Charlie was huddled in the seat next to her, also staring out into the darkness. “Nasty,” Dar murmured.

“Yeah,” the ex-sailor replied softly. “Listen, Dar—I’m sorry about that mix up before.”

Dar glanced at him. “It’s all right. It’s too much stress for all of us right now. I know you’re worried about Bud. So am I.” She watched the radar, then pointed at the screen. “Looks like our friend abandoned us. One less complication.”

Charlie nodded. “Saw that,” he said. “I feel a damn sight better about the whole thing now that you found that paperwork,” he added. “Ain’t that I didn’t trust you to do the right thing, Dar, but—”

“But it’s a hell of a lot easier when you’ve got something to bargain with,” Dar finished for him. “I wasn’t feeling any too comfortable, either. There’s just so much bullshit I can dish out before I run out of cards.” She made a slight adjustment to their course. “I’ll be glad to give him that damn paper, get Bud, and get the hell out of this God damned storm.”

“Doesn’t bother you that the bad guys win?” Charlie asked, watching her face.

“Bad guy’s a relative term in this viper’s nest,” Dar muttered, turning as she heard someone coming up the ladder. “Ah.” A smile crossed her face as she recognized the sturdy form in its rain slicker. Kerry, a Thermos jug hanging around her neck by a lanyard, was using both hands to pull herself up the ladder. “Told you I’d come and get you!” Dar called out.

Kerry steadied her balance and made her way across the pitching bridge. “Let’s just say there’s only so much petulant whininess I can take in one sitting, okay?” She thumped down into the third seat, on the other side of Dar. “Stupid little wuss bag. I Terrors of the High Seas 295

almost put him through a porthole.” Her voice sounded exasperated. “We almost there?”

Dar nodded. “Almost.”

A crack of thunder made them jump and the entire sky lit with lightning, brushing the heaving waves with silver incandescence for a brief instant.

“Wow.” Kerry exhaled. “This is getting pretty bad. What if he doesn’t show?”

No one answered or looked at one another.

“He’d better,” Dar finally said. “If he doesn’t, we’ll go find him.”

Lightning flashed again and Kerry started, grabbing Dar’s arm.

“Dar!” She pointed off the bow. “There’s something out there!” she shouted. “Someone! I saw a person!”

“What?” Dar barked, incredulous. Immediately, she cut the throttles and slowed the big boat into a wallowing idle. “Where?”

Charlie half stood and peered. “Can’t be, Kerry. Not in these waters.”

Kerry strained her eyes. “There was,” she said with utter certainty. “I swear it.”

Dar checked the time, then looked at Kerry’s face. “Get the spotlight,” she said. “I’ll circle.”

Kerry jumped up and started for the ladder, then froze as a light from the darkness of the waves seemed to ignite, pinning them with its brilliance. “Oh!”

Dar felt the world going out of balance. “What the hell? Now what?”

“Dar.” Charlie’s face had a strange expression. “That there’s a Navy underwater lamp.”

Naval light? A suddenly realized possibility made Dar’s heart jump. As she idled the engines, she heard the faint echo of a much smaller craft nearby. “Kerry, stay up here.” She held on to the railing as she edged around her partner. “I think we’re okay.”

Kerry held onto the rail for dear life as she watched Dar scamper down the ladder to the lower deck. “I hope she’s right.”

Her only answer was thunder rolling ominously overhead.

So close to the water, Dar could see the outline against the waves. It was a low riding boat with a single occupant. The light swept across her and blinded her for a moment, then went out. She opened her eyes and blinked. “Dad!”

“Hey there, Dardar,” Andrew Robert’s voice boomed back.

“Toss me one of them lines.”

With a feeling of relief so profound it almost made her dizzy, Dar lifted one of their dock lines and tossed it over, aiming accurately at the shadowy figure. She felt it go taut. “Keep it steady, Ker!” she yelled up to her partner. “It’s Dad!”


296 Melissa Good

“Yes!” Kerry hopped up and down a few times. “Something goes right at last!”

Dar smiled as she caught the words. She leaned over the railing and watched as her father lashed the black rubber boat to the rope.

“Want me to let the ladder down?”

“Yes, ma’am, I would like that,” Andrew shouted back, tying off a second line to his waist, then making a neat dive over the side of the craft into the water.

Dar scrambled across the deck and got to the back ladder, hanging on as the boat pitched wildly in the worsening seas. She unlatched the diving hatch and booted it open, then unhooked the diving ladder and let it down into the sea.

It was only there, it seemed, for a brief moment before its sheen was engulfed by a large, dark figure that rose dripping up out of the water and invaded the deck. Despite the boat’s rocking, Andrew easily held his balance as he removed his neoprene headgear. “’Lo, there.”

“Hi, Daddy.” Dar felt the words emerge before she could censor them. Andrew’s grizzled eyebrows lifted in mild surprise, but he acknowledged them by stepping forward and clasping Dar in a brief hug. “What’s a nice guy like you doing out in a storm like this?”

Andrew chuckled. “Don’t you go there, Paladar,” he warned, releasing her just in time to be assaulted by a smaller figure bolting across the rolling deck. “You prob’ly don’t know it, but a storm like this here one’s the reason you’re standing out in it.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kerry threw her arms around her father-in-law. “Whoo!” she gurgled. “Hi, Dad!”

Andy’s voice gentled perceptibly. “Hey there, Kerry,” he said.

“Ah do thank you for keeping them letters coming.”

Dar’s ears pricked. “Letters?”

Kerry peeked at her. “After that initial outline we sent when he called on your birthday, I’ve been emailing him about all the stuff that’s been happening,” she told her lover with a touch of apology in her tone.

“You knew he was coming out here?” Dar asked.

“Naw.” Andrew put a big arm around his daughter. “Just decided that this here morning. Let’s go topside and have us a chat, and get out of these here damn swells.” He looked up. “That Charlie up there?”

“Yeah,” Dar said.

“Got us a regular boatload of trouble, don’t we?” Andy commented.

“Where’s Mom?” Kerry asked as they started towards the ladder.

“Painting that there dog of yours,” Andrew replied, pausing as Terrors of the High Seas 297

the cabin door opened and Bob looked out at him. “This here that feller that ran out on Bud and Chuck?”

Bob’s eyes widened at the growl, and he hastily closed the door again.

“Yes,” Kerry answered, distracted. “Dad, she’s painting a picture of Chino, right?”

Andrew peered at her, then chuckled. “Yeap.”

“Phew. Just checking.” Kerry started up the ladder first. “I like her current cream color.”

That even got Dar to smile. Andrew turned to her as they waited for Kerry to ascend. “Your momma knows them people up in Boston,” he said in a serious tone. “And Ah will tell you, she does not have good words to tell about the lot of ’em.”

“Gee, what a surprise.” Dar gestured upward. “G’wan. I just want to get this damn thing over with.”

As Andrew started up the ladder, the door to the cabin opened and Bob peeked out again. “Who is that?” he hissed at Dar. “Where did he come from?” he added. “What’s he doing here?”

Dar rested her elbow on the step. “That’s my father. Do yourself a favor and just stay in there and out of our way.”

A flash of anger crossed Bob’s face, but he retreated and closed the door. Dar let her hands rest on the ladder for a moment, then started her climb to the top.

Andrew emerged onto the flying deck, which now seemed very cramped. He greeted the deck’s other occupant casually as he followed Kerry over to the controls. “’Lo, Charles.”

“Hey, Andy,” Charlie murmured. “Nice surprise.” His eyes stayed on the console, unaware of Kerry’s attention on him. “Glad they got the paperwork wrong on you.”

“Yeap,” Andrew replied easily, settling into one of the seats.

“All right now, you got us a plan, kumquat?”

“Dar does.” Kerry waited as her partner joined them. Dar took the center seat and revved up the engines, starting them forward.

The boat’s motion slowly counteracted the swells, and Kerry relaxed as her stomach settled down somewhat. It was hardly the time to ask Dar for another dose of her ear medicine. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you, Dad, we found something concrete, finally.”

“Did you now?” Andrew studied the controls.

“Yes.” Kerry fished inside Dar’s back pocket and removed the folded sheet, leaning past Dar’s shoulder to hand it to him. “It’s all kinds of legal stuff.”

Andrew studied it, cocking his grizzled head to one side.

“Well, lookit that,” he murmured. “You fixing to give this up as part of your trade off?”

“For Bud,” Charlie blurted suddenly. “Yeah.”

Andrew rested his jaw on his fist. “Mah wife says that feller 298 Melissa Good Wharton is one right scumboat,” he said. “He’s using all them dollars to fix up folks the same kind as your papa was, Kerry.”

Kerry stiffened, then frowned. “He’s a conservative, you mean,” she said. “There’s no law against that, is there?” Her hands were resting on Dar’s shoulders for balance, and she leaned in a little against her.