“Isn’t that the guy we saw standing on the dock the day we were out on the boat?” Jo asked Harriett.
“Looks like him,” Harriett replied.
“Were there whales around that day?” Claude asked.
“Yeah,” Jo said.
Claude laughed. “Then it was him. Leonard’s always out there looking for whales. If I can get his attention, I’ll introduce you.”
Claude waved from the deck until she caught the man’s eye. He returned the gesture and left the kids playing in the surf. As he walked up to greet them, he grabbed a striped towel from one of the chaises and draped it around his neck.
“Well, hello there!” He was already on his way up the stairs when he recognized them. “If it isn’t my fellow whale watchers. I see you’ve met my better half. I’m Leonard.”
“Harriett.” She held out a hand. “And Jo.”
“Are you two enjoying the party? Claude really outdid herself this year.” He put his arm around the woman and planted a playful kiss on the top of her head. “I wonder what Jackson will think when he gets the bill.”
“I imagine he’ll think it’s an excellent write-off,” Jo said. “All you have to do is invite a few business contacts to your party, and the government picks up part of the tab.”
Leonard’s impish grin suggested he knew his way around the tax code.
“Claude!” They all looked up to see Jackson Dunn leaning over the roof deck railing. “Can you come up for a sec?”
Claude gave him a thumbs-up and rolled her eyes as soon as he’d vanished from view. “Doesn’t matter how much cash Jackson spends,” she said. “He always makes sure he gets his money’s worth. If you’ll excuse me, I must earn my pay.” She gave Leonard a peck on the cheek and hurried off.
“That woman’s a miracle worker,” Leonard marveled. “She could re-create Paradise if you were willing to pay. I don’t know what we’d do without her.”
“Claude told us you have a house on the Pointe,” Harriett said. “Why aren’t you up on the roof with your neighbors helping Jackson justify his deductions?”
A young woman in a black dress appeared on the deck with a thick green beverage, which she handed to Leonard. “My afternoon smoothie,” he explained. “I don’t drink anymore. And I have no time for all the glad-handing going on upstairs. I spent thirty years making money for other people. Now I’d rather just hang out with dogs and kids.”
“And whales,” Jo added.
Leonard’s face lit up at the mention of whales. “Can you believe the show that female put on the other day? I’ve been coming to the Pointe for twenty years, and I’ve never seen anything like it. I wonder what got into her.”
Jo had to restrain herself from glancing over at Harriett. “You do a lot of whale watching?”
“Whenever I can.” Leonard wiped away a green smoothie mustache. “They’re such magnificent creatures. At some point in the future, when our own species is more evolved, we’ll look back and be very ashamed of what we’ve done to the whales.”
“While you’ve been out looking for whales, have you noticed the crowds down by Danskammer Beach lately?” Harriett asked.
Leonard shook his head with disgust. “The vultures haven’t gone away since the body was found. I’m afraid that sort of behavior doesn’t say much for our species, either.”
“Neither does dumping the bodies of dead teenage girls in the scrub,” Harriett said.
“This is true,” Leonard agreed solemnly.