The Raft (25 page)

“No,” Maggie shook her head vigorously. “No,
and I had no idea what Gandalf was planning. As you know, I came
aboard without a firearm, I think that speaks volumes for my
intentions, Special Agent.”

“Mmm,” Galahad shrugged.

“No, I kept our appointment this morning with
every intention of delivering on the promise that Rachael made to
you on the phone: the identity of the murderer of Joanna Church, or
Rebbecca Oldrich, or whatever her name eventually turns out to
actually be.”

“Well?”

“But I did you one better, Agent, I brought
you the murderer himself.”

Special Agent Galahad shifted in his seat,
taken aback. He glanced at Rachael, attempting to read something in
her expression. “The dead man? He killed the girl?”

“Yes,” Maggie nodded. She attempted to emote
with her hands, forgetting they were shackled to the table. “But
something went wrong, he must have guessed my intentions. It was my
fault for not disarming him before we arrived. But such a thing
isn't done aboard the Raft, you understand. If I'd have asked for
his gun, he'd have certainly known what I was attempting to
do.”

“But he came anyway?”

“I told him it was the only hope of saving
the Raft. And I meant it. Handing over Meerkat's murderer was the
only hope we had of convincing you to back down from this reckless
blockade. And Gandalf's death hasn't changed that.”

“So you deliver me another corpse?”

“Sadly, yes. Though that was not my
intention.”

“And this is going to make the United States
Government back down? Turn tail and run? From the combined might of
a floating hippie commune?” Kid Galahad's voice dripped with
sarcasm.

“It will, once I tell you
why
Gandalf
killed Joanna Church,” Maggie said calmly, looking down and
fidgeting with the cuffs on her wrists.

“Really?” Galahad said after a pause. He
could see through Maggie's transparent bluff.

At least he thought he could. Maggie wasn't
about to back down. “Yes. And once I explain this whole grizzly
affair, in front of a member of the free press mind you, I think
you're going to be more receptive to making peace with a certain
floating hippie commune.”

“Really?” Galahad said again, chuckling. But
this time his bravado wasn't quite so polished. Something about
Maggie's tone had him worried. “Then why don't you enlighten us
all,” he said. Maggie opened her mouth to begin, but Galahad
interpreted. “But let me assure you, Ms. Straight, there will be no
deals.”

“We'll see, Special Agent,” Maggie said.

“Yes, we'll see,” Galahad repeated back,
leaning back in his chair.

Chapter 29

“I guess it will come as a surprise to no one
when I say that Meerkat had her issues. A misspent youth, problems
with drugs and alcohol. Life with Horus the Brontosaurus
exasperated all Meerkat's demons. Horus was hardly an upstanding
member of the community, even one as loosely knit and hands off as
the Raft.

“It was the birth of Firecracker to her best
friend Tea Queen that cast the harsh light of reality on Meerkat's
lifestyle. Tea Queen and Rocket had to clean up their acts with a
baby on the way and no means to care for it other than taking
responsibility for themselves. And clean up their acts they did.
They dropped the drugs and the booze and focused their attention on
making a living with what few skills their wasted lives had
afforded them.

“What did Meerkat have? A hangover? Horus?
And Tea Queen had a perfect little baby. I suspect that the first
time Meerkat laid eyes on that little man, her resolve to clean up
her act became iron.

“But for Meerkat, quitting wasn't going to be
just about kicking the junk. No, she was in far too deep. Up over
her head, if you know what I mean. If she was going to get clean,
it would mean going ashore. Rehab, the whole nine yards. A
facility. And I assume that's what she did. She told Horus some lie
– or perhaps she didn't even bother. In the end, what did Horus
really care?

“Well, rehab would mean two weeks of pain and
boredom. But it served its purpose and Meerkat shook at least some
of her demons. But word must have gotten out about her presence
onshore. Perhaps someone at the facility informed the police about
a Rafter in their midst? Perhaps it was all a coincidence? Anyway,
soon enough, the law came calling for Meerkat, holding a number of
outstanding warrants for her arrest. Her past had finally caught up
with her – the partying and the drugs, her life before the Raft. A
car accident. A young couple killed. It was the reason for
Meerkat's escape to the Raft: to avoid the consequences of her
actions. But sober Meerkat was ready to pay the price for her past
sins. Pay the price in full.

“But the police had other ideas. Her
connection to Horus made her useful. She lived with him, shared a
boat. She could feed them information on his operation, his drug
smuggling, shipments down from Canada. A few dates and times of
deliveries and maybe the police could speak to the prosecutors,
work out some sort of clemency deal. All Meerkat would have to do
was go back to the Raft and keep an eye on Horus. Report back on
what she saw.

“So that's what she did. But she was nervous.
After a two-week absence she knew she'd need a cover, an excuse to
tell Horus. Maybe he didn't care why she left, but he'd certainly
care why she came back. If Horus knew she'd been in rehab, he might
grow suspicious, guess that she'd been approached by the cops, but
if she'd gone ashore for some other reason, something with a
financial incentive, then maybe Horus would be a little more
forgiving. How she came up with the surrogate mother story, I don't
know, but it doesn't take too much imagination to make a guess. Tea
Queen with her perfect little baby, and Meerkat with a gut full of
nothing. Maybe it just started out as wishful thinking, a hedge
against the off chance that Meerkat might actually someday get
pregnant. I could believe that all she really wanted from her life
after getting clean was a perfect little baby of her own.

“But not with Horus. The dream that someone
rich and powerful was paying her to make a baby – might potentially
swoop down and whisk her away – the idea might have appealed to
Meerkat.

“Of course, such a fantasy required Meerkat
to return to Horus with something more tangible that just a tall
tale. She'd need money and she'd need it quick. Waiting three
months and filling out two dozen authorization forms in triplicate
with the dryfoot cops wasn't going to cut it. Meerkat needed
greenbacks and she needed them on demand. So she went to the
richest person she knew: Gandalf.

“She, of course, didn't tell Gandalf the
whole truth. That she'd been at rehab was enough, Gandalf might
panic if he knew that Meerkat was working with the police. And
Gandalf was happy to extend a helping hand to a soul in need. I
imagine he initially gave her the money out of the goodness of his
heart – he was like that. When the idea of wrapping the Senator up
into the whole affair came to him, I don't know. But knowing him, I
imagine it came later.

“And so the wheels of the plot began to turn:
the police had their mole, Meerkat was back on the Raft, she had
her excuse to cover for her absence, and she only owed Gandalf a
small favor. A favor he would call in to have Meerkat tell just one
more little lie. What caused the wheels to strip their gears, I
don't know. But very quickly, things began to spiral horribly out
of control. Nothing aboard the Raft ever stays as it is. Not for
long. The Raft is a dynamic, shifting landscape, always moving.
Everyone had a string attached to Meerkat and were pulling her this
way and that. Perhaps it was inevitable that Meerkat would end up
bobbing in the tide.

“Dealing with the dryfoot authorities
required Meerkat to make an excuse to return to dryland. Her
surrogacy story here probably helped her a lot. Pregnancy would
require her to return to shore often for treatments and tests.
Horus, seeing the color of the money Meerkat was supposedly
bringing back from the Senator, sent her to shore happily with his
shipments. One, two dozen times this cover worked. But soon, Horus
must have grown weary of the story, perhaps after Meerkat showed no
signs of pregnancy? Perhaps he began to have second thoughts about
his girlfriend getting knocked up by another man? Regardless,
Meerkat's story need to shift to keep Horus curious – ratchet up
the incentives so Horus would keep allowing her to go ashore.

“I guarantee that it was Gandalf who
suggested implicating Senator Hadian in a surrogacy scam, shifting
the focus from pregnancy to sex scandal. Gandalf must have watched
the deliberations of the House Ways and Means Committee with great
interest. He knew that the new Income Tax Bill proposed would all
but destroy the loopholes that kept the Raft afloat. Gandalf was
too smart to believe that he could keep the Raft together forever
on such technicalities, but his campaign to raise the legitimate
profile of the Raft had only just begun. He was courting such
corporations as Arrowsoft, hoping to encourage them to open
campuses, tax exempt, aboard the Raft. If he could delay the new
Tax Code for a few months, perhaps he could firm up a deal to pull
some powerful, politically connected muscle into the Raft's
corner.

“Gandalf had only one serious target, the
most hated man aboard the Raft, or anywhere else in liberal
America, for his attempt to amend the Constitution a 28th time:
Senator Hadian. Chairman of the Senate's Finance Committee. Should
the squeaky clean Senator find himself caught up in an embarrassing
scandal, however imaginary, it'd pull time and attention away from
the Finance Committee's day-to-day operations. The new Tax Bill
wouldn't be the first piece of legislation to get lost in the US
Senate, and certainly not that last.

“So, Gandalf coached Meerkat to feed
misinformation to Horus. He converted the surrogacy story into one
of blackmail. He kept feeding Meerkat greenbacks, which she'd in
turn give to Horus, telling him the Senator was now trying to make
a baby with Meerkat in the old-fashioned style. Any objections
Horus might have had would quickly fade in the sanitizing like of
cold hard cash. The idea that Horus had a powerful US Senator on
the hook would keep him salivating. Curious.

“Little did Gandalf know, he was feeding cash
to Meerkat so she could feed information to the dryfoot cops...

“Of course, the whole plan – for everyone,
Gandalf, Meerkat, the cops – hinged on Horus's eventual arrest.
Meerkat knew she couldn't pretend she was making a baby with a US
Senator forever. Eventually, her phantom pregnancy would have to
start to show some physical reality. And Gandalf's smear campaign
against the Senator required some sort of public forum in which to
be exposed. Such as the witness stand of a courtroom.

“The clock was ticking away. Days and weeks
passed, the Senate vote was nearing. But the dryfoot cops were
sitting on their hands. Maybe they didn't have enough evidence to
arrest Horus? Maybe they hadn't lucked out and caught him or one of
his deliveries? Horus was always careful, using friends like
Chemical to do his bag work. Or perhaps they'd just lost interest,
turned their attention to another case? Whatever the reason, the
sand in Meerkat's hourglass was quickly running out.

“Left with no baby and no bump in her belly,
Meerkat must have panicked and decided it was time to cut her
losses. She was going to flee to dryland, ditch Horus, ditch
Gandalf, ditch the Raft. She'd dodge the dryfoot cops and go to
ground somewhere onshore. How Gandalf learned of this, I'm not
sure. Perhaps he never did, perhaps Meerkat came for one last chunk
of cash under some pretense that the cops were closing in on Horus.
Perhaps Gandalf, all on his own, also decided to cut his losses.
With so much invested in Meerkat and so little to show for it,
maybe Gandalf realized there was more than one way to get Horus
arrested. If the dryfoot cops wouldn't pick him up for smuggling,
perhaps they'd arrested him for the murder of his girlfriend?

“With that idea in his head, it was only a
matter of lying in wait for Meerkat. Catching her on her own, out
in open water, late at night, wouldn't be hard. Meerkat trusted
him, he was her only ally. He could get as close as he liked and
Meerkat would never expect a thing. There'd be no one to see him do
it, no one would ever suspect...

“And I, for my part, did my duty. When word
reached me that Meerkat was dead, I moved to arrest Horus. But
Gandalf didn't foresee the seismic shock that Meerkat's death would
detonate. When Horus showed up at the Senator's home with a gun,
Gandalf must have realized the situation was spiraling out of
control. When you, Special Agent, showed up on his boat with the
IRS in tow, Gandalf came to understand that he'd totally lost
control of the situation.

“Gandalf had no idea that he'd just murdered
a police informant. Perhaps that nugget of information might have
stayed his hand. But the tsunami that hit the waterfront of Seattle
yesterday morning – with a police informer washing up dead on the
beach – bounced off the shore and washed back and hit the Raft.

“You can, Special Agent, speak more
accurately to the intricate dance of 'Cover Your Ass' you and the
Seattle Police were performing. I'm sure you did exactly what any
self-respecting professional bureaucrat would do in a situation
like this: bury the problem. Hide it under layer upon layer of
misdirection. If the Raft sank into the Puget Sound today, would
anybody be the wiser to exactly what mistakes you'd made? No. After
all, sinking the Raft was a task long overdue, and with the
political cover that the Senator would now be more than happy to
offer, in exchange for the courtesy of his name never appearing in
any formal charges...