Flush

Back at home, Noah immediately calls the Coast Guard to report that the Coral Queen is dumping raw sewage into the bay, as evidenced by the fuchsia water trailing all the way to Thunder Beach. Noah then calls reporter Miles Umlatt to give him the scoop. Afterward, the family gathers to hear Grandpa Bobby’s story.

Bobby was using his charter boat to smuggle emeralds in South America. His compatriots tried to cut him out of the deal by attempting to kill him and steal his boat, the Amanda Rose. The old man then went underground and has been trying to track down his boat ever since. During his travels, he caught the Miami broadcast of Paine’s interview and thought the family might need his help. He began shadowing Noah and sprang in to lend a hand whenever Noah and Abbey got into trouble.

The kids are forced to confess their covert activities to their parents, including being threatened by Luno and Shelly’s participation in Operation Royal Flush. In recognition of his resourcefulness, Bobby presents his gold medallion to Noah as a gift: “The gold coin on the end of that chain was heavier than any coin I’d ever held. I couldn’t believe he was giving it to me. ‘Once belonged to the queen of Spain,’ he said, ‘about four hundred years ago’” (215). Then, Bobby suggests the whole family should take a ride to Thunder Beach. 

At the beach, the family watches as a Coast Guard helicopter arrives to take pictures of the waste contaminating the water:

The helicopter gradually began to move, following the colorful current of evidence all the way […] to the marina where the Coral Queen was moored. There the chopper hovered for a long, long time. Dusty Muleman was officially busted (219).

Despite their victory, Donna tells the kids that they are grounded. They beg for an hour’s delay so that they can visit Shelly and give her the news of their success.

At the trailer park, Noah and Abbey find Shelly in the yard, holding a broken garden rake. When they walk into the trailer, it’s a disaster. Coast Guard snitch, Billy Babcock, is passed out on her couch because Shelly slipped him a mickey. Lice is also lying unconscious on the floor. Shelly explains that Lice ran away because Luno intimidated him. The supposed blood stains in her Jeep were nothing but ketchup. After fleeing, Lice realized that he missed Shelly and came back to apologize. When he found Billy there, he started pummeling the unconscious man until Shelly hit him with a rake.

Noah says, “Being whacked with a rake seemed to work miracles on Lice Peeking’s attitude—he’d dropped to one knee, told Shelly he adored her, and blubbered he was sorry for all the rotten deeds he’d ever done” (226). When Lice stood up afterward by steadying himself on the wobbly aquarium, it tipped over and knocked him out cold.

Leaving Shelly to deal with her guests, Noah and Abbey bicycle back home. On the way, the kids encounter Jasper and Bull. Noah demands an apology from Jasper, who seems reluctant until he sees the pirate’s gold medallion around Noah’s neck. He finally gives a surly apology before scuttling away.

It doesn’t take long for the Coral Queen scandal to hit the local news. Noah says, “My father didn’t need to say anything to the newspaper because everyone in town knew the truth by now. They knew he was right about Dusty after all” (231-32).

Bobby remains for a week-long visit with the Underwoods before announcing his return to South America. Even though the family wants him to stay, Bobby is determined to recover the Amanda Rose. He built the boat himself, and it helped him cope with the death of his wife, the boat’s namesake. The grief that both Paine and Bobby display at the loss of the woman carrying the boat’s name helps Noah understand more about his father. He realizes how terrible it must have been for Paine to lose his mother so young. Paine’s broken heart may be the reason why he launches himself into so many causes to make things right.

Bobby promises that once he recovers the boat, he’ll return to the Keys with it. Noah says, “I could picture the moment perfectly in my mind. All I had to do was close my eyes, and there was Robert Lee Underwood streaking across the waves in the Amanda Rose” (240-41).

Once school begins in late August, the Underwood family receives a check for $1,000 as a reward for calling in a tip about an environmental crime. A plan is also in the works to restore Paine’s boat captain’s license. However, just as things are looking up, the family gets more bad news. After a legal slap on the wrist and a ten thousand dollar fine, Dusty is being allowed to reopen the Coral Queen. Paine is so furious that he punches holes in the door and walls, fracturing both his hands. Late that night, a detective arrives to question Paine because the police now think he is guilty of arson.

The next day, everyone in town learns that the Coral Queen was set on fire during its grand reopening party and has burned down to the waterline. The detective returns and says that the casts on Paine’s hands are merely to cover burns sustained when he set the fire. Donna calmly shows the detective a hospital bill indicating that her husband’s injuries were fractured bones and that the casts were placed on his hands hours before the casino boat caught fire. The detective leaves in disappointment and searches for a new suspect.

It doesn’t take long for the real culprits to emerge. Jasper and Bull had gone to have a party of their own with Cuban cigars and beer in a cargo hold that was filled with unused fireworks. Noah explains:

Being the leader in all things stupid, it was Jasper Jr. who lit the first cigar, inhaled deeply, gagged violently, and spit the thing twenty feet across the room … where it landed in an open crate of bottle rockets, which soon began to ignite (257-58).

Even worse than learning that his own son set the fire, Dusty is in for more hard luck when arson investigators find a stash of $100,000 in his safe. This proves that Dusty has been embezzling from his employers and cheating the IRS. The native American tribe that owns the marina evicts Dusty and plans to sue him for embezzlement. His operation is shut down for good.

Shortly before Labor Day, the Underwoods receive a postcard from Bobby announcing that he has a lead on the Amanda Rose and expects to return to the Keys with it any day. One afternoon, the family launches their bone-fish skiff and anchors over the spot where the final remains of the Coral Queen have sunk on its way to a garbage barge. They name the location “Dusty’s Hole.” Paine, Donna, Abbey, and Noah all sit and wait for the sun to set over the ocean. This time, they see the legendary green flash at sunset that none of them have ever witnessed before. Noah says, “When the flash of green came, it lasted for only a magical flick of time—so brief and brilliant and beautiful, I was afraid I’d imagined it” (263).