The Lonely Silver Rain by John D. MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page B

daughter of a Peruvian diplomat. She had been traveling in Mexico with a companion and had been reported missing a month before the body was found.
    On November 7, a Wednesday, Billy Ingraham called and said he had something far me, and I could come and get it anytime before Saturday. I drove up there the next morning and went up to the penthouse duplex at the top of Tower Alpha at Dias del Sol. Billy's tan had faded a little. He looked heavier and he seemed abrupt, almost surly. He led me into a little study on the lower floor of the duplex. He didn't ask me to sit down. He handed two thick manila envelopes to me. "What's this, Billy?"
    "Your money, MCGee."
    "How much?"
    "Why don't you count it and find out?"
    "What the hell is going on?"
    "I'm paying you in cash. Isn't that the way you people like to get it?"
    I sat down without invitation and tossed the two envelopes onto his desk. I began to realize what had happened. "Billy, I told you not to go look at the boat. But you did, didn't you?"
    He perched a hip on a corner of his desk and looked dolefully down at me. "After the authorities were through with her, the yard sent a couple of men down. They got her cleaned up some and operating and brought her around to Jacksonville. Millis and me, we don't want that cruiser anymore. It's finished for us."
    "Going to get another one?"
    "I don't know. Maybe not. It's a lot of work and responsibility. Millis, she wants to spend the winter in the South of France."
    "Why treat me so hardnose, Billy?"
    "I don't know. Shit. You're part of the whole picture somehow. And that goddamn dentist calling me up and crying over the phone, and why did I leave the keys in the boat, his daughter would still be alive, and that damn insurance outfit saying take seventeen thousand three hundred or nothing at all, and people asking me how it felt to own a boat people got killed on. McGee, I just don't feel like being sweet and nice to anybody at all."
    "How much is in the envelopes?"
    "One ninety-three five."
    "Okay."
    "Don't you want to ask any questions?"
    "Why should I? You're not the kind that screws friends."
    "You got a right to know. It took eighty-eight thousand to get her back in decent shape to peddle. Part of that eighty-eight was the little piddle the insurance gave me. The yard says they can get four hundred and seventy-five for her. She nets out in recovery condition at three eighty-seven and you get half of that. Here's how I make out, if you care."
    "I care."
    "I had seven twenty in her that I put in. I put in a net seventy thousand seven hundred to get her in shape to sell. That makes seven ninety and seven hundred. Out of that I get back a hundred and ninety-three five hundred. In other words, McGee., I take a bath for five ninety-seven two."
    "A boat is said to be a hole in the water into which the owner pours money."
    He smiled for the first time, but it was a tired smile. "Bet your buns," he said. "The deal with you wasn't the best one I've ever made. I can't tell you how many times Millis has told me that. It never occurred to me that three damn kids could do eighty-eight thousand dollars' damage to a boat just living in it."
    "And dying in it."
    "Yes. That too." He sighed. "And I didn't know a custom boat would drop so much on the market. We designed it to suit us. People who can afford it, sooner get one built for their own tastes and lifestyle. And word got around it's the murder boat. That hurts chances of selling it. Superstition of the sea or something."
    "Billy, you're breaking my heart. Want to renegotiate?"
    "And you would, wouldn't you?"
    "Just say the word."
    He stood up and laughed and belted me on the arm hard enough to numb my fingertips. "Shit, McGee, I've got more money than Carter had pills. I just like. to moan and groan. A deal is a deal. Don't insult me."
    I got up and said, "Has anybody been by to find out who located your boat for you?"
    "Three dapper little guys in three-piece suits about a week ago. Only one