“Pretty sleek, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she sure is,” Luther answered. He was standing at the edge of the parking lot at Cape May Harbor, bare chested and in worn blue jeans, with a slit at one of the knees, his bare feet in a pair of thin sandals. The cabin cruiser was gleaming white and long and had at least three decks to it as far as Luther could see, not counting the top sundeck where a raven-haired woman with the slightest of bikinis on was stretched out on a deck lounger.

The man standing next to Luther was maybe in his early fifties. His once-dark hair had grayed at the temple. He wasn’t as tall as Luther and was slimmer, but he looked like he spent a good amount of his time in the gym. His face was handsome, although someone more worldly wise than Luther could have seen that it had had a lot of work done on it. He was nattily decked out in white trousers and a white polo shirt, white deck loafers without socks, and a white sweater reversed on his back, with the arms loosely tied across his chest. He had a gold medallion nestled in his chest hair, dangling on a gold chain around his neck; a diamond ring large enough to choke a horse; and a Rolex watch. His hands were manicured and the sunglasses wedged in his hair cost more than Luther made in a year.

All of this swept right past Luther, though. The man had talked to him in a friendly manner and smiled at him. He was being real friendly. That was enough for Luther to be friendly back.

“Her name is Pamela.”

“Oh, that’s a nice name.”

“The ship is called Pamela too. And it’s pretty sleek too, if I do say so.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Oh, I know you didn’t. I was just joking with you. My name is Jonathan. Jonathan Payne. That’s my boat. My wife too, for that matter.”

“Umm. That’s nice. I’m—”

“You’re Luther. Yes, I know. I’ve checked around.”

“You’ve checked around?”

“How would you like to do some cruising in that yacht, Luther?”

“Cruising? Me?”

“Yes, you. We can make it worth your while. Say $200 for a day cruise. We could go out now and come back tonight.”

“Now?” Luther asked. He would have been a real dummy not to notice that Jonathan had the palm of a hand on the small of his back.

“Yes, of course now. Let’s say $300.”

“Uh, that sounds nice, but I promised to meet a friend at sunset. Down on the beach.”

“Oh, hell, $500 and we’ll have you back in the morning.” Obviously Jonathan didn’t realize that Luther had little sense for money. He might have had much more success by telling Luther how fast the yacht could cruise and how its engine worked.

“I’d love to go out in that yacht. Maybe some other day,” was what Luther answered.

“Yes, maybe some other day,” Jonathan repeated. He didn’t seem that upset he hadn’t succeeded. But with people like him, there always was another day.

“But you’d be willing to go out with us someday?”

“I’d love it. I have a friend to meet at sunset, though.”

“So you said. Well, anytime you have for cruising come on down. If we’re here, we’ll be happy to have you . . . to take you out.”

“Thanks, Mr. Payne. I’d like that.”

“It’s Jonathan. And, Luther, we’d show you a really good time. A really good time.”

Luther smiled like he understood what he was being told.

“Oh, here, you have a speck on your jeans. Let me . . .” Without further asking, he let his hand run down Luther’s crotch. He drew in his breath deeply at discovering how far he had to slide the hand to run out of what he was checking.

“Uh, thanks. I gotta go now. Bye.”

“Bye, Luther. Tell you what, you go out on a cruise with us and I’ll give you $1,000.”

“That’s great, Mr. Payne. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

Jonathan stood, shaking his head, and moving his hand on his crotch as he watched Luther jauntily walk away toward the Cape May beaches.