“How did you find us?” Roy asked around a mouthful of shark steak.
“After Jade shook our tail we knew she’d gone traveling somewhere in the country, but not where. Then this woman in Miami reported to us that she’d lost a fifty-seven foot Beneteau from a Marina during a gale, and she was afraid it might float into the shipping lanes and pose a hazard. Our people in Miami issued a routine warning to sailors and commercial ship captains, and then the Coast Guard did a search along the coast. We found a number of boats that had broken loose during the storm, but no fifty-seven foot Beneteau. Then Hector Gonzalez - the Miami commander, and the other captain in the helicopter with me - got a call from a retired Admiral by the name of Alexander Peoples. Peoples was appealing to Hector as a fellow military man for help. He explained how a patriotic organization he belonged to, the Beowulf Society, had been victimized by some dangerous burglars who’d stolen valuable material from them. He hinted that it might even be a matter of national security. He gave detailed descriptions of the two of you—your names and occupations, and the fact that you both came from a little river town back east called Cairn-On-Hudson. A police report had been filed, but Peoples and others in his organization thought there was a good possibility that the two of you had escaped to sea in a stolen boat during the storm. He asked Hector to do a more extensive search as a personal favor and report back to him if you were spotted. Well, that’s not the way the Coast Guard works. Hector and I are friends. Since Peoples had told him that Jade was a riverkeeper on the Hudson, he figured that I might know her, and that I might have some idea of what she and a Cairn police detective were doing in Miami stealing stuff from a group of retired military men. Well, I did have some idea, and I shared it with him.”
Jade smiled as she touched the back of Marley’s hand. “And then you personally came running to the rescue.”
Marley grinned. “And none too soon, I’d say.”
Roy grunted. “Now there’s an understatement. Thanks again, Captain.”
“My pleasure. Knowing Jade here, I figured there was indeed a very good chance that she’d managed to sail away during that storm. But the Miami command had received no distress calls, and the police had filed no request for the Coast Guard’s help in looking for a couple of seafaring burglary suspects, so Hector couldn’t sign off on any standard air-sea rescue mission. What he could do was closely monitor radio traffic and flight activity out of the regional airports and military bases to spot anybody else who might be searching for you. One of those private airfields was registered as belonging to the Beowulf Society, and every time any craft took off from there we shadowed it. They led us to you.”
Once again Jade glanced out the window. “Was there any mention of a killing at the hotel where Beowulf was having its convention?”
“I never spoke with the police, and Peoples never mentioned any killing to Hector. Peoples just said you were wanted for burglary.”
“The personal enemy I mentioned to you in our conversation back in New York was a man named Henry Bolo. He made me, and he came after me. I put three thirty-eight-caliber slugs into him, two in his heart. That should have managed to kill even that vampire.”
“But they didn’t report it,” Roy said thoughtfully. “They must have managed to get the body out of the hotel and dump it somewhere before they called the police.”
Marley looked across the table at Roy. “If Jade killed one of their men, why wouldn’t they report it? That would have gotten the police working even harder for them.”
“They didn’t want the police working too hard,” Roy said as he pushed aside his plate and lighted a cigarette. “If a killing had been reported, the police would have interviewed just about everybody who’d attended the convention and looked into the background of the victim. They would have asked a lot of questions the Beowulf boys wouldn’t want to answer. Also, there would be a better chance of the police returning their briefcase without examining the contents too closely if only simple burglary was involved. A homicide investigation would have been a lot more complicated.”
Jade turned back from the window and again touched the Coast Guard Captain’s hand. “Roy and I owe you our lives, Richard. I know how hard it must have been for you to go against your own people.”
Marley stiffened slightly. “Those men aren’t my people, Jade. You and Roy are my people. I shouldn’t have stonewalled you in my office. Even before you showed up, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, and who might be behind it. I was damned pissed that somebody was screwing around with munitions on my turf, endangering lives and shipping, without telling me. I was getting ready to file a formal complaint and ask for an investigation from the Pentagon, but I had mixed emotions. When you came in to see me my brains ran out my ears. The only thing that kept running through my mind was that I didn’t want to be called a rat.”
“You didn’t really stonewall me. You said enough to at least confirm that I was on the right track.”
Marley waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “That wasn’t nearly enough. I bailed out. There you were in my office, this woman I respected and counted as a friend, asking for my help because you and your children were in danger of being killed. But I was more concerned about being thought disloyal by a bunch of greedy, treasonous renegades and thugs who had nothing but contempt for the Coast Guard in the first place. I embarrassed myself, Jade.”
“Richard, this isn’t necessary.”
“Yes, it is. Roy asked how we found you, and I’m giving a complete answer. I was ashamed of myself. You were absolutely right when you described these men as terrorists, and they’d struck in an area I was responsible for. I decided I had to do something about it besides file a complaint, but I wasn’t sure exactly what to do. Frankly, I didn’t trust the Pentagon to get the job done right. Whistle blowing was out, since all I had to blow was hot air. I had no proof that this shadow group even existed. It also occurred to me that I might make your situation even worse, if that was possible, by talking to the wrong men in the military.”
Roy said, “So you decided to nail the bastards yourself.”
Marley nodded. “Acting on my authority as head of the Coast Guard command where the triggering incident occurred. But doing it through normal channels would leave a paper trail that would tip off the wrong people as to what I was up to, and they could block me. Besides, Jade, you were my only real lead. Since you were already way ahead of me in investigating this business, I decided I’d tag along, in a manner of speaking, after you. I put a team of our best surveillance people on you. I not only wanted to protect you, if I could, but I was also hoping you could lead me to something I could use as evidence—and you did. You make a beautiful stalking mare, if I may so bold as to say so.”
Jade laughed. “If I’m ever in a position again where I’m being followed, and I certainly hope I’m not, I may think twice about losing my tail.”
“You’ve got balls, Marley,” Roy said, leaning back in his chair. “I’m a cop, and I know what it means to fear being called a rat by people who do, or did, the same kind of work you do.”
“I appreciate that, Mannes. I’m going to get some personal flak, but at least now I can look at myself in the mirror when I shave in the morning.” He paused, glanced at Jade. “I assume the members of the Beowulf Society are feeling a bit antsy. By now they must realize you’re still alive, and they’re waiting for you to drop a shoe store on their heads.”
Jade smiled thinly. “I won’t keep them waiting much longer.”
Marley shifted slightly in his chair and pointed to the briefcase beneath Jade’s chair. “I assume you’ve got the shoe store in there?”
“And here,” Roy said, removing a plastic bag filled with dozens of miniature tape cassettes from his jacket pocket and setting it down on the table.
“I would be honored if you’d allow me to accompany you when you turn that stuff over to the F.B.I. I’ll make a good witness to what you’ve got there, and how you got it. Y
ou’ll also find out that I can be a hell of a blowtorch if any of the feds show signs of getting cold feet after you tell them your story.”
Jade looked at Roy, who nodded. “There’s no time like the present, she said, gesturing for the waiter to bring them their check. “Let’s get out of here.”
ii
“I’m teaching Grandpa to box,” Max Jr. said, beaming as he suddenly got up from the table, stepped over to Jade’s father and began to shadow box.
“Max Jr. tough guy,” Hasim Baz said, shying away in mock horror from the boy’s fists. “Lucky me and him good buddies. Right, Maxie?”
“That’s right, Grandpa.”
“You and me going to see a lot of each other from now on, right?”
“That’s right too, Grandpa.”
Jade smiled at her father and son, and then leaned to her left and hugged her mother tightly. She felt bifurcated. Part of her was happy, as happy as she had ever been since before her husband had died, happier than she had ever thought she could be again. She was reconciled with her parents and in-laws, her children were safe, she had returned to a community and job she loved, and she had found love.
She had even reconciled herself to the fact that Fatima was lost to her as a daughter, probably forever, and in that part of her heart where Fatima was missing she would always feel a terrible emptiness and ache.
The phone rang. Jade’s father got up to answer it, and Jade was surprised when, after a few moments, her father held out the receiver to her. “It’s for you, big shot,” Hasim Baz said. “I think it your boyfriend you tell me about.”
Jade rose from the table, went across the room and took the receiver from her father’s hand. “Roy? Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine. Your Uncle Moshe called.”
Jade swallowed hard. “What?”
“You got an Uncle Moshe?”
“Uh … yes.”
“I guess you must have mentioned me to him, because when he couldn’t reach you at home he called me at the station house. There’s a gift waiting for you at JFK.”
“A gift? What is it?”
“I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. Wait there. I’m coming to pick up you and Max Jr.”
iii
They parked Roy’s car on the shoulder of the highway, and then got out and started walking down the narrow dirt road leading to the community of Hebron Nablus. There was a wooden kiosk on the right side of the road a hundred yards from the highway, but the guard-greeter did not challenge them as they walked past. Instead, the young man stared at the two women in long, black dresses walking between Jade and Roy, an expression of shock and disbelief on his face.
The five of them were spotted by someone in the small square below as they came over the crest of the hill overlooking the village, and by the time they were halfway down the slope a crowd that Jade estimated must have consisted of almost the entire population of the village had assembled in the square, which Jade, Roy, Max Jr. and the two women now approached.
“News travels fast around here,” Roy said dryly to the two women dressed in black. “You two have attracted quite a crowd.”
The women did not reply. They continued to stare straight ahead, their faces grim and their dark eyes flashing with resolve and anger.
Gradually the crowd began to part, forming a ragged semicircle around Fatima and Yuris Dockowicz, who stood close by her side. As Jade drew closer she could see the man’s face and gray eyes registering a range of emotions, from the same shock and disbelief displayed by the guard, to anger, and finally to shame. He slowly raised his trembling hands, palms up, as if to will them to turn around and walk away, and then suddenly wheeled around. The line of people behind him parted to let him pass through, and then once again slowly closed ranks behind Fatima. The faces of the men, women and children in the crowd were stony, their eyes watchful.
Fatima, appearing thoroughly bewildered, had turned her head to look at the place in the wall of people where Yuris Dockowicz had vanished from sight. Now she looked back at Jade. The girl’s face was ashen, her eyes flashing with anger and confusion. “Mother, why are you here?” she asked in a quavering voice. “What have you done?”
“Hello, Fatima,” Jade said in an even tone, and then motioned toward the two young women who had taken up positions flanking her and were exchanging stony, cold stares with the residents of the village, with whom they seemed familiar. “I’d like you to meet Ruth and Esther. They’ll be my houseguests for the next few days. They’ve come all the way from Israel to speak to you. Your friends know who they are, but I guess neither they nor your candidate for Mosiach bothered to tell you that he’d abandoned two wives about your age when he moved here. I hope you’ve been boning up on your Hebrew, because they don’t speak any English.”
Fatima glanced around her at the line of villagers, who stared back at her, their faces impassive. Then both of the young women in black walked forward. Each took one of the girl’s hands, and then gently but insistently led her off a dozen yards, where they stopped and began speaking to her in low tones. Roy moved closer to Jade, and they both watched as Fatima nervously glanced back and forth at the two women who were speaking to her. Her face had grown even paler.
Suddenly Fatima cried out. She put her hands to her face and began to sob uncontrollably, and she would have collapsed if her two companions had not quickly grabbed her arms to support her. Max Jr. started toward his sister, but Jade held him back. After a minute or two Fatima stopped sobbing. She gently pushed the women’s hands away from her, and then turned and slowly walked to Jade.
“Mom,” Fatima said quietly, tears still streaming from her eyes, “I feel like such a fool.”
Jade wrapped her arms around her daughter and held her tightly. “It’s all right, babe,” she said, resting her cheek on the top of Fatima’s head. “It’s not your fault that Yunis Dockowicz is a kidnapper, or that he never bothered to tell you that he’s already married. He apparently was tired of those two and decided to leave them behind when he was forced to leave Israel. There are newspaper clippings about him and his group in the car, if you care to read them.”
Fatima shook her head, and then began to sob again. “Mom, all those terrible things I said to you …”
“Hush, now,” Jade whispered as Max Jr. joined them and put his arms around his sister. “Your brother and I love you so very much.”
Gradually Fatima stopped crying. Jade gently raised her daughter’s chin and wiped the tears from her eyes. Then they both turned when they sensed movement behind them. A spindly, middle-aged man with a bushy beard had stepped forward from the line of villagers and was leaning forward slightly, tentatively beckoning to Fatima.
“Come, Fatima,” the man said. “The Rebbe is Mosiach, and it is permitted. He is blessed, and anything he chooses to do is blessed. Soon all the world will know, for he is ready to announce it. Go to him, Fatima. Be his bride. You belong to him. It is Heaven’s will.”
Fatima looked into her mother’s face, and then said in a small voice, “I’d like to go home now, Mom.”
Jade put her arm around her daughter, and together they started walking back up the road. Behind them there was a chorus of voices calling Fatima’s name, but the girl did not look back. When they reached the top of the hill, Fatima smiled at Jade, and then walked ahead to join the two Israeli women, with whom she began to converse in Hebrew.
“Beat it, buster,” Roy said playfully to Max Jr., nudging the boy in the back. “I want to talk to your mother.”
Roy waited until the boy had run ahead to join his sister and the two Israelis, and then he turned to Jade and continued quietly, “I know you don’t date, baby cakes, but would you consider marrying me?”
“Sure,” Jade replied easily, squeezing Roy’s hand.
Roy, looking thoroughly startled, stared at Jade for a few moments. Finally he said, “What did you say?”
Jade laughed. “What’s the matter, Roy? Are you sudden
ly hard of hearing?”
“You would? Really?”
“I just said so, didn’t I?”
“We get along real well. I love you, and I think your kids are great. Max Jr. likes me, and I think Fatima will like me eventually. You like me. I swear I’ll do my best to be a good stepfather and a good-”
“Stop it, Roy,” Jade said, and laughed again. “You don’t have to convince me. I already said I’d marry you. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve also told you I love you.”
Roy flushed, and then grinned bashfully. “I guess I’m a little overexcited.”
“I’ll marry you, but I don’t know when. I still have Max Jr.’s and Fatima’s sensibilities to worry about. I have to probe their reactions.”
“They’re going to be fine, Jade. And they’re going to think it’s a great idea.”
“I have to determine that for myself, Roy.” Jade paused for a few moments, and then she continued, “I think we should start by all spending some time together, and I’ll see how they react to the two of us being close. How does a little camping trip sound to you?”
“Hey, you’re speaking to the top Junior Woodchuck in my grammar school.”
iv
“Hey, Mom.”
Jade turned from the sink, where she had been cleaning and filleting the trout Roy and Fatima had caught earlier, to look at her son, who was perched on a high stool to her left. “What is it, my big platter of poached penguin?”
“I’ve been thinking, my little barrel of baked bananas.”
“Aha. I thought I smelled something burning.”
“Grandpa and I talked a lot while you were away, and Roy and I talked a lot when I was staying with him. You’re always telling me you’ve got things to do. Well, I know I’ve got things to do now too—in school. In Cairn. I’m going to start taking better care of myself. I don’t intend to hurt anybody, but I’m not going to let the other kids push me around anymore either. I want to stay where I am. I don’t want to go to any special school. All right?”
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