Trouble in Paradise

The phone rang.

"Okay. Have Molly call him from the switchboard," Jesse said and picked up the phone.

"This is Harry Smith" the voice said Doc went out to the desk.

"Or James Macklin," Jesse said.

could have been Cromartie, but the voice didn't have that indefinable Indian overtone that Jesse remembered from his childhood.

There was silence on the phone for a moment, and then Macklin went on.

"I'm on the island. And I wanted to run couple things by you.

First, the next helicopter I see anywhere around here, I shoot a hostage."

"Uh-huh."

"Second, any boats, anything, any attempt to land on the island, any interference with us as we go about our business, and I shoot hostages. I got a lot of them. I can shoot a bunch and have plenty left."

"What business are you going about?" Jesse said.

"Our business," Macklin said.

"And when will you be through going about it?"

"I'll let you know," Macklin said.

"Remember what I told you.

I see so much as a fucking sea scallop come ashore, and it'll be a blood bath."

"We don't want that," Jesse said.

"No you don't, and if I see you out here, I'll go shoot that broad you been fucking."

"Which one?" Jesse said and winced silently as he heard the way it sounded.

"Way to go, Stone," Macklin said.

"Marcy, the real estate lady."

"Uh-huh."

"You fuck up, and she goes first."

Jesse took in air silently and flexed his shoulders, forcing himself to relax.

"I hear you," Jesse said.

"Got anything to say?"

"We'll cooperate," Jesse said.

"You've got my word on it."

"Well, isn't that good," Macklin said.

He turned off the cell phone and put it on the bar in the empty restaurant where they were holding the hostages. Marcy sat on a bar stool at the other end of the bar looking at the floor.

"Says he'll cooperate," Macklin said.

"Guess he don't want you to get hurt, Marcy."

Marcy didn't say anything.

"I mentioned the woman he'd been fucking, and he asked me which one," Macklin said and put his head back and laughed. It was a loud laugh and long and, Marcy thought, somehow contrived, just as it was contrived the way he threw his head back. He was posturing.

"Where's JD and Fran?" Macklin said to Crow.

"Guard duty," Crow said, "I told them to go out and walk around the building, keep an eye out."

"Good, serves a useful purpose and keeps them from whining at me. This thing is going like down so good there's not enough O's in smooth."

Crow nodded and glanced out the window at the water that boiled through the offshore rocks as the tide came slowly in. Freddie was out of sight around the low headland to the right. Crow glanced at his watch.

Carleton Jencks came into the office with Snapper.

"I brought my son," Jencks said.

"Can you get me ashore on Stiles?"

Jencks nodded slowly.

"Got to bring Snapper, though. He's the one knows."

"Too dangerous to bring a kid."

"He's got to show us," Jencks said.

"He can tell us."

Jencks shook his head.

"Not enough margin for error," he said.

"Place is about five feet wide."

"You know how to get ashore on Stiles?" Jesse said to Snapper.

"Yeah."

"Answer right," Carleton Jencks said.

"Yes," Snapper said.

"Yes sir, I do."

"Tell me."

"It's on the harbor side, about halfway between the yacht club and the bridge. Me and some other guys used to go over there in my father's rowboat. Anchor it and swim ashore, watch what went on."

Maybe steal a little something too, Jesse thought. But he had bigger things to worry about, and he dismissed the thought.

"Can you tell me how to go in?"

"Not really... sir... I got to show you. There's no real landmarks, you know?"

Jesse sighed. He had no choice.

"Okay," he said.

"You and your father."

He looked at Jencks.

"You know how to use a gun?"

"Yes."

"You want one?"

"Got one," Jencks said.

Not the time to ask him for his permit, Jesse thought.

"I got a shotgun on the boat," Doc said.

"Okay," Jesse said, "here's the deal. Doc, you take us. Snapper tells us where. I'll go in alone."

"Before me and my kid sign on here, we need to know what's going on."

"You do," Jesse said and told them what he knew.

"High tide will be in about three hours," Doc said to Jesse.

"Okay," Jesse said.

"I figure that's how long we got. Chopper pilot says there's a boat lingering on the ocean side of the island. My guess is it can get in close enough at high tide to take them off."

"Near the restaurant?" Jencks said.