Chapter Twenty-Five
(Thursday Morning—Owen)
The Hermit’s cell phone rang at seven o’clock the next morning. Owen grabbed it from the bookshelf above his berth and stared blearily at the display, but didn’t recognize the caller’s number. He pushed “Send” and grunted cautiously into the phone.
“Owen? Is that you?”
“Carl! Where’ve you been?” Owen swung his feet off the bed and hurried out on deck, hoping not to wake anyone else.
“Whoa there, buddy. I’ve been where I generally am. You’re the guy on the lam. Speaking of which, I didn’t know what the situation was, so I’m calling from a payphone.”
“Not a bad idea, I guess.” Owen wondered again about the wisdom of using the Hermit’s cell phone. But George had almost certainly lied about his real name and address when he got the thing, so what was the harm?
“Listen, Owen, we’ve been friends a long time. I’d like to help you, you know that, but this is getting a little bit scary. What’s happening, anyway? Can you give me a hint?”
“Maybe,” Owen said. Carl, getting cold feet? He continued blandly. “I’d like you to meet a couple of people with me later this morning. You might be able to help out a lot.”
“Owen . . .”
“Would it help if I told you Detective Gordon was one of them?”
“What? Oh.” Carl was silent for a moment. “You son of a bitch. Are you gonna tell me what’s happening?”
Owen grinned. “Have faith, man. Nothing is as it appears.”
“Is it ever? Okay, fine. Where and when?”
Owen thought about it. “Easiest is Snoopy’s. But I haven’t confirmed with Gordon and his partner. What if we plan on meeting there at eleven? If that won’t work for them, I’ll call you at your office and say something dumb. Then you can call me back from another payphone.”
“Deal. And hey…be careful.”
“Me? You’re the one meeting a wanted criminal.” He hung up and dialed Gordon.
Gordon objected to meeting with Carl again, but agreed when Owen insisted, saying he had a plan and Carl might be useful. Owen was pretty sure Gordon only went along with it so he could discourage whatever they might want to try. But that sufficed, for now.
When Owen hung up, he found Aaron sitting behind him. “Going somewhere?” Aaron asked casually, looking over the rail toward a diving seagull.
“Yeah. I’ve got an idea, maybe a way to shake something loose, and I need to meet with the people who might be able to make it work.” He watched Aaron’s face carefully. “Want to come along? It might cause problems if you join us, but there’s no reason you can’t sit at another table or something.”
Aaron stood and looked directly at Owen for the first time. “You’re learnin’, dude. You’re learnin’.”
They stood together under a silent gray sky. Morning fog obscured the world beyond the boat. The seagull Aaron had been watching flew off into the mist. Nothing visible moved. Owen wondered if all his mornings would look like this from now on. But that was just self-indulgence, wasn’t it? The weather had nothing to do with what had happened to Shawna, or anything else. It did what it wanted to do.
The Nameless’s anchor line groaned as the boat shifted. Owen stretched and joined in.
Aaron grinned at him, and turned to go back inside. “I’ll tell Martina when she wakes up. She won’t let you go without her, either.”
Owen watched Aaron disappear into the boat. He’d have been happier going alone.
Shiver on the Sky Page 40
