"That was wonderful, what you did for Lou," Kathy said, bringing his reverie to a halt. "So, will you set up shop as a lawyer?"
"I don’t think so," Dave replied. He had felt satisfaction in helping old Lou Washington get a fair settlement from Rick Leatherby’s auto insurance, but he couldn’t imagine charging a fee for doing that kind of thing, nor did he think he could do it day in and day out.
Taking money for doing what was right rubbed him the wrong way. He knew lawyers had to eat, but the notion of making a living from the misfortune of others depressed him. When he had studied law so many years ago, he had been caught up in ideals at first. That had faded as he realized that the study of law provided exciting insights into the realm of human behavior. He had approached the law more as an observer than as a participant. It was far too tedious and uncertain for him to want to try to bend it to his will, but it was endlessly fascinating. It also gave him a practical guide to coping with the world around him.
"I’m still not sure what I want to be next," he said to Kathy, "But out of all the things I’ve tried so far, there hasn’t been one that I would want to make my life’s work. Guess Sister Mary Joseph was right. I’ve got the attention span of a gnat."
Kathy didn’t believe that, but she didn’t want to go back to second grade with Dave, either. She liked him in the here and now. Back in grade school, he had been just another guy; nice enough, but a borderline geek. She knew his inquiring mind and broad range of interests hadn’t made him a popular child, at least in his peer group. But in his maturity, those traits made him an interesting companion, and his well-developed sense of empathy made him so considerate that she was drawn to spend as much time with him as she could.
When he had asked for her help to move the Alice Munn to her Uncle John’s dock, she had been jump-up-and-down excited, like a three-year-old with Santa Claus. She had happily turned over the showing of the Leatherby house to one of her colleagues, even though the commission would have paid her bills for months. Since Sarah had listed the house with Kathy, they had been plagued by the curious, pretending that they were seriously in the market. Kathy had been careful to qualify her customers, and as best she could tell, the current prospects didn’t even know the Leatherby saga. Kathy knew that although the tale had dominated the local news, it didn’t get much play outside the immediate geographic area.
As the story unfolded, she and Dave had gotten some real belly laughs out of the fact that people had been paying handsomely to be put on diets that were color coordinated to their complexions. They had mused that if Leatherby had just played it straight, he could have made a good business out of Chromatic Nutrition, and then they would laugh again at the notion that someone bent enough to think of that scheme could ever play straight.
Lizzie noticed that Donald’s hair was filling in nicely. He was wearing it clipped closely all over his head until the bare patches grew out. She and Donald were eating ham biscuits and drinking coffee on her patio. Donald had just spent the afternoon repairing Lizzie's back steps, and she had just finished an all-day tour with three couples from Connecticut.
"So how’s Black Caesar coming?" she asked.
"Don’t know," Donald replied thoughtfully. He wasn’t sure he wanted to do Black Caesar any more; Lizzie and Kathy were sending him all the handyman work that he could keep up with, and he was still trapping raccoons for Billy. He liked working at this kind of stuff. He was always doing something different and meeting nice people. This wasn’t like jobs he had tried before he had gone into the Army. He was having fun and doing things that were good for people, and he kept finding new opportunities.
There was one thing that he was studying right now. If he could figure out how to make it work, he was going to see if Billy wanted to be part of it. It sort of fit in with the raccoons, Donald thought. In fact, one of the raccoon-trapping customers had put him onto it. This lady at the Marshe Landes had been complaining that somebody was stealing the goldfish out of her pond faster than she could put them into it. She thought it was the raccoons, but Donald didn’t think so; he had learned a bit about raccoons since he started working for Billy. He thought they were too lazy to bother with catching live fish when there was plenty of prepared food handy. With the lady’s encouragement, Donald had staked out her fishpond one morning.
At about sunup, Donald had been startled by the graceful landing of a great blue heron, right between him and the fishpond. He watched quietly as the efficient, four-foot-tall predator systematically took every fish from the pond. Fish crossways in his beak, the bird shook his head violently from side to side to stun his prey and then flipped it down his gullet, swallowing several times as the fish was worked down that long neck, the lump clearly visible the whole time. Donald could see the opportunity, if he could just come up with a solution that people would pay for. Also, he didn’t want to hurt the herons.
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A Note to the Reader
Thank you for reading Deception in Savannah. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please leave a brief review on Amazon. Reviews are of great benefit to independent authors like me; they help me more than you can imagine. They are a primary means to help new readers find my work. A few words from you can help others find the pleasure that I hope you found in this book, as well as keeping my spirits up as I work on the next one.
The conflict between Connie Barrera and Sam Alfano continues in Bluewater Ice, the fourth book in my Bluewater Thriller series, and in Bluewater Betrayal as well. The Bluewater Thrillers feature two young women, Dani Berger and Liz Chirac, who sail a luxury charter yacht in the Caribbean Islands. They become friends of Connie’s; they met her when she chartered with them in Bluewater Ice. It was on that charter that Connie discovered her love of sailing.
Connie Barrera is now the main character in my new series of Connie Barrera Thrillers. The first book in the new series, Love for Sail – A Connie Barrera Thriller, was released in June of 2014. If you enjoyed reading about Connie Barrera, you'll enjoy this series.
In September of 2017, I released An Easy Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller, the eighth novel in the Connie Barrera Thrillers series. Now I've turned my attention back to Dani and Liz for their fourteenth Bluewater Thrillers adventure. You'll find progress reports and more information on my web page at www.clrdougherty.com. Be sure to click on the link to my blog posts; it's in the column on the right side of the web page. Dani Berger has begun to blog about what's on her mind, and Liz and Connie are demanding equal time, so you can see what they're up to while I'm writing.
A list of my other books is on the last page; just click on a title or go to my website for more information. If you’d like to know when my next book is released, visit my Amazon Author's Page at www.amazon.com/author/clrdougherty and click the "Follow" link near the upper left-hand corner, or sign up for my email list at the link in the opening paragraph above.
I welcome email correspondence about books, boats and sailing. My address is [email protected]. If you'd like personal updates, drop me a line at that address and let me know. Thanks again for your support.
About C.L.R. Dougherty
Welcome aboard!
Charles Dougherty is a lifelong sailor; he's lived what he writes. He and his wife have spent over 30 years sailing together. For 15 years, they lived aboard their boat full-time, cruising the East Coast and the islands. They spent most of that time exploring the Eastern Caribbean. Dougherty is well acquainted with the islands and their people. The characters and locations in his novels reflect his experience.
A storyteller before all else, Dougherty lets his characters speak for themselves. Pick up one of his thrillers and listen to the sound of ad
venture as you smell the salt air. Enjoy the views of distant horizons and meet some people you won't forget.
Dougherty has written over 25 books. His Bluewater Thrillers are set in the yachting world of the Caribbean and chronicle the adventures of two young women running a luxury charter yacht in a rough-and-tumble environment. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are also set in the Caribbean and feature some of the same characters from a slightly more romantic perspective. Besides the Bluewater Thrillers and the Connie Barrera Thrillers, he wrote The Redemption of Becky Jones, a psycho-thriller, and The Lost Tourist Franchise, a short story about one of the characters from Deception in Savannah.
He has also written two non-fiction books. Life's a Ditch is the story of how he and his wife moved aboard their sailboat, Play Actor, and their adventures along the east coast of the U.S. Dungda de Islan' relates their experiences while cruising the Caribbean.
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty
Bluewater Thrillers
Bluewater Killer
Bluewater Vengeance
Bluewater Voodoo
Bluewater Ice
Bluewater Betrayal
Bluewater Stalker
Bluewater Bullion
Bluewater Rendezvous
Bluewater Ganja
Bluewater Jailbird
Bluewater Drone
Bluewater Revolution
Bluewater Enigma
Bluewater Thrillers Boxed Set: Books 1-3
Connie Barrera Thrillers
From Deception to Betrayal - An Introduction to Connie Barrera
Love for Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Sailor's Delight - A Connie Barrera Thriller
A Blast to Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Storm Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Running Under Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Sails Job - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Under Full Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
An Easy Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Other Fiction
Deception in Savannah
The Redemption of Becky Jones
The Lost Tourist Franchise
Books for Sailors and Dreamers
Life's a Ditch
Dungda de Islan'
For more information please visit www.clrdougherty.com
Or visit www.amazon.com/author/clrdougherty
Deception in Savannah: A Humorous Novel of Murder, Mystery, Sex, and Drugs Page 27