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Stone slept badlyand awoke breathing heavily, sweating, and hearing distant thunder. He sat up and shook his head, yawned, sang a few bars of “Daisy Bell,” moved all his fingers and toes, sure that he had had a stroke. His vision tilted about thirty degrees. He wondered why everything on deck didn’t slide into the sea. He blinked furiously. After nearly a minute of this, he heard a woman’s voice: “Good morning, Stone.”
Then everything snapped back into place. Vanessa was sitting across from him at the table in a comfortable chair, almost dressed in a bikini.
“Not you,” Stone managed to say.
“Aren’t you glad to see me?” she asked.
He fell back onto the sofa, unconscious.
—
Someone was shakinghim, then harder.
“Stone? Wake up!” It was Dino’s voice.
He opened an eye. Viv was patting his face with a towel. “What’s wrong, Stone?” she asked. “You’re soaking wet!”
He sat up and looked around. “Where is she?”
“Who?” Dino asked.
“Vanessa. She was just here.”
“Listen, pal. You snap out of it, or I’m going to have to throw you overboard to wake you up!”
“You were making terrible noises,” Viv said.
“Did you hear the thunder?” he asked.
Dino picked up an icy drink on the coffee table and threw the contents into Stone’s face.
“What was that?” Stone asked.
“A gin and tonic. I made it for you earlier.”
“What was in it?”
“Well, let’s see,” Dino said, scratching his head, “there was gin, and there was tonic.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass! What else was in it?”
“Oh, I remember,” Dino said, “a wedge of lime.”
“Where is it?”
Dino looked around and picked up something from thesofa, next to Stone. “Look, a wedge of lime.” He made to suck it, but Stone grabbed his wrist. “No. I want it analyzed.”
“Well,” Dino said, “I don’t have my lime juice analysis kit on me, so we’ll just have to wait until we get back to New York.” He popped the lime wedge into his shirt pocket.
“Don’t lose it. It’s important. Where’s Vanessa?”
“Still on a slab in the New York City morgue, I expect,” Dino said.
“No, she’s aboard.”
“Where?” Dino asked, looking around.
