“There are a lot of fine and dedicated men and women carrying federal shields. And there are some not so competent, and that can put me in a dangerous place.”
A young couple steered a Morgan into the pass, popped the spinnaker and let the east wind push the sailboat into the channel. I said, “What I’d like more than anything is to drive over to Cedar Key and take a few weeks to sail a 41 Beneteau back here to Ponce Marina for the new owner. He’s in Boston, a novice sailor who wants to take delivery when he and his family winter in Florida.”
Dave picked at a hangnail. “Sometimes it’s hard to read your opponent, to play the cards dealt when never asked to sit in the game. But that comes with the territory.”
“I’ve stepped away from the table. Agents Flores, Jenkins and Keyes and their colleagues can take the reins. Izzy Gonzales, the man who killed Molly, Mark, and Luke Palmer, is dead. Frank Soto raped Nicole Davenport and left her shell to be zipped by ranger Ed Crews. The feds can chase them down. I gave them a head start by dropping the tracker in a dead man’s shorts. Let them take the lead and run with it.”
We watched as Joe the cat, a calico, thick with muscle and attitude, strutted by, ignoring us, holding his scarred head high. Dave said, “I’m going back online to see if the GPS signal might have returned. Maybe we’ll see it heading for the Yucatan.”
“Just leave it, Dave. It took too many deaths to get a serious federal posse out there. If the feds want to use me to get Gonzales, let them earn it. I’m done.”
“We both know you can’t walk away. Before, it was to help track down a killer for that lady on your boat. Now, it’s because Gonzales won’t let you walk away. Sean, we need to turn the game around so you do walk away.”
I looked at the cigar stuck to the end of a Bic pen, my hand gripping the pen hard, knuckles white as cotton. Max barked. I turned when she pawed at the glass on the sliding door leading into Jupiter’s salon. The door slid open, and Elizabeth stepped out on the transom with Max jumping up, trying to see the direction Joe the cat had gone.
Elizabeth smiled. She wore beige shorts and a white cotton top. “Max has been such a sweetie. She was napping on the couch until she looked up and saw you two out here. I thought her little tail was going to fall off she was wagging it so hard.”
I smiled. “And then she saw ol’ Joe, and her recessed lioness DNA took control.”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll join you gentlemen up there.” Elizabeth walked to the steps leading from the transom to the short section of dock that held Jupiter’s mooring ropes.
Dave lowered his voice. “This is all yours, now. Think about what we discussed. Think about your options, Sean. That guy with the fishing pole was on M dock, less than fifty yards from where we’re standing. No doubt he’s a pair of eyes for Pablo. You know the next time they come it’ll be on your doorstep, and they won’t be carrying a fishing rod.”
Dave waved to Elizabeth as he walked across the dock and stepped aboard Gibraltar, disappearing into the air conditioned salon.
Elizabeth looked at my arm in the sling and kissed me on the cheek. I could smell the fragrance of hibiscus from the shampoo she’d used. “Welcome home.”
“Thank you,” I said, glancing around the marina. “We have to talk.”
NINETY-THREE
We made coffee and sat at the bar inside Jupiter. I told Elizabeth what Pablo Gonzales had said. She listened then asked, “What are you saying, Sean? Are you suggesting that it’s safe for me to go back to the restaurant, to go back to a world I don’t even recognize since Molly was taken away from me?”
“They’ll come for me, Elizabeth. I don’t want you here to risk your life when they come. I’m going to put you in safekeeping, somewhere no one can find you until I stop Gonzales.”
She stood from the bar and watched a trawler chugging into the marina with a white-haired man behind the wheel on the fly-bridge and a woman less than half his age in a bikini lounging on the seat beside him, a tall Bloody Mary in her hand. Elizabeth turned back toward me, her eyes capturing the ruby reflection of the sunset off the bay. “You went back into that forest for me, for Molly, too. I’m not going to abandon you. Not now. No damn way. I won’t give Gonzales permission to intimidate me. I can shoot a gun—”
“I appreciate what you’re saying, but you can’t stay here. Gonzales will—”
“Shhh,” she said, stepping up to me. I stood as she tenderly reached out to touch my shoulder. “Does it hurt?”
“Only when I breathe.”
She unbuttoned my shirt, her fingers gently touching the dressing. She lifted her eyes to mine, the pools of green filled with compassion, her lips wet. She said nothing as she guided my right hand to her cheek. She pressed her body against me, her eyes locked on mine. I cupped her face with both hands and leaned down as we kissed. Her lips were warm and soft, no trace of lipstick. She smiled and said, “Make love to me, Sean.
“I don’t know if this is the right time—”
“This is the best time, Sean. Time is all we have, and I don’t want to waste it with things that aren’t important in my life.”
She reached for my hand and led me down the three steps to the master berth. As I closed the door to the cabin, I glanced back up at Max. She sat on the couch in the salon, ears cocked, eyes following something outside, something farther away than the dock in front of Jupiter.
Inside the cabin, I looked out the porthole for a second, and watched the setting sun cast the marina in shades of cherry and black. I pulled the curtains shut. Maybe Max saw nothing menacing, her little radar catching something that wasn’t hostile.
I turned to Elizabeth as she unbuttoned her shirt, her face alluring, eyes filled with conviction. We kissed again, long and passionate, then undressed. She looked at my bandage for a second, her eyes blinking back tears. I kissed her again and could feel the heat radiating from her skin. Then I lay on my back and guided her over me. She looked into my eyes, slowly mounting me, her eyes closing, a deep breath, her hair cascading on both sides of her face, brushing against my chest and shoulder, the pain in my arm extinguished. Elizabeth’s soft moans were drowned by a diesel engine cranking a few slips away. A single tear rolled down her cheek and fell in the center of my chest. She leaned down to kiss me and I felt her body quiver.
Thunder rolled over the sea and buried the sound of a single bark from Max, a subconscious alarm in my head, an obscure omen beyond the cusp of the horizon.
NINETY-FOUR
The next morning we awoke at sunrise and showered; then Elizabeth put on one of my old shirts. She moved around Jupiter’s small galley and made omelets, turkey sausage, fried potatoes and onions. Her body language was more relaxed preparing breakfast, moving between three pans, the toaster, and the brewed coffee in the pot. “Can I fix Max a little plate?” she asked, picking up a paper plate.
“Cut the links into pieces and maybe she’ll eat slower,” I said, opening the side windows and salon door, allowing a cross-breeze to take the place of the air conditioner.
We ate and Elizabeth said, “Living on a boat makes you want to downsize and toss all the clutter in your life into a big dumpster somewhere. I wonder what it’d be like to actually travel around on a boat.”
“Sailboat is the way to go. Quiet, it’s just the wind and the water.”