Matt stood beside the slippery rocks and cold water where he had completed his scuba lessons. The spot was next to an old casino that had been famous in the twenties and thirties as one of the West Coast’s hot celebrity clubs. In those good old days—that had probably been more intolerable than history remembered—the casino had offered a sampling of vices society had voted to forbid: gambling, wine, women.
But now the casino was shut, and lay as dark and silent as the surrounding night. He was thankful for the solitude the place had to offer. Catalina’s main harbor lay off to his right—its dozens of boats gathered like so many white whales peering through the dark—and distant sounds of partying echoed over the black water.
The Stardust itself was anchored more than a quarter of a mile offshore, almost lost in the night. But he had binoculars, and he knew that Captain Gilbert had departed for shore less than fifteen minutes ago. The Stardust was a powerful and well-maintained ship. Empty now, though, it
was as vulnerable as the rest of them. He planned to board her soon.
But not for the purpose Amy imagined.
The time was close to midnight. A fitting moment to start on a course of action that would affect him and Jimmy for the rest of their lives. Yet his torment was less than he would have imagined. He had come to a painful decision, but pain was always relative and any decision was better than the wasteland he had lived in since he had reunited with Amy. He had refined his murderous plan with her over the last few days, while he had privately devised a more profound scheme. One that would prove to him once and for all if she loved him. A plan that both solved their dilemma and gave them a reason to solve it. Everything was set—she only had to choose.
He honestly didn’t know what she would do.
It didn’t matter. Either way there would be relief.
At exactly midnight, Amy called.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Near the harbor. Where are you?”
“In a stall in the restroom at Rosie’s.”
“That’s the club?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m alone. Can you see the boat? Did Gilbert leave?”
“He left a few minutes ago. How long will he be gone?”
“Until I go fetch him. He should be in a bar down the street. By chance, I met a few friends of his and I called him to come over and see them.”
“That wasn’t part of our plan.”
“I can improvise, Matt. The excuse was better than the one we had. Don’t jump all over me.”
“I’m not.”
Amy chuckled. “You’ll be happy to know David’s been drinking all night. The bartender commented on it. I slipped two Valium in his liquor. He can hardly stand up.” She added, “Carl’s here with his girlfriend.”
“Good,” he said without enthusiasm.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. How’s Carl?” Why did she call him by his first name?
“Loaded. Too bad you can’t meet his new babe. She’s two years younger than me and has tits out to the moon. I already told them I have to get back for a doctor’s appointment in the morning and they’re cool. We’ll leave in the next hour or two.”
“Did you actually set the doctor’s appointment?”
“I told you I did. What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. I’m going out to the boat now.”
“Great. What are you going to do with the boat you use to get to David’s boat?”
“Set it adrift. Let me worry about it.”
“You don’t sound happy,” she said.
“I have a lot on my mind.”
She lowered her voice and spoke with love. “It’ll all be over tonight, Matt. Then we can be together forever.”
“That’s what I want.” His heart ached. “When you’re aboard and David’s asleep, come down to the storage room. I want to talk.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
She hesitated. “Okay,” she said.
They exchanged goodbyes. His boat was tied around the bend. He had already loaded his equipment: a Farallon propulsion device, two wet suits, a waterproof bag with a strap, a GPS device, a diver’s flashlight. He had rented the boat on Catalina earlier that day. Not being able to return it made him feel guilty, but he hoped to steer it back toward its rightful owners. He had leased the boat under the name Maxwell Adams.
The boat was equipped with a feeble twenty-five horsepower motor. He crept toward the Stardust at arthritic speed. The night was remarkably warm and still. Every sound was amplified. He could not have approached the ship with Gilbert aboard. Even a quarter of a mile from shore, he could distinguish the actual sentences of people talking in the restaurants. To be safe, he closed on the Stardust in a
long arcing curve, coming at it from the seaside. It was almost as if his pounding heart echoed over the black water. He dismissed what he had felt minutes before. His torment was swiftly increasing.
Boarding proved easy. Gilbert had left down the ladder. Matt merely had to tie on for a moment, carry his stuff onto the deck, and then aim his own boat in the direction of the harbor. The small outboard spurted away as if personally rejected. It did not have the speed or bulk to damage whatever it hit. But it was a loose end, and those were not good when it came to a police investigation.
He was familiar with the layout of the ship from an inspection he had made the previous day. The storage room Amy had described made an excellent hiding place. Besides being tucked in the bowels of ship, it was stacked to the ceiling with yachting shit and was L-shaped. He imagined he could remain out of sight even if Gilbert had the urge to grab an extra life jacket or a spare wrench. There was a great corner to disappear into. It was here he stacked his equipment and lay down to wait on top of a partially inflated raft.
The room was hot and stuffy and he was exhausted. He yawned and closed his eyes but did not worry he would sleep. He had not slept well since he had caught Amy with David. His frantic heartbeat settled into a silent throb. A secret pain—he felt so alone in his distress. God had no interest in his dilemma. Matt did not believe in the power of divine grace, anyway. Matt had prayed for peace when he had first caught Amy with David. Now he just blotted things out.
There was a lot to be said for denial.
Until it blew up in your face.
Ninety minutes went by. Finally he heard sounds coming from above. The happy party returning from another night of selfless service and deep meditation. There was plenty of giggling and cursing. He thought he heard David grope Amy. No, that would not have been possible. But Matt had to ask himself if she would fuck David before he
fell asleep. One last screw before the grave. Matt regretted that he had not checked out their private cabin. It would have been a pleasure to rub super glue on their condoms. Or acid on her lipstick. Bring out the blowtorch, baby.
Kathy had muttered a lot about acid when they had slept together.
Matt realized how much he missed her. Her simple honesty.
The ship got underway. Matt estimated that Gilbert had the engines at half throttle. They could take two hours to return to the mainland. The length of time should not have bothered Matt and yet it did. He had told Amy the truth when he had said how vulnerable he would be while he was on the ship. Perhaps that had been a mistake. She knew how to take advantage of weakness. God, he could not stop thinking how much he hated her. And here she was the love of his life. It made him wonder if he had gotten the definition of the words mixed up in first grade.
“The opposite of love is not hate,” he muttered. “It’s sex.”
Amy appeared a half hour later.
She had on teddy bear pajamas, no makeup. She must have washed her face before going to bed; if she had gotten that far. Her big brown eyes were a mystery. He had expected to find her either scared or excited or a combination of both. But there was sorrow in her face, coupled with a peculiar detachment. That was his Amy—a complex nothing. He had known her almost three years and he hadn’t the faintest idea what went on in her head.
“David’s asleep,” she said.
“Good.” He sat up and reached for his GPS.
She nodded to the Farallon. “What’s that for?”
“Our escape.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain.”
“You’d better hurry. David could wake up any second. Why did you want me to come down here?”
“We need to talk.”
“About what? You’re not changing the plan again.”
“I am. We’re not going to kill David.”
“What?”
“Shh. Gilbert will hear you.”
Amy was livid. So much for the mystery. She practically hissed as she spoke.
“Are you out of your goddamn mind? After all the trouble I’ve gone through to set this up? You’re chickening out?”
He spoke in a calm voice. “I’ve come up with an alternative plan. It’ll solve all our problems if you’ve the guts to follow it.” He tapped the GPS. “This is what is called a global positioning device. It’ll tell me when we near a boat I’ve anchored in the middle of the ocean. Our course will pass near it. I doubt the boat will be more than a quarter of a mile away when we leave the Stardust.”
“Leave the Stardust? Make sense, Matt.”
“You know I have to leave here before we dock. Well, I’m leaving earlier than you expected. The two big changes I’m making to our plan are that you can leave with me, and still leave your husband alive.”
Amy shook her head. “That’s crazy.”
“No. It’s sane. What we were plotting was crazy. Don’t you see the beauty of what I’m proposing? Before we were going to have David disappear into the ocean. But we can achieve the same effect by having you disappear. You can be the one the whole world thinks fell overboard and drowned. Only you will live. We will jump overboard together and ride this Farallon to the boat I’ve set in place. I’ve brought wet suits for both of us. At this time of the year the water isn’t that cold, anyway. We can get to my boat in a few minutes. I have clean towels and a change of clothes waiting for you. We might reach the marina before the Stardust. David probably won’t wake until then. Either way, it doesn’t matter, we’ll be long gone before then. Jimmy included.” He added, “Plus we’ll have the money.”
She stared. “You have lost your mind.”
He met her gaze. “You keep saying you love me. Yet you keep doing stuff that would convince any reasonable person
that you’re a liar. Here’s your chance to finally prove your love. You have to follow in my steps. You have to pretend to die like I did. You have to vanish from normal society. To be with us, you have to sacrifice everything you know. That’s the deal.”
Amy started to speak and stopped. She understood deals. Probably the devil had explained them to her the day before she was born. She saw that he was serious and that was not a quality she liked in him. Her whipping boy had grabbed hold of the strap. And he was a strong sonofabitch. But exactly how strong she needed to know.
“What if I say no?” she asked.
“I’ll take the Farallon and jump overboard and get to my boat. I’ll disappear with Jimmy. You’ll never hear from us for the rest of your life.”
“You’re bluffing.”
He shrugged. “Try me.”
She acted wounded. “Why are you doing this to me? Is it because of the other night? I explained all that. You talk about testing my love. What about your love? If you loved me you wouldn’t force me to make such a horrible choice.”
“The horrible choice is to commit murder. I told you, I’m not a murderer.”
“But you kidnapped my son. Yeah, go ahead, say he was your son as well. That is bullshit. You lied when you said you knew Jimmy was yours when you stole him. How do I know you’re not lying now?”
“This is a simple plan. What is there to lie about?”
“How do I know? You throw this in my face at the last minute. Why can’t we just go ahead with what we planned?”
“I told you why. I don’t want to kill David. Besides, we could be seen on the deck. One backward glimpse and Gilbert could put us both in jail for the rest of our lives. Do you want to risk that?”
“Gilbert won’t see anything.”
“Those are just words. In any murder, if something can go wrong, it usually does. You’re out of your league when it comes to this stuff. Trust me, I know.”
She wrung her hands. “But our son will grow up an outcast.”
“He’ll grow up with his parents. That’s the important thing. He doesn’t have to be an outcast. We can move to another country. We have enough money to do whatever we want.”
“Three million is not much nowadays.”
“When someone talks that way, no amount of money is enough.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this ahead of time?”
“It would have spoiled the drama.”
She was angry. “How can you joke about this?”
“You accuse me of being a coward. It takes courage to make a decision. I’m asking you to make one. But the decision to kill your husband is a delusion. Murder is just another cop out. What I’m offering you is a life free from tyranny. You have lived in fear of David for too long. Now you can escape. He will not search for you if he thinks you’re dead.” Matt stood and hugged her. “Come with me, Amy. This can be a great adventure. I’ll take care of you. Don’t be afraid.”
She looked up at him with a tear-streaked face. “But I am afraid.”
“I was afraid when it came time to leap from my plane. But you know what I thought?”
“What?”
“I thought of you. Then I was able to jump.”
She trembled in his hands. His hatred of a moment ago was replaced by a wave of love. Her voice came out small and vulnerable.
“But I’m not you. You’re a genius. I’m just a stupid girl.”
He kissed her forehead. “We’re not so different. After all that’s happened, that’s got to be the reason we’re still together. Go back upstairs. Return to bed if you want, as long as you don’t wake David. You have thirty minutes to make up your mind. If you’re not back down here by then, I’ll be gone.”
She pulled away and studied his face. “You’re not bluffing.”
He shook his head. “I can’t afford to bluff anymore.”
She left and he put on his wet suit and checked the power supply in the Farallon. He laughed softly to himself. This time he was sure he saw the light in her eyes. She would come with him, he knew it. She really did love him.
Ten minutes later his cell phone rang. He had the volume down low.
“Hello?” he said. Why would Amy call?
“Simon? It’s Kathy.” She sounded out of breath.
He had forgotten he had given her the number. “How are you?”
“Fine. How are you?”
“Great. Hey, would it be okay if I called you later? I’m sort of busy right now.”
“No. We have to talk now,” she said.
“What’s the matter? Are you sick again?”
She sighed audibly. He thought he heard a motor in the background.
“I’m not sick. But I’m not far behind you. Maybe a quarter of a mile.”
Matt swallowed. “Excuse me?”
“I’m following your boat.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you’re in danger. Amy’s setting you up.”
A knife made of ice went through his chest.
“Who are you?” he whispered.
“My name’s Kelly Fienman. I’m an FBI agent. I know your name is Matt Connor. I was initially assigned to the case surrounding the kidnapping of Amy’s child. But I’m no longer working on that case, not officially. This might be hard to believe but I’m here as a friend. I know what you’ve gone through and I want to help you.”
He did not feel merely disoriented. It was as if his head had suddenly detached from his neck and fallen on the floor. He was afraid to move, afraid he might kick himself in the face. He had to strain to speak.
“You’re FBI. You cannot be here to help me.”
“I’m a renegade. No one at the Bureau knows about you
and Jimmy. They think you’re dead and I’m perfectly happy to leave them in their ignorance. You have to believe me. I’ve risked a great deal to help you. What I’m doing now could destroy my career. I could go to jail. But I’ve done this for you because I care about you. I can’t let you kill David.”
“I have no intention of killing David.”
“Matt, I bugged your apartment. I know your plot in detail.”
“You bugged my apartment? When?”
“On Monday, when you were out walking Jimmy.”
“Wow.”
“Matt,” she began.
“No,” he interrupted. “You only heard what I told Amy. I’m not going to kill David. I’m not a murderer. I’m not a kidnapper. Jimmy’s my child. I’m his rightful father.”
“I know that about Jimmy. But if you’re not going to kill David, why are you secretly stowed aboard his boat in the middle of the night?”
“I’m here to test Amy. To see if she loves me.”
“She doesn’t love you! It’s what I tried to tell you the other night. When you love someone, you don’t keep betraying them.”
“No. You don’t understand Amy. The two of us spoke a few minutes ago. I have set it up so we can disappear without a trace. She only has to trust me and everything will be all right.”
“Did she say she will trust you?”
“Not exactly. I just sprung it on her. She has to think about it. But I know she wants to be with me.”
“Matt, you’re a brilliant man. You’re a good man. But when it comes to Amy, you’re a complete idiot. Also, you’ve compromised everything you believe in to stay with that bitch. No decent woman plots to murder her husband.”
“David is an asshole.”
“The world is full of assholes. Amy is one of them. They don’t deserve to die. Matt, listen to me. You have to get off that ship.”
“I’m going to get off. In about twenty minutes.”
“How?”
“I have it all worked out.” He paused. “But I don’t know if I should be telling you this.”
“I could have arrested you a dozen different times if I wanted. Right now I’m the only friend you have in the world. Tell me how … oh shit!”
“What’s the matter?”
“Amy just came on the deck with David! They’re standing at the rear of the boat!”
Matt suddenly felt very small. “So?”
“She’s going to kill him! Stop her!”
“No. He just woke up is all. She won’t kill him. She wouldn’t do that to me.”
“I can see them both in my binoculars! She’s pointing down into the water! She has him leaning over the side of the boat! Trust me, she’ll push him over the side!”
“No.”
“Matt! She’s setting you up!”
He might have gone into shock right then. Later on he was not sure. In the last year he had performed a number of complex feats under extraordinary pressure. He had never failed the test. But in that moment he felt his world topple. Everything he knew was false. Kathy was Kelly. Amy’s love was not love. And he was about to go to jail for a murder he had planned but never intended to commit. Kelly was right, it was crisis time, and he could not react. He could not even speak.
The moment stretched forever and ran into a stone wall.
“Your loving girlfriend just pushed her husband overboard,” Kelly said quietly.
Matt drew in a ragged breath, straining to get control of—at least—his body. “Can you see him in the water?” he asked.
“No.”
“How long will it take you to reach here?”
“You are pulling away rapidly. But I can reach David in two minutes.”
“I can get to him in less time. I’ll see you there.”
Matt did not give her a chance to respond. He tossed his equipment into his bag and grabbed his Farallon and rushed out of the storage room. He ran right into Amy. No sorrow on her face now; she positively glowed.
“What have you done?” he demanded.
She acted innocent. “Nothing.”
“You just pushed David overboard!”
Curious to see such innocence transform into wrath in the space of one second.
“I did it for us!” she swore. “Because you were too much of a wimp to do it!”
“Damnit! Now I have to save him!”
She grabbed his arm as he turned. “You save him and you ruin us both!”
He stared at her. “I don’t care anymore, Amy. I just don’t care.”
Then he was gone, up the stairs, out onto the deck, and in one mighty leap, he went over the side of the boat. If Gilbert saw him, he would have appeared as a flying wraith. Saltwater engulfed him like a bath thrown on a dreaming man. The Farallon smacked his face as he hit the surface. The most crucial thing was to get his bearings. David would have fallen into the wake of the ship, but without any moonlight even that was difficult to find. The ocean was as black as an underground lagoon. He couldn’t even find Kelly’s boat. Secretly trailing them, she was probably running without lights.
So she was an FBI agent who was risking her career to protect him? That was sort of cool in a way. He didn’t know why he believed her since she had obviously lied to him from the moment they had met. Maybe it all came down to an inherited flaw: he was a sucker for a pretty face. He was curious how she had managed to find him.
But David—he had to save the jerk’s life. He could not make the mother of his child a murderer. Perhaps David was so drunk he would not know Amy had shoved him overboard. Matt still had on his disguise. He could pretend
to be a lifeguard out on late-night patrol. David was pretty stupid, he might fall for it. Especially if an FBI agent who happened to be sailing by supported his story. Then again, if Kelly had worked on the kidnapping case, David would recognize her. What the hell, he would worry about the details later.
Matt powered up the Farallon and raced in the opposite direction of the Stardust, which was already close to vanishing. He ran the underwater propulsion device on the surface. He did not have a face mask, and he made no effort to look underwater. But he had his diver’s light out and panned the area in front of him. The churned foam was already settling into the expanse. Matt estimated David to be three hundred yards behind the spot where he had jumped into the water. Yet it was possible the current created by the Stardust had swept the bastard along. There was even a chance David was aware of the gravity of his situation and was swimming after the Stardust. Matt desperately hoped to find David on the surface; his only hope. If David had gone under, their chances of rescuing him would be close to zero.
A calm night. Yet he did not hear David shout for help.
Without landmarks, he had to time his estimate of how far he had traveled. When he had gone what he thought was three football fields, Matt paused and searched in every direction. He was surprised Kelly had yet to show, but understood that at night it was difficult to guess distance over water. If her binoculars were powerful, she might have trailed the Stardust by as much as a half mile and not realized it.
Matt could not find David. The strength of the panic that swept over him stunned him. For over a year he had thought about little else than hurting the guy. Now he felt sick to his stomach because he could not save him. That was the reality about death, though—it dwarfed all other human preoccupations. Amy had said she had put Valium in his liquor. He had probably been semicomatose when she had shoved him overboard. The shock would have been overwhelming.
A lungful of seawater and he would have sunk. Still, Matt searched.
“David! David!” he shouted.
Kelly showed a minute later. Her ship was without lights. There was a short on the control board, she explained. She could not turn them on.
“I don’t even have a flashlight,” she called to him in the water. “I was looking for him back a ways.”
“Is that where he went in?” Matt shouted back.
“I don’t know! You have a light. Do you see anything?”
“No. I better come aboard. My light will work better if I’m out of the water.”
Kelly lowered a ladder. He was aboard with his equipment in less than a minute. But that was a lot of wasted seconds when they were talking about a drowning man. Matt ordered her to return to the spot she had originally searched. She was the one who had seen David go overboard. Her estimate of David’s location would be more reliable than his.
Still, there was nothing. While Kelly steered left and right and shouted until she was hoarse, he raked the light over the surface. The Stardust’s wake was history—he couldn’t find bubbles, never mind foam. He began to wonder if they were even near the correct spot. As a last resort he had Kelly kill the engine and remain silent. The night settled over them like a smothering blanket. He stood beside Kelly as the boat faintly rocked from side to side. The stars were bright holes in a black canopy. There was no worse tomb than the sea. It buried what it swallowed.
Chances were David would never be found.
“I have a GPS.” He held up the phosphorescent display on the instrument. “We should note our location.”
“Are you giving up?” she snapped.
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to give up. I know you hate him. You don’t care if he dies. David! David!”
“Kelly.” He tried to stop her. She shook him off.
“Leave me alone! David!”
He grabbed her and held her firmly. “I do care, honestly I do. But we’re too late. He’s dead.”
She lost her strength and sagged in his arms. “This is my fault. I could’ve stopped this. I should have stopped this.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I wanted to give you a chance to redeem yourself.”
“I don’t understand.”
She lowered her head and sighed. “I need a few minutes.”
They sat across from each other. He felt it prudent to save his flashlight batteries. The night was black enough to see the outline of their souls. Kelly wept quietly and Matt could not think up a single thing to cheer her. It was not as if he could reminisce with her about what a great guy David had been. But the fact of his death, so near to where they sat, began to sink in. Matt feared he had no place to put his hate. He was afraid it might turn onto Amy.
He could not believe what she had done.
He realized most of his disguise had washed off in the water.
Eventually Kelly began to talk. She told about being called out on the kidnapping case, meeting Amy and David, the long wait for the ransom demands. It fascinated him to hear what the FBI had gone through the day he snatched the money out from under their noses. It made him feel both guilty and absurdly pleased.
But there were gaps in Kelly’s narrative. She explained how she figured out how he was still alive, but went to great lengths to hide other aspects of her investigation. He wondered if it had anything to do with the injuries she had sustained. He was not sure how the timing of all these events overlapped.
“I didn’t get to Catalina until nine o’clock,” she concluded. “I had a hell of a time finding you. Finally I spotted you hanging out at the old casino. I considered stopping you right then. But I wanted to see what you’d do.” She gestured to the sea. “Because of that decision, David died.”
“David died because Amy killed him. But I gave her the knowledge to kill him. I’m more to blame than you.”
Kelly shook her head. “I’m a law enforcement officer. If I had upheld the law, he would still be alive.”
“Why was it so important for you to see what I would do next?”
“I told you, I care about you. I moved into the apartment complex to understand you better. My husband dumped me. Amy dumped you. You’re a wanted kidnapper, but in a strange way, I sympathized with your plight. I didn’t want to just put you in jail.”
“You went to a lot of trouble for a stranger,” he said.
“The first time I saw your picture in the paper—beside the article explaining the circumstances of your death—I didn’t feel you were a stranger.”
“Why?”
“There was something in your face. I can’t explain it.”
“Are you going to put me in jail now?”
“No.”
“Maybe you should. What happened tonight can get you in serious trouble. Let the blame fall on me if it must, I don’t care anymore.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Then you have to forget about tonight. Neither of us was here. We leave my original plan with Amy in place. To the cops, to the FBI, David just got drunk and fell overboard.”
Kelly shook her head. “I can’t do that. You kidnapped your own child and you had reason to do so. I can bend the law for a moral dilemma. But Amy murdered her husband out of greed and malice. She has to pay for what she has done.”
“How are you going to prove it?”
“My word against hers. I’m an FBI agent. I saw her kill David.”
“How are you going to explain being out in the ocean in the middle of the night?”
“Let me worry about that,” she said.
“It might be better for all concerned if I just take off with her.”
“Are you crazy? She just tried to set you up for David’s murder.”
“You don’t know that for sure. I was the one who switched plans on her.”
“Matt! One day she’ll shoot you in the head and you’ll try to defend her. That girl is rotten to the core. You can’t be thinking of still staying with her.”
“Well, no.” He paused. “What do you suggest?”
“How were you going to get off the Stardust?”
“I have anchored a boat about five miles in front of us, slightly south. With Amy, I hoped to bail overboard and ride the Farallon to it. Just disappear, make it look like she was the one who died.”
“You honestly believed she would go for that?”
“Yes. She might have if I hadn’t sprung it on her at the last second. Killing David might have been a panic reaction.”
“Amy does not panic. Amy schemes. If you even talk to her again, she will try to pin David’s murder on you. She will do so anyway.”
“Are you going to arrest her?”
“Yes.”
“She could go to jail for life.”
“One can only hope. Matt, you have to let her go. I guarantee she’ll try to convince everyone you’re still alive. She’ll take the police and FBI to the apartment complex.”
“No one there will recognize me as Matt Connor.”
“You know better than that. You’ll have left hair or scraps of skin in your place. You’ll have to clean it thoroughly, every blessed inch. Then get your son, get the money, and get out of town.”
“There are loose ends. Amy might suspect you were the Kathy I talked to.”
“Unlikely. Why would she make the connection?”
“I would,” Matt said.
“She’s not as smart as you. She’ll be up for first-degree
murder and she’ll focus on you. She’ll make herself look like a fool. Also, I have an ace in the hole. I might be able to convince my partner he was with me tonight and saw Amy push David overboard. That would seal her fate.”
“He must be a hell of a partner.”
“He’ll want to protect me. He knows what I’ve gone through lately.”
“The bad man? The one who hurt you?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
“Who was that guy? Is he still alive?”
She shook her head. “I can’t talk about him right now. We need to find your boat and get you on your way. Just promise me you won’t try to contact Amy ever again.”
Matt hesitated. “I’ll stay away from her.”
“You swear to God?”
“Yes.”
She patted him on the shoulder. “You’re free now. You can put this nightmare behind you. Don’t worry about Amy, she’ll get what she deserves. I’ll see to it.”
“You can’t let her go?” he asked.
“No way.”
They located his boat a half hour later. The GPS led them straight to it. Matt turned on his light and lassoed the ship with a spare rope. He was able to transfer his equipment without having to get wet again. Kelly wanted him to get back to the marina ahead of her. She believed Amy would opt for silence when she was arrested. She intended to push Amy in that direction because she wanted to give Matt as much time as possible to clean up his apartment and get out of town.
“Shampoo the carpet if you can,” Kelly said as they were about to part. “Use plenty of chemicals. Remove my bugs. They’re on the living room lamp, behind the kitchen painting, and under your bed. You’ll have a few hours at least. Amy will get a high-priced lawyer who won’t allow her to say a word until he’s present.”
“You’ll immediately accuse her of pushing David overboard?”
“Yes. I’ll have to in order to arrest her.”
“What if your partner refuses to back you up?”
“David is missing. Plus, as far as Carl Techer will be able to tell, Amy was the one who set up this whole trip. She was the one who insisted on going back early. With my finger pointed at her, things will not look good for Amy. Don’t worry, I’ll be all right.”
“I do worry. I hate that you were dragged into my life.”
She smiled and hugged him. “I don’t.”
He held her tight in the center of the swaying boat. The wind had stirred; irritating waves chopped their flank. A sorrowful moon had appeared; it hung on the horizon like a broken plate. Kelly squeezed him hard and quickly kissed his lips as they parted. He was surprised at the sparkle in her eyes.
“You should have been my partner,” she said.
“Instead of one of the bad guys?”
She kissed him again, for a second longer. Was her kiss better than Amy’s? His head was in a whirlwind. He only knew that he hated to let her go.
“Call me. Okay?” she said, as she stepped back.
“Sure, Kathy. I mean, Kelly.”
“You better get another alias. You’ve worn Simon out.”
“No. You wore him out. But you saved Matt.”
“Matt saved himself. Take care of yourself. Give my love to Jimmy.”
“Will I see you again?”
She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “I don’t know.”
Another hug, another goodbye. He climbed into his boat. As he rode away, he saw her wave. He did likewise and thought he heard her call his name. But already the shock of the night’s events was settling in, and he realized the seriousness of Amy’s plight. He would probably never see her again.
The very thought brought intolerable pain.