By the time Highbridge got out of the shower, Bull’s-Eye had replaced the contents of the briefcase, zipped it up tight, and hidden the case under the bed. He knew what he was going to do, and one of the early lessons he’d learned in his life of crime was, “Loose lips sink ships.”
The sight of the candy wrappers and empty jar of nuts infuriated Highbridge. “You couldn’t have saved me a crumb?”
“I was hungry,” Bull’s-Eye replied, his tone ugly. “I still am.”
The two men had been reduced to sullen silence. When Bull’s-Eye went into the bathroom, he saw that Highbridge had hung up his Santa suit and stuffed towels in the arms and legs to prevent wrinkles. When Tony asked Highbridge why he was being such a fussbudget, the Bean Counter said he planned to go to the early risers’ buffet and grab some food. “But none for you,” he’d added.
By the time Bull’s-Eye got out of the shower, Highbridge was already asleep on his side of the queen-sized bed. Bull’s-Eye lay down and turned out the light. How could Highbridge sleep at a time like this? he wondered. Bull’s-Eye’s mind was racing—he had to get his cards. And this was his only chance to find Eddie Gordon. Once he was off this ship and on his way to Fishbowl Island, he’d probably never run into him again. He owed it to his father to whack Gordon. If he didn’t at least try, he’t have to live in shame for the rest of his life.
He knew it was risky. But he had to make the attempt.
Bull’s-Eye planned to wait until four A.M., when the odds were that the ship’s passageways would be deserted. He had heard somewhere that more people die around four A.M. than at any other time in the twenty-four-hour cycle. As Bull’s-Eye closed his eyes, knowing he wouldn’t sleep, he hoped that he’d successfully add someone new to that statistic.
At three thirty, unable to wait any longer, Bull’s-Eye got out of bed. He tighened the belt of the terry cloth robe, tossed a thick towel around his neck, and put on a pair of Gordon’s dark sunglasses that he found on the bedside table. He was grateful they weren’t prescription.
The dimly lit corridor was deserted. At the elevator bank he discovered a diagram of the ship, listing where all the different rooms were located. As he expected, the infirmary was on the lowest level. From the diagram, he could tell which companionway to take. He made his way there without encountering a single soul.
With infinite care, he opened the door of the infirmary and found himself in an eerily quiet and empty waiting room. A prominent sign on the desk read NURSE ON DUTY. PRESS BUZZER FOR ASSISTANCE.
He walked behind the desk and in a stealthy movement opened the door to the inner sanctum. Moving slowly, guided by the soft baseboard lighting, he peered into a small office on his left where he noticed the silhouette of a nurse asleep in a reclining chair. Her heavy, deep breathing reassured him that she would not be a problem, at least for the moment. For her own sake, he hoped she would continue to sleep.
In the second room on the right, he spotted the man who had caused his family so much misery. Even in the semidarkness, he recognized the profile of Eddie Gordon, the man known as Crater. Bull’s-Eye thought of his poor mother making the long trek to the federal prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania, once a month for fifteen years to see his father. All those years looking at his father’s empty place at the dinner table. “This is for you, Papa,” he whispered as he stepped into the darkened room, eased a pillow from behind Crater’s head, and with a swift, decisive movement, held it over the sleeping man’s face.
From somewhere inside his drug-induced sleep, Crater/Gordon was having a nightmare. He couldn’t breathe. He was choking. He began to gurgle and flail the air with his hands. It was real. It wasn’t a nightmare. The instinct to survive made him slip his hands under the pillow that was covering his face and yank on it fiercely. He felt strong thumbs pressing against his neck. A voice was whispering, “This is what you deserve.”
“Aahhhhhhhhhh.” Crater knew his scream was coming out as a whisper.
The sound of the buzzer from the waiting room echoed from the nurse’s office down the hallway.
Bull’s-Eye froze. Wrestling to keep the pillow pressed on Crater’s face, he realized that the buzzer would surely wake up the nurse, and that whoever had pushed it was in the waiting room.
He did the only thing he could do—he tossed the pillow aside, rushed out, and hid in the room next door.
“Aaahhhh,” Crater began yelling.
Bull’s-Eye watched as the nurse ran down the hallway and headed into Crater’s room. The towel high around his neck, the dark glasses on, he opened the door to the outer waiting room. His hand half covering his face, he left the infirmary without glancing at the woman who had just turned to take a seat.
Crater was struggling to figure out what had happened. He hadn’t imagined it, someone had tried to kill him. He had always had the suspicion that the big boss had placed another person on the inside on this job. Maybe whoever it is had been afraid he’d talk under sedation and had tried to kill him. He had to get to his room and keep the door double-locked until the helicopter arrived.
“What happened, Mr. Crater?” the nurse asked as she flipped on the light.
“I had a bad dream,” he croaked.
“But your neck is all red. And why is your pillow at the foot of the bed?”
“I’m a rough sleeper.”
“Dr. Gephardt said you could have another sedative if necessary.”
“No!” He knew that until he got off this ship, he wasn’t safe closing an eye. Oddly enough, his back felt better after the struggle. “I’m going back to my room.”
“Absolutely not. Doctor’s orders. You’ll have to speak to him when he comes on duty at seven o’clock.”
“I’m out of here at 7:01.”
But the nurse had already left the room.
A few minutes later, an exhausted Maggie was slowly making her way back to her room with an ear patch for Ivy. When she finally settled into her bed, she felt bleary-eyed and uneasy but had no intention of changing her plans to jog at six A.M.
Unless her antenna was way off, Ted Cannon would be up on the track right around that time.