You've Got Male novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Shem Creek

The bait shop on Shem Creek smelled of diesel, shrimp and old rope.

Kellen was waiting on the dock out front in a grey T-shirt, with sawdust in his hair.

He looked like a different man than the one in the tuxedo.

He looked better, and that annoyed me.

"Upstairs," he said. "She just got off a night shift."

The loft over the shop had slanted ceilings and one big window on the creek.

The table was made from an old hatch cover.

A woman in blue scrubs sat at it, eating cereal out of a mixing bowl.

She had short dyed-black hair and tired brown eyes.

She looked at me for a long time before she put the spoon down.

"This is Colleen," Kellen said. "My big sister. Colleen, this is Cassidy Barnwell."

"Manigault," Colleen said. "Since yesterday."

"Don't," I said. "Please."

She almost smiled.

"Sit."

I sat.

"Three years ago, I married a man named Daniel Rourke," she said. "In Savannah."

"He sold boat insurance," she said. "He was kind and funny, and he brought me soup when I worked doubles."

She said it flat.

"He had a mother. She had a cane and pearls, and she cried at the wedding."

My stomach turned over.

"Six weeks later, Daniel had me sign a refinance on my house," she said. "For the honeymoon, he said."

"Then a power of attorney, in case I got sick," she said. "Then a loan against my retirement, to invest in his business."

"Two hundred and ten thousand dollars," Kellen said quietly.

"He took it all in four months," she said. "Then he left, and his mother vanished."

"The number on his insurance card was a pizza place."

"Did you go to the police?"

"I went to three." Colleen's smile did not reach her eyes.

"Every one said the same thing," she said. "You signed it, ma'am. It's a civil matter."

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