Thin Slice of Life

Chapter 43

It was raining in the Gulf, so Charlie hunched down behind the salt-crusted window on Billy Donathorn’s Boston Whaler. Sergeant O.B. Hadnott stood to one side of the steering console, enduring the rough seas and the stinging rain with stoic resolve. He glared fiercely ahead, bending his knees and gripping the rail to steady himself as the small craft pitched on the waves. The adrenaline pulsing through his body mitigated his seasickness. Marisol had watched them cast off from the dock at the Port A marina. They’d had time for a quick war council before Billy D reluctantly surrendered the keys to his boat. The three men agreed that Marisol should take the skiff across the channel to the DPS bunker in Aransas Pass and try to rally the troops and re-direct them from Kingsville to Port O’Connor. She also agreed to inform Joe’s wife that he’d be a little late for dinner. “Sergeant, do you really think they’ll listen to me? Why would they?” she’d asked, dubiously. “A Mexican girl in an old dinghy?” “Use my name, Miz Cavasos,” O.B. had replied. “Tell those DPS boys it’s my considered opinion that a major drug deal involving the prime suspect in a double homicide will transpire at this Matagorda airstrip tonight. Most of these officers are still involved CHAPTER 43 292 43| in hurricane recovery, but they also know about my case, and they can contact the Coast Guard and the Houston team and give ‘em the new information. The DPS boys will be able to free up a few warm bodies if you tell them it’s an officer-in-distress situation. Tell ‘em the Ranger said to come a-runnin’.” Inside, O.B. felt far less confident. Bao had already snookered him once tonight. What if he doubled back again to a meeting place they had no inkling of? “Tell them…hell, tell them it’s my best guess and I need help,” he said finally. “I’ll take the responsibility.” Marisol reached up impulsively and hugged the taciturn lawman, muchtohisdiscomfiture.ShekissedCaptainJoeonthecheekandgave Charlie an abrazo that nearly cracked his ribs. Then, without another word, they climbed into Billy D’s beat-up Whaler and sped away. The roar of the Mercury outboard changed pitch each time the boat bounced over a large swell. Captain Joe piloted the boat through the choppy seas, keeping an eye on the magnetic compass mounted on the console, maintaining a northeastern course for Cedar Bayou. Billy D hadn’t put up much of a fight. What could he say? O.B. reminded him of his precarious position as an accessory to kidnapping, a serious felony in the state of Texas, subject to some real hard time in Huntsville, “You’d be a popular prom date for some pretty bad hombres,” Sergeant Hadnott added for effect. Then Charlie reminded Billy that a favorable court testimony from him and Marisol might keep him out of the correctional facility. That is, if he wouldn’t mind loaning them his boat for a few hours. Captain Joe just wanted to know how much fuel was in the gas tanks and if the compass was accurate. Billy D., a strip of medical tape holding his broken nose together, watched morosely as the trio pulled away from the Port Aransas pier. It was not at all the night he had imagined for himself—namely, a few beers at Hooper’s, then an evening of flounder gigging in the mud flats behind Mustang Island. He trudged back into Hooper’s where he spent his last ten dollars on a pitcher of draft beer and shot of cheap tequila. — The low clouds and light rain reduced visibility considerably, but just to be safe Joe turned off the running lights when they reached the 293 |43 mouth of the Cedar Bayou cut. The airstrip lay on the southern end of Matagorda Island, about two miles from where the cut joined Mesquite Bay. Snaking through the creek-like bayou, the three men scanned the darkness for lights and listened for voices or the sound of an engine. Even in the darkness, Charlie noticed that the hurricane had reshaped the channel dramatically. It was deeper and wider than before. He thought about how nice it would be to come back here for a little recreationalfishing .ItwashightimeheshowedRaultheartoffly-castinginto a school of...