Read Fallen Palm (Jesse McDermitt Series) for Free Online

change my mind.” It was a great laugh. Not a little princess giggle, but a hearty, genuine, belly laugh. Then, the words she’d actually said got through my fog addled brain. We all get wet and dirty sometimes? Was there something to that? No, couldn’t be.
    I climbed into her Jeep and ratcheted the seat all the way back, to keep my knees off the dash. She reached in back and handed me a towel. Drying my face, I asked, “How’d you know my name? Have we met?”
    “It’s a small island, Jesse. I asked around about you and that big Rampage of yours,” she replied. Asked around? About me? Hmm, an honest, direct answer to a simple question, I thought. I like that. “Do you have a destination in mind, or do you just want to sit here, dripping water in my floor boards?” Again, with that hearty laugh.
    “Yeah, um, if you could drop me at my boat, over at Dockside, that’d be great. Guess I’ll wait out this rain and get my friend Rusty to bring me back, after the engine’s cooled. I think it’s just a case of vapor lock. That’s where…”
    She pulled off the shoulder suddenly and did a sharp u-turn and started driving south, toward Dockside, interrupting me and completing my explanation, “Where air bubbles form in the fuel line, when it gets hot, like today.” Okay, she knows a little about engines, I thought. “Or,” she continued, “it could be a clog in the fuel return line to the tank. That’d mimic a vapor lock problem. Has it done this before?” Okay, she knows a lot about engines.
    “Only about every other day or so,” I replied. I looked over at her, as she drove. She must have been coming or going to a lunch date, or something. She wore a blue, print sundress, with thin straps and what looked like pale blue and yellow flowers all over it. Bare, smooth, tanned legs and a pair of blue flat heeled shoes. Her blonde hair was styled, but not overly so, just a little wave in it and she wore no makeup, except maybe some lip gloss. A far cry from the woman I’d seen around the docks and on the flats, who was purported to be one of the best fishing guides around. She smelled faintly of jasmine and soap. Nothing overbearing, just a hint, probably not perfume, but more likely the shampoo she used.
    “You should get rid of that beast and buy something built in this century maybe. At least in the last quarter century,” she laughed again. “Hey, reach back there and grab me a beer, would you? Get two, if it’s not too early for you.”
    I looked in back and there was a small fiberglass boat cooler. I reached in and felt around through the ice and pulled out two icy cold bottles of Hatuey. “Thanks for the beer,” I said, as I twisted the top off and handed her one. “Beast, huh? Seems a fitting moniker for that old truck. I really don’t need a truck and it’d be a waste of money to buy anything newer, as little as I drive it. Besides, it’s kind of like me, old and cantankerous at times. Usually, if it won’t start, I can just walk to wherever I'm going, or take my skiff. But today I was going up to Long Key to look at some new Fin-Nor reels a guy up there just got in. Guess that’ll have to wait for another day, now.”
    “My client for the afternoon canceled because of the rain,” she said. “I just came from meeting my attorney and I don’t have anything else to do today. If you want, we could stop by my place on Key Colony Beach and I could change and take you to Long Key. I’ve wanted to look at some new tackle myself.”
    “I couldn’t put you out like that,” I said. Besides, I don’t even know your name, I was thinking. I was really hoping she was serious, though. I could listen to her laugh all day long.
    As if reading my thoughts she said, “I’m Alex, short for Alexis, but nobody calls me that. Really, I’m serious. This rain’s not going to stop any time soon and since my client canceled, I have absolutely nothing else to do today. And I really do need to replace one of