“And you couldn’t say to your Mom, ‘I just don’t want to marry him’?”
“She wouldn’t understand. She questioned my judgment. I have two sisters. Both were encouraged to go to college by her. She told me I didn’t need an education because I could marry well. The irony? My sisters have college degrees and rich husbands.”
Grace stared at the facial bruises makeup couldn’t hide and said, “ You didn’t leave because he wasn’t rich.”
Cecile nodded.
“Did you try talking to anyone? Call a cop?”
“The cops wanted to know what I did to upset my husband. Just like the doctors. Everyone blamed me. I may not have been able to get away from my mother and go to college. But I could get away from my husband.”
“Isn’t Chester a wealthy stockbroker?”
“No, he sells counterfeit stock in Cal Oil,” Cecile said.
“My uncle got swindled in a Ponzi scheme. Not only was the stock counterfeit, there was no company.” Grace twirled her hair.
“I’ve seen a company called Cal Oil on Harbor Drive,” Jack said.
“There’s a building with that name on it. I don’t think it has oil.”
“Someone in the county may have inspected it. Where can we find a County official?”
“Probably at a speakeasy. Drinking with judges and cops.”
“Don’t tell Chester where I am.” Cecile’s face showed strain and fear. Tatania jumped on her lap and purred until she relaxed.
“Do you have money saved?”
“No, he took everything I inherited.”
“How will you live?”
“On the faith of God. Faith in goodness of others. And I have a job here. He won’t look for me. I faked being afraid of ships because I didn’t want to go on a European Honeymoon with him.”
“We’re not going to tell him we found you,” Jack said gently. Zeus head butted her arm. She smiled at the black and white kitty.
“The Captain is easy to work for,“ Cecile explained, “Or I wouldn’t be here. If I’d wanted to listen to an egotistical jerk all day, I wouldn’t have left Chester.” She pet Tatania, who had claimed her lap.
Zeus kept batting something under a chair. Triumphant, with dexterity of paw he pulled out. It was a stock certificate for Cal Oil.
“That must have fallen out of my purse. He has the stock certificates made at a company where a buddy of his manufactures fake diplomas. I want to be with someone who loves me as much as I love me,” Cecile said.
“That’s who we usually get.” Grace played with the Chanel pearls Jack gave her.
“How did you find out that the stock certificates were fake?”
“Chester had a female receptionist he paid half as much as a male receptionist. When she found out and talked, she disappeared.”
“He paid a man twice as much as a woman for the same job? Time for him to die,” Grace said.
“I had to get away from him. Living with him was like being at the intersection of despair and dreams that never came true. The fear of staying with him became greater than the fear of leaving. I just saw a boot crushing me whenever I thought of him. I’d seen Pacific Steamship Company’s ships before. I ran to a ship because I knew he’d never look for me here.”
Tatania meowed. She didn’t want to gloat but being right was satisfying.
“He’d never expect me to be working at all. He doesn’t. Unless swindling people counts as working.”
Cecile dragged on a cigarette. She blew the smoke slowly, captivating the cats’ attention. She shook her head.
“He’s not a real stockbroker. He pretends to be one. That’s what impressed my mother. He goes to an office everyday. Your cats know more about the stock market than him.”
“Where does he get the dough to live?”
“He suckers and swindles money from people. He sells phony stocks in sham companies. People don’t know any better. He dupes them with easy credit. And he used my inheritance to get the ticker tape installed. He told the attorney to wire my inheritance to his account. My name wasn’t on the account.”
“Did you ever tell your mother any of this?” Jack asked.
“She doesn’t listen to what she doesn’t want to hear. She thinks he’s a prize. She doesn’t get that he’s the booby prize.”
“And how.” Grace agreed.
Cecile twirled her newly bobbed hair. Tatania lept onto her lap. Purring, she kneaded gently on her lap until Cecile relaxed.
Grace looked at Jack.
“We’re not going to tell him where you are,” Jack said again.
“He’ll send someone else to look for me. Unless someone bumps him off, I won’t get away from him.”
“It’s the 1920s. Women can do anything. We can vote. And earn our own money,” Grace rubbed her arms.
“When my uncle lost my inheritance in a Ponzi scheme, I thought if I could make my own money, be independent, at least I could control my own lifestyle instead of having it be dependent on someone else.”
“He lost your inheritance in a Ponzi scheme?”
“It wasn’t his fault. He trusted the wrong person. I know what it’s like to be on your own without any money. I met Jack when he was with Pinkerton investigating my uncle’s case. And when Pinkerton wouldn’t hire me because they don’t hire women, Jack quit. And we started our own agency: Wentworth and Brewster.” Zeus batted Grace’s clear crystal dangling earrings, reflecting Grace’s green satin dress. She wore a black cloche hat and matching black opera gloves.
“You’re lucky,” Cecile said.
“For now. But no one’s immune to life’s reversals. Was it Hemingway who wrote, ‘Only bullfighters live their lives all the way up?’”
“What did he mean by that?”
“Not sure. Maybe if the bull doesn’t kill you, you—”
“He’s going to keep looking for you. We’re going to find a way to keep him away from you. Get a divorce. Go to Reno. Get your life in order. And next time, trust your own instincts when your family tries to foist a husband of their choice on you,” Jack said.
“We’re not fond of unscrupulous brokers.” Grace nodded.
“Is that a redundancy? Unscrupulous brokers?”
“Lets hope not. And drink champagne.”
“Bees Knees. Perfect combination. This ship looks swell. I could live on it. Except my feet need to feel Coronado under them now and then.”
“Stay here, Cecile. We’ll come back for you.” Jack said.
Chapter Ten
“They’re telling conflicting stories. What do you think that means, Jack?”
“They’re married.”
She would have slapped him but he moved too quickly and he grabbed her hand.
“Maybe he’s a battered husband.”
“No one’s battering you, Jack.”
“Aren’t we going back to our speakeasy?” Grace asked when Jack led her down Harbor Drive.
“Lets check out Cal Oil ourselves. Annie Knickerbocker told me once that downtown banks were giving huge loans to Cal Oil. So the bankers must have inspected it. This isn’t making sense.”
“Annie Knickerbocker knows everything. She could put fortune tellers out of business.”
Cal Oil was an easy walk from the ship. It was closed. But that didn’t stop Tatania and Zeus. They lept inside through a window ten feet up from the ground.
Grace stood on Jack’s shoulders and watched Zeus and Tatania approach the vats of oil. Zeus put his paw in one first. He drew back quickly. The tip of his paw was oily. The rest of it was wet and clear. Tatania looked disgusted. Zeus put his other paw inside and carefully inspected it.
“Jack, the oil is floating on top. Underneath, it’s only water.”
Tatania stuck one of her own paws inside another vat and pulled it out quickly, disgusted. Zeus was running towards the window, leaving a messy trail on the ground.
“Stop!” A security guard shouted.
The cats moved too quickly fo
r him and lept out the window again.
Grace knelt to wipe off their paws with her dress.
“No, lets move now.” Jack grabbed her arm.
They raced back to the ship with the cats trailing oil and water behind.
“You’re right, Cecile,” Jack said.
“Don’t you love it when men say that?” Grace asked.
Cecile screamed.
Tatania meowed. Chester was behind them.
Tatania flew at Chester’s face, scratching him.
“Call your cat off,” he yelled, hands trying to grab Tatania, who simply swivelled her ears three times and became invisible. They watched, fascinated by the scratches appearing on his face.
“Cats aren’t trained to come when you call, imbecile,” Cecile replied.
“We have questions for you, Chester,”
“I doubt he’ll have answers.” Cecile looked repulsed at the sight of her husband.
Well, disgust is an improvement from fear, Grace thought.
“I was at Cal Oil. I saw you leaving,” Chester said.
“Follow the oily trail,” Grace replied.
Zeus meowed loudly, walking towards Chester. He backed up, getting closer to the edge and nervously looking around.
“Chester, you’ve swindled a lot of people. That’s going to stop now.”
“They asked for it,” Chester said.
Chester began to walk backwards as Jack approached. Jack looked formidable: tall and fit. Chester looked old and paunchy.
“They asked for it. Clients. They thought they didn’t have to climb the ladder of success. Because the stock market was an elevator.”
“They asked for it? Chester you violated their trust. And you paid a female secretary half as much as a male secretary. That’s sufficient reason to kill you,” Grace said.
“You got the idea from your cousin in Miami,” Cecile said.
“He’s selling oil?” Grace asked.
“No, his cousin in Miami threw some fresh plants on the dump and started selling Florida real estate. That’s how Chester got the idea to just throw oil on top of water and inspectors will never know the difference.”
“Everyone wants easy money. They hear about Florida real estate on the radio. They hear about stock on the radio. And they want in on it. You put out a shingle that says stockbroker, and people appear, asking for it. Some people don’t even want to know the details about a company. They just want to go home and say they bought stock. Sit in a speakeasy and say they just came from a broker. It’s not my fault.”
Chester looked Grace up and down.
“Like a woman in a pretty dress asking to be raped.”
Jack slugged him.
Chester went down quickly. Like a bloated fish. He was already doomed but didn’t know it.
He got up slipping slightly on the water on deck.
“Oil would be slippier,” Grace said.
He glared at her.
“They gave you their money, Chester. Have you no remorse for the people you robbed?”
“They asked for it,” he said again and Tatania dug her claws in his face again. He threw up his hands as if in surrender to feline power. He walked backwards, grasping the ship’s rail. Tatania suddenly dropped to the floor. The kitten Cecile had rescued appeared.
The kitten Cecile adopted, emulating Tatania, lept up at Chester’s face. Chester turned and dove into the ocean.
“I’d tell you to go to hell, Chester. But you’ll be there quickly enough,” Cecile shouted.
“He doesn’t know how to swim.” Cecile smiled triumphantly.
Jack dove in after Chester.
Chapter Eleven
“Get a lifeboat!” Grace yelled.
Tatania meowed furiously.
“Just throw a rope over,” Jack yelled back.
Two ship workers threw a rope ladder over the side.
Jack reached for Chester.
“You’re coming with me.”
Chester tried to push Jack away. Jack was stronger. Chester dove under the water. Jack followed.
“Why is Jack saving that piece of garbage?” Cecile asked, as Chester dove under water, spurning Jack’s help.
“Jack saves lives. I suppose that’s what drew me to him.”
Cecile looked at her cynically.
“Bees Knees. He’s handsome. I know. I also know he’d never leave anyone wounded behind. He’s a hero.”
Jack pulled Chester up by the collar. Muscles straining, he shoved the heavy man up on the rope ladder. Two crewmen helped pull him up.
“You’re not going to kill yourself. You’re going to trial. And you’re going to pay back the money you owe everyone you swindled.” Jack motioned for the ship’s security guards who had gathered on deck to handcuff Chester.
Cecile came forward and punched him. They all stared, open mouthed, at the woman with the bruises and quick fist.
“Never upset women or cats,” Jack said.
Grace held onto Jack. Watching him dive into the water, she saw life without him for a moment, and it felt unbearable. Tatania and Zeus wound through their legs.
“Lets go home,” Jack said.
“You’ll catch cold.” Grace felt his wet clothes.
“Not with you to keep me warm.” He kissed her forehead.
They caught the ferry home to the island they loved. All the tension left Grace’s body. Tatania and Zeus held out their paws and she cleaned the oil from both.
The stars aligned and the moon lit their way. She sat on Jack’s lap and for a moment, she let herself believe she’d always be this happy.
Catty Corner
Mary Matthews
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
For Marie
With thanks for a kind heart.
Chapter One
“Where have you been all my life?” A grey haired man asked a young flapper.
“I don’t think I was alive for half of it,” she replied, blowing smoke from a six inch rhinestone cigarette holder. She wore a matching rhinestone headband, necklace and bracelets.
Her laughter carried through the rooftop crowd.
“Enchanted,” Jack Brewster said, pretending he was entering a Speakeasy, and giving a password, when a server opened the door to his atrium leading out to the rooftop. Most speakeasies are dark and dimly lit. Filled with cozy corners for necking. Jack and Grace decided to throw a Speakeasy style party to celebrate their new home on the bay. It was Speakeasy Coronado, where you walked up to a rooftop terrace and watched the sunset.
Tatania, a white Persian cat, and her tuxedo companion, Zeus, lept onto the roof before they looked. They bounded through the crowd and took positions catty corner on the rooftop, blinking at the humans. Zeus spotted a waiter with tuna canapes and rolled over adorably for him. The waiter threw a tuna canape off the tray and Zeus beat a seagull to it by a millisecond.
The champagne flowed as freely as the ocean into the fresh salt water pools across the way at Coronado Tent City. Grace sipped champagne in her favorite red dress with sparkly gold beads. Her bobbed hair blew slightly with the sea breeze. Jack pulled a strand back from her face.
“Exquisite,” he whispered.
Grace felt a slight shiver when he moved closer to her.
“Maybe Pierre should paint your portrait up here on the rooftop.”
“Jack, I’m not sure I want my portrait painted.”
“Doll, Pierre saved my life in the Great War. He needs help with his art gig. Pierre is half French and half English. He didn’t feel he fit in either country. So he came to America.”
“Bees Knees.” Grace ran her hand down Jack’s arm. All hard muscle.
“It’s good to be back in Coronado again.” Pierre approached, as if he knew they were talking about him.
“Were you here before this time?” Grace asked.
“Yes. Jack didn’t mention me? Maybe he didn’t want
competition.”
“Maybe the story wasn’t memorable,” Jack joked.
“I just got back from a trip to England to settle my Dad’s estate. That didn’t take long. There wasn’t much left after paying the bills. And now I’ve returned to California to paint portraits. I parted with some money at poker. You know what they say about a fool and money.”
Pierre spoke with a lovely English accent.
“Oh, then I could definitely be a fool,” Grace said.
“I adore painting portraits of beautiful women. Beauty never declines in value.”
“It’s an international currency,” Jack said.
Night claimed the island with its own magic. The ocean breeze seemed to carry the symphony playing at the Dance Pavilion across the way. Grace’s body remembered dancing a tango with Jack.
Tatania meowed. Her tail swished slightly. Peering over the rooftop, she spotted two jackrabbits and began making clicking noises within her throat. Then her delicate nostrils flared. Tuna canapes? She sniffed again. Something with a bouillabaisse sauce?
She turned around. Her humans, Grace and Jack, were hosting a party with excellent hors devours. She’d hunt on another night. Tatania jumped on the lap of the nearest flapper. “Cute cat,” the flapper cooed, offering Tatania sea bass from her plate.
Tatania was deaf but she understood recognition of her own cuteness.
“Prohibition means it’s illegal to sale liquor. It’s not illegal to drink liquor. And, I never buy my own drinks. Hearing a guy say, ‘can I buy you a drink’, never loses its charm, even to an old married lady like me.” Annie Knickerbocker threw back her head and laughed. She had a blonde bob, and dangling crystal earrings. She wore a Chanel black dress with matching black opera gloves.
Grace and Jack moved to a swing on their rooftop, holding hands and sipping champagne. Tatania lept up on the swing to make herself comfortable between them. She meowed at the server with tuna canapes. He bent down, and Tatania swiped one with her paw. The kitty nibbled delicately on the canape, eating only the tuna and, leaving crumbs for the birds she’d mull over grabbing when they appeared.
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