Riverboat Blaze (7 page)

If the boat rolled, they’d all be crushed.

 

Dean Dillon could not believe his eyes. His perfect riverboat was on fire, and sinking. That goddamn captain, he thought, he must’ve hit something.

He had Ava by the arm, pulling her along as she panicked.

“We’re gonna die!” she told him.

“We’re not gonna die, Ava,” he said. “We gonna get off.”

Although what he was thinking was that he should probably die. Go down with the ship, because after this he was finished. His investors would be after him, and there’d be a thousand lawsuits.

No, he was going to stay alive, if only to get his hands around that captain’s throat.

“Come on, Ava,” he said. “we’ve got to get off this boat.”

“How?”

“We’re gonna jump overboard.”

She grabbed his arm with both hands and said, “I can’t swim!”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Just hold onto me.”

 

The Warrant brothers had no idea what had happened. They were supposed to be on duty, but they were in their cabin, sharing a little red-haired girl who worked in the kitchen. They often shared a girl between them. The trick was finding a girl who didn’t mind, didn’t find it odd.

The girl from the kitchen not only didn’t mind it, she was excited by it.

“I ain’t never been with two boys at one time,” she’d said.

“It’ll be somethin’ new for you,” Sam had said, and she agreed.

So they were on the bed, Sam’s penis in the girl’s mouth while Lou fucked her from behind, and when the boat listed to port the first time, they were all thrown off and to the floor.

“What the hell was that?” the girl demanded. She’d just barely avoided biting Sam as his dick slid from her mouth. From behind, Lou was still inside of her.

“I dunno,” Sam said.

“Damn!” Lou said. “We gotta find out.”

They all got dressed quickly and left the cabin. When they got to the deck, panic had already set in, and they could see the flames.

“Are we sinkin’?” the girl asked.

“Looks like it,” Sam said.

“This boat ain’t supposed to be able to sink,” Lou reminded his brother.

Sam took the girl by the shoulders and said, “You gotta get off this boat.”

“What about you two?” she asked.

“We’re security,” Sam said. “We gotta see to people.”

“You’re so brave,” she said. She kissed them both quickly and ran off into the crowd.

“We gotta see to people?” Lou asked. “We gotta get off this boat.”

“You think this is our fault?” Sam asked. “ ’cause we wuz havin’ sex instead of doin’ our job?”

“Well, yeah, it could be,” Lou said. “What’s the damn difference? Everybody’s gotta get off this boat.”

“What if we run into Mr. Dillon?” Sam asked.

“Well, then that would mean we wuz all still alive, Sam,” Lou said. “We can worry about the rest of it later. For now, let’s just stay alive.”

“Okay,” his brother said, “that sounds like a good plan.”

“What do we do now?” Angela asked.

“We swim for shore.”

“Which way?”

It was dark. Clint looked around, trying to find some lights that would indicate where shore was.

“I think we’re simply going to have to swim away from the boat.”

“What if we’re goin’ the wrong way?” she asked. “What if the other shore is closer?”

“We can’t swim around the boat,” he said. “It’s too big.”

Something floated near Angela and touched her. She turned and looked into the face of a dead man.

“Jesus!” she said, pushing the body away from her.

There were no marks on the man. He hadn’t been burned, he had apparently drowned.

“Come on, Angela,” Clint said. “We’ve got to get started before this cold water gets to us.”

“Aren’t there supposed to be lifeboats?” she asked him.

“Yes,” he said, “and somebody should be seeing to it that they’re lowered—the Warrant brothers, or Dean himself. Or whatever crewmen are charged with that job. Maybe they did. Maybe the boats are in the water on the other side. Let’s hope so, because that would save quite a few lives.”

“I’m so c-cold,” Angela said, her teeth chattering.

“I know, that’s why we have to start swimming. It’ll warm us up.”

She looked around in vain for a boat.

 

“Where are the lifeboats?” Ava asked.

“No time,” Dillon said. “You’ll have to jump.”

“What about you?”

“I am gonna see what’s happening with the lifeboats,” he said.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Ava—”

“I told you, I can’t swim, and if you’re not gonna jump with me, I’ll drown.”

“All right,” he said. “All right. Come with me. If we can’t find out what’s going on, we’ll jump.”

“Okay,” she agreed.

 

“Are the lifeboats away?” the captain asked one of his crewmen.

“No, sir.”

“Why not?”

“Too much panic, Captain,” the man said.

“Among the passengers?”

“And crew.”

The captain had brought only two crew members with him when he took the job, his copilot and this crewman. The other crew members had been hired by Dean Dillon.

“Goddamnit!” he growled.

“What are we going to do, Captain?” the copilot asked.

“We’re in the shallows,” the captain said. “Deep enough for people to swim, but not deep enough for the boat to sink completely. We should be all right, as long as the boat doesn’t flip.”

The copilot and crewman exchanged a look. They knew that the captain had saved the
Dolly Madison
from being a total loss. But would the owner see it that way?

 

They had swum only a hundred yards or so when suddenly Clint felt something beneath his feet. The bottom?

“Is that the bottom?” Angela asked.

They went a few more yards and then were able to stand.

“Are we on shore?” she asked.

“No,” he said, “it’s just shallow here.”

They turned and looked at the
Dolly Madison
. “What’s happening?” Angela asked.

“It’s righting itself,” he said.

The boat, which had listed so far to the left, had started to come back to the right.

“It’s not sinkin’?” she asked.

“It is,” Clint said. “Look, the first deck is underwater, but it’s not sinking completely. It’s going to sit on the shallow bottom.”

“Then it’s safe?” she asked. “We didn’t have to jump, after all?”

“It’s far from safe,” Clint said. “It’s still burning.” He took her arm. “Come on, we still have to get to shore.”

But they were able to wade the rest of the way.

As the boat began to list back to the starboard side, Ava grabbed Dillon and asked, “What’s happening?”

“We’re straightening out,” he said.

They were on the second deck, looking down. Dillon could see that trying to get to the lifeboats was futile. The first deck was underwater. At least that would extinguish the fire—but then he saw that the flames had leaped to the second deck. The source of the fire was underwater, but the flames were still traveling.

“Where’s the damn crew?” he said, aloud. “Why aren’t they fighting the fire, helping the passengers?”

“Where are Sam and Lou?” she asked.

“If I find those two, I’ll kill ’em,” Dillon said.

“Dean, what do we do?”

He turned and looked at her. “What we were going to do in the first place,” he said. “We have to abandon ship.”

She clutched him and said, “You won’t let me drown?”

“I promise, Ava,” he said. “I won’t let you drown.”

 

“Captain,” the copilot said, “she’s settled on the bottom.”

“She’s not gonna sink, Captain,” the crewman said, “but she’s still burnin’.”

“A good crew would be seein’ to that,” the captain complained. “When I find that Dillon, I’m gonna kill him.”

“If he’s still alive,” the copilot said.

“He better be alive!” the captain said. “So I can get my hands on him.” He turned and looked at his two men. “All right, lads, over the side with ya.”

“What about you, Captain?” the crewman asked.

“I’m the captain,” he said simply.

“I know you gotta go down with the ship, Captain,” the copilot said, “but it’s down. It ain’t sinkin’ anymore. You saved it.”

“Yeah,” Captain Hatton said, “I saved it so it could burn.”

“That ain’t your fault,” the crewman said.

“Actually, it is,” the captain said. “I should’ve insisted on hirin’ the whole crew myself. We got an inexperienced owner, an inexperienced crew, and look what happened.”

“What did happen, Captain?” the copilot asked.

“Near as I can figure,” Hatton said, “there must’ve been an explosion belowdecks. Might’ve blown a hole in the port side. We took on water there, started listin’ to that side. If we hadn’t got to the shallows, this tub would’ve flipped.”

“So the question is, what caused the explosion?” the copilot said.

“There’ll be an investigation,” the captain said. “I’ll see to it. Now, both of you, over the starboard side. Get yerselves to shore.”

“Captain,” the copilot said, “you don’t gotta burn up with the ship—”

“I know that,” Hatton said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be along. But I’ll be the last one off. At least I can do my job to that degree. Now git, both of you.”

“Captain—” the crewman started.

“Cap—” the copilot tried.

“That’s an order, lads!” Captain Hatton said. “Off with yer.”

The two men exchanged a glance, then slowly left the bridge and made their way to the rail. The captain watched them go over the side. Satisfied that they were safe in the water, he turned his attention to the fire.

When Clint and Angela reached the shore, Clint literally carried her to dry ground, where they both collapsed, breathing heavily.

“Are you all right?” he asked her.

“Yes . . . I think . . . so,” she panted. “Just . . . can’t . . . talk . . .”

“Okay, relax,” he told her. “Catch your breath.”

With all the people who were on the
Dolly Madison
, there had to be a lot of them reaching shore on either side. If the other shore was farther, maybe fewer people would make it there, but if it was as shallow there as on this side, Clint figured there should be a lot of survivors. He figured this in spite of the fact that he and Angela had seen many dead bodies floating in the river.

He considered walking up and down the shore looking for survivors, but what could he do for them? He might be better off staying where he was with Angela, catching his breath, and then walking inland to see where they were. He didn’t know if they were near a town, but maybe they could find their way to a house, where people could help them.

He wondered about Ava, and Dillon. Also about the captain. Was he bound and determined to go down with the ship?

And what the hell had happened? What was that sound, and the vibration beneath their feet? All he could figure was that there had been an explosion. Could one of the steam engines have exploded? Would that blow a hole in the side of the boat? And start a fire?

“What are you thinkin’?” Angela asked, sounding like she’d gotten her breath back.

“Trying to figure what happened,” Clint said. “It had to be some kind accident . . . unless Dillon has some enemies I don’t know about.”

“Sabotage?”

Clint shrugged. “Maybe somebody didn’t want Dean to have the biggest boat on the Mississippi.”

“But . . . who?” she asked. “Couldn’t the captain have just run it aground? Or hit something?”

“And started a fire? I doubt it.”

Angela looked out at the water, where the
Dolly Madison
was just sitting, her first deck underwater, the other two decks still showing flames.

“I wonder where Dean is,” she said. “And what about the cargo?”

“Cargo?”

“All that stuff that was being shipped upriver,” she said.

“Like what?” Clint asked. “Anything important?”

She hesitated, then shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I wasn’t around when Dean was making arrangements. I don’t even know if he’s aware of what was being shipped.” She looked at Clint. “If somebody was shipping somethin’ valuable, why would they say so?”

“I saw plenty of crates being loaded on,” Clint said.

“I wish I could talk to the captain. He’d probably know what happened. He could say whether it was an accident or not.”

“Would he admit it if he ran into somethin’?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Clint said. “I only met him briefly. He was crotchety, but I had the impression he knew what he was doing.”

“That fire is still burnin’,” she said.

“That’s something else I’m wondering about,” Clint said. “The fire. Why isn’t the crew battling it?”

“They all went overboard, I guess.”

“Did Dean hire the crew? Or did the captain?”

“Dean,” she said. “I know that for a fact. I think the captain brought a couple of men with him, but the rest were hired by Dean.”

“I wonder if he tried to save money on a crew?” Clint said.

“With all the money he spent on the boat itself?” she asked.

Clint looked at her.

“Did he dicker with you on your pay?”

“Well . . . yes.”

“He probably did that with everyone,” Clint said. “Dealers, crew, stevedores, Ava . . . Damnit, Dean.”

“He sabotaged himself?”

“In a way,” Clint said. “If he scrimped on the crew, then they simply weren’t good enough to fight the fire. With an experienced crew, that boat wouldn’t be burning right now. She’d be salvageable.”

“Dean always said that the boat couldn’t sink, and would never burn. Supposedly, the wood was treated with something special to keep it from burning.”