The Island Part Six
An island full of intrigue, terror and tragedy
The next few hours I tried to not think too much about the events of the day so far. Things got quite busy in the bar, I guessed a couple of tourist boats had come in full of day-trippers.
Landlord Pinter’s attitudy daughter came in to help a little, I got the impression it was on Daddy’s orders.
We agreed she would run the bar whilst I ran around picking up empty glasses off the tables. This way I got to say a quick hello to the girl off the boat.
The girl had her head buried in a well-read and equally well-thumbed copy of ’The Lonely Planet.’ She briefly agreed to meet up later after the bar had closed, which was fine by me.
A couple of tables down sat the two goons, their heads bowed in towards each other very conspiratorially. I edged closer to see if I could hear anything of interest and managed to catch hold of something I did not like the sound of at all.
It sounded like these two dangerous idiots were planning a nasty little surprise for Kell out at sea. I made a mental note to mention what I had heard to Kell later.
Later on, I over-heard yet another seedy plot near the kitchen. I had just finished a very nice piece of baked halibut with lovely fresh cooked veg ( better than the last hotel I had worked at which only served staff beans on toast). I was taking my dirty dish to the kitchen when I overheard some creepy kitchen porter trying to persuade a trainee chef to take me out to sea in the inn’s little three-horse power-boat and dump me in the ocean.
I don’t know what the blazes was going on around this place, but it seemed to me some folk had serious issues to deal with.
Suddenly Kell reappeared and popped into what passed for a staff dining room, a dining room for one! Kell wanted to know if everything was ok.
I mentioned about the two goons plotting to ram Kell with their fishing vessel if they saw him out at sea. He didn’t bat an eye.
“ Yeah, those two idiots got really pissed off with me when I bought a lovely little boat they wanted. Hey, you know what really teed them off was I got it very cheap too. No worries mate, thanks for looking out for me huh. I got your back and you got mine, ace. Anything else?
“ Errr…. Well yeah! What happened to the bloke you called Smiley, the guy found dead in the water?
“ Heart attack and fell in the drink and drowned. Or vice versa. Bit of a mystery really. In broad daylight too. Nobody saw a thing. Somebody saw his little fishing boat partially hidden by a vegetated outcrop down the coast a little. Called the coastguard out and in very little time they located his motionless, bloated body.
One slightly strange thing about it; one the coastguards tried mouth to mouth and said he smelt a very strong odour of bitter almonds in Smiley’s mouth. Go figure that one out if you can. Booze yeah, but bitter almonds? As I said, things can be a bit strange here at times.”
I told Kell about the mister bitter almonds visit to my room. Kell did not have a clue who I was talking about, which surprised me. Maybe he was a ghost only I could see. Then I told him about the ghost girl, who he did seem to know something about.
“ Oh yeah, heard lots of stories about her over the years. Never seen her myself mind.
Her name was Charlotte and a few years ago, when she was a little kid, she went off on her own to that wrecked ships figurehead museum at the Elysian Fields where I took you earlier, against her parent’s advice. She just disappeared into thin air. A few days later her poor bedraggled body was found washed up down on the nearby rocks. No obvious signs of injury, no rape, just her holding on to her cute little teddy bear. If only cute teddy bears could speak huh.” He grinned wryly.
" After that I hear her parents split up, each blaming the other, and went back to the mainland never to be seen again.
Ok champ, changing the subject to matters in hand, that other builder who came over on the boat with you this morning is going to finish Smiley’s plumbing in that guest bedroom he’s staying in. Meanwhile, I got a couple of visiting lithe young nurses lined up for a skinny dip over at the hotel pool at midnight tonight if you’re up for it?”
Not sure of how the land lay with the girl from the boat who I was supposed to meet up with I agreed. Two girls in the bush seemed a safer bet than a bird almost in the hand, I reasoned to myself. Besides I needed a break from all of this madness, a fair bit of which seemed to be centred on those fellow passengers on the boat that morning.
“I’m in.” I smiled. How little did I know that that skinny-dip was never going to happen due to yet more island madness. The more I thought about this whole episode the more I thought I could not in my wildest dreams make any of this up.
“ Ke-ell” boomed Pinter’s voice around the bar.
“ Whoops, time for me to leave. You haven’t seen me okay?” And with that Kell shot out the door just as Pinter came in the other.
“ Have you seen Kell?” Pinter said.
“No sir,” I replied.
“ Gawd help us and save us. You’ll never believe what’s just happened.” Pinter moaned.
