“Mister Buckman, Mrs. Buckman, good morning. Might I have a word with you?”
“Sure, come on in.” I glanced over at Marilyn with a bit of mystification. She looked back the same way. We hadn’t had anything to do with Finch or his office since we got there, other than a restaurant recommendation or two. I stepped out of the way and he came into the living room.
The first thing he saw was the newspaper on the coffee table. “Ah, you have seen the paper already,” he said with a smile.
“Yes, Mrs. Wilkes brought it this morning.”
“That was quite a remarkable thing you did, capturing those three men. They were very dangerous men!”
I waved a hand. “Really, Mister Finch, the paper made it sound much more dramatic than it really was.”
“That is not what Assistant Superintendant Javier told me,” he replied.
“Don’t listen to him, Mister Finch! Carl was just as heroic as they reported. Too heroic, if you ask me!” commented Marilyn.
I laughed at that and reached out and took her hand. “I promise, no more heroics.” I turned back to our concierge. “So, you talked to the Assistant Superintendant.”
“Oh, yes, he called me Friday night, or really Saturday morning, to ask about you. Both of you, actually.”
“Both of us!? Whatever for!?” asked my wife.
I had to smile at that. She can be a bit naïve at times. “Standard police work, honey. You always check on everybody,” I told her.
“Precisely so,” agreed Finch, amiably. “The Assistant Superintendant is a very thorough man.”
“I gathered as much from the newspaper. It seems that Assistant Superintendant Javier has made a nice little string of arrests and cleared up a number of crimes here.”
“Yes, it would seem so. I have to tell you, as a citizen of the Bahamas, these men are very unusual. The Bahamas is a very quiet and safe place, and crime is very unusual! You should not think this sort of thing is common!” he said.
I glanced at Marilyn and smiled. She smiled back. “Neither of us thought anything of the sort. We have found it quite lovely here, and hope to come back some day.”
My wife chimed in, “Really, everyone here has been terrific. Some day we will have to bring our children here for a visit.”
“Oh, there are so many things for children to do! How many do you have?”
“Just one now, a baby boy, but we plan on a few more,” she said.
He nodded. “So this was in the way of a second honeymoon, then?”
“Yes it was.”
“What a terrible way to see it end! Allow me to make it up to you. I know you leave tomorrow. I want to invite you to a small dinner party at my home tonight. I know a number of the local people and they would all love to meet you and thank you for your help.”
“Well, really Mister Finch, that’s just not necessary. It really wasn’t that big a deal,” I protested.
“No, I insist. Mrs. Wilkes told me how you have been cut and how she bandaged you up this morning. I know Assistant Superintendant Javier would like to see you once more before you leave.”
I looked over at my wife and shrugged. “I guess dinner is taken care of tonight.”
“Fine by me,” she agreed.
“Okay, Mister Finch, but we really don’t have anything fancy to wear. We’re just a couple of tourists on vacation. My wardrobe is pretty much limited to clean khakis and a shirt.”
“I promise, that will be fine. We will be very informal. Shall we say seven this evening? Mrs. Wilkes can give you directions. It is very close by.”
“We look forward to it, sir. Thank you.” We shook hands and then he left. After he left, I commented to Marilyn, “I think that is what they call a command performance.”
“I think you’re right. What do we do?”
“Well, today, let’s just get in the car and drive up and down the island, one end to the other. I want to see more than what there is here.”
She nodded. “Okay, let’s get ready and go. Give me five minutes.”
I smiled at that. Five minutes to Marilyn is closer to thirty minutes to normal humans. I used the bathroom myself, and then waited for Marilyn to get ready. Once she appeared, I tapped my watch and said, “Five minutes on the dot, honey!” She immediately started protesting, but I just waved it off and moved her out the door.
First stop was to gas up the Cavalier. I wasn’t too sure how long the drive was, but I knew it would be a few hours. Gas is not cheap outside of the States. I remember the first time we drove in the islands, in my other life, I thought it was pretty reasonable, until I figured out that the prices listed were for liters, not gallons! Ooops!
Eleuthera is about a hundred miles long, and the Queens Highway is the main drag the entire length of the island. In most places it’s the only drag; the island is very narrow and it’s the only main road. We sent the day driving it, first north past Governors Harbor, all the way up to Spanish Wells, and then turned around and drove back and beyond. We kept going all the way down to Bannerman Town, where we had lunch. Then it was back north again, to La Valencia, where we took a nap before dinner.
At six, we got ready to go out. It was pretty simple for both of us. Marilyn pulled on a calf length halter top sundress and a pair of high heeled sandals, and she looked pretty good. My choices were limited, and I decided that in the future I’d be sure to pack at least a sport coat. I pulled on some clean khakis and a long sleeved dress shirt, and then rolled the sleeves up, but not high enough to show the bandage. I didn’t even have socks, and it had totally slipped my mind to buy any while we were out and around, so I simply slipped into my deck shoes. They were going to have to take their heroes as they came. I grabbed my cane and we headed out.
The address I got from Finch was only about five minutes away, if that. It was a little north of us, back towards the airport, in what I suspect was an upscale neighborhood. It was certainly very neat and tidy, although it wasn’t beachfront. I suspected beachfront property was too valuable for anybody local. Better to live a little inland and use that beachfront to fleece the Yankees. The address seemed correct and there were several cars already in the driveway, so I parked and Marilyn and I headed towards the door.
I knocked on the door and a few moments later, Finch opened the door. He smiled broadly when he saw us. “I’m so glad you could make it,” he said.
“Everyone here has been so pleasant, how could we not,” I replied. “Thank you for inviting us, Mister Finch.”
He opened the door wider and ushered us inside. “Please, call me Jonathan.”
“Thank you. You already know us as Marilyn and Carl. I’m glad we were able to find you. I’m still getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road.”
“Here we think of it as the right side of the road, or more accurately, the correct side of the road.”
“I’ll probably get used to it just in time to go home and get in an accident back home,” I said with a laugh.
“Maybe I’ll have to drive when we get home. You’ve been doing all the driving here,” commented Marilyn.
“Come in, let me introduce you to a few people.”
“I just hope nobody is expecting anything fancy. Marilyn looks good in anything, but I wasn’t planning much. I mean, I’m on vacation, right?”
“You have an interesting way of spending your vacations,” commented somebody coming in from the side. I looked over and found Assistant Superintendant Javier coming closer. “What do you do when you are working?” he asked with a smile.