Lara made a face. “Clever.”
Elise grinned. “When are Danny and Gaby coming back?”
“Soon.”
“I miss them.”
“Me too.”
“Hey,” Elise said suddenly, as if something had just occurred to her.
Lara smiled. The way the girl’s thoughts shifted from topic to topic was something to behold. “What?”
“We were outside one night, and we thought we saw something.”
“Who is ‘we’ and when was ‘one night?’”
“Me, Vera, and Jenny, and it was last night.” Elise’s head tilted slightly to one side, a clear indication she was lost in thought.
“What were you guys doing out at night?” Lara asked.
“Jenny said it was a boat,” Elise said, ignoring her question.
“Was it a boat?”
“I don’t know; it was kind of small.”
“What color was it?”
“Black, I think?”
“You’re not sure?”
Elise shook her head.
“Did you see it again today?” Lara asked.
“Nope.”
“And you’re sure it was a boat?”
“Maybe…”
“If you see it again — or something like it — you need to come and tell me or one of the adults right away, understand?”
Elise nodded. “Will do, boss.”
Lara rolled her eyes. “Not you, too.”
“A boat?” Blaine said.
Lara nodded. “She said Jenny thought she saw a boat.”
“But she’s not sure.”
“That’s the problem. It could have been a boat. Or it could have been anything. Or nothing.”
“Maybe it was Blaine,” Carly said. “He’s pretty dark.”
Blaine smirked. “What does Danny see in you?”
“Must be my winning personality.”
“It’s not that winning.”
“Personality is what I call my vagina.”
Blaine groaned. “I hate talking to you.”
“I love you, too,” Carly said, and blew him a kiss.
Lara ignored them, said, “If it was something, it was too far for either girls to make out. Who was on watch last night?”
“Carrie,” Blaine said. “But she would have said something if she saw a boat out there. The same for Maddie; she relieved me at midnight as usual and was up here until morning.”
“Vera didn’t mention seeing anything, either,” Carly said.
“Elise didn’t even want to mention it,” Lara said. “I think she just did because it came to her at the moment.” She shook her head. “We need to do a better job letting them know to report what they see.”
“Could be another body,” Blaine said.
He was looking through his binoculars at the surrounding ocean. From up here, on the upper deck of the Trident, they had the next best view of the Gulf of Mexico. The only better vantage point was on the roof above them. Lara didn’t need binoculars to know there was nothing out there right now. At least, nothing she could see with the naked eye.
But that’s the problem, isn’t it? It wouldn’t be trouble if it didn’t sneak up on us.
“We still don’t know where that body came from,” Carly was saying. “Or what or who put it in the water in the first place.”
“There are a lot of things going on out there that we don’t know about,” Lara said. “For all we know, there’s more than one body floating around. It’s a big ocean. It was a one in a million chance that one would come close enough for us to see it.”
“Like winning the lotto,” Carly said, and wrinkled her nose. “A really smelly, bloated lotto.”
Blaine let his binoculars hang around his neck and glanced over at her.
“What’s wrong?” Lara asked.
“I don’t like the idea of another boat out there watching us.”
“I don’t like the idea of anything out there watching us,” Carly said, shivering slightly. “Maybe it was a perverted whale.”
“And Elise said it was black?” Blaine asked.
“She thinks it was black,” Lara nodded.
“That’s a good way to blend into the night if you were on a scouting mission. You don’t usually find a lot of black-painted boats precisely because you don’t want to get run through at night by another vessel.”
“You think someone painted their boat black as camouflage?” Carly asked.
Blaine shrugged. “That’s what I would do. Not exactly a lot of chances you’d run across another boat all the way out here. So what other reason would there be to paint a boat black?”
No one said anything for a while. Carly looked back out the bridge and Lara joined her.
After a while, Lara said, “Exactly how far are we from land, Blaine?”
“I’ve kept us steady at twenty miles out,” Blaine said. “No one should be able to spot us from the coastline. Especially at night with our lights manually shut off.”
“Damn, I wish Danny were here already,” Carly said, reflexively crossing her chest with her arms and rubbing her shoulders.
“Who’s got guard duty tonight?” Lara asked.
“Gwen,” Blaine said.
“Ask for volunteers to join her. I want to double all the sentries until otherwise noted. We’ll also need to post someone permanently at the back, too.”
“I’ll draw straws with whoever doesn’t volunteer to back up Gwen tonight,” Carly said.
“One last thing,” Lara said. “I want all the adults armed again, including Dwayne, even if they’re not on guard duty.”
“Dwayne too?” Blaine asked.
“He’s really good with that bolt-action rifle of his,” Carly said. “Scary good, for a thirteen-year-old.”
“I thought he was twelve,” Lara said.
“He turned thirteen three weeks ago, remember?”
No, she thought, but said, “I guess I forgot.”
“Well, you’ve had a lot on your mind.”
Lara nodded and gave her friend an appreciative nod.
“What about Claire?” Blaine asked. “Gaby’s been training her…”
Lara shook her head. “She’s not ready yet.”
“So it’s settled,” Carly said.
“I’ll bring my cot back up here and tighten the shift between me and Maddie,” Blaine said. “I’ll make sure someone’s always up here every hour of the day from now on.”
“Maybe bring two cots, one for Sarah,” Carly said. “You know, in case you guys want a little late-night boom-boom action.”
Blaine groaned. “Please don’t ever say ‘boom-boom action’ ever again.”
“Trouble in paradise?”
“Something like that.”
“You guys should do what I do. Send one of you out there. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, or some crap like that.”
“You get that out of a Hallmark card?” Blaine asked.
Lara stepped closer to the windshield and could barely hear them going back and forth behind her as she looked out at the never-ending expanse of blue ocean outside. Her mind swam with all the potential hidden dangers she hadn’t seen — or even tried to look for — before. She had almost convinced herself there was no one out here but them, even though she knew better. There had been the dead body they had fished out of the water off Sunport, and later, that voice on the radio asking her to make contact.
They had been floating around the Gulf of Mexico for so long, safe and sound onboard the Trident that she had almost made herself believe they could be safe so long as they stayed far away from Texas. She should have known it wouldn’t last forever, and maybe she always did but had just done a very good job of deceiving herself.
The girls could be wrong. There might not have been another boat out there last night watching us.