Amber Beach (16 page)

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“I don’t think much would.”

Jake gave her a swift glance, wondering what she meant. She was licking the tines of her plastic fork. Not a scrap of omelet remained after her tongue passed over. He looked away, but not quickly enough. His pants were getting tight.

He
concentrated on the water and cursed his body’s quick response to Honor’s agile little tongue.

“Wonderful”, she said.

He grunted.

“No, I mean it”, she said. “That was a great omelet.”

“It’s the cilantro. Gives it just enough edge to be
interesting.”

“You’re sure you’re not married?”

“Positive. It’s not the kind of thing a man would forget.”

“Good grief. Talk about people who should spend a week watching daytime television…”

She licked the fork again and sighed.

“It’s a fork, not a sucker”, Jake muttered.

“What?”

“Did you bring binoculars?” he asked clearly. “Yes.” She stuck her hand into the leather backpack she had brought aboard and pulled out a small pair of glasses.

“Right here.”

He glanced at the dainty glasses. “Use mine. They’ll do a better job in low light. Check out the boat coming up on
our right.”

“Port”, she said promptly. “See? I learned something nautical yesterday.”

“You learned it wrong. Port means left. Same number of
letters in each word.”

“What about right and starboard?” she asked, smiling slyly.

“What about it?”

“Never mind. You aren’t up to my speed yet.”

For an instant Jake thought of telling her to put a hand in his pants and check out just how up he was. Then he saw lights approaching from another quarter.

“Use the binoculars on those boats”, he said, pointing.

“What am I looking for?”

“Names, registration numbers, model of boat, anything
you can see.”

“Let me drive while you look”, she said. “You know what you’re looking for.”

Jake noticed that Honor didn’t say it as an accusation or even ask him why a fishing guide was curious about the other boats. Probably because she wanted to know who was in those boats for the same reason he did – Kyle and missing amber.

“Right now I’m looking for logs”, he said.

Honor’s eyes widened. She stared at the darkly shimmering water. “Is that why we’re creeping along at eight knots?”

“Only a fool or someone with a life at stake races around the San Juans in the dark in a small boat.”

“Right. You look at logs. I’ll look at boats.” She took Jake’s binoculars from the rack just above the table and fiddled with the focus until she found the first boat. “I can’t be positive, but it looks like the name is
Bay Timer.”

“Bayliner. It’s a name brand, like Ford or Honda. How many people aboard?”

“Can’t tell.”

“Try the starboard boat.”

“That’s the one on our right, right?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

She smiled. “It looks a little smaller than the first boat. That’s about all I can tell right now.”

“Probably the other Bayliner.”

“What?”

“There were two of them yesterday. Any other boats?”

“I’m looking.”

Slowly Jake brought up the speed, pushing the limits of visibility. Dawn was coming on hard now, a silent explosion of color and light sweeping across the arch of the sky.

“A bright spot of orange just popped up”, Honor said. “Must be Conroy.”

“Probably. Anyone else?”

“I can’t be sure, but I think there’s a fourth boat way off
to the left-port.”

He looked in that direction. “I don’t see any lights.”

“Neither do I. But there’s something out there against the dawn and it’s shaped like a boat.”

“Keep an eye on it.”

Jake killed the
Tomorrow’s
spotlight and navigation lights. Then he shifted course and headed for the mysterious boat.

“Let me know when we’re close enough to make out the features of the folks on board”, he said.

“Won’t they see us first?”

“Look behind us.”

She did. It looked a lot darker in that direction. “Clever.”

“Thank you.”

“Are we looking for anyone in particular?”

“Snake Eyes.”

Honor lifted the binoculars and began looking. After a few minutes she made a soft sound, leaned forward, and stared through the binoculars.

“What is it?” Jake asked.

“It’s gone. The boat. I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Get up here in the pilot seat.”

Without a word she jumped to her feet and shifted seats.

Only then did she look at Jake in reluctant admiration. “What a tone. Were you a drill sergeant in the navy?”

“They don’t have them. Hang on. This won’t be a smooth
ride.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Get close enough for a look.”

The sound of the SeaSport’s engine deepened and expanded like the dawn as Jake brought up the throttle. The boat rose up on plane, speeding across the indigo sea. A combination of wind and tide chopped up the surface of the water. Every few seconds, sheets of spray lifted on either side of the bow.

“You see him yet?” Jake asked.

“No.”

“You see any wakes?”

“We’re splashing so much ourselves, I can’t be sure.”

He nudged up the throttle some more.

“What about those logs you mentioned?” Honor asked through clenched teeth.

“It’s a big ocean.”

As the
Tomorrow
shot over the top of a small wind wave, he chopped back on the throttle just enough to soften the landing. Honor made a startled sound and braced herself against the dashboard when he brought the speed up
again.
Spray burst over the bow. He nicked on the three wipers long enough to clear the windows and trimmed the bow down. The ride became less rough.

When they came out of the lee of an island, the water turned more choppy. The ride went from occasionally bouncy to rough. He kept the revs high and readjusted the trim so that the chine met the waves at a better angle.

“The rest of the parade is falling behind”, Honor said.

“Their problem, not mine. Can you see the fourth boat
yet?”

“No.”

“Use the glasses.”

She picked up the binoculars with one hand and braced herself on the dashboard with the other. The rough water made focusing on anything through the glasses nearly impossible. After a few minutes she put them down and hung on to the dashboard with both hands.

“See anything?” Jake asked.

“Not really.”

“Keep trying.”

“Forget it. If I look through those glasses again at this speed, your wonderful omelet might reappear.”

“Uh-oh. I didn’t know you were the seasick type.”

“I wasn’t until I tried to focus through the binoculars on something that was jumping all over the…” She swallowed hard. “Can we talk about something else?”

Jake looked at the radar screen. Nothing showing ahead.
The bastard has legs,
he thought sourly,
and the balls to go between them.

“Are we still pulling away from the crowd?”

“Yes. All I can see is the Day-Glo Zodiac.”

“Hell.” Jake eased back on the throttle, breaking off the futile chase. “I don’t especially want to put Bill through a wringer.”

“He’s a big boy. He can take it.” Honor’s tone said that she had no sympathy to spare for the official types who kept dogging her. “If he can’t keep up, he can always drop off.”

“He has his orders.”

“So does every good soldier.”

“He’s not that bad, honey.”

She started to tell him that her name was Honor, not Honey. Then she realized that he sounded friendly rather than patronizing. All the same…

“Are you sure, darlin’?” she asked mildly.

He gave her a fast, surprised look, followed by a slow, slow grin that made her wonder if she hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew.

“Darlin’, huh?” he asked.

“It was that or buttercup.”

He gave
a
crack of laughter. “Buttercup. My God. You must have driven your brothers around the bend.”

“I did my best. When I wore down, Faith took over.”

The rueful affection in Honor’s voice when she spoke of her family took the smile right off Jake’s face. It reminded him of how close Honor was to them – and how far away from him.

“Giving up on the other boat?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

She waited but he didn’t say anything more.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Gas.”

He didn’t say anything more to her until he cut back to a snail’s pace at the mouth of a public marina.

“Go to the bow and get ready to toss a line to the gas jockey”, he said.

Even if Honor had felt like arguing, she wouldn’t have. The look on Jake’s face wasn’t the warm and friendly kind. She stepped up onto the port gunwale and edged carefully to the bow. The landing line was hardly necessary. The
Tomorrow
came up alongside the fuel dock like a well-trained dog.

The attendant was a curvy girl with big hair who didn’t look old enough to drive. She tied off the bow quickly, then
leaned out and grabbed the stern cleat so the boat couldn’t
drift out from the dock.

Hastily Honor retreated from the bow, handed over the stern line, and watched enviously as the attendant secured the
Tomorrow
with a few fast turns around the dock cleat. As the girl started dragging the heavy gas hose toward the boat, Jake opened the cabin door.

“Hey, Kyle”, the girl said brightly, “long time no – Oops, you aren’t Kyle.” She checked the name of the boat again.

Definitely the
Tomorrow.

“No problem”, Jake said, smiling at her. “Sounds like Kyle
is a regular.”

“Between gas and compressed air, he’s in here twice a week. Or was”, she added wistfully. “I haven’t seen him in a while. Guess he’s on vacation.”

“Guess so”, Jake said easily.

The look he gave Honor told her not to say otherwise. If the gas jockey didn’t read newspapers, who were they to trouble her with reality?

“Cool boat”, the girl said, looking at the
Tomorrow.
“Yeah.” Jake put the key in the gas cap and began unscrewing the bright chrome disk. “I’m keeping it in shape for Kyle. I figured I’d better fill up the tanks before I went anywhere. He didn’t give me any fuel-consumption figures.”

The attendant laughed, tossed her breast-length mane of kinky ringlets, and gave Jake a smile that said she would be happy to go over any figure with him, especially hers.

Sourly Honor thought that not reading the newspaper had its points – the girl obviously didn’t know her hair was years out of date. Not that it mattered. A figure like hers would always be in fashion with men.

The girl handed Jake the gas nozzle and watched while he deftly slid it into the mouth of the tank. Vapor curled up as he began pumping fuel.

“This baby uses a lot of gas if you run it at top speed”, she said. “Kyle sure must have. He’d go through a hundred gallons or more every few days. He must be rich.”

“He gets by”, Jake said. “When was he in last?”

“Oh, about two weeks ago.”

Honor barely smothered a startled sound. Jake didn’t even look up from the gas tank.

“He didn’t top off, though”, the girl continued. “Just stayed long enough to fill his dive tanks and the tank for his Zodiac.”

“A tank for his Zodiac?” Honor said, confused.

“Gas for the outboard engine that drives his tender”, Jake explained.

She still wasn’t sure she knew what was going on, but at least Jake seemed to.

“What was he diving for?” Honor asked the girl curiously. “There aren’t any sunny coral reefs out there.”

“Some of the guys go after the local version of king crab. Some of them go after cod with a speargun. Some get sea urchins for the Japanese roe trade.” The attendant tossed her head
again.
“Some just dive to get away from the old lady. Is he married?”

“Who? Kyle?” Honor asked.

“Yeah.”

“No.”

The attendant brightened and hurried off to help another boat dock.

“Do you really think she saw Kyle two weeks ago?” Honor asked in a low voice.