knew that’s all it would ever be. A fantasy. The more time I spent around her, the more the fantasy grew. Ah, the damage we men do to ourselves chasing the unobtainable.
J.D. spent a few minutes talking to Jock and me and then to Bates. He’d ridden his scooter out to the key and parked down the street from my house. When he saw us leave for the beach, he followed. He was going to ride the scooter down the beach, kill us and make a fast getaway. When he was coming down the little road that served as public access to the beach, he saw the ATV parked in the carport of a small house that sat on the access