CHAPTER 1
The rising sun sat just above the Wilmot Hills as Jeff Cash drove up to the gates of Mayfair Marina and sat dozing for an hour before the gatekeeper arrived just on 7:00 to begin his day.
Yawning and scratching an ear, the security guy with egg yolk spill on his khaki jacket looked at the windscreen of Jeff's vehicle and said, "You've got no pass so no vehicle entry."
"Excuse me but Mrs Talbot has hired me to skipper Lady Edwina and said she would leave authority for me at the gatekeeper's post to be admitted and to be given the key to Garage 37.
"Well give me a minute while I check the diary," said the gatekeepers, scratching his nuts. "You are not from around here so how do you expect to navigate these eleven interconnecting lakes with their 44 isles and five islands?"
"Easy. I have bought GPS and charts with me."
"Yeah well you are too modern to have come from around here."
The guard came out of his little lockup shelter apparently called a post and handed Jeff a key without explanation. The guy said rudely, "Sign here" and thrust a clipboard holding one piece of paper at Jeff who earned a dirty look when he asked, "Which side of the clipboard do I sign?"
Jeff signed and asked where Garage 37 was and was told between garages 36 and 38.
He had to grin.
The gate opened electrically by remote control from within the 'post' and he drove the pick-up into the compound and had little trouble finding the garage. He unlocked and lifted up the roller door and swore. The place was full of junk and it took him twenty minutes to clear it to the sides to provide enough space to drive far enough so he could close the door when leaving.
He knew where to find Pier 14 and grinned. It would be between Piers 13 and 15.
Mrs Talbot had emailed him after the agency had picked him from the seven applicants to outline his duties that basically were to operate the old-style 57-foot twin diesel motor cruiser, maintain it and provision it for recently widowed Mrs Talbot and her two daughters.
Jeff punched in the code given in the email and entered the saloon. It was tatty, obviously overdue for a refit. She'd said in the email there were only two cabins in this model so where was he to sleep if either or both daughters arrived with Mrs Talbot?
Perhaps she expected him to bunk in with the kids?
He went into the engine room under the cockpit and smiled to find it immaculate. The last hired skipper, or perhaps it was her husband before his fatal heart-attack, had cared for everything like a fussy housewife. The 30-year old boat with a cruising speed restricted to 15 mph under lake speed rules, had been re-engined eighteen months ago.
Jess inspected the owner's cabin. It was roomy but dull with its own bathroom. Opposite the shared bathroom on the port side was a room, too small for a cabin, where Mrs Talbot, who wrote romance books, could work away from the chatter or noise of the entertainment center in the level above. Beyond that the large second cabin had two standard-size double beds and not much room to move.
The gallery had a gas oven. The dishwasher and microwave appeared to be new. So far so good. He switched on the twin fridge and the freezer and closed both doors and poked around and found a dozen cans of beer on a tray and put those in the fridge and then, as an after-thought, loaded two bottles of white wine, soda and tonic water plus a have dozen cans of Coke for the kids. He went up to the very roomy wheelhouse and was delighted to find a day bed. So he could sleep there and there was even a wash basin. For an aging girl Lady Edwina, a modified V designed for lake cruising, was comfortably appointed.
Jeff checked out the controls and navigational aids and as Mrs Talbot had said there was no GPS but radar had been retro-fitted and radio equipment was pretty standard. All-round vision was excellent and seating at the wheel had been upgraded to two modern helmsman-type seats and side sofas had been reupholstered fairly recently. He'd earlier noticed some of the controls were duplicated in the saloon at a forward elevated helm station with one seat over the steps down to the sleeping accommodation.
Jeff went to the marina café for lunch and made four return trips with the plastic carry boxes of supplies Mrs Talbot had ordered and he returned them emptied.
Mrs Harris said, "Mrs Talbot runs an account with me and she's authorized you to add anything you want to it including liquor."
"Thanks Mrs Harris. When will the summer rush begin?"
"Many people will be arriving during the next couple of weekends and then it becomes a mad melee. If you can get away before the weekend then do it?"
Mr Talbot called Jeff just before 6:00 to say she'd accepted an invitation to go away with someone.
They chatted and he was disappointed he'd spend that time at the berth. Irene, as Mrs Talbot had told him to call her, sounded very nice.
"Have you settled in okay without problems?"
"Yes thank you. The engine room is one of the cleanest I've ever seen."
"Well yes. My late husband was fanatical about cleanliness down there. Well go wherever you wish but come back in on the afternoon of the 27th to pick me up please. At least I'll have three weeks cruising with the kids. Oh they're on the way now by bus that gets at the marina gates about 9:00. I suggest leave in the morning because it's practically impossible to get to sleep with the sound of the engines and the vibrations one feels in bed but I suppose if you slow to say four knots it might be okay."
Jeff said he'd set off at dawn and the call ended. He wondered how the hell would he entertain kids and why hadn't she said how old they were or if they still wet their pants at night? Perhaps they were at high school.
With a bit of luck they would be high school kids, preferably senior school kids. He looked around for family photos but found none. Oh yeah, their dad who was no more would have been in photots an so they would have been stored away. He failed to find any kids coloring-in books or cartoon DVDs and began to relax, thinking that suggested they were teenagers.
The aft sliding doors thumped opened just after 9:15 and two young women called together, "Hi Mr Cash."
"Um hi," Jeff said, rubbing his eyes, having been caught dozing.
He gathered in the three empty beer cans and the female with the biggest tits said, "Oh a beer would be fine please. Did mom call you?"
"Yes thanks. I'll get the beer" and looking at her older sister said, "We also have wine or Coke."
"I'll have a glass of white wine, um, Jeff."
He thought that sounded friendly.
"Yes please call me Jeff girls. And who are you?" he asked, looking at that sister who was extremely attractive.
"Linda and that's Becky or Rebecca."
Jeff poured the wine and said, "Sketch in some details about yourselves girls."
Becky said she was in the final year of her four-year degree in finance. She was twenty-two and loved skiing and that was about it.
Linda said she was the quite one of the family and stopped there.
"Linda is twenty-five and works as a trouble-shooter in IT at a law office. She's extremely talented, plays the piano brilliantly and has had the same boyfriend for almost five years and his name is Pete and his parents are loaded.
Jeff could see Linda was cringing and winked at her and said, "I suppose you are just the typical promiscuous college student?"
She laughed and said good guess.
"Did mother say she won't be with us for the first eleven days?"
"Yes Linda, she's been invited to go away with a friend."
"God mom's a liar," Becky said. "Grandma is in France and says she's not coming home because she's found this incredibly sweet guy who's charmed the pants off her literally. Aunt Alice found out the guy is twenty years younger than their mother and she and mom leave for Paris tonight to get rid of the guy or as mom puts it, to castrate the grubby little gigolo and rescue their mother."
Linda asked what did he think about that?
"Well it's really not my place to comment but I would think your mother has stumbled across new material for her current or next novel."
Becky roared in laughter and Linda smile and told Jeff that was a very intelligent comment.
"Well I managed to gain the rank of lieutenant before I left the navy," Jeff muttered.
The sisters looked at him intently.
"Did you have a girl in every port?"
"What size ship did you command?"
"My mother preferred me having a girl waiting for me in some ports rather than a guy," Jeff smiled, answering Becky, and she rocked in later.
