Now You See Her - Michael Ledwidge [81]
I actually deserved to celebrate a little. I had helped get Justin a stay of execution. I’d even made some progress in cleaning up my own life in the past week. There was still the ghost of spring break past haunting me, but what were you going to do? Despite the still unresolved issue that was my life, I officially decided to give my guilt a well-deserved night off.
“Is this where it happens? Your big surprise?” I said to Charlie.
“You’ll see,” Charlie said, taking my hand again.
Instead of taking me into the restaurant as I expected, Charlie walked me down the wooden dock. We stopped in front of a massive two-decked luxury motor yacht.
“After you,” he said with a courtly wave toward its boarding ramp.
“What… what are we doing?” I said, gaping at the white Ferrari-sleek lines of the majestic ship. The black-tinted windows on the captain’s bridge made it look like it was wearing shades.
“It belongs to a client of mine, Bill Spence. He owes me a favor,” Charlie said as he tugged me up the ramp. “He runs an upscale sunset dinner cruise. Even at a hundred and eighty a pop, it’s usually pretty crowded, but I got us the whole shebang. She’s all ours. At least for the next three hours.”
“What?” I said, ecstatic.
“Wait here,” Charlie called as he stepped through a doorway off the first deck.
He came back two minutes later, smiling, as he grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. We passed a Jacuzzi and a tiki bar before arriving at the railing of the bow, where an intimate table for two sat waiting.
Charlie handed me a champagne flute and pulled a bottle out of a silver ice bucket.
“Our host is putting the finishing touches on our dinner,” he told me as he filled my glass with bubbly. “He said to enjoy a toast as he takes us out. The first course is coming up.”
“First course?” I said in surprise.
“Now, now. Enough chitchat. This is a surprise,” Charlie said, winking.
Chapter 103
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, the Mallory Square crowd roared at us like we were celebrities, as the luxury yacht swooshed us past them toward the setting sun.
The captain let off the ship’s air horn. When we turned, we could just make out his large silhouette waving to us from behind the bridge’s tinted glass windshield. Charlie hugged me as we waved back with raised champagne flutes.
“Take it off, hottie! Work it!” a handsome black guy standing on the shore railing yelled between cupped hands.
“Come on, Nina. Accommodate the man,” Charlie said.
“Um, I don’t think he was talking to me, hottie,” I said, bursting into giggles.
Charlie laughed, too, as he took a handful of cards out of his jacket pocket. They were the business cards he’d received from media people during his press conference outside the prison after Justin’s stay. He finished his champagne and started thumbing numbers into his cell phone.
“Whoo-hoo! Look at me, momma. What do we have here? Producer for Larry King. A Vanity Fair guy. Heck, I’ve got Geraldo on speed dial now,” he said. “Screw HGTV. Maybe I’ll score one of those mock trial shows. How does Judge Charlie strike you? Hello, fifteen minutes. What took you so long?”
I smiled as the bow cut through the Tiffany blue waves. The wind was absolutely wrecking my hair, but I didn’t give a hoot. We were heading directly at the reddening sun now. I was almost back in the human race.
I finished my champagne and poured another. I tipped the glass to my lips.
To me, I thought.
I was lowering my flute when I suddenly felt dizzy. I blinked, rubbed my eyes. No! Don’t tell me I was getting seasick.
“Probably should take it easy until the first course, huh?” I said.
Then I felt really dizzy, extremely light-headed. I blinked as my vision blurred.
“Charlie?” I said, putting out my hand toward the ship’s rail to steady myself.
I turned as there was a loud thud.
Charlie had fallen out of his chair. He was facedown on the varnished teak deck, his cell phone by his hand, his business cards fluttering like leaves.
When I leaned forward out of my chair to see what was wrong, I lost my balance and pitched