Michael Connelly - Blood Work

When he was done with the laundry and the general cleanup, he walked over to the marina center. At the store he bought the makings of the evening’s dinner. At the bait shop he bought a bucket of live bait, choosing shrimp and squid, and a small rod-and-reel outfit that he planned to present to Raymond as his own. Back at the boat, he put the rod in one of the gunwale holders and dumped the bait bucket into the live well. He then put away the store items in the galley.

He was finished and the boat was ready by ten. Seeing no sign of Graciela’s convertible in the parking lot, he decided to walk over and check with Buddy Lockridge about his availability on Monday morning. He first went up to the gate and made sure it was propped open so Graciela and the boy could enter the marina, then he went to Lockridge’s boat.

Adhering to marina custom, McCaleb did not step onto the Double-Down. Instead, he called Lockridge’s name and waited on the dock. The boat’s main hatch was open so he knew Lockridge was awake and around somewhere. After half a minute, Buddy’s disheveled hair, followed by his crumpled face, poked up through the hatch. McCaleb guessed he had spent a good part of the night drinking.

“Yo, Terry.”

“Yo. You okay?”

“Fine as always. What’s up, we going somewhere?”

“No, not today. But I need you Monday morning early. Can you drive me out to the Star Center? I mean like we’ve got to leave by seven.”

Buddy thought a moment to see if it fit with his busy schedule and nodded.

“It’s a go.”

“You’re going to be all right to drive?”

“You bet. What’s going on at the Star Center?”

“Just a meeting. But I’ve got to be there on time.”

“Don’t worry about a thing. We leave at seven. I’ll set the alarm.”

“Okay, and one other thing. Keep an eye out around here.”

“You mean the guy from the clock plant?”

“Yeah. I doubt he’ll show but you never know. He’s got tattoos running up both arms. And they’re big arms. You’ll know him if you see him.”

“I’ll be on the lookout. Looks like you’ve got a couple visitors right now.”

McCaleb saw that Lockridge was looking past him. He turned and looked back at The Following Sea. Graciela was standing in the stern. She was lifting Raymond down into the boat.

“I gotta go, Bud. I’ll see you Monday.”

Graciela was wearing faded blue jeans and a Dodgers sweatshirt with her hair up under a matching baseball cap. She had a duffel bag slung over her shoulder and was carrying a grocery bag. Raymond was wearing blue jeans and a Kings hockey sweater. He also had on a baseball cap and carried with him a toy fire truck and an old stuffed animal that looked to McCaleb like a lamb.

McCaleb gave Graciela a tentative hug and shook Raymond’s hand after the boy stuck his stuffed animal under his other arm.

“Good to see you guys,” he said. “Ready to catch some fish today, Raymond?”

The boy seemed too shy to answer. Graciela nudged the boy on the shoulder and he nodded in agreement.

McCaleb took the bags, led them into the boat and gave them the complete tour he had not shown them on their earlier visit. Along the way, he left the grocery bag in the galley and put the duffel bag down on the bed in the main stateroom. He told Graciela it was her room and the sheets were freshly washed. He then showed Raymond the upper bunk in the forward stateroom. McCaleb had moved most of the boxes of files under the desk and the room seemed neat enough for the boy. There was a guard bar on the bunk so that he wouldn’t roll out of bed. When McCaleb told him it was called a berth, his face scrunched up in confusion.

“That’s what they call beds on boats, Raymond,” he said. “And they call the bathroom the head. ”

“How come?”

“You know, I never asked.”

He led them to the head and showed them how to use the foot pedal for flushing. He noticed Graciela looking at the temperature chart on the hook and he told her what it was for. She put her finger on the line from Thursday.

“You had a fever?”

“A slight fever. It went away.”

“What did your doctor say?”

“I didn’t tell her yet. It went away and I’m fine.”

She looked at him with a mixture of concern and, he thought, annoyance. He then realized how important it probably was to her that he survive. She didn’t want her sister’s last gift to be for nothing.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m fine. I was just doing a little too much running around that day. I took a long nap and the fever was gone. I’ve been okay since.”

He pointed to the slashes on the chart following the one fever reading. Raymond pulled on his pants leg and said, “Where do you sleep?”

McCaleb glanced briefly at Graciela and turned toward the stairs before she could see his face start to color.

“Come on up, I’ll show you.”

When they got back up to the salon, McCaleb explained to Raymond how he could turn the galley table into a single berth. The boy seemed satisfied.

“So let’s see what you got,” McCaleb said.

He started going through Graciela’s grocery bag and putting things away. Their agreement was that she would make lunch, he would do the same with dinner. She had gone to a deli and it looked like they were going to have submarine sandwiches.

“How’d you know that subs were my favorite?” he asked.

“I didn’t,” Graciela said. “But they’re Raymond’s, too.”

McCaleb reached over and caught Raymond in the ribs again with a finger and the boy recoiled with a giggle.

“Well, while Graciela makes sandwiches to take with us, why don’t you come out and help me with the equipment. We have fish out there waitin’ for us!”

“Okay!”

As he ushered the boy out to the stern, he looked back at Graciela and winked. Out on the deck he presented Raymond with the rod and reel he had bought him. When the boy realized the outfit was his to keep, he grabbed onto the pole as if it were a rope being dropped to him by a rescue squad. It made McCaleb feel sad instead of good. He wondered whether the young boy had ever had a man in his life.

McCaleb looked up and saw Graciela standing in the open door to the salon. She also had a sad look on her face, even though she was smiling at them. McCaleb decided they had to break away from such emotions.

“Okay,” he said. “Bait. We’ve got to fill a bucket, ’cause I’ve got a feeling they’re going to be biting out there today.”

He got the floating bucket and dipping net out of the compartment next to the live well and then showed Raymond how to dip the net into the well, and bring up the bait. He put a couple netfuls of shrimp and squid into the bucket and then turned the chore over to Raymond. He then went inside to get the tackle box and a couple more rods for himself and Graciela to use.

When he was inside and out of earshot of the boy, Graciela came up to him and hugged him.

“That was very nice of you,” she said.

He held her eyes for a few moments before saying anything.

“I think maybe it does more for me than him.”

“He’s so excited,” she said. “I can tell. He can’t wait to catch something. I hope he does.”

They walked out along the marina’s main dock, past the stores and restaurant, and then crossed a parking lot until they came to the main channel into the city’s marinas. There was a crushed-gravel path here and it led them out to the mouth of the channel and the breakwater, a rock jetty that curved out into the Pacific for a hundred yards. They carefully stepped from one huge granite slab to another until they were about halfway out.

“Raymond, this is my secret spot. I think we should try it right here.”