Noble Fall by Miller William

Author:Miller, William
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Literary Rebel, LLC
Published: 2023-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter forty-six

Burke parked a rented Ford Escort in front of an ice cream parlor on Beach Drive. An apple pie-scented air freshener hung from the rearview and a sack filled with protein bars, bottled water, and snap peas was in the passenger seat. He was dressed in a floral print Hawaiian shirt, tan slacks, and boat shoes. He was trying to blend, but it seemed the locals were sporting parkas. Some of them looked like they were wintering in Aspen, headed for the slopes, instead of strolling a beach in pleasant fifty degree weather.

The rearview mirror gave him a view across Straub Park to the marina and it was easy to pick out Jake’s wooden schooner amid all the blinding white fiberglass. The sky was an angry gray overcast and the water was choppy, causing the vessels to roll and pitch, but the weather service wasn’t predicting storms.

Burke switched off the engine, started to reach for a protein bar, and his eyes strayed to the ice cream parlor. He was doing good on his diet. He’d managed to whittle himself down from two-hundred and sixty pounds to two-forty and he could tell the difference in his energy level. The protein bar was the smart choice, but every once in a while you had to reward yourself.

That’s what it is, Matt told himself as he got out and headed for the door of the ice cream parlor, a little reward for all the hard work.

They had the heater going inside. The place was hot enough to melt rubber. Burke didn’t know how they were keeping the ice cream cold. Floridians, he decided, had lost the ability to cope with temperatures below eighty degrees. He smiled at a small white girl with a nose ring behind the counter, browsed the selection, and decided on chocolate and peanut butter in a cone. But he only got one scoop instead of two.

Sacrifices.

“Where ya from?” the girl asked as she loaded a waffle cone with ice cream.

“Pennsylvania,” Burke lied. “Is it that obvious that I’m a tourist?”

“No Floridan dresses like that in winter,” she said. “It’s freezing out there.”

Burke paid, thanked her for the cone, and went back outside where he sat in the rental and watched the boat for a while, looking for any sign of danger. No one else seemed to be watching the marina, at least not that Burke could see. He finished his ice cream and got out of the rental without realizing he had a large dollop of chocolate on his collar. After making sure the car was locked, he crossed the park beneath the shade of oaks bearded with Spanish moss to the marina.

He cut his way along floating aluminum catwalks between vessels to The Yeoman and was greeted by a shrill voice the moment he stepped foot on the gangplank.

“You’d best clear off, buster. I’ve got a gun and I know how to use it.”

“You might have a gun, but I doubt very much you know how to use it, Mrs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.