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came the odors I had smelled. Arne must be in the galley cooking, I thought. I sniffed deeply. The perfume wasn’t coming through the door; it was coming from Jodi.
    Arne poked his head into the pilot house. “Still got the same glass jaw, Durham,” he said with a happy grin.
    “Go to hell,” I told him.
    He disappeared and I looked at Jodi again. She was worth looking at, and I spent a moment enjoying myself. Jodi caught me.
    She said, “You didn’t look at me that way thirteen years ago.”
    I was too bushed and too hungry to blush. I said, “Thirteen years ago you didn’t look quite the same.”
    She gave me a gamin grin and brought me a bottle of Arne’s fifteen dollar scotch and a glass. I took down three fingers neat. I got up, took the bottle and glass, and went into the forecastle. I located a shirt and pair of dungarees that had shrunk down enough to fit me. I put them on, had another drink, and went back to Jodi.
    She said, “Every time I see you lately, Peter, you’re borrowing someone else’s clothes.”
    Arne stuck his head into the pilot house. He got a big laugh out of the way his shrunken-down clothing hung on me. I scowled at him. “What’s the idea of belting me that way?”
    “When somebody comes busting on my dock, I don’t ask who he is until afterward,” Arne said. “And I told you I don’t like snoopers.”
    “I wasn’t snooping, damn it,” I said. “I was running from a beautiful blonde who had ideas about shooting me.”
    I was looking straight at him when I said it, and I could have sworn that for a moment he lost all color under his heavy tan. Then the moment was gone. He gave a snort hefty with disbelief and held out his hand for the scotch bottle.
    “Come and eat,” he said.
    I gave him the bottle and stepped aside to let Jodi go into the galley. When we were seated before broiled salmon, shrimp salad, and hot rolls, she said, “Was it the same blonde you saw in the islands, Peter?”
    I was too busy eating to answer right off. When my mouth was empty, I said, “I’ll bet on it,” and waited for Arne’s reaction.
    He gave me another snort. Jodi said quickly, “Arne’s irritated because I’m trying to get him to come and live with me.”
    He gave her a look that seemed pure venom. But again the moment was too short for me to be sure. He said, “A house don’t feel right under my feet.”
    Joli gave me a faint smile that asked for understanding. She said, “But, Peter, why would this woman shoot at you?”
    I told them what she wanted. Arne said, “What could Harbin put in a report to make anybody want it bad enough to kill for?”
    I shrugged. “The blonde and her mustard-colored friend were getting downright nasty when someone in Reese’s office turned on a spotlight and gave me a chance to duck out.”
    The door to the after deck stood open. A head came through the doorway and Reese Fuller said, “I didn’t know that was you in trouble, Durham, or I’d never have turned on the light.”
    He didn’t sound as if he was joking.
    Jodi said quickly, “Have some coffee, Reese.”
    He accepted and sat down opposite me. He had evidently been listening to our conversation from out on deck, because he said, “I agree with Arne. Last week Harbin told me that he had nothing significant to report.”
    I said, “Last week he wasn’t in the hospital with his head broken.”
    Jodi fretted her lower lip with her teeth. “Will Tom be all right?”
    I said, “With a concussion like this one, he has to be all right soon or he won’t make it at all.”
    Reese Fuller wasn’t interested in Tom Harbin’s condition. He gulped down his coffee and stood up. “I came down to the office to get the work order ready on the
Flyer.”
He was talking to Arne. She’s due in tomorrow early.” He nodded to Jodi. “Thanks for the coffee.” He took off. I thought it was a hell of a way to leave his fiancée.’
    The conversation had died and we finished the meal in silence. I