Deceived - Laura S. Wharton Page 0,85
the tender before from the angle he’d approached, but he saw it now as it raced toward a two-story yacht of blinding white.
Tripp pushed Sam down the aft ladder, nearly tumbling him into the bouncing dinghy. Then Tripp turned his back on Sam to hop down the ladder himself.
In a fleeting rush, Sam grabbed one of his crutches and slammed it into Tripp’s side, knocking him half off the ladder. Tripp regained his grip and pulled a gun on Sam from his higher vantage point.
“Try that again and I’ll take care of you right where you sit, just like I popped your partner.” Tripp carefully made his way into the little boat. Without looking away from Sam again, he untied the painter line with one hand. “Now row.” Tripp pointed to the gargantuan hull a few hundred feet forward of Angel.
Sam marveled at the gleaming gold lettering on the high transom: Jezebel. Named for Lisa, no doubt.
“Your father likes big toys, I see—to compensate for how little a man he really is beneath all that blubber, huh?” Sam took his time rowing, goading Tripp. “I guess he told you what you were doing was okay, didn’t he? He must tell you lots of things. Like how to run the business.”
“Shut up.”
“He’s the boss man, isn’t he? He’s calling the shots, and you’re just his little gopher. I see how this works. Must have been fun growing up with him as your guide.”
“Just row, Mouth.”
Sam didn’t let up. “Must piss you off that he loves Lisa more, doesn’t it? I mean, she’s getting all the glory, isn’t she? You’re just down here doing the dirty work. You know, if you had been smart, you would have alternated hotels where you met to take his orders. Then you wouldn’t have had to torch the place.” Sam was reaching. “But Dear Old Dad figured if anyone was going down, it wasn’t going to be him. That’s what he was stopping by to tell you, wasn’t it, the day I came to visit you at the fishery?”
“Just shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Oh, I think I do. You and Lisa slid over the side of Seawitch like a couple of cowards because you couldn’t handle the mess you’d made. What did you do—swim to this boat? Or perhaps to his house? Let me guess. He’s got a place on Bald Head Island, and you ran home to Daddy. You’re like a bully on a playground, and you gotta do it to show your old man you’re big enough for his affection.” Sam dropped the oar handles and waited. It didn’t take but a second.
“I said SHUT THE F—”
As he spoke, Tripp stood up to swing at Sam, but Sam was faster, whipping a crutch across Tripp’s face. Tripp’s gun flew into the water as he slumped over the inflatable side of the dinghy, his head landing in the brown silted river.
Pondering only for a second, Sam grabbed the painter line and tied Tripp’s hands behind his back and to the plank seat in the dinghy. Then he pulled Tripp’s head out of the water, smiling at the blood trickling down Tripp’s chin. “That’s for Lee, you slime bag.”
Sam picked up the oars and pulled the last two strokes to Jezebel. With the tip of an oar, he pushed Fat Man’s dinghy aside from the boat’s long ladder and used a bungee cord to secure the dinghy to Jezebel’s massive boarding ladder.
Peeking over the transom, Sam relaxed at what he saw. Fat Man was sprawled on the enormous deck, head cocked to one side and his tongue hanging from his bloody mouth. Lisa, down on her knees, was begging Molly not to shoot her with her own gun.
Sam labored over to Lisa. He yanked a plastic tie strap from the underside of an overstuffed yellow-striped cockpit cushion and fastened Lisa’s hands behind her to the pedestal of a large teak table.
Then Sam tenderly squatted in front of her. “I think I’ll let Chief Singleton take care of you from here. It’s not his jurisdiction, but I bet he and the local boys can work something out.”
Pulling himself up by the table, Sam entered the pilot house and called the Coast Guard to report the incident.
When Sam finished giving the particulars, he hobbled back to Molly, still frozen over Lisa. Sam noticed for the first time she was drenched.
“You want to tell me what happened?”
“I recognized his boat. This boat,” Molly said without