As Angie straightened, someone shouted on the dock. She turned toward the cars parked opposite the warehouse and said, “Oh no.”
Joe was stalking toward them with a red face. “Angie!”
Jeremy’s blood exploded with heat. “I gotta go!”
He ran in the other direction, sprinted down to the small floating dock, untied his skiff, and hopped in. It rocked back and forth as he started the motor, grabbed the rudder, and swerved wildly to circle around the enormousChena.
Out on the open water, he was safe from Joe, who had chased him down to the small dock and watched him speed off.
Jeremy reached the middle of the bay, a quarter mile away from the dock, and cut the motor. Looking back, he saw Joe on the end of the main dock, pacing back and forth with fury.
“Take that, you knucklehead!” Jeremy shouted.
Joe pointed at him as if he was going to come after him somehow. But with a quarter mile of deep water between them, Jeremy started to laugh. He stood up in the boat and danced. He did the twist, turned around, and wiggled his rear end. “Come and get me, you big twat!” he shouted. “I’m right here! You can’t catch me, though!”
Joe continued pacing, and Jeremy kept on dancing. He thought about bending over and pulling his pants down, but that didn’t seem too mature, so he sat down and grabbed hold of the rudder, decidingit would be best to make himself scarce. He’d go hide out in his cabin for a while.
Suddenly a shot rang out. A bullet hit the water with a splash next to Jeremy’s skiff.
“Shit!”
Joe fired at him again. This time, the bullet struck the bow.
Jeremy spun the skiff in a wide circle, keeping an eye on that bullet hole, which was thankfully above the waterline. He looked back at the dock and saw Joe’s partner dragging him away.
At least someone has some sense in the Valdez Police Department,Jeremy thought. A crime of passion in town wouldn’t be good for tourist season.
For a while he continued, speeding along. Then he slowed, cut the motor, and bobbed up and down on the swells. He thought about what had just happened. Slowly, in stages, he realized that he should have done a better job thinking this through. Angie was still back there, and Joe was fit to be tied. Heaven knew what he might do when he got her home. There’d be a fight, for sure.
With a flash of panic like fireworks in his gut, Jeremy scrambled toward the motor. He needed to take the skiff back to the dock and make sure Angie was going to be okay.
But then a loud rumbling began, somewhere in the distance, like never-ending thunder. A giant swell came out of nowhere and lifted his boat at least twenty feet. After he rode down the other side of the wave, he looked back toward town. People were running on the dock. Trees along the nearby shoreline started whipping back and forth, but there was no wind. The rumbling grew louder, and Jeremy knew it was an earthquake. Living in Alaska, he’d experienced many, but he’d never seen trees bend to the ground before.
The warehouses on the city dock began to break apart. Rafters and walls splintered and cracked. The dock beneath them crumbled and collapsed into the water, taking all the people and cars and buildingswith it. A church bell in town began to ring loudly as theChenawas ripped away from the dock and lifted at least thirty feet on a massive wave that rose up from the depths. The ship’s stern pointed toward the sky, and all Jeremy could do was watch in horror and disbelief as the ship came crashing down on top of the people and debris in the water.
Angie ...
Fishing boats collided with theChenaas it slowly righted itself. The entire waterfront seemed to be washing out to sea. Jeremy didn’t care about the docks or the cars or the buildings. All that mattered was Angie, who had been standing next to the small-boat harbor mere moments before disaster had struck.
He grabbed hold of the rudder and sped toward theChenaas fast as his skiff would take him.
CHAPTER 22
Juneau
2017
Gwen sat in a daze, waiting for Jeremy to continue his description of the events of March 27, 1964, when Valdez had been ravaged by the second-largest earthquake in world history. But he abruptly stopped talking and stared off into space. It was as if he had fallen into a trance.
“Jeremy?”
His eyes shot to hers. “I’ve said enough for today. I gotta go.”
He shoved his chair back, stood, and reached for his jacket.
“Wait ...” Gwen couldn’t let him leave, not when she was so close to learning the answers to her questions. “Please stay.”
“I can’t.” He shrugged into his jacket. “Nice meeting you.” His face went pale as he headed for the door.
