I helped DJ get to his feet after he put his leg on. He moved into Wayward’s salon under his own power, while I walked behind him, ready to catch him if he stumbled. We sat down on the big settee with Flor while Alicia got up and threw together some pasta with marinara sauce and the last of the shrimp from Vieques.

After we all ate, Flor cuddled her head onto my wife’s lap while she, DJ and I split a twelve-pack of beers. Despite the messes around us, it felt good to sit and talk with them, to laugh like friends enjoying a nice evening on a boat together.

I was hesitant to break the mood, but every time I looked at Flor, I was reminded of what had brought us here.

So, I told DJ what we’d learned from Dr. Markel’s notes. About Hildon’s botched drug, Poraxim, and how it had given Flor, and God-only-knows how many others Li-Fraumeni syndrome. And about Hildon’s plans to double-dip on their own mistake by selling the cure for Li-Fraumeni for more than most people made in a year.

Outwardly, he took the news calmly, but I could see the motors kicking to life in DJ’s head. I heard the fires popping and smelled the smoke. Things were going to get dicey. I just had to make sure DJ remembered I had his back, and that if we were going to take on Hildon, we had to do it together.

He shared the information he’d learned and told me about tracking Dos Santos. I excused myself from the table and finished what was left of my beer while I walked toward the fridge to grab another.

“How’d you know the cops were hired by Hildon?” I asked DJ as I reached into the fridge and pulled a beer out.

“Wasn’t hard to figure out.” DJ’s eyes danced toward Flor. He was concerned about sharing all the details with a kid around.

“Flor, why don’t you go sack out in your stateroom for a little while?” I asked.

She lifted her head. “I’ve been lying down all day.”

“How about a shower, honey?” Alicia asked. “It’s been a couple days.”

She grimaced at Alicia. “You can talk around me. I’m not scared to hear what you guys are saying to each other. I deserve to know.”

Alicia and I exchanged an uncomfortable look. Flor wasn’t oblivious. She’d gained a lot of perspective in her short time on Earth—more than most people twice her age.

“I’ll help you walk down to the head.” Alicia slid out behind her, then wrapped an arm around Flor’s waist and kissed her on the cheek.

After she and Alicia disappeared down the port hull, I grabbed a second beer from the fridge, and slid it across a corner of the table to DJ.

“Thanks, boss.” DJ cracked it open and drank.

“So… the cops and Hildon?”

He finished his sip and smirked. “A man finds the truth real easy to tell when he’s staring down a sawed-off.”

“You got a confession under duress?”

He shrugged with his eyebrows. “I wasn’t gonna get it any other way.”

“Getting information that way is no good, DJ. You can point a gun at a man and he’ll confess to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. Did you get some other source to back up Officer Dos Santos’s claims?”

“Hell, Jerry, the boys at the station and I weren’t really on speaking terms.”

Still, information gained under duress was flimsy.

“What about that computer from the doc’s house?” he asked. “Doesn’t that back up somebody at Hildon being behind all this? Who else but the lady at the top?”

“Rachel Little?” I asked. “I’m sure she didn’t like Dr. Markel, but does that mean she’d hire the police to kill four people? If she wanted to get at Markel and Baptiste, she could have had Hildon sue both of them into oblivion.”

“Sue them? Come on, Jerry,” DJ said. “You think that’d stop a professional muck-raker like Luc Baptiste from going to press? If I’m running a big company, I’m not taking the chance that it would. Once Luc writes about the stuff Markel had, it’s over. People aren’t going to forget seeing Hildon’s dirty laundry waving from a flagpole.”

He had a good point. Dead men told no secrets.

“Even if Rachel Little weren’t behind the murders, a drug her company made gave a little girl cancer.” He looked pointedly at me. “We can’t let this get away from us, Jerry. Was I wrong to try and kill her? Maybe. But you read those papers from the doc.”

Another good point.

In either case, we had to act. The time to drop the laptop in the ocean and forget about this whole thing had come and gone. Gabriela was in jail, Flor needed help, and I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d walked away from this.

“We can’t kill her,” I said. “We can’t go to the local police, either. Stockwell or Armstrong has to know somebody in the FBI. So, we get Rachel, turn her in to Armstrong, and let them hand her off to the feds.”

“Sure. We’ll turn her in.” DJ rolled his eyes as he turned away from me.

I kicked him in the shin. “I’m not helping you, or anyone else, kill this woman out of revenge.”

“Fine.”

“Did I just hear you two promise not to kill someone?” Alicia came up the steps from the port hull, looking a shade paler.

“Just the boys talking,” DJ said.

“No reason to get worried, honey,” I said.

“Good. If you were seriously considering it, I’d take Flor and leave.”

I believed her.

She opened the refrigerator and took out a fresh beer. After cracking it open, she rested her elbows on the counter behind me. “I suppose your little Boy Scout troop doesn’t have a place for a girl, huh?”

“Alicia, darling,” DJ began, “I’m all for women doing their part in things, but—”

“Jerry, I want in. I want to help.”

DJ’s eyes pleaded for help from me. What the hell did he want me to do? Snap my fingers at her?

“Alicia—”

She held her hand up at me. Whatever I was going to say, I forgot it. Then, she slowly brought her beer to her lips and took a long, loud sip.

“Actually, I don’t know why I’m asking, because I’m already in this with you two,” she said. “Or did you think I was still on the outside?” She looked at me, then at DJ, waiting for one of us to open our mouths.

Neither of us dared.

“When you brought Gabriela to my home, I was in. When you needed someone to take care of Flor, I was in. And when we both agreed, Jerry, that I was the best person to read over Dr. Markel’s notes, you better believe I was in.”

She stood up straight and sauntered to the salon table, spreading her fingers on it. My wife’s nails, which were normally immaculate, were chipped in places, chewed in others. Alicia raised her eyebrows at me. “Do I need to say more?”

DJ’s toe tapped into mine. His head shook almost imperceptibly—a clear no. She was not in.

Too bad for DJ. He didn’t have to live with her.

“You’re in,” I said.

“All right!” Alicia clapped her hands and bounced. “So, what’s the plan?”

“We already decided we’re not blowing away Hildon’s people, right?” I said, with a nod toward DJ. “It’s pointless to shoot anybody. They’d have someone else come in and keep things running the way they’ve always run. That doesn’t help anyone. And I’m not so sure Armstrong would look kindly on us for killing business people.”

“Even scumbags getting people sick, then charging their first-born for the drugs they need?” DJ asked.

“Even them,” I said. “There’s a fate worse than death for them. I know.”

“What’s that?” DJ asked.

I grinned at my partner. “Losing their money. If we can get Markel’s info out to the press, Hildon’s sunk.”

“Dr. Markel already tried that,” Alicia said. “God rest him.”

“There’s another way,” DJ said.

My ears perked up.

“They got this thing coming up,” he said. “I remember seeing it on their website when I was scoping out Rachel Little.” DJ pulled out his phone, turned it on and poked around. “They got a new campus opening up. Some big party to celebrate—I’m willing to bet all kinds of reporters and cameras will be there, and anybody who’s got money in Hildon will be there.”

Alicia took the phone from him and looked it over. “He’s right, Jer. With the right eyeballs there, we could do a lot of damage.”

“You wanna get them good, you do it right in front of their friends,” DJ agreed. “Pull their pants down while the whole class is watching.”

Then, I noticed my wife’s expression darken.

“This happens tomorrow.” Alicia turned the phone around to show us.

“Tomorrow night,” I said. “That gives us less than twenty-four hours to prepare.”

“You guys can’t go in there with less than a day to plan what you’re going to do,” Alicia said. “They’ll have security there, and you’ll be outsiders—it’s not like paying a cover and walking in the door. You’ll be lucky if they even let you walk up without arresting you.” The portside head door came open out of view, drawing Alicia’s attention for a moment. Flor was out of the shower, and within earshot.

“You’re both right about what has to be done,” she said quietly. “Hildon has to be exposed, publicly, but this might not be the time to do it.”

“It’s the only time to do it.” DJ took another swig from his beer. “You ain’t wrong about the problems it poses. Planning a mission is ninety percent of the job, and planning takes time, but sometimes the only choice is to go in with what you got.”

“Assuming you can get in at all,” Alicia said.

The air soured. We all went quiet, listening to waves splashing against Wayward’s hull. I shuddered to think Gabriela and Flor might not see justice done against the people who’d caused them so much hardship. And that Gabriela would stay locked up until we figured out a way to call out Hildon.

Then, my hands went cold. “I might have a way in.” I slid out from the couch.

“Where are you going?” DJ asked.

“I need my phone.” I grabbed it off the counter and headed for the salon door.

“Jerry?” Alicia asked as I stepped into the cockpit. “What’s going on?”

“Gimme a minute. I’ll be right back.” I bounded up the steps to the flybridge. Night had settled around St. Thomas. Out of habit, I picked up my binos, and looked at my back porch. The light was on, and except for a couple bloodstains on one of the Adirondack chairs, it looked the same as it had at dawn.

I let my eyes linger on the house a little longer. After I made this phone call, I might have to sell the place.

Putting the binos down near the helm, I unlocked the phone and opened my contacts list. There were a hundred old numbers in it. Numbers I hadn’t called in years. I should have cleaned it out a long time ago, but every time I went to do it, I figured out a different use of my time, or Alicia needed something, or I went free diving off the beach outside my house.

Arlen’s name was near the top of the list. I tapped it before I could convince myself otherwise.

It rang once.

“Well, Jerry! What an unexpected pleasure,” Arlen said. “I was just thinking about you. I hated leaving our conversation the way we did the other day—just didn’t seem right to say goodbye like that to someone I’ve long considered a surrogate son.”

My fingers went numb. I switched the phone to my other hand. I had to do this for Flor.

“Arlen,” I said. “I need a favor.”