Chapter 47 - WINDSHIFT

"This is RACE TWO. HONEYDEW is 10 yards ahead of SILVER STREAK, who's got 20 yards on the rest of the pack.. and there goes SUZY-Q taking up the rear, as usual. Go to you RACE3," came the report on channel 11.

Sidearm and Nicky had the CB on to listen to the races. Sidearm had a little bet on Slaughter beating out Bernie this year. He'd heard SILVER STREAK wasn't quite the boat Bernie thought she was, and Bernie's crew had been shifting her ballast and making trial runs all week, trying to get the kinks out. Even if he and Nicky were chasing some gangsters in the fog, he still wanted to hear how his bet was doing.

"Well." said Nicky, "least we know where Sonny is."

"Spose he's up on 10?" Sidearm asked. Pretty good bet a boat in the race was listening to the marshal's channel. Nicky switched to channel 10 and handed Sidearm the mike.

"SIDEUP this is FIVE CENTS go one three," Sidearm said, and Nicky changed over to channel 13. They waited for a reply.

"FIVE CENTS this is SIDEUP, ovah," came over the radio, garbled by the roar of SUZY's motor.

"SIDEUP, we're chasin some gumballs to eastward. Stay tuned, ovah," Sidearm reported. He didn't want to say too much with the whole town possibly listening.

"FIVE CENTS, 10-4. DEUCES aboard here. Will standby one three, out." Nicky and Sidearm slapped high fivers. "Yes!" they said simultaneously. Sumner was on his way, too.

But something fishy was going on with their navigation. The two cousins had made this run to Rogue Island half a zillion times, chasing wrinks, digging clams, going to party on the big beach. Like Dunk they never used a compass, depending on their local knowledge of the winds and currents and islands to steer by. Once they'd left the Smithport shore near Sawyer's Cove, Nicky'd kept the wind at her back, expecting to see the current diverge as they approached the side door to Bunker's Hole, and the island ledges begin to appear.

The current had shifted, for sure, but it was more dead ahead than forking right or left away from them, and there were no islands. In fact the seas were getting deeper.

"Sweet sufferin Jesus,' Nicky said, as they began to buck into the waves. She and Sidearm looked eye-to-eye, as recognition dawned.

"Fuckin windshift," Sidearm said, nodding understanding. The wind must have veered more west and north. Nicky spun the wheel hard left, so they were running with the waves still rolling in from their right, but with the wind now blowing on their left cheeks. This way they might strike the islands farther to seaward, and work their way back into the other door to the Hole. Or they might go right outside the islands altogether.

The runabout had been corkscrewing across the waves on this new course for about ten minutes, when out of the fog ahead they saw a big yacht, under full sail, thrashing it's way to seaward. Up on the foredeck was a big cowboy wearing a Stetson hat.

"Must be the fuckin Lone Ranger," Sidearm said, grinning. "Les go catch his hoss." Nicky put the runabout on a converging course. Sidearm took the gun out of his jacket pocket, checked it, then put it back. These were probably the sailors Sumner had been looking for, but where were the gangsters? Besides the cowboy there was a big-nosed character at the helm, and Sidearm could see the top of another head in the cockpit.

It was Marianne, sitting on the cockpit floor hugging Jesse. She'd been sitting there since she'd collapsed in tears.

Jessie had called out fearfully, "Aunt Mary?" when she broke down crying. These two men were the same ones who'd taken him and his mother from their house, and beaten up his mom. Now Mary was helping them get away from two other bad men, but he didn't know who to trust.

Marianne heard the fear in his voice, and was shocked she'd forgotten the little boy in her anxiety about Dunk. She threw open her arms and said. "It's OK, Jesse." He'd scrambled out of the companionway and run to her. Now they were well away from the anchorage, and beginning to wonder what they should do next.

"Do you know where we're going?" she asked Cyr?

"Camelot, perhaps?" he answered playfully.

"We might run aground first," she pointed out. "Really," she thought, " these two poseurs are just winging it. And the wilder it gets, the more they're enjoying it."

"Can't you read a chart?" she asked. Cyr smiled, and shrugged. Was she going to have to navigate, too? Marianne wasn't quite sure she could pull that off.

Just then the drone of an outboard broke into her thoughts. Turning, she saw a runabout with a strange man and woman aboard angling toward BALI.

"Where's the Monk and the lil Beau Bo?" the man shouted. So they knew about the gunmen. They looked local, and Marianne couldn't believe that woman was some kind of gangster, although she looked rough enough. Marianne just didn't believe gun molls, if that was the term, ran small boats in the fog wearing T-shirts which read BERTHA'S MUSSELS - WE WOULDN'T SHUCK YOU.

"We got away from them," Marianne shouted over the closing gap.

"You still hostage?" the woman demanded.

As Marianne shook her head, Jesse peeped up over her shoulder, and a wide smile spread over his face. "Hey Fastball," the boy shouted. He'd played catch with Sidearm and his father a number of times.

"Hey Sluggo," Sidearm called back.

"It's OK, Aunt Mary, he's a friend of papa's," Jesse explained.

"A friend who helped get them involved in this," Marianne thought, remembering Liz's explanations.

Walker had been walking aft along the side deck. "So what're we'all," he interjected, "chopped T-bone?" Sidearm had ignored the two men so far.

"Mebbe," Sidearm answered curtly. "You grabbed Liz and the boy. Til we sort it out you kin cool your heels, Hopalong." The turned back to Liz, "They armed?"

"I.. I don't think so," she answered.

"Good. You stay right where you are, cowboy," Sidearm said and nodded to Nicky, who brought the runabout up against BALI's side. The wiry little trucker was over the safety line and aboard the Concordia in a wink. The gun was now in his hand.

"Set right there," he told Walker, who lowered himself to the cabintop.

Sidearm crossed the cockpit to where he could watch both sailors without turning his head. "Who's where, an what's what, Miss..."

"Marianne," she helped him, "Liz's cousin."

"OK, the shell heaper," Sidearm nodded. "So..."

"Dunk got Liz away last night, with the help of Caldwell, the other sailor. Then Dunk brought me and Jesse ashore to tell Sum that Liz and Caldwell would stay near the sailboat until he could arrange a swap," Marianne recounted.

"Baitin her man so's he'd get outa trouble," Nicky observed approvingly from where she was holding on a starboard stanchion. "Slick chickie."

"Les the fox's inna hen house," Sidearm added. "Then what?" he asked Marianne.

"You're right," she admitted. "We walked right into it at Liz's. The gunmen were there, and Monk and Bobo brought us back to the sailboat as THEIR hostages."

"How'd you get away?" Sidearm queried.

"Dunk lured them into Sum's boat."

"Lured them?" Sidearm asked, dubiously.

"Told them the drugs were right there in the water, connected to a buoy," Cyr put in. "It sounded convincing to me, too."

"Ah believe that's what that fishin boat was doin visitin us las night,' Walker observed.

"Anyhow," Marianne went on, "Dunk picked up the buoy and drifted away in the fog, and we sailed out of there." Nicky whistled.

"So they could be chasin you?" Sidearm asked.

"Could be," Cyr answered, but we heard the motor going in another direction. Must have been twenty minutes ago.

"Where're you headed," Sidearm demanded.

Cyr shrugged. "Away," he said.

"Away inna manger," Sidearm commented, looking out into the fog. "Know where you're at?" Everyone was silent.

"Us neither," Nicky said, and laughed.

Sidearm stepped quickly back across the cockpit, and jumped lightly into the runabout, pocketing the gun. Nicky was already handing him the mike as he reached for it.

"SIDEUP this is FIVE CENTS, comeback," he said.

"SIDEUP, go," came Sonny's voice over the roar of his engine.

"We got cowboy and big nose on the waterbird, long with your little boy and his auntie. All OK outside Big Spruce. Back to ya, SIDEUP." Sidearm reported.

"Finestkind, FIVE CENTS. Where's Liz?.. and Dunk?" it was Sum's voice.

"Papa!" Jesse shouted.

Sidearm looked a question at Marianne. "I don't know," she answered. "Liz and Caldwell got away when we came up. Dunk must still be with those thugs, and the drugs.. I guess." Tears were welling back up.

Sidearm keyed the mike. "SIDEUP, Winkleman with visitors and the merchandise in your boat. The other two unaccounted for," he transmitted. "Mebbe headed your way, ovah."

"10-4, FIVE CENTS. Stay tuned. Out," Sumner replied.

"OK," Sidearm said to Marianne. Why don't you and Sluggo get in with us. We kin leave these clowns to their own devices." Marianne got up and passed Jesse over to Nicky in the runabout.

"Better bring jackets, if you gottem," Nicky said. The daylight was dimming and the wind now coming in harder puffs. The fog, though still thick, had sudden holes in it exposing a wider circle of waves, now peaking more sharply. BALI, with the runabout alongside was still beating into the seas built up from the southwester, but now the big swells were crossed with ruffles from the williwaws. Marianne grabbed their jackets, and quickly changed boats.

Sidearm gave BALI a shove. "We got weathah comin, boys. Have a fun ride," he shouted. Nicky spun the runabout on its heel and accelerated back down the Concordia's course.