Superior Storm (Lake Superior Mysteries) (21 page)

The Krugers had another bag of cash as well, and some handgun ammunition. I quickly thrust questions of
how’s and why’s into the future
and went to work.
I was dimly aware of the boat heaving and swooping on the waves; maybe the swell was getting bigger.
The news report started talking about the murder of a professor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. The man in question was a professor of counseling and women’s studies. He was shot to death the night before in his home.

When I had e
verything shipshape up front
,
I made my way back to the Stones’ cabin, flipping off the radio when I reached the base of the companionway.
Jensen’s message hadn’t said anything
about the Stones, but obviously Phil and
Angela and had partners.
My heart was in my stomach.
At that moment,
Jasmine came down the companionway, followed by Angela.

“Do you need some help?” asked Jasmine.

“Sure,” I said. “You can help me carry drinks” I felt wooden, sure my face would betray me.

I went to the cooler in the galley and removed cans of soda
and handed them to the women. I considered telling them I would be right up, but I thought that might be pushing my luck. I grabbed
two sodas
and some napkins, and went back up into the cockpit in front of them.

Tony was standing at the wheel.

“Leyla’s been teaching us how to sail,” said Jasmine
, handing her husband a can of
D
iet
C
oke
. We were level with
O
uter Island on the port side. Directly in front us lay only the lake, a vast freshwater ocean. Most of the
i
slands were low smudges behi
nd us. We couldn’t see Michigan
or Minnesota, and the Bayfield massif was merely a dim smear.
But when I saw the towering clouds to the west, I gave a silent prayer of thanks.
The sunlight was fading even as I watched.

“I’ve got bad news,” I said, looking meaningfully at Leyla.
I jerked my thumb at the western sky. “I just heard that is turning into a major storm. We need to run home for shelter.”

“Are you sure?” asked Angela. She sounded very concerned.

“It sounded pretty serious,” I said. I looked at the towering wall of clouds behind us. By a massive stroke of good fortune, the weather appeared to be cooperating with my desperate ploy. The sun was
behind the clouds now, and Superior heaved gray sullen waves at us
,
each one seemingly bigger than the
last
. Here and there
,
the wind whipped the top of a wave into white foam.

“It’s not worth taking the risk,” agreed Leyla.

“
How did you hear about it?” asked Angela.
“On the radio?”

“That’s right,” I confirmed.

Angela’s face went dark, and
I knew my mistake
at once
. Of course they knew the radio didn’t work – they must have rigged the weather report themselves.
And then just like that, Angela and Phil were holding guns.
Big, black automatics.

“I’m sorry,” said Angela, “but we won’t be going home.”

Leyla stared at the guns, standing motionless with her can of
C
oke poised between her hands in the act of opening it.

Stone gave a quick glance at Jasmine, nothing more. Jasmine took a breath and let it out. She seemed almost relieved. I was puzzled. I expected them to produce weapons as well.

I looked over at Outer Island, maybe
two
miles away to port. In normal water, I could probably
make
it. I wondered if Leyla could. But Superior was
already
well below fifty degrees Fahrenheit; sometimes it was as low as thirty-nine by this point in the year.
Water that cold stole your breath, slowed your reactions and drained the life out of your body.
The waves were now rearing up to five feet or more.
I probably couldn’t
last for
half a mile.

Stone caught my glance
and almost imperceptibly shook his head. I turned
back
to Angela.

“Angela,” I said gently and calmly, hoping my face didn’t betray me, “we can still talk about your marriage. You don’t need this cruise so badly. But it isn’t safe to stay out here in the storm.”

She gave a short, harsh laugh.
“Don’t try that crap on me. You found something, or figured it out,” she said. “Because I know the radio report didn’t say anything about a storm.”

My heart sank. Everything
might
depend on them believing that I knew nothing up until the moment they pulled their guns. “Yes
,
it did,” I said. “The AM
n
ews station in Ashland said it.
There was a lot of static,
but I heard it clearly enough. You can go listen right now.” I prayed that the past few minutes hadn’t taken us out of range.

“AM news?” asked Phil quizzically.

“Damn
it
!” said Angela. “
Richard
forgot about the
regular
stereo.”

“What are we gonna do about the storm?” asked Phil.

“Well
,
it’s too late now,” said Angela. “We’ll have to keep on anyway. Actually, it’ll help to sell the story.”

Stone started to turn toward Angela. “Listen,” he began.

“Shut up!” snapped Angela. “Keep your hands on the wheel until I tell you otherwise.”

She smiled without mirth. “I guess I am the captain now. You
will
all do what I say without question.”

“Angela,” I said. “I don’t know what
–
”

“You shut up too,” she said, gesturing with her gun.

“Can you drop us off on Outer Island?” asked Jasmine.
She was looking at Angela intensely. Angela looked back. It struck me a
s a
weird exchange.

“Sorry,” said Angela after a moment. “Can’t be done.”

There was no ta
lking for a minute, and the sound of the boat plowing into the thickening water was loud. Spray flew continuously
from the bow, showering us like a light rain.
The darkness was growing, and the boat began to push farther to starboard as the wind
from the west
strengthened.

“Turn a little to starboard,” Leyla instructed Stone.

“Shut up,” said Angela. “I’m giving the orders.
”

“Fine,” said Leyla coolly. “If he doesn’t do it, we’ll all be in the water in about three minutes.
The cold will kill us long before we can reach land.
We’ll be dead within
forty-five minutes
.
”
She was so calm and brave and fragile and beautiful, I didn’t know if I wanted to cheer or cry.

Angela
looked at her
,
and Leyla met her gaze calmly. At last Angela
nodded reluctantly. “Do it,” she said. “For now.” She stepped over to Stone and held the gun up to his side. “But not too much.”

Tony nudged the wheel a little. We leveled out a little bit.

“We need to shut the hatch over your berth – in fact, any window or skylight that is open.”

“Philip, go get the GPS,” said Angela.
“While you’re down there, make sure everything is shut
up
tight.”

“We already have a GPS,” said Leyla. “Right here.”

Phil hesitated. “Go!” snapped Angela.
He went down the companionway.

I tensed. There were four of us and only one person with a gun. Stone caught my eye, and then without moving his head, flicked his eyes towards his left shoulder where Angela stood. Angela saw me looking at him. She stepped smoothly away from Stone and put her left arm around Leyla, holding the gun high where her jaw met her neck.

“One of you stupid testosterone junkies might be willing to take a bullet,” she said. “But are
you
willing for her to?”

I sagged, weakened by the rush of unused adrenaline. Stone’s mouth tightened. Jasmine
stood tense, not moving except to brace herself against the swoop and dive of the boat
.

A little later,
Phil emerged, holding a small GPS unit. “I turned it on,” he said. “The course is all set.”

“Show it to her,” said Angela, jerking her head at Leyla.

“What about it?” said Leyla as she looked at the screen.

“That’s where we are going,” said Angela. “You need to follow that course, or your boyfriend will start losing body parts.”

“I can’t run the boat with you attached to my side,” said Leyla.
I decided it was cheering that I most felt like doing.
I was awed by her calm strength and courage.

“Phil,” said Angela. “Get the other one.”

Phil smirked and slipped behind Jasmine, wrapping an arm around her front. He held the gun up to her head. He seemed to be holding her pretty tight.

“Easy,” said Jasmine. She sounded more irritated than anything else.
Angela looked at him sourly. “Don’t get distracted,” she snapped. She looked first at Stone and then me. “Now behave boys,” she said, and released Leyla.

The boat was hea
ving more violently than before and the sky above us was now already completely gray.
Angela lost her balance and half-fell onto the starboard cockpit bench. I started to move but Phil said sharply, “Easy, or Jasmine gets it.”

“This is only going to get worse,” said Leyla.
“
We can’t make it through the storm like this.”

“Sorry
,
sister,” said Angela. “We are going through this storm
,
whether you like it or not.” She gathered herself together.
“We need to immobilize them
,
”
she said to Phil.”

“You will die with us,” said Leyla. She was calm, but she had to speak quite loudly now to be heard above the sound of the wind and waves. “It is suicide to carry this much sail into a storm like this.” The wind was whipping her thick dark hair around her face. Her dark eyes were steady and serious. There was depth and strength I had never guessed at in Leyla.

Angela hesitated. “OK,” she too, spoke loudly to be heard over the increasing tumult. “What do we do?”

“We need to start by taking down the sails. Then, we really should run for cover.”

The
Tiny Dancer
heeled far over to starboard again as sudden blast of wind slamm
ed into the big sail. I held on
to the port side railing
as we passed fifty degrees of slope
. I glanced quickly toward Phil, but he had simply taken Jasmine to the deck, lying with his left arm around and underneath her, the right hand
holding the gun to
her temple.
I thought he was holding it kind of loosely, but it wasn’t worth risking her life to try and
get to him.
Slowly, the heavy keel pulled us back more or less upright.

“
You two go
below,”
called
Angela to Phil.
I’ll check with you every five minutes. If I don’t
check in
, then kill her.” She looked at me and then Stone. “Do you understand?”

“Got it,” I said shortly. Stone nodded.
Jasmine
went down into the cabin, followed by Phil, who didn’t seem to be covering her very closely.
Angela braced herself in the front port corner of the cockpit. She waved her gun at us. “Now get to it.”

First, Leyla opened one of the cockpit lockers, and handed life jackets to all of us. She hesitated when she came to Angela, but Angela reached for it, so Leyla let her have it.

After we had secured the life vests, Leyla
took the wheel from Stone, and called out instructions to us.
We all had to lean to
port
, and crouch and hold on to things in order to keep our feet.
I loosened a rope to port while Stone cranked the mainsail closer to the boat. We started heeling over again, but Leyla turned more to starboard and we leveled out a little more. “Get up to the mast,” she called to me.
I climbed out of the cockpit to port, and scrambled forward
, holding onto the cable railin
g
, and
then
the ropes until I was kneeling at the foot of the mast. Stone came around on the starboard side.
I freed the rope that kept the big sail fully open. Stone and I reached up and grabbed big handfuls of canvas, pulling toward the deck. As the sail came down, the starboard pressure decreased even more.
We were still swooping up and down waves that now approached ten feet high, but we no longer felt like were falling over
so much
to starboard. Following Leyla’s shouted commands, we pulled the sail all the way down, and then secured the canvas in a rough
,
untidy bundle around the boom. Leyla let the boom out a little to starboard so it would be out of the way of the people in the cockpit.