Edward showed a smile and turned away. He looked down into the water. The shadow from a school of minnows played down the beach. He imagined it was Mary there, swimming under the surface. He waited for her head to emerge. She’s such a good swimmer, he thought. He wanted to see her break the surface and watch as the water fell off her shoulders and long hair. He saw her taking the mass of her hair into her hands as she always did and wringing it dry. Her lips forming into a smile that was sunlight, happiness. Life. He waited, but only the ripples rolled over the surface.
As casually as he could, he turned and entered the cabin, acting busy, concerned about the placement of everything. He moved a bucket out of the way. He straightened the net hanging on the wall. He replaced a cushion on its seat. He aligned the rubber doormat inside. Behind the small lounge was a galley where he had started to prepare a fruit tray. Pineapple, bananas and guava lay on the counter. All uncut.
He walked over to the counter and picked up the knife. He held it over the pineapple and his hand began to shake. He looked down at this extremity. It was like a strange thing, unconnected with his body as much as it was unconnected to a part of the room. He looked over the blade and then saw the glistening trenches sliced across Mary’s face. The image wouldn’t leave him. It halted his heart every few minutes and then sped it up. His shaking hand was just the first symptom of an affliction that was eating away at him.
“Edward, was it?”
Edward dropped the knife and spun around. The knife hit the floor. It was Henry and his pink Bermudas. Edward picked up the knife and returned it to the counter before facing Henry. Henry did look out of place. Henry might have looked like someone trying to clown around if it weren’t for his thick glasses and thinning hair and seriousness.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Edward said.
“Sorry to bother you. Did the captain say we had coffee? I’m an addict. Need it every day.”
“Yeah, we got it right here. I’ll get you a cup.”
“Thank you.”
Edward opened four cabinet doors to find Styrofoam cups. He lifted the coffee jug from off the hotplate it was on and filled a cup.
“You guys celebrating something?”
“Yes. We’re John’s M-and-A team.”
“Sugar? Milk?” Edward asked while looking down into the cup.
“No, thanks. So, you’re from the US?”
Edward gave the cup to Henry. He took a sip immediately and paused, closing his eyes and inhaling a deep breath that lasted too long. Edward suspected he wanted to delay going back outside.
“Yeah. Upstate New York. What’s an M-and-A team?” Edward lifted his head, consciously forcing himself to look interested.
“Mergers and acquisitions.”
“Mmh. I really don’t know anything about business. Don’t even know what that means.”
“Oh, sorry. It is somewhat esoteric. M-and-A is managing when one company buys another. When two corporations join together, there is a ton of paperwork, realigning resources and reducing duplication inside the new organization.”
“Reducing duplication. That means firing people, right?”
“Well…” Henry took a sip of his coffee, eyes drooping. He was a man better at dealing with numbers than people. “I mean, we try to keep as many people as we can. Retraining and all that.” Henry mumbled these last words.
“Sounds complicated.” Edward looked out through the portal behind Henry.
“That it is.” Henry smiled and made one big nod of his head. “You put two company boards together to negotiate and it’s like trying to straighten out a plate of spaghetti. We started this process a year ago, to give you an idea of what’s involved. About eight months back, Waterfall’s board finally agreed to the sellout. And we only got the votes we needed because they lost one no vote. Now, all we have to do is finalize the new name. Overlan-Waterfall or Waterfall-Overlan. At this point I’d flip a coin. That doesn’t really matter. What matters is this merger will create the second largest steel refiner in the US. Trust me, you’ll be reading about this merger in the news.”
Henry watched Edward, clearly disappointed at his lack of enthusiasm. He drank coffee in fast sips, perhaps hoping that Edward would ask him a question. Edward didn’t speak, only staring off out the windows. When Henry was finished, Edward took the cup and dropped it into a small trashcan below the sink. He turned back and waited. After a short pause, Henry gave up and walked outside. One of his associates put two fingers in his mouth and made a high-pitched catcall. Another held up a hand to cover his eyes and cried out that he was blinded.
Edward leaned over the sink, staring out at the beach where he’d first seen Mary. He closed his eyes, wanting to replay the scene over and over, wanting to force it to become his reality. But the men’s boisterous laughter brought him back from his dreaming. When their noise died down, he heard the boat.
“Edward Tache! Is Edward Tache onboard?”
Edward turned around and saw the police boat and Inspector Woodes hanging onto a handle at the back of the bridge, his silver badge flaring. There were two uniformed policemen behind Woodes, their eyes hidden under checker-banded caps. The chatter of the businessmen had ceased. Watching the slightly larger boat maneuver alongside theirs, the businessmen smiled cautiously, perhaps wondering if it was some sort of prank put together by their boss.
“Mr. Edward Tache! Where is Mr. Tache?”
Edward stepped outside before anyone answered. The charter captain slowly stood up from his work over the ice chest. After a moment of confusion, everyone turned to look at Edward.
“Mr. Tache, you will come with me for questioning regarding the assault on Mary Read.”
One of the officers positioned an orange fender over the side as the police boat’s diesel engines growled into reverse. It was brought to a stop at just the right moment to make it glide a few feet, gently nudging the charter boat.
The second officer picked up a line and started looking for a place to tie up. Inspector Woodes didn’t wait for this. He stepped onto the police boat’s higher gunwale and jumped down into the fishing boat. The businessmen exchanged glances.
“Edward, were you with Mary Read yesterday? You know she was admitted to hospital in Road Town?”
Woodes had his hands at his sides. That’s all Edward could look at, unable to look the man in the eye.
“You will accompany me to the station.”
Edward nodded, as the men stared at him. Henry, in his pink shorts, had his mouth hanging open. John Murrell, having just lit his cigar, glared curiously at the inspector and then at Edward.
“What’s going on?” Henry risked asking. He seemed more concerned that Edward was being taken away than with the reason.
“A young woman was assaulted yesterday. And Edward knows what happened.”
“So, he’s a witness? He didn’t do anything wrong, did he?”
Woodes looked down at Edward.
“That’s to be determined.”
Edward only saw past Inspector Woodes, out over the water near the beach. Where the sun hit it just right, it sparkled like diamonds. Further up the beach, in the shade of the palm trees, colors drew his gaze, bright reds and yellows of crab claw buds. He tried to take it all in, memorize the outlines of the trees and dunes and everything because it was the last time he’d ever see them. He would soon be fired and lose his work visa. He would be kicked out of the country. He looked out at the island where he’d fist swum with Mary. They had raced, fell onto the sand against each other and kissed on that perfect day. He was sure that time, that specific moment in his life, was the happiest he’d ever been. The happiest he’d ever be.