Page 91 of Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness

J. L. winked at them and followed after her.

“If I’d known she looked like that, I would have dropped my anchor next to her bed,” Gus said, staring at her butt in the tight shorts.

“If you had, she probably would have shot your anchor off,” Kevin remarked.

Adam and Bonita pulled up then and informed them of all the work they’d been doing since yesterday. Both of them looked a bit sex-worn, too, and Delilah figured they’d been doing more than research on the Falcon. Not her business, although she was feeling a little left out of things in that regard. Everybody had someone, except her.

Where was Merrill? And when would he be coming back?

Doreen was in the office with Harry, seemingly expounding on all the activities the town would like to sponsor involving the shipwreck discovery. Harry looked as if he would like to escape. Seeing them through the open doorway, waiting behind Charlie and her beau, he waved them off to the warehouse storage room, where they already knew he needed help cleaning the gold coins, or at least some of them.

Bonita and Adam showed them what to do. Adam and Kevin began washing a pile of coins in a basin of soapy water, then passed them to Gus for a rinse in another basin of clean water, after which Bonita and Delilah dried and polished them with a soft cloth and then laid them out on white towels. Several dozen of them were soon done, gleaming beautifully, even in the windowless light of the storage room. They didn’t dare open the outside doors for fear someone would come snooping, or stealing.

They all set to work, chatting as they did their jobs.

“Luckily, Adam and I were in Durham by the time the storm hit yesterday, and we were able to make all the necessary legal notifications,” Bonita told them. “I expect we’ll have historical experts and desk jockeys from state government pouncing on Bell Cove by this afternoon. Where’s the boss?”

“Hatteras, probably. His mother’s in a hospital there,” Kevin told them.

“I didn’t know his mother was on the island,” Bonita remarked, frowning.

“I thought he was from Jersey, like me. Princeton, I think,” Adam added, also with a frown of confusion.

“He is . . . was. His family is just vacationing on the Outer Banks. Mother, father, brother, and sister-in-law. Remember, they were at that launch celebration,” Delilah reminded them.

“Ah! The snooty ones at the back,” Gus recalled.

“Well, Merrill better get back soon to handle the PR. I don’t want to do it,” Bonita declared.

“Me, neither,” the rest of them said.

“Where’s Gabe? Maybe he could take over till Merrill gets back,” Delilah suggested.

“Hah! He scooted off to his architectural firm in Durham at the first hint of Sam and Annie on the island nosing around,” Gus said.

“But tomorrow’s press conference is supposed to be held at his McMansion, isn’t it?” Delilah mused. “Am I supposed to be preparing food for this event? If so, somebody better tell me what kind of food and how much. And soon.”

Where are you, Merrill?

“This has the potential to become a fucking circus.” This from Adam, who was prying carefully with a pick at the heavy incrustation on one coin.

“What else is new? This is Bell Cove,” Gus said.

Just then, Mayor Doreen ducked her head inside. She must have gotten past Harry’s surveillance team, which today amounted to Elmer Judd and the psychiatrist twins, Mike and Ike, until Merrill could make better arrangements. Doreen’s eyes went wide at the gold coins being spread out on the tables. “Do you think you’ll have enough coins to fill this for tomorrow’s pressarama?”

“Pressarama?” five people whispered, in horror. But then they saw the pirate chest complete with a skull and crossbones on front that she was pushing inside with a foot. It must be lightweight, probably cardboard, but it was the size of a shopping cart, without the wheels.

“Another thing,” Doreen said, with a big smile. Her hair was a mass of teased brownish redness today, no doubt due to a visit to her daughter’s hair salon, where the special today was half-priced beehives, all in preparation, no doubt, for tomorrow’s oh-my-God-pressarama. “I know how busy you all must be, so, I ordered pirate costumes for the entire crew. Compliments of Bell Cove.”

There was a stunned silence, and then someone said, “Merrill better get his ass back here pronto or there’s going to be a mutiny.”

Delilah planned to be the first person off the boat.

Damage control for the clueless man . . .

It was late morning before Merrill was able to leave the hospital, where his mother was finally moved out of intensive care and into a regular hospital room, and it was early afternoon before he got back to Bell Cove. Traffic was heavy, and he saw the oddest thing on the ferry. An old guy hobbling into a vintage Cadillac the size of a boat with a New Jersey plate reading “GOON.” Surely, he’d misread or it was a coincidence, but just then vehicles began to move off the ferry and he hopped on his bike, not wanting to lose his place.

He went first to find Delilah. He wouldn’t be able to concentrate worth a damn until he got some questions answered, but when he got to her apartment, there was no one there. The door was open, a radio playing, but not a soul around. Then he walked over to the motel units where K-4 and Gus had apparently spent the night with their dates—the Victoria’s Secret models. The two women were still there, along with Delilah’s grandmother and her daughter.