Flashback

by Nevada Barr

  Paulo, Rick, Butch and Mack disappeared into the legal system. There would be federal charges, charges by the state of Florida, and Cuban officials might want them as well. Good intentions or not, they had broken rules, laws, traditions, taboos and statutes in many jurisdictions. They would be in jail a long time. Mack and Butch faced the death penalty. Anna wished Paulo and Rick a mere slap on the hands, but they would get little leniency for being cute, young and good-hearted.

  Bob and the wounded woman were medevacked out. Bob was recovering but would probably limp the rest of his life.

  Anna remained at Fort Jefferson for two more weeks. Her time was spent writing reports and retrieving personal gear and NPS property off the bottom of the ocean around East Key.

  Mrs. Meyers was rescued from the moat and underwent rehabilitation in Daniel's living room. Along with a few more scars on corpus and psyche, Anna would take away from the Dry Tortugas the wonderful image of Daniel, the burly maintenance man, flitting about muttering, "Oh my dear, oh my dear," and, "Don't hurt her. Careful," as the Harley was winched up onto the moat wall.

  Anna photocopied Raffia's letters and turned them over to Duncan, the fort's historian. His feelings were mixed. Excavating the cistern that entombed Tilly, Joel Lane and then Theresa Alvarez excited him. The prospect of finding fragments, the DNA of which might be matched to an actual living park ranger, filled him with glee. The prospect of dismantling the walls of the powder room to discover Dr. Mudd's innocence and, so, the negation of his book proving the man's guilt--all but three chapters of which were already completed--did not.

  Knowing the glacial slowness with which a big bureaucracy moves, Anna didn't count on this question being answered in her lifetime.

  She wasn't concerned. She had the answers she needed and a future full of live people to look forward to. Paul renewed his proposal via e-mail. They'd set a date, March, scarcely half a year away. Place was yet to be determined.

  Anna unpacked the black velvet box that housed the impressive diamond engagement ring Paul had given her and put the ring on. She needed to get used to the look and feel--and the idea--of it before she returned to Mississippi and had to make good on her promise of matrimony.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Nevada Barr is the award-winning author of ten previous Anna Pigeon mysteries, including the New York Times bestsellers Hunting Season and Blood Dure. Her next book, to be published in June 2003, is Seeking Enlightenment . . . Hat by Hat, a skeptic's down-to-earth search for the spiritual. She lives in Mississippi, where she was most recently a ranger on the Natchez Trace Parkway.