“Well, I’ve got a feeling it’s our turn to get lucky too,” Casey said. “We survived everything this far. I think we deserve a break, don’t you, Dad?”
“I’d say so, but I’m not counting on it, and you shouldn’t either. All we can do is just take things as they come, just like we have been. One day at a time, Casey. One day at a time.”
Late that afternoon, with the sailboat and the big trawler both securely anchored a couple hundred feet apart off Flamingo Cay, Charles motored over to the Sarah J. in the dinghy to invite the whole crew aboard Pocket Change for dinner.
“Holly and Brian are working on it now. It’s going to be quite a spread, and we won’t take no for an answer. If you need a hand helping Scully out of the cabin, I’ll be glad to do it. Holly insists that we not exclude him, unless he’s simply in too much pain to get out. If he is, we’ll bring a plate to him here.”
“He can make it,” Artie said. “Scully’s one tough dude. One AK round to the leg is not going to keep him down for long.”
“Glad to hear it! Let’s get him in the dinghy first and once we get him aboard our boat, I’ll come back for the girls.”
Like her father, Casey had never been aboard a motor yacht like Pocket Change. Living aboard such a vessel appeared little different from living in a house, at least as far as the space and conveniences went. Holly gave her and Tara and Rebecca the full tour, ending on the fly bridge where they had a great view out across the Flamingo Cay.
“Why didn’t Grandma and Grandpa buy a boat like this instead of the Sarah J.?” Rebecca asked her mom. “This would be really cool if it were ours. My friends back home would be so jealous!”
“Some people would rather sail,” Holly said. “Your grandparents did a beautiful job of restoring the Sarah J. I think I would like sailing too, but Charles is impatient and doesn’t like waiting on the wind. He likes having a lot of stuff to work on too, so the more complicated the boat is, the better, as far as he’s concerned.”
“Men.” Tara smiled. “If I understood them, I probably wouldn’t be divorced, but you two seem happy.”
“We are. We’ve been together so long we wouldn’t know what else to do anyway. We’ve been enjoying life since Charles retired, and even with circumstances the way they are now we’re still doing all right. I know we have it a lot better than most, so I feel very fortunate about that. This boat gives us a lot of insulation from what’s going on out there, but we’re still concerned, especially with the fuel problem. That’s another plus for a sailboat, Rebecca.”
“Maybe you’ll find someone who is willing to part with some,” Tara said.
“Maybe. I don’t care if we have to pay ten times the price. If we could just fill our tanks again, we could make it last a long time. Brian thinks it might be possible to buy some in Florida, but after everything you’ve told us there’s no way Charles is going to risk it right now. Besides, it’s a long way there and we’d burn hundreds of gallons just going there and back. It’s hardly worth it. I really feel bad for Brian though. He didn’t choose to be here, he just got stuck and now he can’t go home. We’re really glad to have him with us, but he’s got a lot of close friends back in Atlanta that he’s worried about. I fear that the situation there is far, far worse than anywhere in these islands though.”
“It almost certainly is,” Casey said. “I can’t even imagine how bad Atlanta and other cities like that are by now. New Orleans was in complete anarchy in a matter of days. We barely got out in time.”
Casey wished the vivid images of those first days and after the pulse could be erased from her mind, but she knew they never would. Looking out into empty ocean to the north, she wondered if Larry, Grant and Jessica had made it safely to Darby Island, and if they’d had any luck finding Thomas and Mindy. She hated this separation as much as her dad. There was always the risk that something would happen out there, and though she kept telling herself it was silly, a twinge of jealousy kept creeping into her thoughts as well. Jessica was out there having fun with Grant.
Nineteen
GRANT AND JESSICA LEFT the anchorage with the main and genoa only, quickly gaining speed as Darby Island fell astern and they left its lee. Larry was falling gradually behind in the skiff, towing Intrepida a hundred feet astern at a slower pace of perhaps five knots. Mindy was huddled against the port cabin side, opposite of where the dead policeman was still sprawled in the starboard one.
“I wish we could dump them overboard already,” Jessica said, glancing back at the stern trampoline where the second body lay.
“Larry wants to make sure they don’t wash up somewhere. I think he’s right about that, but I don’t like the idea of leaving that other guy alive on the island.”
“Maybe he’ll die before anyone finds him. I know I hit him, I’m just not sure how bad he was hurt.”
“What you did today was unbelievable, Jessica. Whether that one dies or not, you saved all of our lives. Larry told me you didn’t hesitate. Not many people could have stayed that calm and cool.”
“I had no choice. I knew they were going to kill us if I didn’t shoot them first. What’s unbelievable to me though, is that they were policemen.”
“Nothing surprises me anymore, Jessica, after all we’ve seen. That’s why we can’t trust anyone.”
“Those people on the motor yacht are nice though.”
“Yeah, they’re the one exception. Too bad we won’t get to spend time with them. I was looking forward to a break from the sailing, but that’s not gonna happen now.”
“You think Larry’s really serious about leaving the Bahamas immediately? Maybe he’ll change his mind when we get to the place they were taking Tara’s boat today. That’s a long way from here and without phones or anything, I don’t see how news of what happened here will get there anytime soon.”
“He’s serious. Larry doesn’t like taking chances when there are other options. I’ve learned that much about him. I guess it comes from what he’s been doing all these years for a living. He thinks of every possible thing that can go wrong and figures out ways to reduce the possibilities. He’s going to err on the side of caution, even if it means we never get to take a decent break. And he’s probably right. Why risk it if we don’t have to?”
Jessica sat down beside Mindy to talk to her while Grant stayed at the tiller, reflecting back on how close he’d come to having his head blown off. If he hadn’t been running after Mindy at the time, the shooter probably wouldn’t have missed. They’d all had a lot of close calls since leaving New Orleans, but this was one of the worst. After hearing Mindy’s story, he had no doubt that all of them would have met the same fate as Thomas before the day was over if those men had been able to carry out their plan.
Unlike Jessica, Grant wasn’t surprised that law enforcement officers could revert to such activity. There were always a few corrupt ones even in normal times that profited from illegal activities. In a place like this, where few citizens were armed, they had the upper hand from the beginning and it wasn’t much of a stretch to start abusing that power in times of crisis. The more he saw of the savagery so-called “civilized” people had reverted too, the more Grant longed to be back in the Guyana jungle with the Wapishana, who’d never been “civilized” in the first place. He wished they could be there now, but he’d learned enough of sailing at this point to understand why Larry was less enthusiastic. Now that they were in the trade wind belt, Grant could see how difficult it would be to make such a passage to windward under sail power alone. It made sense not to buck the forces of nature when they had enough of a fight on their hands just to survive.
Larry was falling farther behind in the skiff, but still following in the wake as Darby Island began to blur with distance. Grant could barely make out the sliver of white that was the beach they’d left behind, so he eased the sheets to spill some wind and slow down. The green and turquoise of the shallows had given way to a medium shade of blue, so he knew the depths were sufficient for what
they had to do. Grant was ready to get it over with and get the decks scrubbed clean of blood. He’d thrown a couple of buckets of seawater into the cockpit after they’d moved the one body to the tramp, but there was no use scrubbing it down until the one still inside was lifted out.
Mindy was crying again when Grant told Jessica he needed a hand to heave-to so Larry could catch up. Grant felt terrible for her, knowing the horror she had been through seeing her husband killed in front of her and then having to run and hide on the island. She’d lost everything that mattered and now she was going to lose the boat that she’d shared with Thomas. Grant wasn’t sure how she was going to take that, but he understood after Larry explained why it was necessary. Being so short at the waterline, yet beamy and heavy in displacement for its length, that boat would be far too much of a drag to tow any significant distance, a fact made evident by Larry’s speed now pulling it behind the skiff. Grant had learned in this brief time he’d been around boats that heavy-displacement hulls were limited in their speed by waterline length, no matter how much power was applied. The Casey Nicole could exceed those limitations in the right conditions only because she was a lightweight multihull. The truth was, even if they could tow or even sail Mindy’s boat all the way to the Jumentos, they’d still have to leave it behind for the next passage, and that was going to be almost immediately. It was sad for Mindy, but on the other hand, she was fortunate that Larry was willing to take her with them. One more person in their crew would take up valuable space that was already at a premium, and another mouth to feed would stretch their limited resources. Larry was apparently okay with all that though, and this was his ship.
He caught up with them twenty minutes later and yelled at Grant to go ahead and drop the sails. It was too deep to anchor but the seas were light enough that they could just lie ahull and drift until they were finished. The only problem was keeping the boats from bashing together when Larry came alongside. Intrepida was still drifting at the end of her towline, but Larry brought the skiff in close and tied off with fenders against the Casey Nicole’s hull.
“I want to dump those dead men first,” he said. “Then I’ll pull Mindy’s boat close enough so she can get on board and sort out her things. When we’re done with that, I’ll get the outboard.”
“Are you going to sink the skiff too?” Grant asked.
“No, it’s a wooden hull with no ballast. It won’t sink all the way even if we flood it. We’ll just set it adrift and let it go. The wind will take it west, probably towards Andros. It won’t matter if someone finds it because it’s not connected to us like her boat is.”
The first body on the stern trampoline was easy to dispose of. There was a rusty old Danforth anchor in the skiff that Larry had no use for, so they tied it to the man with a short length of rope and shoved him in. Dumping the second body was a much more involved operation. Larry and Grant had to both go below in the starboard cabin and manhandle the dead man off the floor enough to tie a loop of rope around his chest so they could hoist him with the halyard. Larry used an old dock line for this purpose so he wouldn’t have to bother untying it again. Then he clipped the end of the halyard to that and Grant went to the winch to do the grinding. More blood drained into the interior and across the outer cabin side as the body was lifted high enough to clear the companionway. Once they had it dangling overboard, Larry weighted it with a piece of chain from the skiff and then cut the dock line just below the halyard clip. The dead man hit the water with a big splash and sank into the blue abyss. Grant felt better already, and he knew everyone else on board did too, especially Mindy. But the hard part for her was what came next.
Surprisingly, she didn’t argue with Larry about his decision to scuttle her boat. She said she wouldn’t sail on it again after what happened to Thomas anyway, because it had been their dream together. Tears were streaming down her face as Jessica went with her for her last time aboard though. Grant and Larry left the two of them alone to sort through Mindy’s belongings. There wasn’t much, because the boat was so small, but when they returned to climb back into the skiff and then board the Casey Nicole, Mindy had two small duffle bags with her clothes, her pictures, and a few of Thomas’ personal possessions. One thing she brought with her that put a grin on Larry’s face was a nice pair of marine binoculars. She gave them to him, saying that she knew Thomas would want him to have them for all that he’d done for her.
Larry’s mood immediately changed back to somber though when he left to climb aboard little Intrepida for what had to be done next. Grant knew it had to be painful for him, because no sailor wants to see a good boat meet its end. He went below and cut the hoses to the head discharge seacock and the two cockpit drains. With three one and a half-inch holes below the waterline, Intrepida would not be floating for long. Larry brought the end of the towline with him as he climbed back into the skiff, letting the little boat drift away as the waterline climbed higher and higher up her topsides.
The final task was using the halyard to hoist the heavy 50-horse Johnson outboard off the skiff. It was too bulky and too heavy to mount on either of the retractable motor sleds Larry had built while constructing the Casey Nicole. The building plans called for two smaller motors of 10 to 15 horsepower for auxiliary propulsion, but Larry said that once they finally got some where and stopped long enough to work on the boat, modifications could be made. Any motor that would work would be useful, whether or not it was of optimum size. For now, Larry lashed it securely to the aft beam just behind the cockpit where it would be out of the way. Then they raised the sails and got underway. When Grant looked back Intrepida was low in the water, her decks almost awash as her interior slowly filled. She would be gone in a few more moments, and he turned away, not wanting to see her sink. Mindy wasn’t looking either. She was sitting on the main crossbeam near the mast with Jessica’s arm around her shoulders as the two of them talked and focused on the horizon ahead.
“I’m going to keep on a southwest heading until dark,” Larry said, “to put some distance between us and the Exumas. We can’t really approach Flamingo Cay until daylight anyway, so it won’t matter if we sail some extra distance. If we get close sooner than we need to, we’ll stand off at sea and tack back and forth until sunup.”
“How long can we stay there? What about all the repairs we need to make? And the cleaning?”
Larry had already put duct tape over the holes made by the two shotgun blasts. Those were larger and nearer the waterline than the smaller ones through the cabin from the pistol rounds. The tape was enough to keep spray and water from a stray wave from entering, and he said they could throw an epoxy and fiberglass patch on it tomorrow. But Grant was wondering about the keel damage caused when he’d steered the boat onto the reef off Green Cay. Their haul-out and repair had been interrupted by Russell’s idiocy, and they had quickly relaunched with the job half done. Then, there was the issue of Tara’s diesel engine overheating in her boat. Larry was going to improvise a water pump for cooling, but hadn’t had time to do it for the same reason. They were facing another voyage with lots of work undone.
“None of it is critical enough that it can’t wait. I don’t like to put to sea with boat issues, but I don’t want to be dead or go to jail either. We’ll sort out as much as we can tomorrow and just go.”
“Any idea where yet? We didn’t really get a chance to make a plan, did we?”
“I’ve been thinking,” Larry said. “Talking to Charles the other night about Central America has got me thinking more and more that somewhere in that region is probably our best option. Not just anywhere though. We need a place that this blackout couldn’t have changed much. A place that never had lights and all the other tech to begin with. There’s a couple of good options down that way, mainly the Mosquitia region of Honduras and Nicaragua and the San Blas Islands off Panama.”
“A long voyage then.”
“Not really. The wind will be favorable most of the way. It’ll be easier than crossing the Gulf, bu
t we’ll have to steer well clear of some of the islands along the way.”
Grant contemplated what lay ahead as the two of them fell silent, wrapped in their thoughts as the last of the twilight faded into night and the Casey Nicole sped onwards to an invisible horizon.
Twenty
ARTIE WAS THE FIRST awake aboard the Sarah J. the next morning, after a late evening aboard Pocket Change enjoying good food and drink. Hearing him pump water for the coffee pot in the small galley, Scully rolled over in his settee bunk and sat up as well. Scully and of course, Rebecca, were the only two among them who had abstained from partaking of the excellent choice of liquor Charles and Holly offered to accompany good conversation. Larry had told him Scully never drank alcohol, and Artie was a bit envious now, considering the headache he woke with that he hoped a cup of coffee would soon cure.
“How are you feeling today, Scully? Do I need to schedule another surgery?”
Scully laughed. “No weh, Doc! No knife near de leg, please! I an’ I gonna be good as new, just need a little time, dat’s all.”
Artie sat down across from him as he waited on the water to boil. He was really looking forward to his coffee today, and he was sure Tara and Casey would enjoy a cup too. He dreaded the day when they would run out, but he knew it was coming soon. There were still a few pounds aboard the Casey Nicole, but after that, he doubted there would be an opportunity to get more. Charles and Holly probably had a good supply of it, like everything else, it seemed, but he wasn’t about to ask them. He could live without it and knew he would have to, but he wasn’t looking forward to it.
“I hope Larry makes it back today, and that they found out why Thomas and Mindy were delayed. What do you think the two of them will do when we finally leave here? Larry says there’s no way they could keep up with us, assuming they would even want to.”
Horizons Beyond the Darkness Page 13