Hurricane (24 page)

“
But Mom, I don’t want to go back.”

“
That’s the deal. You tell Victor you want to do one more semester while he works things out, and you go back to school. I don’t want you hanging around like a lovesick child. If Charlie found out it would spoil everything. I think the last thing you want is for him to yank the rug out from under Victor.”

“
I don’t like it so much, but we have a deal,” Meiko said, holding her hand out.

“
Deal.” Julie took her hand and shook it.

“
So that gives us a month, what are we gonna do?” Meiko asked.

“
As soon as it gets dark we’re going to turn this boat around and go back the way we came.”

“
We’re going back to Trinidad?”

“
Hardly. We’re going to Venezuela. Let Kurt’s brother and all of Dieter’s other Germans knock their socks off looking for us up island, we’ll be down south sitting in Los Testigos, sipping rum and swimming in the cool, cool ocean.”

“
Can I call Victor when we get there?” Meiko asked.

“
Sure you can, honey.” Julie didn’t tell her that there were less than two hundred people in the Los Testigos island group and that there were no phones. More importantly, she didn’t tell her that she didn’t know Charlie Heart. They’d never even met.

Chapter Thirteen

The storm covered the skies above the oil tanker Caribbean Girl. On deck, seaman Paulie Hearst felt the hair on his arms rise and chills shivered at the base of his neck when he saw his finger tips sparking. He turned to his mate, Johnny Dunne, and pointed a glowing finger. Dunne’s mustache was shining white and he was looking up at the bridge. Paulie followed his gaze.

The radar antenna atop the bridge looked like it was sending fire skyward. Then the lightning hit, shattering the radar tower and shutting down the boat’s electrical system. Seamen Hearst and Dunne locked arms as they were blasted to the deck, but they survived their brush with St. Elmo’s fire.

And the storm grew stronger as it moved west, showering lightning and rain as it gathered up smaller storms that crossed its path. Wind started to swirl at twenty knots around a common center as the thunderstorms formed into a swirl.

Faraway in Coral Gables, Florida, the National Hurricane Center noted the storm, and weathermen were calling it a tropical depression that deserved watching.

The sun was setting off to their right when Julie spun the boat around and headed south. If Dieter wanted to get her boat bad enough to send Kurt’s brother and a full crew after her, she knew he wasn’t going to give up just because Fallen Angel was able to out run Snake Eyes. By morning he’d have a plane in the air.

They would be looking for her up north, so she would go down south. They’d never think of looking in Venezuela. She’d be safe from them and Meiko would be away from Victor. She hated lying to her, but she could see no other way. Because despite what she’d told her she was going to do her best to keep them apart. The thought of Meiko with creepy Victor just made her skin crawl.

Meiko was up front, hanging on to the mast, watching the sunset.

“
Mom, I saw it. Did you see it?”

“
No.” Julie had been trying unsuccessfully for over a year to see the green flash. Almost everybody she knew in the yachting community in Trinidad had seen one, and now Meiko had, too. Someday. Then she faced right, into the wind. It was on their beam, the rolling waves were under three feet, the moon was going to be almost full, and they were moving along at eight knots. It looked like it was going to be a perfect sail, and Julie prayed nothing else would go wrong.

And her prayers were answered. After a day and a half of a pleasant beam reach they sailed into the rising sun with the Los Testigos island group just off their bow.

“
We did it, Mom. Just you and me. No help. Are we a pair of sailor ladies or what?” Meiko’s smile was huge and Julie hoped it wasn’t because she was expecting to call Victor any time soon.

Twenty minutes later the boat was safely at anchor and they were sitting in the Guardacoasta office facing a young officer in a starched uniform. He was talking in rapid Spanish and punctuating his words with quick and jerky hand gestures. Every other second or two he’d pick their passports off the desk in front of him then throw them back down.

“
Quiero hablar con su jefe.” Julie said. The man was momentarily stunned into silence, meeting Julie’s innocent green-eyed expression with an ice-cool, brown-eyed stare.

“
What did you say?” Meiko said.

“
According to the Spanish book on the boat I said I wanted to talk to his boss,” Julie said, smiling at the official. She reached forward and took a tissue out of the box on the officer’s desk and wiped the sweat from around her neck. Then she balled it up and tossed it into a waist basket halfway across the room.

“
Two points,” Meiko said. The guardsman smiled. That he understood.

“
Okay,” Julie said, “let’s leave while we’re ahead.”

“
You mean we’re just going to walk out of here?”

“
¿Donde esta sus visados?” the man said.

“
Whoops,” Julie said. “I think he just asked us where our visas were.”

“
Ouch,” Meiko said. “Does that mean we’re in trouble?”

“
I don’t think so,” Julie said. “We’re two pretty women in an Hispanic country. They may have piles of rules, but chivalry isn’t dead here. Come on, let’s go. We’ll let his boss sort it out later.”

“
But our passports?”

“
They’re not going anywhere,” Julie said. She stood. Then Meiko stood. Then the young guardsman stood, jabbering his fast Spanish again, waving their passports in the air, like he was shooing flies, but Julie just turned and walked out the door.

Meiko attempted a brief smile at the guardsman, gave him a quick wave, then she turned and ran after her mother. Neither woman looked back, but it wouldn’t have made any difference, because the guardsman didn’t go to the door. Instead he sat back down at his desk and shook his head.

It took Meiko about ten more minutes to figure out there were no phones on the island, or any of the Testigos, and her enthusiastic mood faded to disappointment.

“
How am I going to call him and tell him we’re okay?” she whined. Julie wanted to throttle her, but instead she bit her tongue.

“
I don’t know, honey, I hadn’t counted on this.” She lied again, but she reasoned it was for her daughter’s own good, and for a brief second she wondered if her parents felt that way when she ran off with Hideo, but then she put the thought aside. The past was past, she was living for the future.

“
I’ll bet he’s worried sick,” Meiko said.

“
When the kid’s jefe gets here and we get everything straightened out, we’ll tell him to call Victor and tell him that we’re okay. We’re only a day’s sail from Trinidad, he can come visit if he wants.”

“
Really?” The little girl in Meiko was back.

They spent the next three days getting up with the sun, swimming, and dinghying to shore in the mornings, where Meiko and Julie allowed three old men to teach them how to fish and clean their catch. At first Julie found cleaning the fish repulsive, but soon both women could have a fish ready for the pan in a flash. They swam in the afternoons and ate the morning’s catch for dinner. It could have been such a great life, Julie often thought.

On the fourth night Julie was sleeping fitfully. Jarring, dismal dreams kept shaking her awake throughout the night, keeping her in a hot sweat. Twice she got up to change her wet tee shirt, once to take an aspirin and three times to go to the bathroom. When she heard the deep rumbling outside she thought it was another nightmare growling in her subconscious, trying to jerk and jar her awake.

She was beginning to think it wasn’t a nightmare when Fallen Angel was suddenly awash in light. She blinked at the bright reflection coming in her open hatch and put her hands to her eyes, both to rub the sleep out of them and to shield them from the light.

“
Mom, what is it?” Meiko said, coming into her cabin.

“
Someone’s out there.” Julie grabbed a pair of shorts from the foot of her bed and jumped into them.

“
Who do you think it is?”

“
Let’s find out.” Julie stuck her head up through the hatch, her hand in front of her eyes, still trying to block the light.

“
You the vessel,” a deep voice boomed through a bullhorn. “Step out onto the deck.”

“
I think the jefe has arrived,” Julie said to Meiko, then she pushed herself up through the hatch. Meiko came up behind her.

“
Can you turn the light away,” Julie yelled.

“
Are you the master of this vessel?” The voice was still booming, electronically amplified to an ear piercing wail.

Julie flattened her hand, like she was going to salute, ran it in front of her eyes, then extended her arm and pointed away. The man behind the light got the message and turned it off. It took a few seconds for her eyes to get used to the darkness. Then she said, “You don’t need the bullhorn.”

“
Are you the master of this vessel?” The voice was nicer, and amplified only by a healthy pair of lungs.

“
I am,” Julie said.

“
Name, please.” It wasn’t a question.

“
Can’t you come back in the morning? We’re not going anywhere.” Julie said.

“
Mom,” Meiko whispered behind her, “You’re gonna make him mad.”

“
Name, please?” This time it was a question, and Julie thought she detected a hint of laughter.

“
Julie Tanaka, and it’s the middle of the night. I’m not feeling well and you must have better things to do than to roust two innocent women out of bed.”

“
How many on the boat?” This time she definitely heard laughter in his voice.

“
Two,” Julie shouted back. “Now, can I have your name, Captain?”

“
I ask the questions around here.”

“
Come on, Captain, have a heart and give a girl a break. I just want to know who I’m talking to.” She could see him clearly now. He was a big man, with a wide, bushy mustache, and from the looks of his pot belly she didn’t imagine he let too many beers pass him by.

“
Sanchez,” he rumbled, his voice the same timbre as the cutter’s engines. He was grinning like someone told him his favorite bar would be serving drinks on the house for the rest of his life.

“
Can I come in and talk to you in the morning, Captain Sanchez?”

“
We are here but to serve,” Captain Sanchez answered. “But I will expect you both promptly at nine.”

“
We’ll be there,” Julie said.

“
Of course you will,” he boomed back, then he saluted and the cutter rumbled off.

“
I think we’ll check in with the Guardacoasta tomorrow about nine,” Julie said.

“
Good idea,” Meiko said. They went down below and Julie slept the sleep of angels for the rest of the night.

“
Let me see if I have this correctly,” Sanchez said the next morning. “You come to Venezuela with no visas. You want to stay here without going to the mainland to check in. And you want me to look the other way and pretend that I don’t see you. Is that about it?”

“
That’s it.” Julie smiled. She told him everything that had happened to her since they found the dead body floating by the Five Islands in Trinidad. When she got to the part about the water in the fuel tank in Union Island, he interrupted her.

“
This mechanic, Henry, did he have a limp?” he asked. His mustache started an upward curve and Julie thought she was seeing a smile in his eyes.

“
Yes, he did,” Julie said.

“
Henry Waller. Best diesel mechanic in the Caribbean, possibly on the planet. A good friend,” Sanchez said.

“
Yes, a good friend,” Julie said, and at that point she thought it was going to be all right. If he was a friend of Henry’s, then he’d help.

And she went on with her story.

“
So it’s sanctuary you’re seeking?” Sanchez said when she finished, boring into Julie with his deep brown eyes.

“
Kind of,” Julie said, hands clasped in her lap, fingers white.

“
Why should I do this?” he asked.

“
Because you’re a man and we’re two women in trouble. Because you’re a kind of policeman and these men, these Germans, they’re bad. They probably killed that man we saw floating in the ocean, probably also killed Trinidad’s attorney general, and maybe they’re trying to kill us. Because you know I’m telling the truth and you won’t let them take my home. It’s all I have left and I’m counting on you to help guard it.”

“
You can stay, but do not move your boat without telling me,” he said, handing over the passports.

“
Thank you,” Julie said.

“
Is there anything else I can do?” Sanchez asked, his bushy mustache bobbing over his smile.

“
My daughter would like to get a message to someone in Trinidad, if that’s possible.” Julie said.

“
It is,” Sanchez said, and Meiko told him about Victor and how she wanted him to know they were well and safe. Sanchez promised to send a man to the mainland the following day to make the call.