Killing Chase by Ben Muse

with a hint of mischievousness in his brown eyes. I liked this new side of my father. However, I began to wonder when things would head south between us. History was not on our side, and derailment was usually just around the corner.
    “Umm, Dad, there is the small matter of me traveling outside the country. I am on parole.” He looked at me in mock disgust as if he were ashamed of me.
    “You don’t give your old man enough credit. Art’s already obtained permission for you to travel to Nassau. Your passport is still valid for another eighteen months. Of course, I did have to put up a million-and-a-half bond with the State Parole Board, so please do not attempt to seek asylum in the Bahamas.”
    Five hundred feet. The flaps deployed and the jet slowed. Thirty seconds later, we crossed the Cape Fear River at a hundred feet and then the threshold of the runway. Dad put her down smoothly, and we taxied to his private hangar. Foggy Harbor. Home.

Chapter 9
     
    “ You can drive the small boat inside the big boat?”
    Dad laughed and said, “It’s much easier to disembark guests inside the boat rather than tying up next to her and having to worry about the chop. We simply fill the dry dock with seawater and drive the tender inside. There are a number of ports that are unable to accommodate us, so sometimes we have to drop anchor and tender in.”
    “Why would anyone want to leave this ship?” I asked.
    “Not every yacht we build has this feature, but the Anchor Management is unlike any boat we’ve ever built. It has every bell and whistle that our team of design experts could think of for a boat her size. For example, see this starboard hull wall behind me?” he said, turning around and walking to a control panel mounted next to the dry dock/swimming pool. He punched in a code on a digital keypad, and immediately the hull wall opened outward and lowered itself toward the water.
    “We call this the Beach. Twenty-five feet of rear, starboard wall lower to just above sea level. We can put tables and lounge chairs out here and a ladder if people wish to go for a swim in the ocean. If they want to drink, we have a wet bar, as well as a bathroom and steam shower for cleaning up after the swim.” He pointed behind me and continued, “Port side opens too. That’s where we launch the jet skis and personal watercraft. It’s forward thinking like this that has kept our company on the cutting edge of modern shipbuilding,” he said matter-of-factly.
    I guessed it wasn’t bragging if you could back it up. The truth was my mouth had been wide open since I stepped aboard. Six decks, including a helipad, two pools, and three Jacuzzis . . . and the decor and layout were amazing. Understated elegance was the phrase that came to mind. I appreciated the fact that there were no vertical steel bars on the windows.
    “So you live on here?” I asked.
    “I do, most of the time. I’ve put together such a great team that mainly all I do is entertain clients. We fly people in, like today, and take them out on the ship for a couple of days, and the whole experience sells itself. People love the ship. On the trip back, before we dock here at the marina, I will sit the clients down and show them a presentation our marketing team will have put together of a ship with all the amenities they requested. Seven times out of ten, they want to add amenities. A kid’s entertainment room, a spa room, a movie room. You name it and it has probably been requested. The master suite our guests are staying in this weekend has a sea terrace, just like the Beach, but on a smaller scale. Folks with money to burn love stuff like this.”
    “How long does it take to build a two-hundred-thirty-foot boat with six decks?”
    “It’ll take as long as it takes, is what I’ll tell the client,” he said, punching in the code to raise the “Beach” wall. “A yacht of this size is not to be rushed. We’ve had a few contracts that have taken us two, sometimes