Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Lorne and Catherine face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime's infiltration of the fine dining scene.
Their longstanding friendship deepens when they meet again seven mont...
"We'll get him." Pierre held his fists tightly clenched. "We're still staked out at his building on First. Front and back, around the clock. Still nothing."
"And the tracker pens?" Samir shook his head.
"The vehicle hasn't moved. Many of these drivers do it as a second job. We're watching the car around the clock."
"Give me a reason why I shouldn't take another knuckle."
Pierre thumbed his old pinkie stump. "A major agent's portfolio tasting Monday afternoon. I always see him at those."
"You be there. Give him the fucking pen this time. Understand?"
<><><>
A little past fourteen thirty, Lorne sailed off the anchor, and once they had cleared Shoal Channel, he set-up Tastevin with the wind a few degrees abaft the starboard beam and adjusted the Hydrovane to steer the wind angle. The sixteen to eighteen knot northwesterly had them making hull speed.
"We're flying along. Dad's never goes this fast."
"It isn't able to. The maximum speed of a displacement hull is limited to its waterline length. The longer the waterline, the faster the boat can go. Planing stinkpots and gin palaces ignore this rule. For increased speed, they pull out their wallets and play with the exponential litres per hour thing."
"I guess I knew that — somewhat. He was always tweaking the sails and talking about moving closer to hull speed. What's the hull speed of this — Of Tastevin? Such an appropriate name for your boat, a wine tasting vessel."
"Ten point seven two knots, in theory, by the formula. We're blipping between ten five and ten six now. About as fast as she goes. She loves this wind angle, a —"
"Don't tell me. See if I can remember." Catherine looked up at the sails and the windvane, then out at the surface waves, pursed her lips and put her hand up to hold her pause as she thought. "We're on a beam reach, maybe a bit broad." She smiled at him as he nodded.
"Very good. She loves ten or twelve degrees either side of a beam reach. She has a wide sweet spot and is easy to please." He held a piece of hamachi sashimi with his chopsticks, just short of his mouth as he paused to speak. "Have you tried the yellowtail?"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Amazing. Did you see how long he took finding the right piece? Cut, look, cull. Another piece, cut look, smell, cull. And another, cut look, smell, taste. All his culls seemed wonderful — better than most other places serve."
"Easy review to write — well, maybe not. I'll have to tone my comments back. Otherwise, I'll sound like the other reviewers, the ones with greased palms and snouts in the trough." Lorne did another of his twisted smiles.
