Hurricane (33 page)

And they did.

“
You killed him?” Tammy whispered, when Julie got to the part about Kurt in St. Lucia.

“
We didn’t have any choice,” Julie said. “It was him or us. He was crazy insane. You wouldn’t have believed it.”

“
I can’t believe Dieter would actually send someone to hurt you. I could see him maybe trying to steal the boat out from under you, but not that,” Tammy said.

“
I’m not so sure,” Julie said. She remembered the day out at the Five Islands, when Dieter was screaming and cursing and she had to cower and hide with Meiko in the hot sun till he left.

“
Hey, I know,” Tammy said. “You can spend the night with me.”

“
Can’t,” Julie said. “We have to leave after this set. Meiko’s heading back to the States on the ten-thirty flight to Miami. I’m sacking out in a motel by the airport and I guarantee you five minutes after that plane leaves the ground my head is hitting a pillow.”

“
That’s okay,” Tammy said, “I have a date. This way I don’t have to break it, but starting tomorrow you’re staying with me, okay?”

“
I was going to stay on the boat,” Julie said.

“
You’ll love my place. It’s huge, big window overlooking the ocean. Honey, it’s a girl’s dream. How long can you stay?”

“
As long as you’ll have me,” Julie said, giving up. There was no point in arguing. Tammy always got her way. “If the boat’s okay anchored in the lagoon. This hurricane talk has me worried.”

“
The lagoon is the safest hurricane hole in the Caribbean, completely surrounded by land. So your boat is perfectly safe. But just to be sure, you call me when you wake up and we’ll go out to the boat together. Okay?”

“
Tammy, you’re a life saver,” Julie said.

“
Hey, what are friends for?” she said. “Whoops, there’s my date, I gotta go.” The women stood and Tammy gave each one of them a hug. Then she hustled across the room to meet just about the handsomest man Julie had ever seen in real life.

Chapter Eighteen

Julie woke with the howling wind. She sat up. She’d slept in her clothes. Her stomach growled and she remembered the donut shop in the airport. It was closed last night when she saw Meiko off. But it would be open now. She pulled her sandals on. The airport was only a five minute walk from the motel.

A grey sky greeted her when she stepped outside. She judged the wind to be about twenty-five knots and she was glad that Fallen Angel had an all chain anchor rode and that she had plenty out. She’d paid in advance for the room so she didn’t have to check out. She started toward the airport with the wind at her back. It looked like rain, but she was confident she could get to the airport before it started. She’d get a cab to the dinghy dock after the squall had passed.

She was thinking of Meiko when she entered the airport lobby. She hated it that she was going to have a schoolgirl fling with Victor in Miami. She was half convinced that he was taking advantage of her. She couldn’t imagine him walking away from Charlene Heart and all of her father’s money. But maybe, she told herself, he was doing well enough in the yard to step out from Charlie Heart’s shadow.

Maybe he really loved Meiko.

She bought two glazed donuts at the small pastry shop and went out to the lobby. Curiously the airport was almost deserted. She decided to sit down and eat her donuts. They tasted like heaven. She hadn’t had a donut in over two years. When she finished she closed her eyes for a second and thought about Hideo. The last time she’d had a glazed donut was with him, at a small donut shop in Miami, just before they bought the boat. She felt like she was going to cry.

“
Are you okay, Miss?” a wide-eyed young black woman with a honey voice asked her. “You looked so peaceful. I hated to bother you.” Julie noticed that she was wearing a uniform. She had a gun. She was a policewoman.

“
I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t be.”

“
I have to go to the bathroom.” She didn’t know why she said that. It made her seem vulnerable, like a little girl. But it was how she felt. Wide open. Lost. Alone in a strange airport.

She bit her lip in a vain effort to fight back tears, and the policewoman offered her a handkerchief.

Julie saw the genuine smile, coupled with the very real concern in her eyes. She took the handkerchief and offered a half smile in return.

“
It’s very nice,” she said.

“
A gift from my husband,” the policewoman said.

“
I can’t,” Julie said, and then the dam broke and she cried. Big, wracking tears. Stomach wrenching sobs. The policewoman sat down next to her and took her hand. Julie looked into her full, brown eyes, eyes that they had seen it all and still had plenty of room for compassion. Her smile faded a little, covering sparkling teeth under a concerned tightening of full lips. The policewoman cared and Julie badly needed someone who cared.

“
Is there anything I can do?” the woman asked, and Julie wrapped her arms around the woman’s strong shoulders and tucked her head under her chin, unable to stop crying.

“
My husband died.” She sobbed. Julie clutched onto the strange woman as if she were a lifeline. The woman put her arms around Julie’s fragile frame and let her cry it out.

The tears didn’t go away quickly, but after a short while the river turned to a trickle. The policewoman gave her a final hug, then drew away from her.

“
Do you feel better now?”

“
I loved him so much. I was so angry that he’d gone. It wasn’t his fault, I know, but I couldn’t deal with it. So much was happening. I chased my daughter away. I’ve made a mess of my life.”

“
I’m sure it’s not that bad. Now that you’ve cried it out you can start to put your life back together again.” The woman spoke with a soft island accent and the smile was back, full as before. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five or thirty, but she seemed oh so wise.

“
You’re right,” Julie said. “I’ll start to get my act together.”

“
That’s the way,” the policewoman said. “Here, let me show you to the bathroom. You need to wash your face and begin the first day of the rest of your life.”

Julie stopped and looked at the woman. The overused phrase seemed fresh coming from her, and it was true, she had the rest of her life ahead of her, but it seemed that the best of her life was behind her.

The policewoman stood and helped Julie get up.

“
Thanks.”

“
Over there. Second door on the right. You’re going to be okay now,” she said.

“
I’ll be fine. Thank you for the shoulder.”

“
You’re welcome,” the policewoman answered and Julie made her way to the bathroom.

It wasn’t until she had splashed water on her face and was staring at her puffed up eyes in the mirror that she realized she hadn’t gotten the woman’s name. She ran her hands through her hair, wishing she had a comb or a brush. She gave herself a smile. She’d get the policewoman’s name and thank her properly when she left the bathroom. She’d get her address, too, and she’d send her a nice gift. The woman was a lifesaver.

Satisfied that she was looking as good as possible under the circumstances, she gave herself one more quick glance, then left the bathroom. There was no sign of the policewoman. She looked around the bare lobby, but she was gone. She promised herself that she’d contact the police department in Philipsberg and try to find out who the good Samaritan was.

She sighed and left the lobby. Outside she found the taxi rank empty. She waited for a few minutes as the sky darkened. She thought about going to a pay phone and calling for a cab, but she’d been at sea for so long without a chance to stretch her legs. She decided to walk, hoping she could beat the storm.

“
Time to get yourself together, kid,” she said to herself, aloud. Then she threw her head back and marched out into a windy morning. She had a three mile walk to the drawbridge, with the lagoon on her left and the airport runway on her right. Once past the runway it was just narrow road, the lagoon on one side, the bay on the other, almost all the way to the bridge.

The time had finally come to put Hideo away. He would always be with her, in every word she said, every flick of her wrist, every toss of her head. He was her smile, the sparkle in her eyes, the spring in her step. He was all that, and more, but it was time to move on. She’d lived with the lump in her heart and the ache in her breasts for too long. Hideo wouldn’t want that. The time for mourning was over.

But she was going to take one last cool walk with him before she moved on with her life. The rain started to fall, mingling with her tears. But that was okay, because these were cleansing tears.

She looked to her right, across the airport runway. The field was empty. There were no planes at the departing gates, no tractors pulling baggage trailers, no men with flashlights guiding the big planes. The field was naked as a ghost town.

What did they know that she didn’t?

Was the hurricane coming?

Was it close?

She shivered and quickened her pace.

She heard a car coming from behind and turned. Although only drizzle wafted down from the big sky, the road was already wet. The car fanned spray from its tires as it raced toward her from the airport. She kept her eyes on it as it approached and decided to flag it down and ask for a ride. She raised her hand as the car drew close, but the driver must have thought she was waving, because he honked his horn as he sped by.

Damn, not quick enough, but it wouldn’t have made any difference, because the car was chock-a-block full, three in front, as many or more in back. They looked as if they were wearing coveralls and that worried her, because that meant they were airport employees, going home. The airport was closing.

There’d be more cars soon unless they all went the other way, to the French side of the island. She’d have to stop the next one, no matter how full. There was always room for one more. Especially if a hurricane was coming.

Thunder cracked the sky, lightning bolted overhead, and the heavens opened. The wind blew hard from the ocean, whipping her long hair in its wake and slapping it across her face. But she barely noticed, because she was concentrating on the churning sea and the boats, dancing and jumping around on their anchors, in the bay.

She put a hand up, shielding her eyes from the driving rain, and looked left. The boats in the lagoon were rocking with the chop. She hoped Fallen Angel was all right, but none of the boats appeared to be dragging. That was a good sign.

She wanted to get back to Fallen Angel, make sure she was secure, maybe let out a little more chain, maybe put out a second anchor, put some fenders out and stay in the cockpit in case someone dragged down on her.

She heard another car coming. She turned and saw a bright blue Land Rover. She was determined to stop this one. It was a big car, they’d have room. She gasped. It was coming toward her way too fast.

Something was wrong. Water splashed from the tires, sending spray out several feet, giving the off-road vehicle a surreal look as it flew through the rain, sliding as if the road was made of ice.

For a second she thought the top heavy car was going to tip and roll as it slipped left, then right, and she felt a momentary surge of relief when it didn’t. She started to raise her hand. Something was still wrong. She expected the driver to slow down, but he surprised her by accelerating. She shuddered as the car charged closer. Then she figured out what was wrong. It was on the wrong side of the street.

She held her breath. The clean smell of electricity charged the hairs on the back of her neck. She felt sweat under her arms despite the rain, and a fear she’d never known rattled through her.

Time went out of kilter. The car was both charging fast and moving in slow motion. She leapt aside, rolled in dirt and mud, only stopping when she collided with the chain link fence that separated the airport from the road.

She tasted dirt and was trying to spit it out and breathe at the same time as the car shot past, churning up more mud, flinging it in her face. Thunder cracked again, but it didn’t disguise the sound of the squealing tires as the driver mashed the brakes. Julie forced herself up, squinting through the rain, and saw the Land Rover going down the road sideways. Once again she thought the car was going to tip and roll, but the driver jerked the wheel to the right, forcing the car to spin around, facing her.

Then he turned on his bright lights, catching her like a rabbit as he stopped the car’s backward motion. She had less than seconds. Her back was against the fence. The car was stopped, engine running. It was waiting. For what? Then she knew. It was waiting for her to make a mad dash across the road, but the only thing on the other side was a few feet of shoulder, then the lagoon.

She stared across the street, wiped her face with the back of her hand, preparing herself for the run. She’d be safe once she made it to the other side. A quick dive into the water, a short swim to one of the anchored boats and she’d be away from the Land Rover. She stopped herself. It’s what he wants, she thought.

Then she broke for the road and the Land Rover burst forward. When she reached the asphalt she spun around and darted back in the direction she’d come, but either she hadn’t fooled him or his reactions were super quick, because he adjusted the Land Rover’s charge, and again screaming tires were coming for her as she jumped out of the mud and clawed her hands into the chain link fence.