Even so, Jo knew that Pete had killed Mickey, and she was going to prove it. There had to be something on the Sunset Voyager. There had to be…some kind of ace-up-his-sleeve. Pete was way too unconcerned about Jo’s accusations. He was going to pull a rabbit out of the hat, Jo was sure of it.
She listened as the voices of the men punctuated the silence occasionally. Screw this! she decided. I’m not hiding out here like a bad, little girl sent to her room.
Jo crept up the hallway to Nick’s bedroom. She unlocked the hatch cover over the bed and quietly climbed out. She peered around the corner of the cabin, but Nick and Pete weren’t paying any attention to her. She climbed quietly over the rail and onto Pete’s boat. Then she crouched there, out of sight and counted slowly to thirty.
Neither of the men seemed to have noticed any movement on either boat, so Jo moved quietly to the hatch cover over Pete’s bedroom. She knew that it was unlocked. Pete had told her that when he gave her the initial tour of the boat. Fire exit, he had said. Jo opened it carefully and slipped quietly down onto Pete’s bed.
Pete’s fastidious habits made it easy for Jo to search his bedroom. She found nothing. All his clothes were hung up neatly in the closet or folded in the drawers. Jo went quickly through them, but there was nothing but clothing. She wasn’t even sure what it was she was looking for. She just hoped she recognized it when she found it.
A quick perusal of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom provided no clues. Jo hadn’t figured to find any; there hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary there when she’d been on board. She crept silently into the living area and looked around. Think! she told herself. You don’t have much time.
Jo looked at the kitchen cupboards and the drawers in the living room. No, she’d had access to all of that when she was on board. Except one, she remembered. The locked cupboard in the kitchen. That’s right! Pete had said that it was locked, but he didn’t have a key, and he didn’t know what was in there.
Jo stepped over to the cupboard. She tugged on the handle, not expecting anything to happen. The door opened with a tiny squeak. Jo froze and turned her head to the stairs. No one appeared. She eased the cupboard door open another fraction of an inch and peered inside. The cupboard was empty.
Shit!
Jo thought for a moment. Okay, the cupboard was locked before, and now it wasn’t. So it could only have been Pete who opened it…Pete who said he didn’t have a key. So Pete lied about that. Not a big surprise, considered Jo, Pete lied about everything.
Jo tried to concentrate. She guessed that something must have been in the cupboard, something Pete didn’t want her to know about. And once she left the boat, he felt safe bringing it out. She looked around again.
Jo knew time was running out. She had to get back to the Lenore. She went back to Pete’s bedroom and climbed on the bed, preparing to hoist herself up through the hatch. Her eye took in the laundry bag, sitting on the floor by the dresser.
Did she have time?
Jo decided she’d have to make time. She dropped back onto the bed and rolled over to the edge. She grabbed the laundry bag and bunched it in her hands, squeezing it in various spots, trying to feel if there was anything hidden in there. She couldn’t feel anything, but still, there might be something.
Jo upended the bag and shook the dirty clothes out onto the bed. She didn’t care if Pete knew she was in there after she was long gone. Let him sweat it out! Jo rummaged frantically through the dirty clothes and then she felt it! Something hard!
Jo grabbed it out and recognized it immediately as Mickey’s cell phone. She closed her eyes and held the phone to her chest, saying a prayer of thanks. She shoved the phone down her shirt and climbed back onto the bed. She hoisted herself through the hatch onto the deck. Almost there!
Jo pulled the cell phone from her shirt and turned to climb onto the Lenore. She uttered a cry of dismay when she saw that the Lenore was several feet away and moving further away every second. She turned to look at the back deck. Nick stared at her, frozen in place.
Jo swiveled her eyes and craned her head to look at the back deck of the Sunset Voyager. Staring back at her was Peter Crofton, a look of surprise in his eyes which quickly turned to hatred.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The three of them stood, frozen in a tableau. Pete moved first. He jumped up onto the gunwale and headed for Jo.
Nick moved a split second later, racing up the side of the Lenore. “Jo,” he called out, “jump!”
But Jo didn’t jump into the water. Instead, she waited, watching both men approach. “Catch this, Nick!” she cried, and she tossed the cell phone high in the air, lobbing it over to the Lenore.
Nick reached out with his hand to catch the phone. He bobbled it once or twice and then got a firm grip on it.
Pete had stopped moving, watching the cell phone sail through the air. He prayed that Nick would drop it, that he wouldn’t make the catch. When he did, Pete moved again, racing toward Jo.
Jo watched the phone arc towards the Lenore. She saw Nick reach out his hand, and after she was satisfied that he had it, she put her hands on the railing, preparing to jump over it and into the water.
She wasn’t fast enough. She had one leg over when she felt a hand close around her arm.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” hissed Pete.
He grabbed Jo by the arm and jerked her to the far side of the boat. He moved down the other gunwale, dragging her behind him. He pulled her onto the back deck and threw her to the floor. He looked over at the Lenore which was now twenty feet away and still anchored. The Sunset Voyager was drifting freely.
“Give me the cell phone,” Pete yelled at Nick, who had made his way to his own back deck and was watching helplessly as the Sunset Voyager moved further away from him.
“Don’t do it,” screamed Jo, “it proves he’s guilty.”
Pete wheeled around and raised his hand. Jo covered her head with her hands, certain she was about to be hit hard. But Pete merely pointed at her and said to Nick, “She’s wrong. I’m not guilty.”
But Pete had run out of charm. Nick didn’t believe him. He’d seen the way Pete had grabbed Jo. And he’d seen the cell phone. It had to be Mickey’s. Nick knew that because his own face was staring up at him from the faceplate of the phone. And if this was Mickey’s phone…then everything Pete had said was a lie.
Pete could see that Nick was done believing his story. He grabbed Jo by the arm and pulled her to her feet. He pushed her toward the ladder leading to the bridge and forced her up. Then he followed her.
At the top, Jo tried to kick out at Pete and force him off the ladder, but he was ready for her. He grabbed her foot and pushed hard, and Jo fell backwards against the captain’s chair. Pete climbed the last two steps quickly and ran to the compartment where the gun lay.
“Freeze!” he called out to Jo who was crouched on her toes ready to spring at him. “You too!” he yelled, swinging the gun around to Nick who had raced up the ladder to his own bridge.
Nick continued moving, running to the helm and hitting the button that raised the anchor. He froze only when a shot rang out. Nick heard Jo scream and glass breaking. Nick stopped moving. He looked over at the Sunset Voyager and slowly raised his hands.
“That was your window,” called Pete. “The next one goes into your gas tank.”
Once again, the three were frozen, all trying to force their brain to overcome the rush of adrenalin and allow them to think again.
The ‘chunk’ sound of the anchor coming to rest in the bottom of the Lenore woke them up. The boat immediately started drifting toward the Sunset Voyager. Pete turned and pointed the gun at Jo’s head.
“Drop anchor,” he yelled to Nick, “or I’ll kill her.”
“Don’t do it,” screamed Jo, rising to her feet, “Get out of here.”
Pete grabbed Jo by the braid in her hair and pulled her back down. He leaned over and put the muzzle of the gun to her throat. He leaned in close to her face and snarled at her. “Listen you, you have been a thorn in my side since the beginning. It would give me the greatest pleasure to blow your fucking head off, so just keep it up, you bitch. Just keep it up.”
Then Pete stood up and pulled Jo up by her arm. He put her in front of him, his left arm around her holding her close, his right arm holding the gun at her temple. “Drop anchor!” he called again.
On the Lenore, Nick reached out and hit the button. The whirring sound of the anchor chain lowering wasn’t audible on the Sunset Voyager, but Pete knew by the look on Nick’s face that he had obeyed Pete’s command.
Still holding onto Jo, Pete backed up to the helm. He picked up the radio handset and clicked the button. He held it in the air, telling Nick to pick up his own handset. Nick turned the dial to channel 8 and picked up the mike.
“Give me the cell phone,” said Pete.
“Not until you give me Jo,” said Nick.
Pete was surprised at how calm Nick’s voice was. So was Nick.
“Okay, keep the cell phone,” replied Pete. “I’d rather kill her anyway.”
“No, wait,” cried Nick. He took a couple of deep breaths and then said, “I’ll trade you.”
Like they were talking about baseball cards.
There was a long silence as both men considered the deal. Finally, Pete nodded.
“Do exactly as I say, and you’ll get her back alive. Make one false move, and she’s dead. Do you understand me?”
Nick nodded and then pushed the button on the handset. “Yeah, I understand.”
“Stay where you are, and put your hands on your head,” ordered Pete.
When Nick complied, Pete forced Jo up and made her go down the ladder. “Open it,” he commanded, motioning to the bench on the back deck.
Jo pulled off the cushions and lifted the board.
“Gimme those,” said Pete, pointing to a bag of bungee cords, stretchy elastic ropes with hooks on either end.
Jo reached in and pulled out the bag, desperately trying to figure a way to use them as a weapon. She couldn’t find one, and even if she had been able to puzzle out a solution, she wasn’t sure she was brave enough to try it. Pete’s hatred of her was so evident, so visceral that she knew that killing her would give him a lot of pleasure. Jo hoped that his survival instinct would override that desire for pleasure long enough for her to figure out a way to escape. Or to kill him. She didn’t really care which.
Pete made Jo go back up to the bridge, and then he used the bungee cords to tie her hands and feet and anchor her to the railing in two different spots. Jo knew there was nothing she could do to loosen the bonds so she saved her energy for a future opportunity.
Pete picked up the handset. “Now listen to me,” he said, “you will do exactly what I tell you. I want you to follow the course I set for you…exactly…don’t move a hair off the course I give you. You will go at exactly eight knots…no faster, no slower…do you understand?”
“Where am I going?” asked Nick.
“You’ll find out when you get there,” replied Pete. “Now, do you understand?”
“Yeah,” said Nick, “I understand.”
Pete gave orders to Nick. Nick looked down at his chart and then spoke into the microphone, telling Pete that he understood the directions. Then he started the engines on the Lenore and pushed the throttle slowly forward.
