Page 9 of Beachcomber Enemy

“Who do you suppose will be asking? Everyone thinks we’re dead,” she said. He saw the glitter in her eyes and knew she was talking about her mother, her family. Dane had no mother, no immediate family, but he felt a pang on her behalf. Her mother would soon be his mother-in-law, his almost-mother, someone he’d need to treat as his mother because she was important to Shana.

He whispered, “It’ll only be for a few days, Shana. Then you can call your mother.”

She nodded and turned away. He knew she was hiding her unshed tears, knew she was working hard at not crying. But he had no idea why she was so particularly emotional.

They’d had close calls before, been pursued by enemies with a vengeance trying to kill them before. Shana had always been tough as nails.

Why not this time? Was the life catching up with her, overwhelming her? Or was there some other reason he wasn’t clear about? He needed to find out, but there was no way he’d get a straight answer if he asked directly. It was possible she herself had no idea of the answer.

“Let’s duck into that 7-Eleven and get some phones,” he said, jutting his chin in the direction of the store a few doors down on the corner.

“Then what?”

“Then we take the commuter bus to Boston.”

“Dressed as Coast Guard officers? Way to stand out in a crowd.” She spoke as they walked, her tone brisk.

“Hiding in plain sight then. Keep your shades on and your hat low.”

“Lucky for us it’s turning out to be a sunny day.”

They were lucky. Dane watched the sun rising and hoped to hell their luck would hold out for three more days. That’s all they needed, by his calculations, before they would be able to trap Whitey Nash.

When he came to their funeral.

Dane didn’t like the people saluting them and thanking them for their service as they waited for their bus to Boston after they’d bought phones. He felt like the fraud he was. If her tight smile was any indication, Shana liked it even less.

“I’ll be glad to ditch these uniforms. If I have to acknowledge another person telling me what a brave young woman I am, I might scream.” She spoke the words into his ear as he held her close. Their bright white uniforms might as well be ads inviting one and all to show their patriotism. After a night of no sleep, parading around in disguise was exhausting.

On the bus, they sat down with relief at the very back where few people would encounter them. Once the bus got rolling, he and Shana would need to speak in church whispers because it was uncommonly quiet, like a cruising coffin bringing half-dead people to their cubicle graves. Dane didn’t mind the closeness, liked having his mouth grazing her ear, raising her goose bumps, causing her shudders.

“Whoever sent me the text messages has terrific hacking skills,” she said. “Whitey had nothing like that and the facility where he went wasn’t about to teach him. He was an old-school kind of guy. Kept it simple.” She looked at Dane. “I don’t know how the hell he managed to get into my phone.”

Dane had a very cold feeling that he knew. “You say he kidnapped young girls.”

She nodded.

“Then there’s another way he could have called your phone. He could have gotten the number from someone who knew—”

She turned to him with a flash of abject terror on her face, not for herself, he knew. Holding the rising bile down he spoke the words because he had to, had to deal with their reality. “He could have kidnapped Sassy.”

“But Sassy is too old for him to be interested in—”

“It wouldn’t have been difficult to find out who our friends are once he got to the island. Wouldn’t have been hard to find us after the fiasco in Sidney last winter. Our names were prominent. After you testified against the Deputy Commissioner of the New South Wales police force, your name, mine, and Beachcomber Investigations were all over the news in Sydney and all of Australia. And they reported that we lived on the Vineyard.”

He knew he should have considered moving then. Had considered it before. All the enemies he had finally knew where to find him.

But leaving had felt too much like giving up, conceding the fight. And Dane never backed down from a fight.

Today would be no exception.

She composed her face and spoke in a low growling whisper with less fear and more anger in it. “Do you think—”

“He has Sassy. For leverage.”

She leaned into him and he held her as he heard her sob escape. One single sob.

“Hey now. You’re dressed in a Coast Guard uniform. We can’t have you blow our cover. I know Vendi’s not so tough, but I’m sure most Coast Guard officers—”