“That’s a pretty good trick,” the uniformed deputy said.
“No trick,” I replied. “Dogs understand a lot of words, besides simple commands, and ours are intelligent enough to put words they understand together and figure it out. He knows the words take, up, and house, and I guess he just figured out on his own which one of you was Alberto.”
“Your house is very pretty,” Emily said. “But I will have to inspect.”
“Welcome to our island,” Savannah announced from the top of the steps, Woden standing beside her. “Please come on up and get out of the sun.”
“I’ll wait on the boat,” the deputy said, taking a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. “Okay to smoke here?”
“Your lungs,” I said. “Pollute ’em all you want, just don’t put anything in the water.”
The other two joined me and we followed Alberto and Finn up the steps, catching up to them quickly. The boy stopped halfway up and looked at Savannah.
“Are you the lady who found me?”
Savannah’s face registered her surprise, and she squelched a gasp. “You remember that? Yes, yes. Jesse and I found you and got your boat to land.”
He looked back at me and I nodded.
“Come on,” Savannah said. “I want to show you something.”
He hurried up the steps, with Finn right at his side.
Woden must have picked up on Finn’s attitude toward Alberto and his little stub of a tail wagged a welcome.
“That’s a Rottweiler,” Emily said, hesitantly.
I knew there were people who had irrational fears of big dogs, and even some whose fears were rational. The sight of a large Rott was all it took to send them into a panic.
When Alberto reached the top of the steps, both dogs danced around him, vying for attention.
“You don’t have anything to fear about our dogs,” I reassured the woman. “They’re like toddlers, just a little bigger.”
Once we reached the deck, Savannah put a hand on Alberto’s shoulder and guided him to the other side, which looked out over the island’s interior.
“Wow!” he exclaimed, climbing up on the rail for a better look.
“You’re free to explore anywhere you want,” Savannah said. “Finn and Woden can show you around.”
“Can I go look now?”
“Sure,” I replied. “Just be careful out on the other pier. Can you swim?”
I realized it was a dumb question, even as the words were coming out of my mouth.
Alberto turned and looked at me, a sadness in his eyes. “I don’t know.”
“No problem,” I said. “We can find that out later easy enough. Finn’s a great swim coach. Go ahead and look around.”
He and the dogs disappeared down the back steps and I turned to Emily. “He’s perfectly safe. And you probably have some questions he doesn’t need to hear.”
“Shall we go inside?” Savannah asked. “You’re staying for lunch, right?”
“I’m afraid not,” Andersen said. “Miss Delgado needs to get back and I have a lot to do.”
“And Miss Delgado is…”
“I’m with the Florida Department of Children and Families,” Emily replied, extending her hand.
Savannah shook it and we went inside. The welfare lady looked around. I wasn’t worried she’d find any fault, other than the bed in the living room.
“This will be the boy’s bed?” she asked, walking toward it.
“Yes,” Savannah replied. “Alberto can stay as long as he likes.”
“I’m only agreeing to this because Detective Andersen thinks the boy might be in danger.”
I could see Savannah’s jaw muscles tighten. She obviously didn’t like this woman. I knew I didn’t much care for her institutional manner, myself. She might have gotten into her line of work to make a difference, but that had likely worn off.
“His name’s Alberto,” I said, saving Savannah the confrontation. “At least that’s what we’ll call him until we know better. I can assure you, he’s perfectly safe with us.”
“Detective Andersen gave me a brief bio on you, Mr. McDermitt, but it only went back twenty years. He said you were a charter fisherman, but you don’t look like one, and if you don’t mind my saying, this island looks a lot more substantial than a fisherman could afford.”
I knew what she was angling toward. A lot of boat captains scored big bucks bringing contraband into South Florida.
“Did he also tell you that I retired from the Marine Corps about twenty years ago, or that I worked with Homeland Security after that?”
“Er—no, he didn’t.”
“And I bet he didn’t say anything about my dad and grandfather also being Marines, did he? My dad was killed in Vietnam when I was Alberto’s age.”
I was getting angry and needed to dial it back.
“Look, Miss Delgado, I was raised by my grandparents and was their sole heir. I inherited enough to buy this island and my charter boat. I’m partners in a security firm in Key Largo, which does some training and consultations with Miami-Dade PD. I don’t do drugs and I certainly don’t smuggle them into the country.”
“I wasn’t implying—”
“Perhaps not,” I said, cutting her off. “But you were thinking it.”
She looked toward Andersen for support.
“To be honest,” he said, “I didn’t dig very deep into the McDermitts’ backgrounds. The sheriff himself vouched for them.”
“Then I guess there’s no problem with them,” she said. “But a bed in the living area is out of the question.”
“By the end of the day, I’ll build a wall around it,” I said. “It will be a small room, but Alberto will have privacy.”
“We’re not placing him here permanently.”
I grinned at Savannah. “Then my wife will have that walk-in closet she’s wanted. Look, there are four houses on my island, and just below our feet is a boat with two staterooms. Alberto has plenty of room for privacy.”
She looked at each of us in turn, ending with Andersen. “Then I suppose he can stay.”
Andersen turned toward me and offered his hand. “Thank you, Mr. McDermitt. We’ll get out of your hair now.”
I walked them down to the waiting boat as Savannah went down the other steps to find Alberto.
“One last thing, Mr. McDermitt,” the welfare lady said,
