Part 37 (1/2)

'You realize you twitched?'

'Rigor mortis,' said the corpse cheerfully. 'Or something.'

'And what's his name, Paul? Paul's created a work of art in the kitchen.'

'He reckoned the deader he looked, the less chance they'd check too careful. It worked, didn't it?'

'It worked. No thanks to Dodo.'

'Deedee.'

'Whatever. We're not handing out Oscars this week. That's the longest dying scene since Reservoir Dogs.'

'She was p.i.s.sed off. About the kid.' The former corpse, Brian, stood up. 'Paul had to smack her about a bit. Last night. Bring her into line.'

'What about the kid?'

'She didn't want to let her go. Deedee,' he amplified, 'didn't want to let the kid go.'

'But she did.'

'Downey came. About four hours ago? Early morning, anyway. Motor boat. We could have taken him.'

'I didn't want him taken.'

'I thought that was the point.'

'The point's changed.' Amos Crane had changed it, but Howard wasn't getting into that. 'And he took the child.'

'Like I said on the phone. We left her in the kitchen, he must have thought it was a trap.' Brian shrugged. 'He took her anyway. Back to the boat, voom, he was off. We were watching from over there.' He waved vaguely in the direction of the first corpse Howard had found. The indisputably dead one. 'Next thing we know, Jed's on the bell. Two more pa.s.sengers coming. Christ, nothing happens for weeks on end, then it all comes down at once.'

Paul came out of the house wiping gore from the side of his head. 'Was that fun?' he asked them. 'Was it f.u.c.k.'

Howard nodded.

'They came nowhere near me,' he added. Aggrieved.

Brian said, 'We could have just hidden.'

'Where?' Howard asked him.

He grew vague. 'There's places.'

'Downey didn't find you because he wasn't looking. Once he got the child he was away. Those two,' he waved in the direction the women had gone, 'they'd have looked.'

'Who were they?'

Howard just stared at him.

And also, he added, if things went wrong from this point in, and they wound up telling their story to anyone, well, it wouldn't help their credibility when they testified to deaths that never happened . . .

Brian said, 'They're bait too. Aren't they?'

Howard nodded vaguely. Sure they were bait. He was a.s.suming they'd lead Amos Crane to Downey . . . His best bet for coming out of this was to have them all wind up in the same place, then get the drop on whoever was left standing. He hoped that wouldn't be Amos. Still, he'd have to be prepared.

The helicopter was over them already. Brian said, 'You following them in that thing? It's a little conspicuous.'

Howard shook his head. He didn't need to. So long as Sarah Trafford kept hold of that bear, he'd know where they were.

He pointed over to where he'd found the first body. 'You planning on burying that thing at all?'

'Had to get the blood from somewhere,' Brian said.

'An' I always hated that b.a.s.t.a.r.d cat,' Paul said.

'You've still got some of its brains in your hair.'

Paul was still scrubbing while the helicopter took Howard away.

III.

Sarah stood at the stern, watching the wake scar the sea-surface . . . Only the sea healed without mark; wiped the white scar so cleanly, it had never been there at all. And that didn't count the invisible pollutants . . . Hard to think about Michael, now. Invisible pollutants in his case, too, and not just the toxic explosion in the desert what kind of worm ate into the soul so deep, it allowed you to kill whoever lay in your way? She thought of the trap that had been laid for him, and shook her head in weary disgust. Last time they'd put Michael on that island, he'd left bodies behind him. Why had they thought this time would be any different?

Zoe asked, 'Are you okay?'

'No . . . How about you?'

She made a face. 'They should put stabilizers on these things. But it's not as bad as it was before.'

Though the boat rocked as she said that, and Sarah saw white ghosts crawl over her.

Looking back to the sea, Sarah said, 'I can't believe he did that.'

'Killed them.'

'Did he have to? Wasn't there another way?'

She wasn't really asking. Zoe tried, anyway. 'He thinks Dinah's his.'

'He doesn't know.'

'No. Is that important?'

'That man, he said it wasn't so. He said she isn't Michael's.'

'He did say that. And maybe he was telling the truth, and maybe he wasn't. Either way, Michael doesn't know. And even if he did, do you think he'd really care?'

'But '

'Sarah.' Zoe put a hand on her shoulder. 'You don't even know the child. You've come this far. Do you think he should have just walked away?'