THE HOSPITAL WAS busy. It was a relatively small group of buildings not far from the town they'd been staying in. Dar led the way inside and they went to the front desk. Giving Charlie's name, they were directed upstairs.

Exiting onto the third floor, Dar spotted Bud near the end of the hall. She called out in a low voice and he turned, closing his cell phone and walking toward them.

Kerry drew in a breath. Bud's face was half-covered with an ugly bruise, though he appeared oblivious to it. His shirt was ripped, exposing his shoulder, and the back of one hand was sc.r.a.ped raw.

"What happened?" Dar asked quietly.

Bud looked up and down the corridor, then motioned them over to a bank of chairs. He sat down in one and let his elbows rest on his knees. He studied the floor as Dar took a seat next to him.

"You ever hear of something being too stupid for the Navy?"

Dar stifled a wry chuckle. "Heard that around my house growing up a time or two, yeah."

"Well," Bud's voice was very soft, "I done something too stupid for the Navy." He glanced at the back of his hand. "I stuck my mug someplace it didn't belong, and got Charlie hurt for it."

His pain was evident. Kerry settled in the chair on the other side of him and put a hand on his back, rubbing it sympathetically.

"I'm sorry."

"Not half as much as I am," Bud said. "And you know, it kicks my a.s.s to admit being this stupid." He turned his head and regarded Dar. "Shoulda taken you up on your offer. Worst that'd caused is givin' me a week's heartburn."

Dar managed a relatively sympathetic look. "What'd you get into?"

Bud appeared to struggle with himself for a moment longer, then he shook his head. "That d.a.m.n kid offered us a chunk of change to go on and dive that site. We did."

"The wreck?" Kerry asked. "The kid... You mean, Bob?*205 Bud nodded. "He approached us the other day when you dropped him off at the island. Said it was a dark dive-get in, get out. Didn't seem too dangerous to me. No big deal," he said. "They caught us out there, but we got on the boat and headed out."

"They followed you?" Dar hazarded.

"Chased our a.s.ses all the way back here." Bud nodded. "We didn't want to go back home." He exhaled. "They caught us." His eyes lifted toward a set of doors. "They had pipes and bats.

Charlie's got a busted kidney. He couldn't get away from them, 'cause of his leg, and I-"

"Stayed with him," Kerry said.

"Something like that, yeah," Bud admitted. "That p.i.s.s-ant kid ran. Took the boat and left us there."

Kerry's eyes narrowed. "That skunk."

Dar rubbed her temple. "How much did he offer you?" she asked quietly.

"Doesn't really matter," Bud muttered.

"HOW MUCH?" It was amazing how much force Dar could project in her voice without raising its volume.

Bud blinked. "Ten grand. Why?"

"That what the nut is on your place?"

Bud nodded.

Dar checked her watch, then dialed a number on her cell phone.

She waited for it to connect, then she started punching in numbers, leaning back and concentrating on what she was doing.

"So, how is Charlie?" Kerry asked.

Bud turned his eyes from Dar's simmering form. "He got hit all over. They ripped his prosthesis off. Belted him in the kidney.

That's the b.i.t.c.h. He's had problems with that one."

Dar tapped him on the knee. "This place taken care of?" She indicated the hospital.

Bud straightened. "I ain't looking for no handout," he snapped at her. "We're fine."

Dar leaned closer to him and narrowed her eyes. "If I have to, I can dial into this place and find out if you've got insurance or not, so just answer the d.a.m.n question and don't give me a hard time."

Bud's eyes dropped.

"That's what I thought." Dar stood up. "Okay. I've had it. That stupid mother b.a.s.t.a.r.d DeSalliers is so d.a.m.ned convinced I'm a part of this, he's gonna get what he asked for." She put her hands on her hips. "Can we see Charlie?"

Bud looked like the subject changes were giving him whiplash.

He put his hand on his jaw. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good," Dar said. "You got a place to stay out here?"

Bud shook his head.

"Rufus taken care of?"

206*

"Yeah. He's staying with a buddy."

Kerry pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and got up, heading for a nearby pay phone. "I'll call the hotel," she told Dar.

"You want me to start calling around to find our friend Bob?"

"Wait until we get back to the room," Dar instructed. "I need my laptop."

Bud looked between the two of them, a little taken aback.

"What are you doing?"

"We," Kerry told him, covering the mouthpiece of the phone, "are doing what we do." She glanced at Dar's fierce expression, then went back to the phone. "Yes? Yes. We have a room, I know.

I'd like a second one."

Dar waited for Kerry to finish. They entered Charlie's room, walking quietly into the softly blinking machinery that surrounded him.

Dar closed her eyes. The beating her friend had taken was hideous. DeSalliers, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d. You don't know what you just stirred up. She laid her hands on the iron rails and gazed at Charlie's battered form. "Hey."

His eyes were mere slits, but they opened a little wider on seeing Dar.

Bud gently clasped his hands around Charlie's, chafing them.

"Called in the Marines, Punky."

A faint hint of a smile pulled at Charlie's lips. "So I see."

"Take it easy." Dar leaned on the rails. "I'm in charge now, and I make the rules," she said. "They giving you good drugs?"

Charlie nodded slightly.

"Good." Dar wrote her cell phone number on the pad sitting on the small bedside table. "You need anything, call." She put the pen down. "I'm going to stop at the desk when I go out. You'll get taken care of."

"B..." Bud straightened.

Dar just looked at him, and Bud subsided with a tired sigh.

"I've got a wire transfer coming in tomorrow," Dar went on. "We'll get your Uncle Guido taken care of, then I'm gonna go after DeSalliers."

"What are you gonna do?" Bud asked.

"Find out the truth first, then I'm gonna give him exactly what he asked for," Dar said. "You staying here for a while," she asked Bud.

Bud nodded.

"Inn at Blackbeard's Castle. We've got a room for you," Dar told him.

Charlie made a m.u.f.fled sound that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

"You hush," Bud growled at him. "I can stay right here."*207 Kerry leaned over and gave Charlie's arm a squeeze. "Chase him out, okay?"

Charlie nodded, still chuckling. "Runnin' some tests or suchlike on me. Checking my guts out," he explained. "h.e.l.l, if they get their a.s.ses done, I'll drag him over there m'self." His bruised eyes went to Dar's face. "d.a.m.ned if you don't sound just like your daddy."

Dar straightened. "Thanks." She gave him a gracious nod.

"C'mon, Ker. Let's go light some fires."

Kerry's eyebrows went up. So did Bud's and apparently Charlie's, but it was hard to tell.

Dar c.o.c.ked her head. "What?"

Kerry circled the bed and took Dar's arm. "You can light my fires anytime, honey," she a.s.sured Dar. "But you don't need to brag about it."

Dar opened her mouth to answer and saw the smirks. She closed her jaw and gathered her dignity, sweeping it around her like a cloak as she followed Kerry's lead out of the room.

Bud glared at the door for a minute, then he released a sigh.

"Son of b.i.t.c.h, I hated doing that."

"Buddy, Buddy, Buddy..." Charlie squeezed his hand. "She's a friend, yeah?"

Bud stared at the bleached linen.

"We got any other friends who'd do what she's doing?"

"It twists my shorts," Bud ground out. "I ain't a charity case!"

"Bud," Charlie's voice gentled, and he stroked Bud's cheek, "for her, it ain't charity," he said. "She's Navy; she's family. That runs deep, you know. If anyone from back then asked, and we could, wouldn't we do it?"

"Almost anyone," Bud muttered. "But..." He slumped a little.

"Yeah."

Charlie ruffled his hair affectionately. "Well then, they gotta let me outta here, 'cause d.a.m.ned if I ain't gonna stay with you in Blackbeard's Inn."

KERRY PUT THE phone down into its cradle and closed the room service menu. Dar was seated across from her with her laptop open on her lap, its cellular antennae poking up along the side. "Hey, sweetie?"

"Uh?" Dar looked up, blinking at her.

"Could I bribe you to do that from here?" Kerry patted the bed next to her.

"Sure." Dar got up and carried the laptop with her, dropping down onto the bed and waiting as Kerry fluffed the pillow up behind her. She leaned back and was rewarded with not only a 208*

backrest, but a body pillow that propped up her arm and twined between her legs. "What'd ya order?"

"It's a surprise." Kerry put her head down on Dar's shoulder and examined the screen. "What's that?"

"Police reports." Dar scanned them. "Not that I really know what I'm looking at. I need a lawyer."

"Sorry." Kerry stifled a yawn. "Though, that was actually one of the acceptable alternative careers my family would have allowed me." She reviewed the cryptic comments on the screen. "They were hedging their bets. I think they knew Mike wasn't going to cut it."

Dar rubbed the side of her thumb against the laptop, trying to imagine Kerry as a lawyer. "What kind of lawyer would you have been?" she asked curiously.

"No kind," Kerry informed her. "I never even considered it."

She scrolled with the thumb pad and clicked. "First thing I wanted to be was a fireman."

Dar held back a chuckle. "That shoulda told them something."

"Mm." Kerry chuckled softly. "Yeah, now that I think about it,"

she agreed. "Then I wanted to be a research scientist, but I realized in high school that I didn't have the apt.i.tude for it." She clicked again. "Then I found computers, and went... Ah hah!"

"Ah hah." Dar examined the screen. It was a complaint filing, apparently by Bob's grandmother at the time of his grandfather's death. In the stark, impersonal language used by the police, the complaint involved the woman's accusation that Bob's uncle had somehow been involved in the sinking, and detailing why. Threats had apparently been made. The police had not been impressed, and merely had noted the complaint along with the comment that the woman had been extremely "emotional" when the statement had been taken.