Still Water (30 page)

“This could be a hell of a mess,” he said to himself.

A couple of launches trailing lines off their sterns were the first to reach the area where the tuna appeared to be scattering far and wide. Ben watched but it seemed as if the fish weren’t biting.

“This is weird,” he said. The Seawindwas heading in a northerly direction, and didn’t seem to be going after the tuna at all, while as more of the other boats converged on the school, they were cutting dangerously close to one another. Some smaller craft were in danger of being capsized by the wakes of bigger, faster boats which were intent on pursuing the occasional big fish. It seemed that the tuna comprised several schools mixed together, with the odd giant among them, and it was these that the faster boats were chasing. A forty-foot launch and a smaller lobster boat almost collided as the launch recklessly cut across the bow of the other boat. Seeing the mayhem ahead of them, Ella slowed the Santorini down.

“Something’s wrong here,” Ben said, watching not just the crazy spectacle of the boats, but the behaviour of the fish. “They’re not taking bait.”

He swung his glasses north, back in the direction from which the tuna were fleeing, and three quarters of a mile away he saw what had spooked them. A pod of orcas were breaching, probably mopping up the fish that hadn’t got away, and the Seawind was heading right for them. Beyond them the horizon was hazy, as if cloud had descended on the ocean, though the sky was clear.

“What do you think he’s doing?”

“I don’t know.” Ella frowned, but then abruptly she altered course, and opened up the throttle.

As Jake watched the orcas he saw out of the corner of his eye how the Santorini changed course. A familiar dull ache began to throb in the back of his skull, gradually spreading outwards as he raised his glasses and focused on Ella. He couldn’t understand why the hell Baxter and Judge Walker had decided to let her go after what Jerrod Gant had seen. What was wrong with them? He guessed that lawyer buddy of hers had gotten her off. Twisting things around the way those slippery bastards did. As he watched she seemed close enough to touch. His grip tightened, and the pain in his head reached around to his temples. Little grainy black dots seeped into his vision. Without being aware of it he began to grind his teeth.

Penman appeared at the door of the wheel-house looking anxious. Jake barely glanced at him. “Rig a harpoon.”

Dead ahead of them an orca rocketed from the surface of the sea until it was almost entirely clear of the water, massive flukes churning the surface. The animal turned in mid-air, glistening black and snow white, its dorsal fin, with the wavy pattern at the tip that was common to this pod, resembling a huge sail.

It crashed down on its side again, creating a tremendous splash. It appeared that the orcas had some fish herded between them. Silver flashed in the sunlight as a giant leapt clear of the sea as it escaped to the south.

“We’re gonna be too late,” Penman said. It seemed to him that almost all of the tuna that hadn’t already been killed had already fled.

“It’s that bull I want, “Jake answered, never taking his eye from the window. “That bastard has stolen his last fish.”

Penman hesitated. He didn’t have anything against killing an orca if the chance arose. Far as he was concerned one less orca meant more fish for them. But there was a look in Jake’s eye that bothered him. Some of the men had been talking lately about how Jake was acting a little strangely. Okay, they all knew how he must feel about Bryan, but his preoccupation with Ella, and now the orcas, was getting out of hand. If he hadn’t been so intent on running Ella’s line down the other day maybe they would have seen those bluefin earlier and caught one themselves, instead of ramming the Rose Marie.

Jake turned on him. “What the hell are you waiting for?”

Penman didn’t hesitate any longer and headed down to the bow to rig a harpoon. He knew better than to argue when Jake had something fixed in his mind.

“I want him this time,” Jake shouted after him. Beyond the orcas a bank of mist was sweeping in from the west, like a long low cloud creating a false horizon.

Penman worked fast, and as the Seawind drew closer to the orcas he spotted the big double notched fin of the bull. The orcas had given up their hunt. The surface of the water was covered in a shiny slick of oil and blood, but the last of the surviving tuna had escaped. Jake had seen the bull too, and he brought the Seawind around. The orca went under, and then its head broke the surface, and as they bore down Penman swore it was watching him. He steadied himself, getting ready to throw when they were close enough. Then suddenly the orca dived, and the entire pod headed east with the bull swimming way out on the right flank.

The Seawind shuddered and the note of her engines rose as Jake pushed her to the limit. In calm waters she was a fast boat. From the wheel-house Jake could clearly see the bull as it swam twenty feet below the surface. He knew it would have to come up for air every few minutes, and if he could get a little closer, Penman would have a clear shot.

“I’ve got you now, damn you,” he said quietly. “There’s nowhere for you to go.” He looked ahead, expecting to see nothing but clear ocean, but instead found that they were approaching a grey-white wall as it rolled to meet them. It was a bank of dense fog, caused by the upwelling of cold currents from the depths meeting warm humid air above the surface, which condensed into thick mist. He realized the bull meant to hide in the mist, but it was too late. There was no way it could outrun the Seawind.

Just then Jake saw that the Santorini was heading on a course that would take her right across his bow.

Ben watched the Seawind edge closer to the orca. “He’s gaining,” he shouted.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” Ella shouted back above the noise of the engine and the sound of the Santorini ploughing through the sea. But even as the gap between the boats narrowed she had no idea how she could prevent Jake from killing the orca.

Ben pounded his fist on the rail in frustration. “Dammit. We have to do something,” he said.

Ella didn’t know what she could do. The Santorini was at full throttle, and sounded like she was going to shake to pieces. The vibrations rattled the deck and rose through her feet and Ella was tempted to ease back on the throttle, afraid that the motor would blow, but she knew that if she did, the orca would be killed, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. Gordon glanced back at her worriedly from where he stood out on the deck, grimly hanging on to the rail.

Ahead of them the Seawind was closing the distance, but the orca appeared to be aware of the danger and was making for the cover of the fog bank that was rolling in to meet them. Ella thought that maybe if she could do something to slow Jake down, the orca would have a chance. The gap between the two boats was now just a hundred yards and closing fast. If she held her current course Ella felt sure they would collide. The Santorini was shuddering with the strain, the engine thumping like a gigantic hammer beneath her feet, threatening to pop the nails from the planks of her decking. A fine mist of spray was flung back over the bow as the little boat cleaved a passage through the sea, a wake unfurling against her sides with a protesting rush and roar. Ella wondered if she could make it across the Seawintfs bow, and force Jake to break off, or would he ram her amidships? If he did the Santorini would crack apart like an egg, and would be driven down. They would all drown, sucked under by the currents if they survived the initial impact. She could see Penman on the bowsprit, a harpoon in one hand as he readied himself to take aim. Maybe if she held her course she could block his throw. She measured the distance, uncertain if she could make it. It was too close, she decided, she had to turn away.

“What are you doing?” Ben yelled at her sensing what she planned to do.

“He’ll run us down.”

Ben shook his head. “You can make it.”

“It’s too close,” Ella said. But he wasn’t listening. She glanced at Gordon. His face was white but he remained unflinching and Ella knew she had seconds to make a decision. The Seawind bore down on them, the bigger boat looming frighteningly, and the sound of her bow cleaving a path through the ocean mingled with the roar of the Santorinfs own passage.

The orca rose to take air, and Penamn steadied himself to throw. Ben looked back at her in a final silent appeal.

“You’re crazy,” she said. “I can’t do it.”

But even as she spoke she knew it was already too late to turn away and in that split second Ella made her decision and held true to her course. At the last moment, with the sound of engines and machinery all but drowned out by the roar of the sea, she screwed her eyes tightly closed and prayed for the grace of any god looking down that she might live to remember her own folly. Her heart was in her mouth, her body tensed for the impact.

The last thing she saw was the fog rolling towards them like a great enveloping ghostly curtain.

The Seawind loomed over them and Penman hesitated as the Santorini spoiled his target and Jake leapt from the ladder by the wheel-house.

Jake guessed at the last moment what Ella was going to do and even as he rushed outside he was cursing her and shouting at Penman to take his shot. There was a moment when the orca was visible and Penman had a clear target before the Santorini began to cross their path.

“Throw it, damn you,” Jake yelled as he leapt down the ladder but Penman faltered and Jake swept him aside with one blow, then grabbed the harpoon and with one continuous fluid motion he raised it and glimpsed Ella looking right at him as he threw.

Ella opened her eyes and instinctively ducked even as she was surrounded by an explosion of showering glass. The harpoon shattered the side window and passed right above her head before hitting the wall where half of it passed clean through the wood. She screwed her eyes tightly shut again and waited for the impact as the Santorini rose on the wash and she was flung first to the roof and then to the floor, smashing her forehead on the wheel as she went down. She lay stunned and unable to move, expecting to hear splintering wood and the sea rushing in to bear her to a watery grave and for a second she glimpsed a beckoning figure who she thought was her father, then the rushing sea abated and all sound was deadened and her vision misted over.

Ben Harper helped her to her feet, and she rose a little shakily. It wasn’t her father after all. She was puzzled by the sudden quiet, until she saw that she must have hit the throttle as she’d fallen, shutting the engine down. The Santorini drifted in the eerie quiet of the fog.

“I didn’t think you’d do it,” Ben said hoarsely.

He looked pale and shocked. His hand shook when he let her go. Suddenly she felt ill.

“You’re hurt.”

He gave her a handkerchief, and held her hand to her forehead, which she now realized ached badly. There was a little blood. Suddenly she froze.

“Gordon. Oh my God, where’s Gordon?”

She ran onto the deck, and found she couldn’t see the end of the boat. Then he was there, stumbling towards her and she hugged him tightly.

“Are you all right?” he asked worriedly when she let him go.

“I’m fine.”

The rapid thump of her heartbeat subsided. In the distance the dying sound of the Seawinds engine faded.

They drifted for twenty minutes surrounded by thick white mist. Now and then they heard a faint fog horn, but otherwise it seemed as if they’d crossed to another, ethereal world. The only constant was the gentle lap of water against the hull. What had happened seemed like a dream. Eventually, unexpectedly, the fog thinned, and became wisps of trailing vapour. There was a splash close by, and when they looked a dorsal fin sank not more than twenty feet away. A great black and white body glided silently beneath them, and astounded they rushed to the other side of the boat. The orca rose, his snout breaking the surface. For a second he seemed to look at them, then he dipped beneath the surface and was gone.

It was late when Baxter turned up at Matt’s office. Matt had been making calls to Boston, calling in favours from people who’d been checking into Kate and Evan Little for him. He hadn’t turned anything up. They were exactly what they appeared to be, and neither of them had any prior record. He was about to call it a day when Baxter rapped on the door.

“I saw the light. You’re working kinda late aren’t you?” Baxter said.

“I was just finishing up.” He switched off the light on his desk and stood up, stretching his arms above his head. He didn’t say anything about what he’d been doing.

“I came to tell you something.” Baxter told Matt about the incident that had taken place that day between Jake and Ella. “It was only luck that nobody was killed. This is just the kind of thing I was worried about,” he added with a faintly accusatory note.

You think Jake meant that harpoon for Ella?” He conjured a picture of the scene in his mind. The two boats converging and then the long lethal spear whistling towards her.

Jake’s kind of unpredictable.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing much I can do. I already talked to him. He claims the whole thing was an accident.”

“Do you believe him?”

Baxter thought for a moment. “Nope. I warned him off, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to listen to me.”

Baxter had a ‘you see, I wasn’t just making this up’ kind of look. He took out a piece of gum and unwrapped it, and as he did his gaze roamed around the room. He wore a look of vague curiosity. Matt glanced at the pad of notes on his desk, with Kate Little’s name written at the top, underlined a dozen times in heavy black ink.

“Is there something else you wanted, Chief?”

“I’ve been thinking about what you said in Judge Walker’s office. About Jerrod Gant having a lot to gain from the marina going ahead?”

Matt thought he detected a conciliatory note in Baxter’s voice. “What about it?”

“I don’t know. I guess I don’t see Jerrod Gant dreaming up something like this by himself.”

“You mean he might have had some help. Like from Howard Larson?”