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A fender plopped out of the cabin cruiser’s side window, reminding A
The cabin door opened a crack, then closed, then opened again just wide enough to let a pale, slender man creep through. He held both hands over his eyes trying to block the glare of the searchlight.
A
“What the hell is going on?” the nocturnal creature shouted. “Is that you, A
The white lattice of fingers dropped and A
Jim had grabbed a gunwale and was holding the boats together. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He was angry and letting it show, letting it sharpen on the edge of his voice.
The best defense is a good offense, A
“Hi, Jim. Your ru
“Whose boat?”
“I borrowed it,” Jim snapped. “Who authorized you to patrol out of uniform? I bet Lucas didn’t.”
A
“I don’t see that’s any business of yours.”
“What’s that?” She jerked her chin toward the cabin where four scuba tanks and a pair of fins were piled in an untidy heap. Jim twitched like a puppet on too tight a string. His eyes widened as if he-or more likely A
“Doing a little night diving?”
“Oh. The tanks. No,” he retorted and his irritability sounded mixed with relief. A
“We’ve had a report of a missing child. I was checking the usual spots on the north shore.”
“Oh gosh!” Tattinger puffed. He seemed genuinely concerned. It caught A
“Carrie Bittner didn’t make it home for supper. Patience is worried.”
“Oh for Christ’s sake!” Jim’s anger was back, though A
“Patience is rechecking all the sites on the way back to Rock,” A
“For Chr-” Tattinger began his refrain again, then stopped suddenly. “Wait. Bittner? That kid with the brown hair, always hanging around the lodge?”
A
Jim seemed relieved. “I saw her in Lane Cove when I was headed over here. There wasn’t any boat so she must’ve been going back overland on the trail.”
“When was that?”
“I don’t know-not too long ago.”
“Was she alone?”
“Jesus! I got better things to do than look after some snot-nosed kid. You’re not Dick Tracy, A
The federal government had authorized A
Ru
It was after midnight when A
TWELVE
Never to see the sun again,“ A
“Come on down,” A
A
After Zachary died A
At Molly’s suggestion she had taken it off. “It’s nobody’s damn business,” her sister had said.
“People will think I’ve stopped loving him,” A
“Fuck ‘em,” had been the psychiatrist’s advice.
A
“Three-oh-two, one-two-one.” Her radio cracked the solitude and A
“Keep your pants on, Lucas.” She crossed through the open door into the ranger station and hit the mike button of the base radio. “Three-oh-two,” she responded.
“What kind of deck you got over there?”
It crossed A
“The MAFOR promised more of the same. Waves one to two meters.” The MAFOR was shorthand for the marine forecast. All the ranger stations posted the day’s MAFOR before they opened shop in the mornings. On busy days there’d be a line three or four boaters deep waiting to read it before the thumbtacks had even cooled.
“Officer Stanton, Ralph, Jim, Scotty, Jo, and I are about to head out.” Vega’s voice rattled the speaker. “We’ll be to Amygdaloid in thirty minutes or so.”
“I’ll be waiting with bells on,” A
“One-two-one clear.”
For whom the bell tolls, A
Half an hour later, when the Lorelei pulled up to the dock, A