The Naked Detective by Laurence Shames Read Free Book Online

apology. "I know, I know. But it haunts me. . . . Did he say anything to you about it?"
    I blew some air between my lips and tried to remember. The effort made me realize that I'd had a lot to drink. "He might have mentioned something," I vaguely said, and drank some more. "I don't think he gave details."
    "Well, I'll give you a detail. These people who he thought were following him—I think they were the same people who came snooping around the boatyard right after he disappeared."
    "Two years ago?" I said.
    She nodded. "The boatyard's like a little village. Everyone knows everyone. People look out for each other. Someone's there who doesn't belong, it's noticed. Right after Kenny took off, two guys started hanging around. Someone caught them boarding Kenny's boat, called the cops. The cops never showed."
    Made sense, I thought, if the intruders had ties to Lefty Ortega.
    "And you think these same two guys came back?"
    She nodded. Only her head moved; there was a wonderful stillness in her neck and shoulders.
    "How did they know Kenny was in town?"
    She just looked down at her lap and shook her head.
    "Then what makes you think that it's the same two guys?"
    "There was something very strange about them," she said, and sipped some grappa. "Strange two years ago. Strange a couple days ago. Too strange to be coincidence."
    I leaned forward in my chair and waited for her to tell me what this strange thing was. She shifted her hips. She smoothed her skirt. By now I was leaning so far forward that my shirt pulled away from my chest.
    Finally she said, "They were wearing snorkels."
    "Snorkels?"
    "Snorkels."
    I took a moment to process this. Hit men wore trench coats. Bank robbers mashed their faces in stockings. Snorkels I did not know what to make of. "And flippers?" I asked.
    "No flippers. Just snorkels and masks. You know, boatyard and all, I guess they figured they'd blend. Lot of people wear snorkels when they're scraping barnacles, brushing off algae."
    I rubbed my chin sagaciously. "But isn't that if the boats are in the water?"
    "Exactly."
    "Exactly what?"
    "These guys weren't in the water. That's why they looked strange."
    I scratched my ear. "More grappa?"
    "I shouldn't. I have a class. Well, maybe just a little."
    I got up to fetch the bottle.
    As I was tipping it into her glass, she said, "You think about it, it was a pretty good disguise. I mean, everybody looks the same in a snorkel. Have you noticed?"
    I refreshed my own drink and conjured images of guys in snorkels. Lips puffed out like clowns' around the chunky mouthpieces. Bundles of salty hair plastered inside foggy masks. Pastel plastic breathing tubes that always went askew while glaciers of snot came oozing from tormented noses. "I've noticed that everyone looks like a horse's ass," I offered. "These guys can't be too bright."
    I'd made it to the freezer and was stashing what was left of the bottle when Maggie said, "So it shouldn't be too hard to find them."
    I took a step back toward the living room. "Don't even think about it."
    I reclaimed my chair and glass. I took a swig and looked hard at my guest, almost daring her to push me on this one. She didn't, which I found disarming. She just stared gently back. Her unadorned mouth was calm and still, and at the edge of my vision, though I tried to shut it out, I saw a tuft of tinselly red hair protruding through the cleft between her arm and chest, and I tried not to admit I found it awfully sexy.
    Maggie looked past me to the changing light through the window. It's how she told time, I guess. "I have to get to class," she said, and without hitch or hurry she was on her feet.
    Less gracefully, I rose to walk her to the door. "What kind of class?"
    "Yoga," she said. "I teach. At the Leaf Shed. That's what I do."
    Aha, I thought. So that explained the exquisite posture and the measured breath. Boy, I was getting to be a shrewd observer.
    She looked down at my hips as we stood there in the doorway. "You should do