The sound of my clumsy splashing was too loud to ignore. The chimp sat straight, pivoted its head from side to side. Around its neck was a heavy pink collar with an electronic device. A remnant of pink ribbon, too, behind one ear, which meshed with the perfume.
Pink… Carmelo and Lucia had used the word like a profanity when describing the female chimp. So this was Savvy, not Oliver, the big male. She turned, searching, until her caramel eyes found me. She sniffed, tasted the air through lips glossy with blood-or lipstick-and chirped a soprano note of interest that transitioned into a growl. Eyes of caramel studied me… and blazed with recognition. Her fists became hammers. She pounded her chest-a hollow-coconut sound-then demonstrated her strength by grabbing Carmelo’s arm and slinging his body several feet toward me. He landed as limp and boneless as a sack.
I fought the urge to flee, took a step back, and found firmer footing, then leveled the pistol and spoke. “Get the hell out of here or I’ll shoot you.” I was so scared, the words came automatically-a last warning to myself more than to an animal who could not understand.
Carmelo’s spotlight lay in the sand, projecting monstrous shadows. Savvy made a chattering sound of indignation… flapped her outstretched arms like a child learning to walk, then started toward me.
I said it again: “I will shoot you.”
The chimp kept coming, loping faster, then hunkered low and sprinted, fingers and feet kicking sand as she closed the distance.
Belton yelled something, yelled something else-a warning, no doubt-yet his words vaporized before they reached my ears. I heard only the metallic click of the pistol’s hammer when I thumbed it back. I squared my shoulders and waited. Through a tunnel of light and consciousness, I saw only the chimpanzee’s face… a glossy square of leather and teeth that radiated hatred and rage and mindless intent. The coldness that enveloped me was equally dispassionate, equally focused.
When the animal was fifteen yards away, still a long shot for a pistol, I pulled the trigger. Rather than an explosion, I heard a click. Stunned, I yanked the trigger again. Click.
A misfire, a bad cartridge. In my head, a teenage girl listened patiently while my Uncle Jake explained that misfires are not rare and easily cleared if you know what to do and stay calm.
Impossible to remain calm, but I managed not to freeze. I looked up while I shucked the cartridge free and slammed a fresh round in the chamber. Savvy was almost to the water, close enough that the stink of her body pushed wet air into my face.
Belton’s voice broke through: “Shoot the damn thing!”
I raised the pistol and did exactly that a microsecond before the chimp vaulted toward the river. The gun bucked twice in my hands while Savvy was airborne, then her weight slammed into me. I fell backward and went under… and I stayed under, unsure if my shots had hit flesh. Using one hand, I crabbed along the bottom toward shore. Then got my feet under me and stood with my arms already outstretched, the pistol ready to aim and fire if needed while water poured down my face.
Belton’s voice again: “Behind you. Shoot him!”
I spun, expecting to see the chimp. Instead, a boat was coasting silently toward me, a man on the bow who made a moaning noise and cried, “Oh my god… oh my god, where is she? I heard shots.”
It was Theo. His lanky shape was unmistakable-steering a trolling motor with his feet, a flashlight in his hand. He switched on the light, blinded me for a second, then began to search the water’s surface. “You tramp, you redneck tramp. You shot her, didn’t you?”
I was furious. “You raise a hand to us, I’ll shoot you, too. Don’t think I won’t.”
“I knew it!” Theo, several boat lengths away, stomped his foot on the deck. “Oliver will eat you alive for this-I mean, eat you alive. Where is she?” Theo ranted on as the trolling motor spun him closer, then tilted his face toward the treetops and screamed, “OLI-VEEEEER! HERE SHE IS! COME TO DADDY!”
My finger was still on the trigger. If Theo had had a gun, I would have done it, would have shot him. I came close to squeezing the trigger anyway. Tell the police, My life was in danger. Tell police, A teenage girl was butchered and this man laughed. No… tell them, I know what happened to those three missing people, then read about Theo’s arrest on the Internet.
A coldness still possessed me, but the steel cable within held fast. I didn’t shoot. I lowered the pistol, turned and sloshed to our boat and grabbed my bag. Theo, vicious by nature, had slipped over the edge of his own canted world. He sounded feverish. Perhaps it was true he’d been bitten by a snake and given himself a shot of antivenom. I’d thought it was another of Carmelo’s lies. No telling what the man would do if he had a gun aboard. And if we tried to escape in the rental Gheenoe, he would try to crush us with the Bass Cat. No doubt in my mind.
Bag over my shoulder, I jogged to Belton, whose nose was bloody and crooked. “Can you walk?”
He got up, eyes on Theo. “What happened to that damn monkey? You hit him. Stood your ground, by god, you did. How’s your ankle? Or were you-”
“We’ve got to get out of here,” I said, “but on foot. Where’s that water jug? We need water.” I started toward the boat, then saw the plastic container near Carmelo’s spotlight, which burned brightly in the sand. The bottle of iodine tablets was open, pills scattered.
Belton touched his fingers to his nose, tested his right wrist, and grunted. “Now what’s he doing?”
“You broke your hand, too?”
“Carmelo, I hit him a good one. Put him right on his ass.” Belton couldn’t hide his delight. “Damn… yeah, broken maybe.”
“Theo might have a gun. Don’t take your eyes off him. We’ll need those pills.”
Theo maintained a running commentary, his babbling mixed with lewd talk and threats. I stayed busy, ignoring him until he called, “There you are!” then spoke soothingly as if to a child. “Savvy… over here, girl, it’s me. Oh shit… I was right, you are hurt.”
The chimp was upriver, dog-paddling on the surface but struggling, using only one arm. I dropped iodine tablets in the jug and hurried to fill it with water while I watched. Theo kept the flashlight on the animal, Savvy blinking her caramel eyes until the trolling motor pulled the boat close enough. He placed the light on the deck, removed his shoes after calling me the foulest of names. A moment later, he slipped over the side. Repulsive, the cooing sounds he made while the chimp screeched and tried to swim away, slapping wildly at the water. Theo cursed me again and yelled to the trees, “OLI-VERRR! I NEED YOU!”
I spoke quietly to Belton. “If he lets the boat drift away, maybe I can swim out and start the engine before he notices. Can you shoot left-handed?” But I retracted the offer when a gust of wind-or a two-hundred-pound chimp-furrowed the oak canopy to our right. “We can’t wait,” I said. “There’s one more thing I want to check.”
I ran to pat Carmelo’s pockets for a cell phone. Belton stooped, lifted the spotlight from the sand, and spoke. “I’ll shoot Theo and you know it. Him and his damn chimp. That’s why you don’t trust me with the gun. Why not let me, Hannah? I’d confess to the police and we’d both be safe. Damn it… why not?”
He shined the light on Theo, then downriver, waiting for an answer while I knelt over Carmelo. Nothing but keys and a knife in his front pockets. I felt beneath him, turned my head away rather than focus on what was missing from Carmelo’s face. That’s why I happened to see what Belton did not see-what someone from Virginia wouldn’t have recognized anyway: a pair of ruby red eyes gliding upriver toward the sound of splashing, those eyes set a foot apart, which told me the alligator we’d hit was at least twelve feet long and still healthy enough to feed.