Port Starbird (Storm Ketchum Adventures) (21 page)

"So," the Captain said
between bites of his sandwich, "now it's you that's got some splainin' to do. Start talkin', Lucy."

"Well," she started. She was quite pale and still looked like she might be sick, Ketch saw. Too bad. He started nibbling on a sandwich. "I guess you'll be turnin' me in when we get back to the boatyard, right?" she said.

"Maybe so. But why exactly would we want to do that?" the Captain asked. "Just because you're a dang pirate wench?"

"Because I killed her. Bob's wife
," she replied in a monotone. Both Ketch and the Captain nearly choked on their food. "That's why I told Mick about what we were gonna do today. When they autopsy that body, they'll probably find my DNA on it somewhere, maybe under her fingernails since she scratched me, and Mick's too. He was supposed to move it yesterday, but he said he couldn't find anybody to help him, that he could trust."

"Whoa now, slow down!" the Captain said. More gently he added, "Start at the beginnin', darlin'."

"Okay," she said, then chugged the rest of her drink. "Can I have another one of those? I'm really thirsty." Ketch passed her another can.

"Well, just before she d
isappeared, before I killed her I mean, Bob signed up for private scuba lessons. He wanted me to come out to the house and do it in his pool. The first time I went there, he wasn't home yet, he'd said he'd probably be late, so I went out back to scout out the pool area, to see where I wanted to set up and all. And she came out and started yellin' at me." She stopped to take another drink. "She thought we were havin' an affair, I guess because he'd done that to her before. She was drunk. She got real nasty and she started tryin' to shove me around. I shoved her back one time, and she slipped and fell and hit her head on the edge of a concrete step. And I mean hard, there was blood all over. I didn't know what to do." The Captain mutely offered her a sandwich, but she shook her head and pushed it away.

"Mick pulled in right about then, 'cause I'd asked him to bring me some
fast food, since I figured Bob would be late and I hadn't had a chance to eat. He told me I'd go to jail. I know it was a dumb thing to do, but I panicked, I didn't know what else to do at the time. Mick wrapped her up in a tarp and stuck her in the back of his truck, and he found some bleach and cleaned up around the pool. He said he'd take care of the body. I didn't know what he'd actually done with her 'til later on."

"So you knew he was
dumping those drums all along?" Ketch finally spoke up.

"Yeah, I did, and I hate myself for that too
. It's an awful thing to do to the environment - but I couldn't tell anybody, could I? I started to get worried when you found some of 'em, but I didn't know if they were ones from Mick or somebody else, or if that was the spot he'd dumped her at. I tried not to think about it much, 'til you showed me that picture."

What she'd said so far cleared up a lot of things,
Ketch thought, but not quite everything. "So what happened with Mick after that?"

"Well, he dumped me a while back, quite a while actually - I told you the truth about that - and I figured I'd never see him again, which was okay by me,
considerin'. But then he started comin' around now and again and hittin' me up for money."

"He blackmailed you?"

"Not exactly. He knew he'd go down right along with me if he turned me in, and I knew he wouldn't do that."

"So why did he think you'd give him money?"

She hesitated before answering, then blew out a long breath. "He told me he'd beat up on me and break stuff if I didn't cooperate."

"And did he?"

"Yeah, a couple times. He got mad at me one time last week 'cause I didn't have as much as he decided he wanted that time. That's how I got that bruise you were wonderin' about."

"
God damn!" the Captain exploded. "A piss-ant protection racket. I'd like to kill that son of a bitch, if he weren't dead already!"

And that explained the rest, Ketch thought
; but wait, not quite. "So why did you play along with all this and let me drag you all out here today, if you thought the drum wouldn't be here anymore?"

"Well, I had to, didn't I? What else could I do? Well, I guess I could have told you about it. I should have done, I know that now." She wiped at her eyes. "But I didn't want to be at home alone, and I thought you'd hate me!"

"I'll be damned," the Captain said. "Ketch, what do you make out a all this?"

"I don't know, I don't know what to think," Ketch tiredly replied.
He did feel sorry for her, and he'd maybe like to put that hillbilly jerk out of his misery as well if it hadn't already been done. But he was still angry with her - for today, for deceiving him, for not trusting him. For almost getting him killed.

A
couple of tears escaped from her eyes then. "I am so sorry, Ketch, I really am. I should have told you. I really do care about you, you know, I wasn't just usin' you. I didn't know you'd found her 'til Friday. I didn't know he'd be here today, and I didn't know about those other drums!" She covered her face with her hands and quietly sobbed into them.

The Captain
got up and put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, I think that's enough for now. How 'bout if you go below and lay out for a while? Come on now, let's go." She let him herd her to his bunk, and then he returned to the table and sat back down.

"So now what?" he asked Ketch. "What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know, call the Coast Guard? I don't know," he repeated.

"Oh yeah? Well, I think I
know what I wanna do. We still got a few hours a daylight left. I'd like to sail on further out, locate a good deep hole with the depth finder, and drop all a them drums in it."

Ketch perked up at that. "
Are you being serious? You are? I see. So you'd let her get away with murder? And what about Ingram? I can't stand the man, you know that, but he's about to be retried for this, and he's innocent. The evidence in that drum could help his case - as could a confession from her, of course."

"
Oh, he ain't innocent. He might not a done this one in, but I still bet he done the first one. And he's a cheater and a damn crook, you said so yourself, and who knows what else he done. If they convict him this time, it likely won't be nothin' he don't deserve for one thing or another. There's the law, you know, and then there's justice, and they ain't always the same. I say justice'll be done. If they don't convict him, they'll keep him busy long enough so he'll be out a your hair that way too."

"Okay
," Ketch said after a moment's thought, "I might be able to live with that. I still think it's wrong, but you're right, he deserves some kind of punishment regardless. Maybe they won't convict him - they shouldn't, anyway, if the legal system does its job. And that isn't my problem, so okay. But what about her being a murderer?"

"She ain't no murderer
, that was just an accident! Maybe she didn't handle it right, and it sure wouldn't look good in court, but she didn't set out to kill nobody."

"All right then, what about you?
And what about me? If all this ever comes out, we'll be considered accessories, and that'll mean prison for us, too."

"It ain't gonna come out. Mario don't know who's in that drum, and he won't be talkin'
about what happened here today. He'd be an accessory too, or worse - he's the one made the gun go off. Besides, I'd lay money that ole Mexican bandit's finally gonna get to see his homeland. Anyway, we ain't ever gonna see him again around here. As for myself - ain't we best friends, me'n you? And you know what they say about that - friends help you move, best friends help you move the body. As for you, y'all ought to be willin' to do the same for her. Mick was, and you're a damn sight better man than him."

"You
are
my best friend, I have no doubts about that," Ketch hoarsely responded. There was something caught in his throat, so he took a drink. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at her the same way, though. Regardless of what we do here today, I think she and I might have to be over."

"Well, that's just plain stupid," the Captain
pronounced. "Look, y'all might not want to hear this, but this is the love a your life you're talkin' about, anybody can see that. You know, everybody has secrets, I bet you do too. Hers is just a little bigger'n some, that's all. I say get over yourself and move on."

The Captain got up from the table. "Tell you what," he said, "I'm gonna
go take in Mario's lines and haul up the anchor. If your reel comes up with it, fine, otherwise the hell with it - and if the anchor won't come, the hell with that too. Neither one a you's in good enough shape for a bounce dive. Then I'm gonna head east. And then you're gonna explain things to her when she wakes up, whether you want to or not. I done enough talkin'." He left the cabin to head for the bow.

"I'll tell you one more thing," he said
through the cabin window as he passed by it. "If you're too dumb to know life's too short to pass on a good thing like that one down below, then the hell with y'all too!"

Ketch
said nothing and remained seated at the table, lost in thought. After a while he gave the dog a hug, stood up, and headed below. He was exhausted, and he thought it might do him good to go lay with her for a spell, as they would say hereabouts.

~  ~  ~

It was Tuesday now, and Ketch couldn't recall when there'd been a more beautiful morning. After taking care of some business on his computer, on a whim he'd walked the dog down to the boatyard to speak with the Captain, instead of calling him on the phone. He and the dog were out in the back yard now, playing frisbee. After the dog had his dip in the sound, Ketch would take him back inside and get to work.

Henry would be along soon
; Ketch had called him to come over and mow again, and he could maybe use his help getting the
TBD
onto its trailer and pulling it far enough up the launch to hitch it to the truck. He probably didn't really need the boy for either task; but he still wanted to help him reach his goal, whatever it was he'd said he was saving up for.

Red sky at morning, sailors take warning...
The beauty of this morning was a false one, he knew. The storm they'd first heard about on Saturday had intensified to tropical storm status, and it looked like it was going to bypass the Caribbean and head directly for the East Coast. Landfall was projected for sometime around the end of the week, and it might be a full-blown hurricane by then.

Kari had been right - 'Ernesto' was indeed its name.
Not a name Ketch would have chosen, but not bad, not one of the more ludicrous ones on those WMO lists. Where had they dug up some of those god-awful names? What kind of people had they hired to do that, and how much had they been paid for their efforts? Not much, he hoped. Where the storm would make landfall was uncertain at this point, probably somewhere between Georgia and Virginia was all they knew so far, but Ketch wasn't going to hang around to find out first-hand - he'd be migrating inland for the duration.

Which was a shame in
a way. He'd always found storms exhilarating, maybe because of the lowered barometric pressure or the surplus of ozone or magnetic field disturbances or something like that, who knew? And if he stayed here he might possibly be able to see some rare and dramatic atmospheric phenomena he'd only read about, like the sundog, a parhelic illusion of two suns in the sky created when sunlight encountered ice crystals in the upper atmosphere; or Saint Elmo's fire, visible electrical discharges from ships' masts and church spires that used to strike terror into the hearts of superstitious souls who believed these were portents relayed to them from above. But that wasn't reason enough for him to stay here and ride it out and risk bodily harm; he could see those things on the computer if he wanted to.

There were still just as many foam blocks stacked behind the house as there had been on Sunday. With Mario gone, Ingram no longer a threat for the time being, and now this storm to deal with, Ketch hadn't pressed Len about finishing the job right away. The
bedraggled crew of the
Minnow
had all professed ignorance Sunday night at the boatyard when Len had wandered over and inquired about Mario's whereabouts, and Ketch had done it again when he'd spoken with Len earlier this morning after seeing the Captain. Maybe Mario was out somewhere scoring something or other with his boat, or maybe he'd gotten himself in some kind of trouble and left town in a hurry, who could tell? He was just gone for some indeterminate amount of time, which wasn't all that unusual with transients like him. They'd agreed to leave Mario's kicker truck right where it was; it would be there if he ever came back, and if he never did then the authorities could deal with it sometime later on. Mick's truck wasn't at the boatyard, so Mario must have picked him up somewhere else; which was good, one less thing for them to have to explain.

"Hey, Mister Ketchum! Y
'all out back there?" Ketch whipped the frisbee into the water for the dog and walked back up to the driveway. Henry must have heard the dog barking at the flying disk.

"Good morning, Henry.
Thanks for coming."

"No problem, sir. Want me to get the mower out?"

"Not just yet. If you don't mind, could you help me with the boat first? I need to get it onto the trailer so I can tow it, and we need to put the cover on it."

"You leavin' town on account of the storm? Mama said we are too, probably tomorrow or the
day after."

"Yes,
I am. Tomorrow is the day for me." The sooner the better, just in case. Route 12 was the only way off this island by land, and if they were told to evacuate it would soon be choked with barely crawling traffic. And if the road washed out up around Rodanthe, as it occasionally had before even during less severe storms, those on the wrong side of the washout would be stranded.

After letting the dog greet Henry, Ketch put the dog in the house so he wouldn't be underfoot when they moved the boat. It didn't take the two of them long to get the
TBD
squared away. Ketch got Henry started with the mower and went in the house to pack, giving the dog a new bone to keep him occupied. It was a good thing he bought those bones by the bagful, he thought, and a good thing he'd just bought another one at the Food Lion.

There wasn't much to be done as far as storm-proofing the house went, as it was supposedly built to be hurricane-resistant, so he didn't intend to go to much trouble that way. He'd just leave a couple of windows cracked and brace them to stay that way, so the air pressure gradient between the inside and the outside would hopefully not reach a
level where windows would blow out and the roof would try to lift off.

He'd picked
up the laundry yesterday, so they didn't have to worry about having enough clean clothes; taking advantage of the laundry service had turned out to be a fortuitous move. Still, he wished they'd had enough energy to do more chores yesterday. But yesterday had been busy enough, he guessed, considering.

They'd slept in
until being awakened by the phone. He'd fielded a call from the NRC, telling him they wouldn't start investigating his report on illegal ocean dumping until sometime after the storm had passed - which made sense, as he knew if it landed anywhere around here the Coast Guard and other agencies would have their hands full for a while; and yes, he was to e-mail them his pictures, which he'd done this morning. Then they'd unloaded the truck and rinsed their gear, which they'd neglected to do Sunday night; returned the tanks to the shop, which they'd kept open for a couple of hours until she got tired of hanging around there; eaten some seafood (delicious as always) along with a couple of beers each at the Mad Crabber; and gone home and crashed again, like they had immediately after their showers on Sunday night.

Since returning from Sunday's adventure, they'd
tallied more hours sleeping than they had doing everything else; but they seemed to be finally getting back on an even keel today - as evidenced by an exceptionally satisfying encounter at sunrise this morning in the bedroom, which until then hadn't happened since their return. He hadn't at the beginning been at all sure about what he was doing - it had made him feel like the bottom of his stomach was about to drop out at first, when he tried to think much about it - but he guessed he'd just needed to get used to the idea of being an outlaw. He hadn't talked with her much about the whole thing yet, but he didn't really feel like he needed to, not urgently anyway. They'd do that later, after they'd gotten some more distance from it.

H
e decided now that the Captain had definitely been right - he'd been crazy to think about turning her in and giving her up. Life was indeed short, especially at his age; the drums they'd dumped would never again be seen by anyone; and Ingram had plenty of both money and lawyers. So no apologies, after all - rest in peace and let the crooked bastard fend for himself, that's the way it was going to be. Ketch knew now that she was no femme fatale, not really; and though it made him a little wistful to lose that last vestige of his little noir detective fantasy, he was glad of it.

Today was her usual day off,  but she'd gone to the shop earlier to make sure everything was shipshape there, and to call the customers who'd signed up for her Open Water class, which was supposed to
have started tomorrow and which was now canceled. The shop would remain closed for at least the rest of the week. She'd also wanted to call her mother and her sister, to make sure they'd be okay and find out what their plans were. She was probably at her apartment in Buxton by now, loading her car with important documents and whatever else she needed to save.

He packed a large duffel with the clothing and toiletries he thought he'd need, and set it in the living room by the front door, where his guitar, fireproof file box,
dive gear, and the backpack with his laptop and a single photo album in it were already piled. He packed a smaller duffel with a leash, some food, treats, and some toys for the dog and added that to the pile, reminding himself to also toss in the dog's bed and dishes tomorrow morning. As an afterthought he also added the dog's life jacket; you never know. He tried to visualize other things he might have forgotten to pack, and concluded that everything else he owned was either replaceable or relatively unimportant.

Thinking that
, since she wasn't back yet, he could help her by packing indisposable sundries of hers that she'd kept here, he opened a suitcase (he was out of duffels) and set it on the bed. But when he started trying to guess what she might consider indisposable, beyond the obvious such as a toothbrush, he realized he was out of his depth. He settled on laying the sundress he'd bought her across the suitcase and called it quits.

He noticed the sound of the mower had ceased, and he heard voices
out in the yard. When he got to the front door the dog was already there of course, wagging and begging to be let out. "All done, Mister Ketchum," Henry called up to him. Ketch opened the screen door and let the dog out. The dog went first to Kari, and then to Henry, and then wandered off to patrol the yard and check out Henry's work.

"Henry told me he helped you get the boat ready," Kari said. "He's a handy guy to have around, isn't he? Y'all better give him a good tip!"

"Don't worry, I most certainly will," Ketch said, getting his wallet out. "Here you go, Henry."

"Wow!" Henry exclaimed, glancing quickly at the bills before stuffing them in a pocket. "Thanks, Mister Ketchum!"

"No, thank
you
, Henry. Come see us when you get back to town."

"Will do, sir." Henry
got on his bike. "I have to go, my mama called and said I better get back and start packin'. Bye!"

"Good luck! See you on the other side!" Ketch called as the bike rattled off down the road.

"He really is a great kid," Kari said.

"I know, and I hope we see more of him once everything
finally settles down around here - if it ever does, that is." Doing a passable Eugene Levy he added, "What a week I'm having!"

"
Splash
!" she laughed. "You know, we really do need to watch some movies. Maybe we'll be able to do that some while we're in exile, you think?"

"I knew I was forgetting something
! I had the same thought earlier, and I wanted to pack some of my DVDs. I wouldn't mind watching
Captain Ron
again. Kurt Russell might not agree, but I personally think that's the finest performance of his career. By the way, I reserved us a two-bedroom suite at a Residence Inn in Raleigh. That should be far enough inland, and Adriana says it should take about five hours to get there, not counting pit stops." He'd been pleased to find they'd allow pets there (for an extra fee, of course) and they didn't have to stay at some trashy motel on account of the dog. They'd caravan there tomorrow, Kari's car following his truck with the boat.

"Two bedrooms?" she queried with one eyebrow raised. "You gettin' tired of me already? I knew you would.
And who's Adriana, pray tell?"

"
Adriana? That's what I named the voice on the Google GPS I use on my phone. She needed a name." He shrugged. "I just wanted to make sure we had enough space, that's all. I don't like to be cramped."

"Uh huh
, okay, if you say so. Hey, you said you talked to Don, right? Where's he goin'?"

"He has family on the Pasquotank River, I think that's what he said, off Albemarle Sound
up by Elizabeth City. He'll stay with them, and they have a place he can dock the boat. He's sailing in the morning, and if he gets tired he says he'll stop over around Kitty Hawk. He'll call us when he gets there."

"It's too bad he has to sail alone
. I wish we could go with him. What about his truck? Does he have somebody to drive it for him?"

"No. His condo in Hatteras has carport parking, so he's just going to leave it there. He says the
Minnow
is worth a lot more than the truck, so he'll chance the truck. It'll be safer there than at the boatyard, at least. Len will pick him up there at first light and drop him off at the boatyard on his way out to Tar Heel."

"I hope that works out for him. Course the storm might not even hit us directly here anyway. Guess we'll see.
Well!" she said, looking suddenly tired again. "I got everythin' else done, now I guess I should go pack some of my stuff from here."

"I already started doing that for you," Ketch said as they all went back inside the house, keeping a straight face. "You'll see."