The Great Paddleboard Race

by Mike Hershman

  “Henry, Officer Keyes already knows that Ben is a bookie. Heck, most everybody in town knows. Officer Keyes is going to talk to Ben pretty soon about it. He likes Ben and will just make him stop. If you feel more comfortable just saying that someone you know lost a lot on the parlay it will be OK. Officer Keyes won’t ask who.”

  I was real nervous about the meeting. I decided to do a recap of everything we knew. I even stopped by Sharon’s before the meeting to ask if she could talk to Cuda one more time to see if he could add anything to what he’d seen the day of the race.

  “I was going to ask him about Jellyfish anyway – remember.”

  Sharon was really excited to hear that Officer Keyes was glad we were working on the case.

  “Did he really say that,” she said.”

  “He sure did.”

  “I’m going to go see Cuda right now. Maybe I’ll even go out by the Crocodile and take another look too.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot he said to stay away from that boat.”

  “Tell me exactly what he said.” She smiled.

  “Exactly – well he said to tell Sharon to stay the hell away from that damn boat. And he was real mad when he said it.”

  “Oh.”

  29.

  I had to borrow some chairs from my Mom for the meeting Friday night.

  “What’s this meeting about anyway?” Mom asked.

  “Well it’s just a meeting of our detective agency and Officer Keyes is a special guest.”

  “Who are the other people?”

  “Sharon and Walt.”

  “Who else?”

  “Henry Lido.”

  “Henry Lido? I didn’t know you still saw him. I know you collected bottles with him, but I haven’t seen him around for years.”

  “He’s always working mom. He caddies up at the golf course, but he was at our last meeting.”

  Mom frowned.

  “George Bailey, I certainly don’t want you kids involved in anything dangerous. I didn’t approve of what you did in that case involving Officer Hollis and those bootleggers. I was proud of you, but you should be very careful with this detective business.”

  “Don’t worry Mom, we are.”

  “What does this case involve?”

  “Oh, only a little cheating on a paddleboard race.” I said.

  I thought it best not to mention gambling – and two murders.

  Sharon was the first to arrive and helped me set up the chairs. She also made some chocolate chip cookies and brought her cold lemonade container.

  Henry, Walt and Officer Keyes all walked in out about the same time.

  “I’m here as the guest of George Bailey and Associates Detectives. I’m very interested in what you folks have discovered.” Officer Keyes smiled, sat down and folded his hands in his lap.

  “ Ah --I thought I’d give you a quick summary of our case so far and what we’ve learned.” I said. “We know that Jellyfish Johnson repainted his paddleboard from white to red after he had transferred the boat over from the mainland. Several other competitors painted their paddleboards as well including Four Eyes Carson. They thought the special paint would make them go faster. All of the paddleboards match the paint samples available at Mel’s Hardware.”

  “Carson’s paddleboard was removed from the island,” Officer Keyes said, “ how are you sure there’s a match.”

  “Some of the blue paint is still on the wall by the jail cells,” I said.

  “No wonder you offered to clean the cell that day,” he laughed.

  “Yeah – it’s a perfect match with the color on the bow of the Crocodile too.”

  Sharon spoke next and described the boat ride over with Cuda’s parents and the mysterious behavior on board the Crocodile: the wood aquaplane handle and the unfriendly behavior of Mr. Sullivan.

  “I thinks that’s just his nature Sharon – he’s never been a very friendly guy.” Officer Keyes said. She also gave the background on the Happy Tuna Case and what she had learned about Mr. Saterbury’s gambling.

  “The society page huh – it was smart to research everything like that Sharon.” Officer Keyes said.

  I thought Sharon’s face would probably hurt from smiling so big. She looked like she just got a big present or something.

  “I wonder if the Crocodile supplied tuna to Saterbury’s cannery.”

  “So did we,” Sharon said, “but we haven’t been able to find that out.”

  “I’ll take a stab at that one – if it’s OK with you folks?” Officer Keyes said.

  “Sure.”

  When it was Henry’s turn to speak he sort of shuffled up by the workbench and stared at the floor.

  “There was a lot of bets on that paddleboard race,” he said, his eyes still looking down at the floor. “Some bookie I know lost quite a bit money on a one-two parlay – Jellyfish first and Cuda second. He didn’t take enough bets on Cuda first and Jellyfish second to offset his losses.”

  “He would have really lost big if Four Eyes had won – maybe he killed him.” Officer Keyes said.

  “No – he’s not that kind of a person – he’s just a bad bookie – but he’s a good guy,” Henry said.

  “Yeah, he cuts a nice lamb chop too,” Officer Keyes winked at Henry, “ I wonder how much Ben lost on that deal.”

  “Not as much as some of the bookies on the mainland,” Henry said.

  “That much gambling action sounds might fishy, if you’ll excuse my saying so, on a paddleboard race.” Officer Keyes glanced over at Walt.

  “Maybe not if Mad Mike was involved,” Walt said.

  “Ah yes, Mad Mike, I thought he was teaching QWERTY up at Hamilton High.”

  We all laughed except Walt.

  “Look, I’m sorry Walt, I just couldn’t resist. I hear you’re pretty sure you saw him again on the pier, and on the Crocodile.”

  “Yes sir, I’m sure it was him this time. At first I thought it was Mr. Torpor, but the guy was much taller. I wouldn’t tell you it was if I wasn’t sure.”

  “He was on the Crocodile but he wasn’t on it the last time I looked, Sharon said.”

  “So you think he’s at Sullivan’s house, huh? Maybe he left the island.” Officer Keyes said.

  “I think if he left the island he’d probably go across on the Crocodile. His picture is in every post office – I don’t think he’d take a chance going across on the steamship. Somebody might recognize him and call the police,” Sharon said.

  Officer Keyes nodded in agreement.

  We filled Officer Keyes in on our plan to take a picture of Mad Mike at Sullivan’s house.

  “Do you have a telephone at home Henry?”

  “No.”

  “Well, if you see him, can you get out of the house without him seeing you.”

  “Sure, we’re on a corner. I can go out the side door and run down the block behind us.”

  “OK – go ahead and take the picture only if you can do it easy –then run down and get me as quick as you can. It may take a long time before you see him. If I’m not at the station, have whoever’s on duty call me.” Officer Keyes said.

  “I can stake him out during the day while Henry’s not at home.” Sharon said.

  “Maybe you should just keep making money with the cookies and lemonade Sharon. Everybody tells me the cookies are pretty good. You can keep and eye on the Crocodile from the dinghy. I’ll let you use my binoculars – just make sure nobody sees you.” If you see any activity on that boat, come in and get me right away.”

  “I think we should have a meeting like this next week too.” I said.

  “Good idea, George Bailey,” Officer Keyes said, “with same refreshments I hope.”

  Officer Keyes thanked us for inviting him and told us all to be very careful.

  “We know somebody shot Four Eyes Carson and Mr. Saterbury. I’m sure whoever it is wouldn’t mind shooting somebody else. You guys are very good at detective work, but please don’t take any chances.” He looked directly a
t Sharon.

  30.

  I worked Saturday at the police station filing reports for Officer Keyes. I decided that I would handle the morning stakeout at Henry’s house beginning next Monday. Henry left for the golf course about 5:30 each morning and his mom left for work at 8:00. I had an old model boat in a bottle that I’d started on and never finished. I was going to have Henry take the model over to his house and I would work on it from 8:15AM til noon and then go to work. His mom was a little suspicious –Henry had never shown any interest in model making before.

  I told Officer Keyes my plan for increasing the stakeout hours and he liked it.

  “Just be very careful –if it’s not safe to leave when you see Mad Mike -- just sit tight. I’ll know to just go there if you don’t show up.”

  “If we find him, how are you going to arrest him? I’m sure he’ll be armed.”

  “Maybe we can come up with a way to surprise him. Lets talk about that at the next meeting. I’ll take a little stroll in the direction of the house right now and see if I can come up with something.”

  “I’ll ask Sharon and Walt if they have any ideas.”

  “Well, of course, I’ll be very interested in what Sharon has to say.”

  I knew Officer Keyes would also be interested in Walt’s suggestions too. Walt acted pretty goofy a lot of the time, but he also came up with some good ideas every once in a while.

  I took Sharon to the Capri that night. It was another one of the Nick and Nora detective movies that we both liked so much. I put my arm around her about half way through the movie and she let me kiss her a couple of times. It was funny though, cause when I kissed her I opened my eyes and noticed that she was still looking at the screen. She was so intent on the movie she didn’t even notice that I was looking at her. I probably need to work on my kissing, ‘cause it sure doesn’t seem to be very exciting for her.

  After the movie we went to Sally’s for a coke and I told her about Officer Keyes concerns about the capture of Mad Mike. It was just like the kissing deal – she just stared at the back wall at Sally’s and didn’t seem to hear another word I said.

  31.

  On Monday morning I walked past Mrs. Lido on my way to their house.

  “Henry said you were coming George Bailey, I left the key under the red flower pot. Henry is very excited about that boat model you boys are building.”

  “Yes ma’am –so am I.” I said.

  Mrs. Lido shook her head a little and continued on down the street, just before she turned the corner she looked back and shouted, “There’s some apple pie left in the icebox if you get hungry. Save a piece for Henry.”

  I knew I’d better save the whole thing for Henry or I’d be in more trouble with him than with Mad Mike.

  I also was going to use the side entrance. Henry had left his key under a rock there. I didn’t want anyone to see me go in – especially anyone at Sullivan’s house.

  I walked in the house. I’d only been in it a couple of times before -- it was the smallest house I’d ever seen. It was L shaped and the side door opened on to Mrs. Lido’s bedroom. I walked past it and directly into the tiny kitchen. One door from the kitchen led into Henry’s room and the other into the living room. Henry’s room was slightly bigger than the bathroom at my house with his bed against one wall and a desk in front of the only window. The ship’s model sat in the middle of the desk and Sharon’s Brownie camera was next to it. If I leaned over the ship model I could see the hole in the yellowed shade. It looked like someone had stuck a nail through the shade, which is probably what Henry did.

  I knew I would go crazy if I just looked through that stupid hole for the next 3.5 hours, so I arranged the parts for the model ship and started working on the deck. I found some small pieces of balsa wood, which I’d cut about a year before when I lost interest in the project. I was going to use them to make a little cabin on top of the deck. I thought it would be best to build as much of the cabin outside of the bottle and then use to long chopstick-like pieces of wood to install the cabin on the deck. As I worked, I glanced out the hole every few minutes, especially if I heard any noise.

  The morning dragged on. I never saw anyone at Sullivan’s house, but I did manage to complete a nice small cabin on the model. Just before I left, I snatched a sliver of the apple pie and wrapped it in a napkin. When I got to work Officer Keyes was waiting at his desk.

  “Any luck.”

  “Yeah, I finished the cabin for the boat.” I laughed.

  “Nothing?”

  “Nothing --- I think my eye hurts from squinting out that little hole.”

  “You’ll be glad it’s so small if you get a look at Mad Mike.”

  I knew he was right.

  The first week was more of the same. I noticed that Henry didn’t get much done on the model during his watch. I knew he was tired from lugging those golf balls all day.

  He was reading a book about called “Two Years before the Mast” by Richard Henry Dana. I started reading it too and really liked it. It helped that the ship model we were making was very similar to the boat the Dana described in his book. He visited many ports along the California coast in the early 1830’s before there was much of anything there. The ship picked up cowhides, which were the main export of California before the gold rush.

  A lot of my model building was really correcting Henry’s mistakes.

  A whole week went by with no sign of Mad Mike.

  32.

  At our meeting, Officer Keyes told us that Crocodile was owned by Jake Neves and had a contract to deliver fish to the Saterbury Tuna Company. Jake, in addition to owning the Dory Fish Market, was also a known loan shark and involved in many legal and illegal businesses on the island. He was once one of the bootleggers on the island.

  “Oh, by the way Sharon, the shell casing you found is the same caliber bullet that killed Four Eyes Carson.”

  “Do you think Jake Neves would be involved with a guy like Mad Mike?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t put anything past that guy,” Officer Keyes said, “but I’ve never heard of him being involved in anything like murder, of course there’s always a first time. Tuna fishing has been a little slow this year, maybe Jake decided to make a little extra money with the Crocodile.”

  “By rigging a paddleboard race.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Officer Keyes, I’ve been thinking about how you can capture Mad Mike if we find him at Sullivan’s.”

  We all looked at Sharon.

  After she finished telling us her plan, Officer Keyes just smiled and asked for another cookie.

  We all laughed.

  33.

  On Tuesday of the following week, I was sitting at the desk in Henry’s room. I had just installed one of the two masts on the boat and was daydreaming I was Richard Henry Dana climbing the mast as I looked at the California coast. I heard a door slam and looked through the peephole to see a man carrying a grocery bag around my side of the house. I had my hands on the desk and as I leaned closer to get a better view I accidentally knocked the camera off the table.

  The noise sounded like a cannon to me - the man stopped for a second, then looked straight at the window. I felt like the pinhole in the window was about the size of a ship’s porthole. He was standing about four feet away. I felt like I was on board my model ship --- and looking at a pirate – only it was worse than that.

  It was Mad Mike Proctor. There was no doubt.

  My heart beat so hard that I could feel it in my eardrums. I could feel my leg getting wet and knew I’d peed my pants.

  Mad Mike turned away from the window, went back by the garage and threw the bag in the trashcan. He glanced quickly again at the window and then walked back into the house slamming the door behind him.

  I froze for about five seconds and then walked slowly back through the kitchen. As I glanced to my right I could see the front door. Mad Mike was looking through the small square window right at me and knocking hard! For a second I thoug
h of running out the side door but there was no way I could outrun him.

  I walked to the door --I could feel the sweat running down my side. When I got to the door, I yelled.

  “My Mom’s not home.”

  “Do you have any milk?”

  “Huh?”

  “I just woke up and was going to have some cereal but there’s no milk,” He yelled.

  “Just a minute—I’m not sure.”

  “You don’t know if you have any milk? Didn’t you have breakfast?”

  “Ye—s , but my Mom made it.”

  I walked back to the icebox. There was a half full milk bottle. I didn’t want to give it to him. I just didn’t want to open that door for Mad Mike.

  “Sorry, we’re all out.”

  “Well, I’ll give you fifty cents to go get me some.”

  There was no way he’d ever believe that I wouldn’t take fifty cents to just run down the store and get him some damn milk. Heck, every kid I knew would do it for a quarter or even less.

  “Just a minute, I’ll open the door.”

  “Here’s the dough kid,” he said, handing me a dollar, “ I’d run down myself but I gotta change. He was eyeing my beige pants and shirt and staring at my pants.”

  “Spill something?” He said.

  “Yeah, a glass of water, I was brushing my teeth.”

  “You’re lucky – you missed your shirt. You want to change before you go.”

  “Nah, it’s OK,” as I stepped out on the porch. I could smell my pants and the cigar he’d been smoking.

  “Just bring it over to the house,” he said, “ I’m going to take a bath. You can leave the milk and the change inside the front door.”

  “I’ll be back in a second.” I said as I ran down the street.

  My mind was going fifty miles an hour. Should I run to the police station? It was four blocks out of my way. He was going to take a bath so he probably wouldn’t know how long it took me. I ran as fast as I could to the station. When I got there, Officer Keyes was at his desk.