"Yes, Zachary. I saw it."
"It's real," I say. "Lights up the sky. When you see it, you know it."
We watch the sun. It disappears. We wait. No flash of green.
"Maybe another day," I say.
"I'll settle for that," Fiona says.
I shiver.
"It's cold," I say. "Really cold."
I catch the look between Boggy and Fiona.
"You think I'm dying," I say. "Don't you?"
"No, Guamikeni, you are not dying."
"You bet your ass I'm not."
I reach out for Boggy. He offers his hand.
"Thanks," I say.
He nods, says nothing.
"But let me ask you one thing." Boggy looks at me. "What the hell took you so long?"
Boggy starts to speak, but I cut him off.
"I mean, you could have done something sooner. Like right after Frazer pulled the gun. You could have done something then. He'd already revealed himself. We had him."
"But, Zachary, I thought he would shoot you."
"He did shoot me, dammit! And then, when we were getting on Miss Peg, before he wrapped us up in that goddamn duct tape, that would have been a perfectly good time to come barreling out of the cabin. Between the three of us, we could have taken him."
"His gun, it was aimed at Fiona. I thought maybe ..."
"But no, you waited."
"I got shot, too, Zachary."
"I got shot worse," I say.
Fiona slams a hand on the float.
"Stop it, the two of you!" she says. "I think I see a boat."
Sure enough, there is a light to the west, moving across the water. Still far away, too far away to give any real hope.
We wait. I'm getting colder. I try not to shiver.
Fiona looks at me, says: "How did you know?"
"You mean about Frazer?" She nods. I say, "He was the point where all the lines came together. He knew Peach. He knew your brother. I figure he ambushed Ned while he was diving here. Frazer had spoken to him enough to know what Ned might find at Sock 'Em Dog, even if Ned didn't know that himself. But what cinched it was the soul-saver."
"How's that?"
"Polly was wearing it the day she and Ned went to Frazer's office to get the papers. I called her this afternoon and she told me about it. Said Frazer noticed the soul-saver, commented on it, and Polly told him that Ned had found it and given it to her. That's all Frazer really needed to know to give him an idea what Ned had found."
The boat is getting closer, still on course for us. We all watch it, none of us say anything. Might jinx it.
Fiona says, "And Frazer broke into Ned's house afterward?"
"Yeah. He tried to make it look like a burglary. Took all kinds of other things, but he was after the papers. Ned had filled them out, put the coordinates down. Frazer couldn't risk the papers falling into anyone else's hands, especially not until he'd had a chance to dive the site himself."
"He did a pretty good job of setting up Teddy Schwartz."
"And the Sangrento Mao, too. It was a double setup, really. Even if Teddy was able to clear himself, the police could still point a finger at Papi Ferreira and his bunch," I say. "Frazer thought he was well removed from any suspicion."
"So that day, when you came by the Oxford House, when Frazer and I were on our way to lunch, and we started talking about everything in front of him ..."
"Saying that I didn't think Teddy did it. Or Ferreira either."
"Frazer panicked. Figured he had to make a move."
"That's what I'm thinking."
Fiona shakes her head.
"When he came by to get me this afternoon to go out in his boat, I told him we needed to call you, that you should go out with us. But he said he'd already called, said you were busy getting ready for that party."
"I never spoke to him."
"No kidding," Fiona says. "I was stupid, so stupid."
We are quiet for a moment. I am cold, really cold.
Boggy says, "The boat, it is coming."
A Q-beam sweeps the water, lights up the floating remains of Miss Peg. Boggy and Fiona wave and holler. The beam sweeps our way, locks on us, and holds.
The boat closes in. On the bow, I can see Bill Belleville holding the light.
"We're heading out for a night dive at Fish Rock ..."
I can hear Belleville shouting orders to others on his boat. He kneels on the bow, shines the light on us.
"Shit, man," he says. "What happened to you?"
85.
The next forty-eight hours are an opiate fog, voices drifting in and out, people coming and going, my mind unable to grasp what is real and what is not. It's a hazy netherworld, a crazy composite of flotsam and jetsam, random bits and pieces.
I dream that I am on a ship, a ship from long-gone days, with two tall masts and great billowy sails, a ship like the Santa Helena. Brewster Trimmingham is at the helm. He's dressed in full admiral's regalia-blue waistcoat, a sword in its sheath, the ridiculous sideways hat, and everything. Papi Ferreira is at his side, scanning the waters ahead with a spyglass. I'm on the bridge, too, and I keep telling them that we are on the wrong course, that we are headed straight to Sock 'Em Dog. They laugh me off, tell me to leave the navigation to them.
I go looking for Barbara. And suddenly I am on a fancy cruise ship and I need to find Barbara so I can get her off the ship before we crash into Sock 'Em Dog. I unfasten a lifeboat, lower it to the water. Aunt Trula and Polly, wearing white terrycloth robes, watch me from teak deck chairs. I tell them to get into the lifeboat. Aunt Trula looks at her watch.
"Not quite yet," she says. "Almost time for tea."
I run through the ship, looking for Barbara. Worley and Teddy Schwartz play blackjack in the casino. They are winning big. Fiona McHugh wears a glittery showgirl costume and is dancing on a stage. Janeen Hill applauds from her seat in the audience.
I head to my cabin, hoping to find Barbara there. Instead, there's a man sitting on our bed, a man with long gray hair and a scraggly beard. I cannot see his face, but in his hands he holds the Reliquarium de Fratres Crucis, shining and unblemished. He lifts it up and as he does I see that the man has no eyes.
"In Lisbon," he says. "I once was a goldsmith."
I leave the cabin, and there is Barbara watching me from the end of a long hall. She waves to me, calls out. I run to her. But no matter how fast I run, I cannot reach her. I yell to her: "Get to the lifeboat! Get to the lifeboat!"
And she is calling to me, calling to me ...
"Zack. It's OK, Zack. I'm here."
I open my eyes. And Barbara is there. This is real. This is all so sweet and real.
She gives me water. I drink it.
"Just rest," she says. "I'm not going anywhere."
I drift off again. I sleep a deep and dreamless sleep. And when I wake up, Barbara is sitting in a chair by the hospital bed, a hand on my arm. Her eyes are closed.
I say, "Hey, baby."
She opens her eyes, blinks.
"Hey," she says. She squeezes my arm, then kisses my forehead. "Good to see you again."
I look out the window. It's dark outside.
"How long?"
"Two days," Barbara says. "You lost a lot of blood, Zack. An hour longer and you wouldn't have made it."
I try to sit up, reach for my leg. It's a mound of gauze with plastic tubes hooked up to it.
"Don't," Barbara says, easing me back. "It's going to be OK. They think they've stopped the infection."
"What about Boggy?"
Barbara smiles.
"They released him this afternoon. He's back at Aunt Trula's. He's fine."
I lay there, trying to reassemble the pieces, moving backward: Belleville's boat, floating in the water, Miss Peg going down in flames ...
I say, "What about Michael Frazer?"
Barbara shakes her head.
"The police have yet to find him," she says. "Inspector Worley has been calling, wanting to see you. I told him maybe tomorrow."
"Yes," I say. "Maybe tomorrow."
And then I'm asleep again.
86.
"We're baffled, totally baffled. We don't know where Frazer is." Inspector Worley sits by my bed. Barbara is in the room with us. I'm feeling pretty good. There are fewer tubes running in and out of my leg.
I say, "Did you find his boat?"
"Oh yeah, we found it. Tied up at the marina he uses. His car was still parked in the parking lot. It's like he just vanished."
"Could he have flown out of here before you threw out the net for him?"
Worley shakes his head.
"Not a chance. By the time he reached shore, it would have been seven P.M. at the earliest. There wasn't another flight until ten P.M. and we had everything locked down by then. We've checked the private carriers. Nothing there, either."
"Boats?"
"We thought maybe he could have snuck onto one of the cruise ships, but there wasn't a departure until yesterday and he definitely wasn't on it. We swept it, had every passenger out on the deck," Worley says. "Checked the commercial ships, too. Nothing."