Free The Boat by Christine Dougherty Page B

she wouldn’t be needed. There were questions of retrieving Sujon’s body, but most people took a ‘what for?’ attitude on that. They’d only end up burying her at sea anyway, right? Let her rest, poor thing. At least she wouldn’t reanimate, not with half her head gone.
    Severe damage to the brain, it turned out, was the key to dropping the walking dead.
    Adam had addressed and readdressed Steve several times over the walkie-talkie, the tone and pitch of his voice escalating through the octaves until he’d seemed to realize that Steve wasn’t answering the phone, so to speak. There had been no more from Adam, but Maggie found the silence ominous.
    Adam had, in Denny’s words, ‘a kink in his dick’ for Steve.
    Thinking of the term now, Maggie smiled, but it was brief. She surveyed the deck in the fading light. Cleaned up. She looked back to Big Daddy , almost expecting (hoping?) to see Steve at the railing, but he isn’t there. No one is.
    Everything seemed to quiet as the darkness fell.
     
     

 
    Chapter Six
     
    Maggie eased herself into the double bed next to Babygirl. Baby’s lips had gone slack around her thumb and she was covered in a light sweat. Maggie brushed a hand over the girl’s forehead and marveled that her skin could be so cool despite the uncomfortable heat in the stuffy cabin.
    Maggie thought she was probably going to have a hard time falling asleep. When she closed her eyes, she saw Sujon tumbling from the railing, revealing Steve where he stood, knife in hand. Funny how no sound accompanied this image, only the light breathing of the girl next to her and the ubiquitous whap, whap of waves against the hull. ThreeBees rocked. Maggie felt consciousness waning.
    Sujon fell again.
    A small gasp escaped Maggie’s lips and her eyes fluttered halfway open before shutting more firmly. She slid into sleep, watching Sujon fall, watching Steve revealed, his face a mask of revulsion and shock. And grief.
    Sujon fell again. Maggie felt the sensation in her own stomach, felt herself falling through blank space and she jerked without waking.
    Above her, the boards creaked as someone walked through the galley.
    Maggie slept.
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    “Denny is gone. Maggie? Denny is gone.” Hands shook her.
    Joe? was her first, semi-coherent thought. Stop shaking me, hon, I’m up.
    But it wasn’t Joe, Joe was dead. Her eyes opened. Bonnie sat on the edge of the bed and everything had tilted toward her weight. Maggie felt herself pulled implacably to her as if Bonnie exerted her own weird gravity.
    Bonnie shook her again. “Maggie? Denny is gone.”
    “Gone?” Maggie sat up, trying to clear her muzzy head. “Denny?”
    “Yes, Maggie, like I told you. Denny is gone. Are you awake now?” Bonnie leaned over to peer into Maggie’s sleep puffy face and Maggie felt the force of her pull increase. She pushed herself further back to keep from toppling onto Bonnie.
    “Yeah, I’m awake. I am.” She scrubbed her hands over her face and looked automatically to her side for Babygirl. She wasn’t there. A tendril of unease whispered around her heart. “Where’s Babygirl?”
    “She’s up on deck with Randy; she’s fine. Look at you, mama bear!” Bonnie chuckled but then remembered her original business. “Denny is gone.”
    “Well, geez, Bonnie, he’s probably just over on Big Daddy . You know how he’s always crabbing about being stuck over here with us. Back up, okay? You’re blocking the whole damn room.” The space in the cabins was extremely limited. Maggie wouldn’t be able to get out of the bed until Bonnie retreated almost all the way to the door.
    Bonnie surveyed Maggie one more time, her face grave, almost watchful. It didn’t sit well on her happy, blowsy features. She stood and backed to the doorway.
    “He’s not on Big Daddy . Randy already radioed them,” she said. “We’re old, Maggie, not stupid.” She exited the room.
    Maggie sat for a moment longer, nonplussed. Whatever