‘Where’s the journal?’ Danny asked. ‘Where’s the emerald?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Ben said.
‘Let me cut the bitch,’ Gar said, his mouth close to Claudia’s ear. ‘Maybe an inch at a time, start with the ring finger.’
‘Why don’t you just calm down?’ Danny said, tension edging his voice. ‘We’re not at that stage quite yet. Search the boat.’
They ransacked Jupiter. Cabinets torn open, leather cushions ripped, mattresses gutted. This went on for at least a half hour, the boat searched from stem to stern.
Claudia pegged their positions from their voices. She had already labeled them: Danny, Redhead (a throaty, giggling tenor), and Gar (a low baritone.) She heard fabric rustle as one of the men dropped to his knees between her and Ben. Then fingertips, gentle, against her shoulder.
‘The wrong place. The wrong time.’ Danny touched her gently. ‘I want to be a better person than that. Truly. I’m sorry for you, miss
…’
‘Leave her alone, asshole! You touch her I’ll kill you!’ Ben screamed.
‘Shut up, brother. I’m not like some people I could name who slaughter the innocent. We are gentlemen here, aren’t we?’
His partners made no answer. Lips smacked to her left, juicy-kissy, and the taste of copper tinged her mouth.
‘Listen, we’ll be expected back within a couple of hours,’ Ben said. ‘We go missing, my brother will have the coast guard looking for us. They’ll hunt you down.’
‘Texas is a long swim away. Let me tell you what you’re going to do,’ Redhead said. His voice held the hard brightness of a game show host. ‘You’re going to get onto the lovely, fancy onboard phone system here, call your brother. He wants to see you again, he’s going to transfer five million dollars into a series of offshore numbered accounts. In the Cayman Islands. The Bahamas. Anguilla. When all that’s done, we’re going to let you and your girl go home to your families. Sound good?’ He laughed.
‘You’re fucking nuts,’ Ben said.
‘Five million’s not a lot to him,’ Danny said. ‘We could get greedy. Take all of it.’
‘Kill you if we wanted,’ Gar said.
‘Don’t be rude,’ Danny said.
‘Stoney doesn’t have a liquid five million just hanging around. Hell, it’s in stocks, funds, real estate.’
‘It’s happening, baby, hap-pa-NING! The redhead, giddy with putting the screws to people.
‘Ben,’ Danny said. ‘It’s easy. I want three things from your brother. What he stole from me, which is a document, a journal. A valuable artifact connected to that journal, which is an emerald. And five million, to compensate me for killing my cousin, who was a nice guy. There. Isn’t that simple?’
‘You’re fucking crazy. My brother doesn’t have what you’re looking for, and he wouldn’t hurt your cousin or anybody else.’
‘Isn’t your brother a little interested in treasure hunting? Hasn’t he filled a goddamn library full of books on it?’
‘Just as a hobby. Jesus.’
‘Hobby. It’s gone past that. Time for Stoney to pay the piper. C’mon.’ Claudia heard Ben yanked to his feet, his shoes scuffing the carpet near her knees. Wetness landed on the back of her neck. Ben’s blood.
‘Gar, put Claudia in the stateroom,’ Danny ordered.
Hands hoisted Claudia up in the air, crushing against her breasts and her hips, hurried her like a battering ram down the small flight of stairs and through the stateroom’s entrance, heaved her onto the torn mattress. She twisted as she fell, rolling, facing the ceiling.
‘Give me a moment, Gar,’ Danny said. The stateroom door closed. But she heard gentle breathing nearby, near her face.
‘Claudia.’ It was Danny. ‘I am truly sorry.’
‘You sound like a reasonable man,’ Claudia lied. ‘Stop this. Let us go. Please.’
‘If you and Ben are innocent in all this, well, then I’m sorry. But how much do you know of Stoney Vaughn’s life?’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Day-to-day living. Does Stoney help old ladies across the street or knock them out of his way? Pet dogs or kick them?’
‘I really don’t know him,’ she said.
‘Do you think Stoney could commit murder? Kill a man in cold blood?’
Her throat dried. ‘He’s a respected businessman…’
‘Ah. His money makes him a saint?’ A sarcasm she didn’t like at all tightened his voice.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Just as this mistake you’re making doesn’t make you a bad person, Danny. Please. Stop this.’
Long silence again, the only sound the slap of waves against the hull. ‘What’s done is done. Life doesn’t offer erasers.’
‘No. It offers choices. You can choose to let us go. Piracy is a federal offense.’
‘Piracy?’ Danny giggled, a short, sharp laugh. ‘Tell me, do you think of us as pirates? Because I love it, Claudia. You’ve made my day.’
‘Let us go, right now, and-’
The door opened again.
‘She behaving?’ Gar’s voice, low. ‘Or you just copping a feel?’
‘Save your crudity for your friend,’ Danny said.
‘I want to have a private chat with her,’ Gar said.
‘Private about what?’
‘Don’t get your dick in a knot, man. I’m not gonna hurt her. Go on.’
Claudia stayed very still.
‘You don’t tell me what to do,’ Danny said. ‘You work for me.’
‘You want to know where these goods are, right? I can get her to tell without hurting a hair on her head. If she knows. Just give me a minute. You need to go help with Ben talking to Stoney.’
The bedsprings creaked as Danny stood up. ‘I’ll be back later, Claudia. You’ll be fine,’ he said. And then she heard the door shut.
A thick fingertip cruised along her scalp, parting her hair. The fingernail, hard and uneven, gouged into the tender nape of her neck.
‘You fought us,’ Gar cooed. ‘A little fishy like you. That pisses me off.’
‘Sorry.’
Gar daubed his finger at the blood drop on her neck, smearing it along her flesh like finger paint. Slow. Gentle. Suddenly he tangled his fist in her hair, slamming her head hard against the bed’s headboard. Her teeth knocked together, her jaw, already bruised, throbbed. She winced but didn’t cry out.
‘You don’t mess with us, okay, fishy? You don’t fight us. You don’t talk unless you’re talked to. Understand?’
‘Yes,’ Claudia said.
The end of the bed creaked under his weight. He took hold of her bare foot – she’d lost her sandals during the fight – and put a pincer grip on her little toe. ‘I don’t like your answers, I break it. Where’d you learn to fight?’
‘A defense class at the community center,’ Claudia lied. She suspected the correct answer – the Corpus Christi Police Academy – might land her over the railing with a bullet in her head.
Gar squeezed her toe. She held her breath. ‘Where’s your purse?’
Oh, God. Her police department ID. She didn’t have her gun in her purse – she was on vacation and hadn’t felt the need to carry today while fishing – but her badge and ID were in the purse, in a separate wallet from her driver’s license, credit cards and cash.
‘I don’t know. Around. I don’t think I’ve got five bucks in my wallet.’
She heard him stand and walk around the stateroom. She couldn’t remember where she had put her purse. When Ben had given her a tour of the boat, she’d set it down along the way. They were in the larger master stateroom. Outside it was a short hall leading to a small guest stateroom with bunk beds and a head, then the small stairs leading to the main salon. At the forward end of the Jupiter, more steps leading down to the small galley, then a stateroom, also with bunk beds, a head, and a separate shower. She figured the purse was either in this stateroom or in the salon where they kept Ben.
Drawers opened and closed; she heard an unzipping that filled her mouth with sour-tasting fear until she realized it was the zipper on her purse. Keys jingled – the keys ringed to her wallet.