Curtis Woodman Ch. 02

I read the notice again, only slower this time. "So, what's the catch Sarah?"

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. I stood and offered her my seat while I sat on the edge of my boat so we could talk. "We can't find one. Honest to God, Curtis, the company agreed to everything we asked, in return for total ownership."

This time she let out a little giggle and added. "And we sure tested that theory some. Every member has guaranteed mooring rites, and the rents can't go up for another five years. Hell, Curtis the new owners even asked us to stay on for another year, minimum. With me still doing admin and Gil still getting his hands and clothes black, with an option of two more years after that."

Sarah watched me read the notice once again before she added. "They plan to pull the old clubhouse down and build a newer and more modern one, with a bar, and men's and women's showers. They will plant trees over on that end lot and tarmac the piece of field we call a car-park; all within two years of ownership. Gil took the contract to our lawyers, the senior partners looked it over, and told us to sign."

With that she shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"We signed yesterday. The new owners take over at the end of the month. So, fourteen days from now, we are just boat owners like you, with a little admin thrown in, of course."

It was now the third time I had finished reading this notice and still couldn't find the catch.

"So, have you met the owner, or just the representative the company sent down to make the deal?"

"Both. Gil dealt with the paperwork along with the lawyers and I met the new owner. She's American and she had the sweetest little girl with her. Both wanted to go for a walk around the place, so I gave them the ten-cent tour; and, while we did, she was telling me what she had in mind for the club."

Sarah smiled and then added. "Young Becky seemed to take a liking to your boat. I can't see why; it needs a damn good wash if nothing else. I suppose you're going to tell me you're busy with work again, huh?"

Sarah then looked at her watch and, said she had to drag her husband to the shops, or they weren't going to eat tonight. I watched her hurry off, but that nagging feeling that I was missing something wouldn't go away either.

*******

She was sitting cross legged on the path watching me as I came up onto the deck the next morning, a teddy bear held tightly to her chest. My thoughts were mixed, she had clearly recognized me just as I had her. The fear was still in her eyes, even if diminished by time. So that's what we did for the next minute or so; stared at each other. Neither one of us wanting to initiate a conversation, because neither of us were sure what to say. In the end I gave in, with the offer of an olive branch.

"That path has got to be hard on your backside, would you prefer a chair to sit on?"

She smiled and then nodded. I did wonder if she expected me to talk to her with a Texas accent, or some posh English one. I leaned down and pulled a folding chair out from under my own seat, pulled it open and put it next to her, she got up off the ground and sat on it. By now a woman I didn't recognize came walking out of the clubhouse and towards us both. She was clearly the mother.

This woman walked with confidence in her stride. Something in me instinctively did a risk assessment of her, she wouldn't have looked out of place on a catwalk, such was the ease of every step. As those last few steps put her beside the little girl, and placing her hand on her shoulder, her fingers squeezed slightly and stayed there.

She was tall, even in the flat shoes she wore. The power suit must have cost a buck or two since it looked like it was custom made. The hips were interesting, her waist was built to hold onto, and the rest of her was any man's wet dream. Then I looked into her eyes and they told me that so many men in her circle had done what I had just done.

The pause made me think she was mentally asking me if I had finished yet, or should she wait a little longer?

"Hello Curtis, I wanted to thank you personally for rescuing my daughter, just as much as I wanted to hurt you so badly for then placing her in a cab and abandoning her."

A little hand gently squeezed the woman's hand, and both looked at each other. "Mom, you promised."

The little girl then looked at me and said. "Curtis, can I see inside your boat?"

I shrugged and stood to one side. She took that as a yes, and with a gleeful smile, she bolted off the chair, over the side and onto the boat, with teddy still in her hand.

I'm sure a bit of mischief snuck in when she came out from exploring the inside of my boat, then asked if she could walk along the top of the canal boat since she had seen others do it.

"Sure, but you take off your shoes and socks. You only walk the top in bare feet."

"But I have sneakers on. I've watched others walk the top in sneakers."

"My boat, my rules."

She was sure her mother's daughter when she set about negotiating.

"How about I take off my sneakers and walk the top in socks."

I hid my smile ever so well when I said. "Then your mother gets to pull you out of the canal once you've slipped off the roof and into it, because I will be too busy laughing at you."

She colored slightly, making her look even more adorable, then the smile came to her. She looked so cute when she smiled. Her sneakers and socks sat on the deck as her and teddy bear walked the full length of the top of my boat, several times. She even stopped at the front once to do her impersonation of the girl from the Titanic movie. We both heard her scream "wheeeeee" all the way at the back of the boat.

I used the girl being at the far end of the boat to ask her mother my question. "I need to ask how you found me?"

Mother was still watching the antics of her daughter when she answered. "I spent a lot of dollars looking for you and every investigation agency that took up the challenge came back empty handed."

Her head tilted towards her daughter. "Believe it or not Curtis, she found you."

We both heard the silence just then, when we both turned to look, the little girl was standing about half-way down my boat watching what was going on between us.

"Becky honey, can you come here for a moment, please."

She sure walked like a condemned man the rest of the way.

"Show him your arm, please, sweetie."

The little girl lifted her right arm and pulled the sleeve to her cardigan back, revealing the name of my boat on the inside of her arm. The design was almost a carbon copy of the one on my own arm. When I looked at Becky she started to tear up.

I had to hope my smile calmed her down before I added. "It's okay honey, you did no wrong."

The weak smile in return didn't fool anyone. Becky pulled her sleeve back down and started to walk the boat again. Another boat from the club passed us, and the two women on the top that were sunbathing, waved at the little girl on the roof of my boat. She frantically waved back, like she's known them since forever.

"My daughter is right hand dominant Curtis, and yet, her drawing on her arm is identical to the tattoo you have on your right arm. Every time I wash it off in the evening before she goes to bed, it's back by the next evening."

The woman moved and sat on the chair vacated by her daughter. "Her therapist said it was a triggered memory. It wasn't much, but at least now I had a thread, and the agency I paid to find you, finally had a lead."

Something didn't sit right with her statement, so I watched Becky just a little closer. Then tested my theory when I picked up a small bottle of water and waited for the little one to have teddy-bear in her right hand, before I called her name and gently tossed the water bottle over to her, telling her she needed to drink more.

Becky instinctively plucked it out of the air with her left hand, thanked me and turned towards the front of the boat her drink in her hand.

We looked at each other before I said. "You may want to think that through and go with ambidextrous Ma'am."

She too watched Becky walk to the end of the boat, her mouth open but saying very little, just watching the child you've lived with for over eight years and now realizing your information is slightly wrong. It must be hell when your proved wrong about your child.

She leaned on her thighs and said. "You're a ghost Curtis. The agency I had paid a damn fortune to find you, had no sooner found you than they closed my account with them and said they had no wish to investigate this case any further."

The agency collected their fee and gave her the address of the boat club before finding themselves too busy to continue the investigation. When she told me that she had been given that news, my mind instantly connected the dots. I now knew who the owner of the drone belonged to. These people clearly knew it was a mistake getting involved when Eric busted up their drone.

The voice of the little girl came from the middle of my boat. "Curtis, can we go for a ride in your boat, please?"

I couldn't see the point in refusing, but I made it a point that mother joined daughter for the boat ride. The look the little girl gave her mother would have melted the heart of a dead man. We cast off a few minutes later and Becky was now sitting cross legged on the top of the boat, waving at other passing boats as though she owned this one.

After ten minutes of mother sitting next to me and casting the odd sideways glance, I'd had enough. My hand came out and I said. "Curtis, how do you do."

She wore the panicked look rather well I thought when she realized that I still didn't know her name. We shook on it as she apologized and said. "I'm so sorry, Ruth Forbes-Hamilton."

The bulb came on even quicker than I imagined. "As in THE Forbes-Hamiltons?"

She was also quicker this time" Yep those Forbes-Hamiltons."

She clearly didn't want me to comment, so I didn't. It showed us that little ears were still listening in when the munchkin on my boat's roof turned her head to look at me and said. "Mommy says we're filthy rich, but when I get dirty momma always says I gotta have a shower."

Becky went back to waving at other boats passing us going the other way, or people walking or cycling along the footpath. She didn't notice the shocked look and then smile from her own mother when daughter tried so hard to be involved in adult conversations.

I pointed down into the cabin and said. "There is sunscreen in the medical cabinet, I suggest you two lather up. On a boat, if the sun doesn't get you from above, it bounces off the water and gets you from below."

For the next twenty minutes I had my best poker face on when I watched mother sunscreen daughter and herself, then my thoughts came to a screeching halt and I slammed that door shut so hard I'm sure they both heard it close.

But the offending thought had snuck out and was having a field day. Given the scene in front of me, we actually looked like a family.

*******

"If either of you are hungry, I can maybe rustle something up that won't give either of you food poisoning, or the safer bet is the pub coming up in a few minutes. It's well used so we will have to tie-up and walk a little. The choices are yours."

The talk between them concluded that pub food was safer, so we tied-up at the end of the line of canal boats already here and walked the footpath. A few of the boats sold goods, so Ruth bought a couple of pairs of sunglasses for them both, another bottle of sunscreen, and a baseball cap apiece.

The food was quickly eaten by them both, and rapidly chased down by fizzy drinks that required a burp from the munchkin, and although she tried to hold it back, her mother followed suit a minute or so later.

It was plain as day the love they had for each other, it seemed to ooze from every pore in their bodies. Becky was walking ahead of us both when I initiated the conversation. I told Ruth why I was in the area that day, and that with the threat to her daughter taken care of between the late bodyguards and I, I still needed to go to the funeral for my friend's wife.

"I'm not asking you to put yourself in my shoes Ruth, but you have got to understand, my friend was the reason I was there in the first place. Any delay in getting to the funeral or not getting there at all because I'm now sitting at a police station somewhere, would have destroyed him. I got your daughter out of the line of fire and back into your arms and I made sure I scared the hell out of a cab-driver to do it."

Munchkin was now skipping the last few yards to the boat and it made me add. "I can't take back what I did, and even as we talk, I know I wouldn't have done anything different. She's safe and in your arms, please don't hate me for what I needed to do to make two people happy that day, and all within a country that wasn't my own, I might add."

If she had an answer to my statement, I didn't hear it. I held out my hand, she grasped it and she got onto my boat. A few moments later we were heading for the turnaround point and back to the boat club. Becky had once again pulled her trainers and socks off and climbed back onto the roof, hugging teddy and of course waving and smiling at everyone who waved at her.

They both left me with a thank-you for the day trip. Telling them they were both welcome was easy but watching them walk hand in hand back to the boat club left me feeling just a little, lost. A man in a suit appeared from the driver's side of the car and walked by her side, right up to the car that carried them both out of the gates of the boat club. It was then that that little voice in my head told me I needed a holiday and right now.

Sadly, even that thought was put on hold, my boss called me, and I returned to base to cover for him for a week while he had his own family emergency. It was hard to think of my boss as a family man, he was my boss first and foremost. His wife knew he was career army, and for the last fifteen years ran the household. On the occasions I was invited to burn meat with them I had come to see them as the ideal family, and when my boss shed that skin of authority we call a uniform, the man peaks out. One day perhaps I would someday strive to emulate him.

Their eldest boy was knocked off his bicycle, and the boss rushed to the hospital to be with them all. He was gone for almost a week before he walked back into his office and told me to get out. The swelling on his son's brain was now going down and he woke up late last night wanting something to eat. Typical boy I suppose. I spent the next couple of hours making plans for my own holiday, and once changed into civilian clothes, I made it to the airport with enough time to chill out before my flight was being called.

*******

It was the dwindling end of the tourist season in Malta. I was on my second day here and already formed a routine; breakfast at the hotel and then walk along the public part of the bay that looked over towards the docks. One of those big old cruise ships had docked sometime in the early hours of the morning and the coaches standing in line to take the tourists on to see the sights were slowly filling up.

I watched in mild amusement for a few minutes and then turned to walk further along the street. Then a tiny hand slid into mine, making me stop rather abruptly. She didn't care, she just kept right on smiling.

The voice from behind also startled me. "I must say, we have got to stop meeting like this."

By now Ruth had come alongside me. My mind quickly filled with just one question, the soldier in me had to put the protector of this little girl to one side so I could ask it as well.

"Why are you following me?"

The pause was only so they could both draw breath; it was then it felt like they laughed at me in stereo.

Ruth then grabbed my arm and held on tight, her head connected with my upper arm for a moment before she said. "Man, don't you have an over inflated opinion of yourself."

She turned us and we all started to walk towards the town. After a pause she said. "With Becky's kidnapping, I realized that we both needed time away from familiar places, plus some places that held too many reminders, so I promised her a treat."

The treat it seems was a cruise around Europe. While they were packing for the cruise she got a call that I had come back, so they made a minor detour. Since their boat for the cruise was leaving from Southampton Docks in England, they just got an earlier flight. Ruth then closed in on me and said in a conspiratorial tone that Becky had only just let the wheels of the Limo stop before she was out of the car and running up the footpath to my boat.

They both knew where my boat was since they had visited twice already to talk to the owners and perhaps gain a better look at the owner of the Keyleigh Ortiz.

"The very first time we turned up at the club, Sarah knew something was up when Becky and I wanted to walk the club grounds before we signed. When Becky spotted your boat moored up, she let out a very unladylike yelp and happy danced all the way to the boat."

This time Ruth sighed before continuing. "Don't get me wrong Curtis, we both fell in love with the people and the club from the very first time we went there. It was another reason I added the condition of Sarah and Gil staying on rather than put my own people in there. They dote on Becky, and even I must admit that in the short time I've known them, I class them as my friends. Sarah is one of a few people to actually have my personal cell number."

Sarah was awake when I returned to the boat club in the early hours and had phoned Ruth instantly. They changed planes and got to the boat club an hour before I opened the door and spotted Becky sitting on the footpath staring at me. After our day out together, they really needed to get going or they would miss the boarding time for the cruise ship.

"So, you see mister, you're actually following us around."

"Momma, where are we going?"

We both looked at Becky, and then at each other.

"Well Curtis? Where are you taking us since you're now our guide here."

I shrugged my shoulders and both girls decided to have a giggle fit. Since we were this close, I took them on a sight-seeing boat tour of the harbor, it took all of five minutes for Becky to sit on my lap, when we got on the boat. Ruth smirked but said nothing as she listened to the woman in charge of commentary as she took the boat's tourists through the troubled history of the buildings around the harbor.

We then took a cab inland to the deserted world war two airfield, that was once British and now decommissioned, the locals converted the huts into small workshops. Some years later they also erected a building to display the history of the grounds, the airfield, and the people who defended it as the Germans tried so hard to bomb Malta into submission. Ruth had a field day with the hand-made jewelry on display.

We then got the cab to stop at the caves and as we all had drinks and ice cream. I explained that during the war, the population would seek shelter in the caves when their homes were nothing more than rubble, often sitting next to ammunition boxes and barrels of oil as the Germans bombed the towns and harbor around the caves.

"How do you know so much about this place?"

"I'm English, Malta has a history with our country that I can relate too. At one stage in my life, I actually contemplated moving here permanently."

Her brow creased as she thought about how vague my answer was.

"So why didn't you?"

All I could do was once again shrug my shoulders. That decision was taken off the table when I was offered full command of the Unit. This island will always be a place I come to recharge my batteries; but, until my life with the Unit comes to its conclusion, moving here permanently has to remain just a dream, for now at least.