Shiver on the Sky
Page 62
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The Hermit pushed a wheelbarrow laden with one rather small bilge pump and what looked like enough alcohol to sink the boat whether the pump worked or not. Martina walked beside him, her arm in his.
Owen smiled at them as they drew near. “Ready to work?” he asked the Hermit, though it was really a one-man job.
“Sure. I got us some new tubing for the water line. It looked like it might be cracked, and anyway we might as well replace it while we’re down there. I got new hose clamps, too. Yours are pretty bad.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Owen helped carry the alcohol inside, then went to his bedroom to change into an old swimsuit he figured he could ruin if he needed to.
When he came out he found Martina in the main salon. “Mind if I use your phone?” she asked. “I just want to check on things at work.”
“Sure, no problem.” The Hermit had already squeezed himself into the bilge through the access panel. Owen found the toolbox he wanted and opened the door to go join him. “And Martina? It might not be a bad idea to call Gordon and let him know Carl said something to the nurse about a little girl.”
She nodded. He watched the vertical crease reappear between her eyebrows.
She hesitated, flushing slightly. “Do you still think . . .”
“That there’s something still going on? Sure. But Viktor didn’t answer his phone, and I can’t think of anything else to do right now, so we might as well fix the boat.” He’d approached programming computers the same way. His best insights had come while he’d painted the office or rearranged his shelves. Or gone for a walk. But it was a hard thing to explain.
“Okay,” Martina said, elaborately casual. “I’ll let you know if he says anything.”
“Thanks.”
She looked as if she wanted to say something else, but after a moment she just waved at him and called Andrea.
He went out to join the Hermit. So she’d been about to call Gordon on her own. He couldn’t blame her for that, could he? But it bothered him more than he wanted it to.
Martina finished making her calls, straightened up the interior of the boat, and settled down with one of Owen’s books.
The fifteen-minute job to replace the bilge pump took an hour and a half, by which time they’d decided the bilge needed a good scrubbing, and that took the rest of the afternoon.
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