Barbara set plates of spinach salad on the table, and the three men began to eat.
“Let’s talk about general strategy,” Rick said. “What’s your plan?”
“Beyond tonight, I don’t have much of a plan,” Stone said. “I’m just trying to shake them up, to let them know that they’re not entirely in charge, cost them some money. If I can do that, then maybe they’ll start to make mistakes that we can capitalize on.”
“Won’t they think Calder is behind this?”
“He knows nothing, and he’s a very fine actor, remember? He’ll convince them of his ignorance.”
“What if they hurt the girl?”
“They don’t have any way to relate what I’m doing to Arrington. They’re just having a run of very bad luck, and the only thing they can assign to it is what Dino said to Sturmack on the phone.”
“What did you say, Dino?”
“I said that Stone was getting them from the grave,” Dino grinned.
Rick laughed a lot. “Well, you’re right, they’re certainly having a run of bad luck. They’ve had an expensive motorboat sunk, two of them have been arrested—what next? They must be wondering.”
“I’m not going to keep them in suspense,” Stone said.
Stone and Dino arrived at the Long Beach marina after midnight and found their rented boat. It was painted black, for which Stone was grateful, and it looked very fast indeed. They tossed their gear on board, then Stone handed Dino the duct tape. “Tape over the name of the boat wherever it’s painted on and also the Coast Guard numbers. We don’t want any trouble for Rick’s ex-brother-in-law later.”
Dino went to work while Stone got familiar with the boat and its equipment. He was delighted to find a Garmin GPS unit, which had a color screen that displayed all the land masses and buoys in the area. That would make navigating at night a lot easier. He switched on the VHF radio and tuned it to Channel 16; if the Coast Guard were patrolling the area, he wanted to hear them before they saw him.
He dug out a pair of life jackets from a locker and handed one to Dino. “Better put this on.”
“I spent a lot of time on Sheepshead Bay with my old man in his boat,” Dino said. “I’m a lot more comfortable in boats than in airplanes; I don’t need that.”
“Dino, we’re going to be traveling fast at night; if we hit something and capsize, we need the jackets. Put it on.”
Dino reluctantly got into the life jacket and adjusted it. “Happy now?”
“Not yet, but I’m planning to get a lot happier.” Stone double-checked everything, then started the engines. Dino let go their lines and, keeping the big engines at idle, Stone maneuvered out of the marina. A few minutes later they were on their way at thirty knots. “Keep a sharp lookout,” Stone said. “There are fishing boats out here this time of night towing nets and trawls. We want to give them a wide berth.”
“Right.” Dino said.
It was a lovely night, with many stars, clear of the usual smog. They were making a lot of wind with their speed, and Stone was glad to have the warmth of his weatherproof suit. Catalina loomed ahead.
Contessa turned out be easy to find. She was the biggest thing in the anchorage by far, and she was wearing a bright anchor light; her bow and stem lights were on, too. Stone throttled back while they were still three hundred yards out and made his way among the moored yachts and empty moorings. Not many people would be sleeping aboard the small boats during the week, and Stone was glad for that. As they approached Contessa, she seemed to get bigger and bigger.
“Jesus,” Dino said, “that’s some piece of work, that boat. How much you think it cost to build it?”
“I don’t know—eight, ten million dollars, I would guess. Depends on when she was built. These days, she’d cost a lot more.”
“Okay, you think you can tell me what your plan is now?”
“First I’m going to have to get the crew off.”
“How many?”
“Two, I think.”
“And what the fuck are we going to do with them?”
They were at the stern boarding ladder of the big yacht now, and Stone pointed up to the deck. “There’s a rubber dinghy up there; I saw it from the air. I’ll toss it down to you. We’ll put them in that and set them adrift; somebody will pick them up after daylight.”
“Okay, whatever you say.”