Fallen Out: Jesse McDermitt Series, The Beginning Read Online Free PDF Page B

owner to make a special rate, Captain. When will you be here?”
    I looked at my watch and said, “Our ETA is 1600.”
    “Look forward to meeting you, Captain. Slip number 10 is at the end, first one you’ll come to out of Sister Creek, right next to the dinghy dock and boat ramp. Dockside out.”
    Jimmy burst out laughing. “Man, you’re good. His usual rate is eight bucks a foot for semi-permanent. And he doesn’t have any big charter boats there. This beauty will bring in more than the dock fee in just beer and food from your clients. Not to mention the fuel, man.”
    “Okay,” I said. “You have three hours to teach me enough to keep from looking like a jackass.”
    For the next three hours, he described Boot Key Harbor, the approaches from the west inlet and Sister Creek. He explained how to maneuver the boat outside the slip and back it in, without hitting the piers. He told me everything he knew about charter fishing and diving. By the time we pulled into Sister Creek, I was well armed with knowledge.
    Surprisingly, I didn’t run over any boats in the harbor and managed to back the Revenge into slip 10 without taking out the whole dock. Jimmy had explained how to face aft when backing and use the throttles to steer, with nudges to the wheel from my back.
    Thirty minutes later, Aaron and I agreed on $300 a month and he contacted a local air brush artist to come out and put the name on the boat, the gear box, and the portal over the dock. I was now in business . That is, with the exception of getting a six pack license to charter, registering the boat, and acquiring a business license. Details.

Chapter Three
    For the next two weeks, Jimmy helped me get the boat ready to charter, made arrangements with a nearby bait shop, helped me buy tackle and other gear, and went with me to the County Clerk to get a business license and even to the Chamber of Commerce. He suggested I might want to buy a small skiff to get around whenever the International broke down, explaining that just about everything was accessible by boat on the island. I had to go down to Key West to register the boat and while I was waiting, I looked over some pamphlets that were on the counter.
    “Thinking of buying an island?” one of the clerk s asked.
    “Buy an island?”
    “Yes sir,” she said. “Some of the smaller uninhabited islands are available to be used as fish camps.”
    “Really?” I said. “How much would a little island sell for?”
    Later that evening, after I’d registered the Revenge, Rusty, Jimmy, and I were sitting at a table in the bar, eating blackened grouper and washing it down with cold Kalik beer.
    “You bought a freaking island?” Rusty said in amazement.
    “It’s a little over two acres at high tide,” I replied. “Up in the Content Keys, near Harbor Channel. And no, I haven’t bought it yet. Just put a deposit on it until I can see it.”
    He roared with laughter, his face turning beet red. “Bro, most of those islands up there you can’t even get a flats skiff up to. You got taken.”
    “So, are you gonna take me up there, or not?”
    “Sure, first thing in the morning ,” he said still laughing. “Bring your waders, though.”
    We left before sunrise and got to the GPS coordinates I was given at the County Clerk’s office. Rusty was right. Even though the tide was nearly high, we beached his little skiff a good twenty yards from the mangrove shoreline and only ten yards out of Harbor Channel.
    I was somewhat dejected. “Maybe the water’s a little deeper on the other side.”
    “Might be,” Rusty said pondering the little island that lay before us. “I don’t get up here enough to know for sure. The thing is, if you’re serious about buying this island, right here’s where you’re going to have to dig a channel. That, or a dock all the way out to Harbor Channel.”
    We got out and waded ashore. The mangroves weren’t very thick, but the saw palmetto was. We finally found what looked