“No.”
“Not even a little?”
“Why? Should I be?”
“What do you think?”
“I’m not afraid of you,” she said.
“Then how come you lied to me?”
“Lied? About what?”
“Your husband. Old John Clifford.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You said he’d be home soon. But he won’t be. He’s not in town with friends, he’s not even on the island.”
She stared silently at the steam rising from her cup. Her fingers felt cramped, as if she might be losing circulation in them.
“Well, Shea? That’s the truth, isn’t it.”
“Yes. That’s the truth.”
“Where is he? Miami?”
She nodded.
“Went there on business and left you all by your lonesome.”
“It isn’t the first time.”
“Might be the last, though.” Tanner reached for the rum bottle, poured some of the dark liquid into his mug, drank, and then smacked his lips. “You want a shot of this?”
“No.”
“Loosen you up a little.”
“I don’t need loosening up.”
“You might after I tell you the truth about Harry Tanner.”
“Does that mean you lied to me too?”
“I’m afraid so. But you ’fessed up and now it’s my turn.”
In the blackness outside the wind gusted sharply, banging a loose shutter somewhere at the front of the house. Rain began to pelt down with open-faucet suddenness.
“Listen to that,” Tanner said. “Sounds like we’re in for a big blow, this time.”
“What did you lie about?”
“Well, let’s see. For starters, about how I came to be in the water tonight. My bugeye ketch didn’t sink in the squall. No, Wanderer’s tied up at a dock in Charlotte Amalie.”
She sat stiffly, waiting.
“Boat I was on didn’t sink either,” Tanner said. “At least as far as I know it didn’t. I jumped overboard. Not long after the squall hit us.”
There was still nothing for her to say.
“If I hadn’t gone overboard, the two guys I was with would’ve shot me dead. They tried to shoot me in the water but the ketch was pitching like crazy and they couldn’t see me in the dark and the rain. I guess they figured I’d drown even with a life jacket on. Or the sharks or barracuda would get me.”
Still nothing.
“We had a disagreement over money. That’s what most things come down to these days — money. They thought I cheated them out of twenty thousand dollars down in Jamaica, and they were right, I did. They both put guns on me before I could do anything and I thought I was a dead man. The squall saved my bacon. Big swell almost broached us, knocked us all off our feet. I managed to scramble up the companionway and go over the side before they recovered.”
The hard beat of the rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Momentary lulclass="underline" the full brunt of the storm was minutes away yet.
“I’m not a single-hander,” he said, “not a sea tramp. That’s another thing I lied about. Ask me what it is I really am, Shea. Ask me how I make my living.”
“I don’t have to ask.”
“No? Think you know?”
“Smuggling. You’re a smuggler.”
“That’s right. Smart lady.”
“Drugs, I suppose.”
“Drugs, weapons, liquor, the wretched poor yearning to breathe free without benefit of a green card. You name it, I’ve handled it. Hell, smuggling’s a tradition in these waters. Men have been doing it for three hundred years, since the days of the Spanish Main.” He laughed. “A modern freebooter, that’s what I am. Tanner the Pirate. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Why not? Don’t you find it interesting?”
“No.”
“Okay, I’ll give it to you straight. I’ve got a problem — a big problem. I jumped off that ketch tonight with one thing besides the clothes on my back, and it wasn’t money.” He pulled the waterproof belt to him, unsnapped the pouch that bulged, and showed her what was inside. “Just this.”
Her gaze registered the weapon — automatic, large caliber, lightweight frame — and slid away. She was not surprised; she had known there was a gun in the pouch when it made the thunking sound.
Tanner set it on the table within easy reach. “My two partners got my share of a hundred thousand from the Jamaica run. I might be able to get it back from them and I might not; they’re a couple of hard cases and I’m not sure it’s worth the risk. But I can’t do anything until I quit this island. And I can’t leave the usual ways because my money and my passport are both on that damn ketch. You see my dilemma, Shea?”
“I see it.”
“Sure you do. You’re a smart lady, like I said. What else do you see? The solution?”
She shook her head.
“Well, I’ve got a dandy.” The predatory grin again. “You know, this really is turning into my lucky night. I couldn’t have washed up in a better spot if I’d planned it. John Clifford’s house, John Clifford’s smart and pretty wife. And not far away, John Clifford’s little sloop, the Carib Princess.”
The rain came again, wind-driven with enough force to rattle the windows. Spray blew in through the screens behind the open jalousies. Shea made no move to get up and close the glass. Tanner didn’t even seem to notice the moisture.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “At dawn we’ll drive in to the harbor. You do have a car here? Sure you do; he wouldn’t leave you isolated without wheels. Once we get there we go on-board the sloop and you take her out. If anybody you know sees us and says anything, you tell them I’m a friend or relative and John said it was okay for us to go for a sail without him.”
She asked dully, “Then what?”
“Once we’re out to sea? I’m not going to kill you and dump your body overboard, if that’s worrying you. The only thing that’s going to happen is we sail the Carib Princess across the Stream to Florida. A little place I know on the west coast up near Pavilion Key where you can sneak a boat in at night and keep her hidden for as long as you need to.”
“And then?”
“Then I call your husband and we do some business. How much do you think he’ll pay to get his wife and his sloop back safe and sound? Five hundred thousand? As much as a million?”
“My God,” she said. “You’re crazy.”
“Like a fox.”
“You couldn’t get away with it. You can’t.”
“I figure I can. You think he won’t pay because the marriage is on the rocks? You’re wrong, Shea. He’ll pay, all right. He’s the kind that can’t stand losing anything that belongs to him, wife or boat, and sure as hell not both at once. Plus he’s had enough bad publicity; ignoring a ransom demand would hurt his image and his business and I’ll make damned sure he knows it.”
She shook her head again — a limp, rag-doll wobbling, as if it were coming loose from the stem of her neck.
“Don’t look so miserable,” Tanner said cheerfully. “I’m not such a bad guy when you get to know me, and there’ll be plenty of time for us to get acquainted. And when old John pays off, I’ll leave you with the sloop and you can sail her back to Miami. Okay? Give you my word on that.”
He was lying: his word was worthless. He’d told her his name, the name of his ketch and where it was berthed; he wouldn’t leave her alive to identify him. Not on the Florida coast. Not even here.
Automatically Shea picked up her mug, tilted it to her mouth. Dregs. Empty. She pushed back her chair, crossed to the counter, and poured the mug full again. Tanner sat relaxed, smiling, pleased with himself. The rising steam from the coffee formed a screen between them, so that she saw him as blurred, distorted. Not quite human, the way he had first seemed to her when he came out of the sea earlier.