Kells sat a little while silently staring at nothing. He finally said: “Drive down toward Long Beach.”
Borg started the car and they went down the dark street slowly. The fog was very thick; street lights were vague yellow blobs in the darkness.
Kells tapped Borg’s knee suddenly. “Have you ever been out to Fay’s boat?”
Borg hadn’t. “I ain’t much of a gambler,” he said. “I went out to the Joanna D. once, before it burned up — with a broad.”
“Do you remember how to get to the P & O wharf?”
Borg said he thought so. They turned into the main highway south. After about a half-hour, they turned off into what turned out to be a blind street. They tried the next one and had just about decided they were wrong again when Borg saw the big white P & O on the warehouse that ran out on the wharf. They parked the car and walked out to the waiting room.
Kells asked the man in the office if the big red-faced man who ran one of the launches to the Eaglet was around.
The man looked at his watch. “You mean Bernie, I guess,” he said. “He oughta be on his way back with a load.”
They sat down and waited.
Bernie laughed. He said: “You ain’t as wet as you were the last time I saw you.”