Chapter 16: Ellis on the Pier

I stopped in the middle of the crosswalk.

"Get off my truck, Ellis."

He didn't.

"You've been there twice," he said. "Tuesday with my uncle. Yesterday alone, for an hour on her front step. You took a box out of her garage."

"You're having me followed."

"I'm having my daughter's living situation documented. Courts like documentation." He smiled. "So do I."

"She's not your daughter."

"Not yet."

I took my keys out.

"Whatever that woman gave you," he said, "she's a fired employee who signed a release and has a grudge. Nobody will believe a word of it."

"Then you've got nothing to worry about," I said. "Move."

He glanced up at the fourth floor, and for once he didn't look pleased with himself.

"We should talk," he said. "Somewhere private. Before you do something you can't undo."

"I'm on the boat tonight till six in the morning," I said. "If you want to talk, come say it in front of my crew."

He stepped away from the door.

I got in and drove off without looking in the mirror.

That night we docked a car carrier at Dundalk Marine Terminal and a tanker at Curtis Bay, and moved a dredge barge that didn't want to move.

At 5:50 a.m. we tied the Resolute up at her berth.

My mate was coiling a line.

My deckhand was eating a sandwich he'd been saving since midnight.

And Ellis Clagett was standing at the end of my pier with a cardboard tray of coffees.

Four of them.

"He brought coffee," my mate said. "Should I throw it in the water or him?"

"Let him talk."

I climbed down onto the pier.

He held out the tray and set it on a bollard.

"Peace offering. For your crew."

My deckhand looked at the cups.

"I take mine from people I like," he said, and went back to his sandwich.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Dumping My Ex For His Uncle from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.