I briefly considered playing along with him but figured he would see through my act in a minute. “Cut out the crap, Hal. If you cared for me at all, you’d get yourself out of this mess. Talk to Dennis. Tell the truth. Take your lumps.” I remembered when I said it that Hal didn’t know we had discovered Pegasus’s secret compartment. If we could just get word to Dennis, Hal would pay for that stolen kiss with many, many years behind bars. Right now, though, neither possibility seemed very likely.
Hal rocked back on his heels. “I worried when you started asking questions all over town. Particularly when you started talking with Chip. I just wanted to discourage you, is all. Thought a little swim in the bay might convince you to go home.”
“So you tripped me? Why would falling overboard make me want to go home?”
He shrugged.
“And were you responsible for running me off the road, too?”
“No. That was Liz’s bright idea. I never thought your life would be in jeopardy. Liz said they’d just frighten you a little, but I should have known.” He searched my face, as if looking for understanding. “I really cared about you.”
I noticed Hal’s use of the past tense and shivered.
“I’m only sorry I didn’t meet you earlier. There’s chemistry between us, Hannah. You feel it, I can tell. This kind of chemistry doesn’t come along very often.”
With difficulty, I kept my face impassive, thinking, The only chemistry between you and me right now, buster, is saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, and the last time I looked, that spelled gunpowder. I remembered Hal had said he’d had only one serious relationship since Vietnam. Could it have been with Katie?
Hal had stood and turned to go.
“Hal, tell me something.” He looked back at me over his shoulder. “Why did you pay for Katie’s abortion?”
In the dim light he looked confused, like a little lost boy. “She didn’t want the baby.”
“You were the father of that child!”
He squatted down in front of me again, tracing a finger almost absentmindedly along my slack-clad knee. “Yes, but she wasn’t really interested in me, Hannah, an old, broken-down Vietnam vet. She wanted to marry that young Bible thumper. She didn’t even tell me about the baby until after Chip turned her down.” His voice was almost a whisper.
“Turned her down? You mean he wouldn’t marry her?”
“No. He wouldn’t sleep with her.” Hal knelt before me, head down, staring at his hands.
So that had been her plan! Katie thought she could trick Chip into marrying her, but when he refused to sleep with her, she would never have been able to pass the child off as his.
“I’d have married her. Been a good father, too. But she was only interested in me for-”
I thought I could fill in the blank. “For drugs?”
Hal’s eyebrows shot up. “How’d you know?”
“Bill Taylor told me.”
“Bill! It figures. He was sweet on Katie, too.” Hal’s knees popped as he stood up. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. None of it matters. When she called me an old man and made it clear that she’d never really loved me, there didn’t seem to be any point in pretending anymore.” He shrugged. “So I gave her the money.”
“Hal, it’s not too late. Tell Connie to turn the boat around. Let’s go home.” I toyed again with the idea of coming on to him, of making him think there might be a chance of something between us, but something had died in his eyes.
“I don’t think so, Hannah. It’s too late now. Too late for everything.”
As he left the cabin, he flipped off the lights, plunging the V-berth into darkness, leaving me alone, struggling to free my hands. Knowing I had to come up with a plan.
18
I hadn’t thought about Jamie DeMella for years. That’s why it was all the more surprising that I’d think about him now while trussed up in the dark, all alone in the forward cabin of a pirated sailboat. When my father was stationed in San Diego, Jamie had lived next door. We played together after school. One summer I’d organized a neighborhood circus to raise money for the Red Cross. Jamie was supposed to be ringmaster but decided at the last minute that he’d rather be a magician. He’d bought a junior magician kit at the PX, one that came with a top hat, a wand, a deck of trick cards, some brass rings, and a string of silk scarves. He practiced for hours in his backyard until his bratty little sister refused to cooperate anymore. Then he asked me to be his assistant. For the event I agreed to dress in my ballet tutu and hold his equipment, but I drew the line when he wanted to saw me in half. We were both ten. I didn’t think he had the experience.
But Jamie had taught me how to position my wrists-sideways, not flat-so that no matter how tightly they were tied, I could eventually wriggle out. Thanking Jamie, wherever he was, I rotated my wrists toward each other, stretching and pulling the fabric of the sail ties, tucking my thumbs under my palms, easing the loops down over my hands. So what if my wrists grow raw? I thought. At least when my body washes up, they’ll know it wasn’t an accident.
It wasn’t easy, but after about five minutes my hands were free. I massaged my wrists and made a silent promise that if I ever got off this boat alive, I’d locate Jamie on the Internet and thank him myself. But the only thing free were my hands. I sat quietly in my cramped quarters, turning over half-baked plans in my mind.
Liz was a dangerous maniac with a gun, but Hal was smart, an expert sailor who would be hard to fool. From my spot in the dark, facing the stern, I could see into the cockpit, where Connie stood behind the wheel, her face illuminated by the red light reflecting off the compass. One of Hal’s bare legs was just visible to the right of the hatch, but I couldn’t see Liz.
“Where are we?” Hal must have been talking to Connie, because she answered.
“At green flasher number four. Does it matter?”
“Where are we going?” Liz sounded exasperated. From the direction of her voice, I figured she must be perched on the cabin top.
“Just keep your hand on the gun and your mouth shut.” Hal’s voice was edged with apprehension. For one thing, Connie was smiling. That was unnerving. I wondered what on earth she had to smile about, and then I smelled it, about a minute before Hal did: burning rubber.
In the next second the engine’s emergency alarm began to scream. With a roar of rage Hal launched himself across the cockpit and twisted the ignition key, shutting down the engine.
Liz must have thought he’d taken complete leave of his senses. “Shit, Hal. What the hell’s wrong?”
“The engine’s overheated. Can’t you smell it? Damn water pump must be burned out.”
“How’d that happen?”
“No one opened the water intake valve that supplies water to cool the engine.”
“That was smart.” Her tone made it clear that this turn of events was entirely his fault.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
Although I knew she couldn’t see me, I gave Connie a big thumbs-up.
Sea Song drifted to a dead stop.
“Hal, we aren’t moving! Do something!” Liz whined.
“You mind your business and I’ll mind mine. Just keep that gun on Connie. I’m going to raise the sails.” I could see the back of both legs now, as he faced my sister-in-law. “And you, keep us on course, or I swear to God, I’ll tell her to shoot you. Don’t think she won’t.”
There was no doubt in my mind that Liz would gladly take care of anybody who got in her way. I wondered if she’d lost any cases to lawyers who had turned up floating in the Potomac River. She’d killed once, twice probably, and I was convinced she was about to do it again. But not with a gun. That was just to keep us in line. If they wanted to make our deaths appear as accidental drownings, bullet holes in our bodies couldn’t be part of the picture.