After the Storm (10 page)

While they were in the village Kim had paid the man in the restaurant for the use of his phone to make a call to her parents in Clearwater. Jared, her older brother, had picked up. He’d been cold with her and said their parents were out. So she’d kept the call short saying she’d call again when they reached Roatán and to be sure to send her love to Mom and Dad. She tried to keep in touch as often as she could as her mom worried if too much time went by without a call. Jared was seven years older than her and had moved back home recently when his marriage broke up. He had been Owen’s best friend since childhood and for years they’d been inseparable, like brothers. Owen had always been the more dominant one in the friendship, he had led and Jared had followed. That had all been fractured years ago and her relationship with Owen had been the cause of it.

‘He’s not right for you, sis,’ Jared had said when he found out they’d started dating.

‘Why not? I’ve been in love with him for years.’

‘He’s borderline crazy you know.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘I know him better then you do and I’m telling you he goes to some pretty dark places in his head.’

‘What dark places?’

‘He took crazy risks a few times when we were out in his car. One time I thought he was trying to kill us. And then there was all that trouble with Mr Peterson.’

‘Mr Peterson was a jerk.’

‘He may be a jerk. Doesn’t excuse what Owen did to him.’

Mr Peterson had been the basketball coach at Jared’s and Owen’s high school. She knew some of the Mr Peterson story, but not everything. Now Jared told her how Mr Peterson had continually picked on a black kid called Klevon and how this had enraged Owen. How one day Mr Peterson had gone into the locker room to find his sports kit cut into ribbons and an anonymous note left saying that he was a racist and he was being watched. The next time Mr Peterson picked on Klevon he found the tyres to his car had been slashed and a second anonymous note warning him to stop being so racist. Jared had been scared of Owen then, not recognising his friend. He seemed to be in the grip of an obsession that was pushing him towards ever more extreme acts. In the event Mr Peterson got spooked and left the school at the end of the semester.

‘He was sticking up for Klevon,’ she said. ‘And I’m proud he did that.’

‘Goddammit you’re deluded. Can’t you see he was dangerous? He was out of control,’ he shouted at her.

It was shortly after this conversation that Jared sought out Owen and told him to keep away from his kid sister. The intensity of Owen’s reaction had been terrifying and this was the beginning of their great falling out.

Up on deck Owen and Rob had now sailed close in to the atoll and they dropped anchor where the boat would be sheltered by the mangroves. They took the sails down. In the dying light, and at the same moment, they both spotted a black hulled motorboat on the horizon. They stood and watched in silence. The boat was larger than theirs and appeared to be moving on a course towards their mooring but it had no lights on. It was obvious from the bow wave that it was using its engine at full throttle.

‘What the hell is that?’ Rob said.

‘A black boat out at night can only be one thing: drug runners.’

They exchanged worried looks. The loneliness of the Cay added to the feeling of menace. A bird on a nearby mangrove let out a shriek. What made Rob feel afraid though was the expression on Owen’s face.

‘You sure?’

‘I reckon. Very dangerous men on that boat. If they see us they’ll take our boat,’ he said.

‘Do you have any weapons?’

‘No, well a baseball bat…’

‘What should we do?’

‘We need to tell Kimmie and Anna to kill the lights. They may not see us. Our sails are down and it’s dark. And they may be in a hurry to get to their destination.’

They hurried down into the saloon. Owen knew how vicious the men on that boat would be. He’d heard of such things happening in these waters before, a skipper and his crew vanishing without trace. If they spotted them and boarded the boat they would rape Kimmie and Anna before they slit all their throats and tossed them overboard. It would be sport to men like that. Rob went into the forecabin and turned the small light off.

‘I’m writing,’ Anna complained.

‘There’s a boat headed this way that looks bad. We don’t want them to see us.’

He found that he was breathless as he told her this. Her eyes widened in alarm.

‘What do you mean bad?’

Owen called to them:

‘Can you both come in here now?’

Anna quickly pulled on her jeans and T-shirt and followed Rob into the saloon. Owen had turned the stove flame and all the lights off. He looked grim and spoke urgently in the darkened cabin.

‘There’s an unlit boat headed this way. I reckon they’re drug runners and they’ll be armed. They may not have seen us. They were some distance away when we took the sails down. That’s our best hope. If they have seen us we’re in trouble.’

‘What kind of trouble?’ Anna asked.

‘They might come in and take the boat.’

‘You mean pirates?’

‘It happens out here. Not very often, but it happens. Rob and I are gonna check again now. If they get any closer we’re gonna have to decide what to do.’

Anna had never seen Rob looking so frightened before. Owen and Kimberly looked grim too. Owen picked up two flares and took out a baseball bat from the small berth at the back of the boat knowing how futile a gesture this was.

He and Rob went back into the cockpit and peered out. The light was poor; the moon was behind thick cloud. They could barely make out the dark bulk of the black boat and yet it seemed to be coming closer to them. Kim and Anna came up and sat with them in the cockpit. They had both put on oilskins and Anna was shivering in spite of the warmth of the night. They sat in strained silence and watched the dark shape intently. Dread was growing in all of them and the thought that the men on that boat might hurt Anna was making Rob feel physically sick. He would fight them to the death if they went near her or Kim. He wished he had a proper weapon with him. He hugged Anna to him tightly and she buried her face in his shoulder in a hopeless kind of way as if she understood how truly dangerous their situation was.

‘Are they getting any nearer?’ Kim asked quietly.

‘Yes they’re nearer. I think they might have seen us,’ Owen said.

‘Should we get off the boat and hide in the mangroves?’ Anna whispered.

‘Aren’t we doomed if we get off the boat?’ Rob said. ‘If they take the boat no-one would ever find us here. It’s in the middle of nowhere.’

Owen had been in difficult situations before but this time he was scared for their lives. They could get off the boat on the blind side, but even if by some remote chance they were able to hide in the mangroves the men would take the boat. They were not insured and he and Kimmie would lose everything. There were ten cases of rum, gin and whisky and four kilos of cocaine stowed in the back berth. It would be quite a haul for the smugglers. Raul would come after him if he didn’t deliver the package to Money Joe. Raul had always been an ally but he was the kind of man who would turn nasty very quickly if anyone let him down. Rob was right too. If they were left on this atoll without a boat they would be as good as dead. But he couldn’t bear the thought of sitting on the boat passively awaiting their fate.

‘Anna’s got a point. You three get off the boat now and find a place to hide. I’ll stay here,’ he said.

‘No!’ Kim said.

‘If they come in I’ll convince them that I was alone on the boat. Now go.’

‘They’ll kill you,’ she said.

‘Better than killing all of us.’

‘Why are you even suggesting this?’

Owen stood up.

‘We have to split up. It’s our only chance. Rob, don’t you agree? You three get off the boat and hide.’

‘I don’t like the idea of us leaving you here,’ Rob said.

‘I need you to stay with Kim and Anna. Now go!’

They had never seen Owen so fired up before. They stood up and clambered onto the deck on the blind side with Owen almost pushing them along in his haste to get them off the boat. Rob went first, sliding over the side of the boat into the sea. The water came up to his waist. He was followed by Anna. As Kim was stepping over the side Owen whispered to her:

‘Give me your knife Kimmie.’

‘No, I’m not gonna let you have it.’

‘Bullshit!’

Kim slid into the water without another word. Anna had heard this urgent exchange and didn’t understand it. Why hadn’t Kimberly given her knife to Owen? They waded away from the boat in taut silence, Rob leading the way. There was a sucking sound as they slogged through the muddy water. The mangroves were low and scratchy and they had to twist and bend to move around them. Kim was finding it particularly hard as she was shorter than the other two and the water was deep. Rob, seeing how she was struggling, grabbed her arm and helped her along. Eventually they found a small patch of earth, large enough for the three of them to sit down. Rob sat in the middle and put his arms around the two women who were both shivering.

‘If they come in we’ll hear them. Sound carries on a still night like this,’ Kim said.

They strained their ears for the slightest sound. Anna was thinking it was strange what a paralysing effect great fear had on your body. She felt as if all her strength had drained away. It was like in those nightmares where you’re being chased and you need to run fast and your legs become so heavy that you can’t lift them at all.

‘Why did Owen do that?’ Anna whispered.

‘He thinks he can save us.’

Kim’s voice was angry, almost dismissive and Anna felt the need to defend Owen.

‘It was brave of him,’ she said.

Rob was torn. He didn’t like the feeling that Owen had assumed the role of the Alpha Male, the Have-A-Go-Hero. He had been given the role of the secondary male, left with the women, and it made him feel small.

Kim had also heard stories of pirates in these waters boarding boats and killing all the crew and passengers, and she knew these stories were true. Her overwhelming feeling though was one of anger towards Owen. She had known it would come to this one day, that they would lose everything. They should never have left Belize City this last time. He should have listened to her. Owen was not careful enough about their future and he seemed to be getting more reckless.

They sat on the small patch of mud and could hear the faint stirrings of the mangrove branches and the scrabbling of a small mammal moving across the ground. Anna wondered if it was a rat. The strange unearthly shriek of the bird that Rob had heard before repeated its call and made them all jump.

Owen sat in the cockpit tensed and hyper-alert. This time he would not hide from any attackers. He would take them on. Kim should have given him her knife. Her obsession with hiding knives from him was getting on his nerves. Once he had seen it as an act of love. Not any more. She insulted him with her over-protective attitude. He had the baseball bat by his side and he looked at the two flares. Maybe he could use them as weapons too? He could light them and throw them at the men if they tried to board. He put the flares in easy reach and went below to fetch a box of matches. As he came back into the cockpit he heard a disturbance in the water near the boat. His heart jumped. He climbed onto the deck and moved forward carefully on his hands and knees. There it was again. Something was moving in the water at the front of the boat. There was a swishing of water and a knocking sound. It wasn’t the motorboat; it was something smaller. Had they sent an advance guard in a dinghy? He inched forward on his stomach, hardly breathing. Another knock and another swish in the water. Someone
was
approaching. This was when he needed that knife. He reached the bow and strained his eyes and ears to identify who was out there. And then he saw it. A large piece of driftwood had floated in and was knocking against his dinghy. He laughed out loud and his laugh sounded like what it was – the frightened laugh of a man on the edge. His father had laughed like that sometimes, laughed when he wanted to cry. He leaned forward and pulled his dinghy in, away from the floating lump of driftwood.

He got back to the cockpit. He sat very still and listened to the sounds of the sea. There was the rise and fall of a low swell but no sound of a boat coming in. A lump of driftwood had terrified him but now his fear had gone. Slowly hope was beginning to grow in him. Their sails were down, it was a dark night and their boat was partially obscured by the mangroves. They hadn’t been spotted after all and the black boat had passed them by.

Time passed slowly as Rob, Anna and Kim sat motionless and silent on the tiny patch of earth, each with their thoughts and fears and weaknesses, each straining for the sound of any disturbance in the water that would herald a boat coming in.

‘I think we can go back,’ Kim said at last.

Quietly and soberly the three of them got to their feet and made their way through the mud and the water to the boat. One by one they climbed wearily on board with Owen helping them up. They huddled in the cockpit, dripping water all over the floor, too drained by the experience to make a move for many minutes.

‘It’s gone. I reckon it’s on its way up the Honduran coastline now and will head to Belize or Mexico under cover of darkness,’ Owen said.

Rob squeezed Anna’s hand and she squeezed his back.

‘We can eat now. No lights on please. Just use the stove.’

Kim and Anna went down into the saloon and got out of their wet clothes. Then Kim fired up the stove and finished cooking the fish stew. Anna fetched the bowls, too depleted to make any conversation. Kim ladled the fragrant stew into the bowls and she and Anna carried these up into the cockpit. The four of them sat in the darkness glad to be alive and to be eating fish stew.

Owen was still apprehensive.

‘I think Rob and I should keep watch through the night, to be sure,’ he said.

Anna felt a deep need to lie down and find some refuge in sleep. She offered to wash the dishes but Kim said no, it would calm her down to do it. Anna could not be bothered to struggle with the pull-out washbasin or to clean her teeth. She stretched out in the forecabin and tried to sleep but her mind kept replaying the events of the night.