Free Nobody Knows by Mary Jane Clark Page B

It’s horrible.” Wendy’s brow furrowed as she looked at her son. She worried about this kid of hers. Was it a normal boy thing that he looked at finding a human hand this way as a source of excitement? Yet she supposed it was better that Vincent viewed this nightmare as an adventure rather than being traumatized by it.
    Her thoughts were distracted by the sound of Mark’s cough. “Come on, big guy,” she urged, putting her arms beneath Mark’s and boosting him up. “Get back into your room, and I’ll bring in your lunch on a tray.”
    “Will you stay with me while I eat, Mommy?”
    “Yes, I will. Now go ahead, Mark. Get in there.”
    When the boy had shut the bedroom door behindhim, Wendy turned to her other child. “Explain something to me, Vincent. I don’t understand why the metal detector went off.”
    Vincent arranged a look of innocence on his freckled face. “Whaddya mean?”
    “I mean, a hand doesn’t have any metal in it. Why would a metal detector go off?”

CHAPTER 16
    In his cluttered office at the marina, Jerry watched
The News at Noon
, paying close attention to the weather report at the end. Pointing to his blue-and-green electronic map, the meteorologist said that Tropical Storm Giselle was heading in their general direction. Suncoast News was keeping a close watch on Giselle, the weatherman reassured his audience, and would keep Sarasotans apprised of the latest developments.
    “Of course, folks, we don’t want anyone to panic, but you must be prepared. Locate your evacuation zone. You can find it printed in the front of your phone book. Check out your evacuation route and the shelters near you and practice driving to them. And remember, be flexible. It’s impossible to tell in advance which roads may be closed.”
    Jerry Dean let out a low groan as he walked out to the dock and surveyed the boats bobbing gently in the green water. He had close to two hundred boats in his marina. Many of them were owned by locals, some were owned by people from outside the state who usedthem when they came down to vacation. All would have to be secured as tightly as possible to survive whipping winds and surging water. Jerry knew that, despite his best efforts, if the storm hit them hard, they were going to sustain big losses.
    The marina owner had been down this road before. When the last big storm blew through, owners had little time to secure their boats, leaving dozens to sink or suffer major damage. High winds tore sailboats from their moorings, tossing them like bath toys in the choppy water and smashing them into the Ringling Causeway, banging them over and over again against the bridge until their masts collapsed. Predictably, too many of his customers blamed Jerry for their losses. After that storm some owners moved their boats elsewhere. It had taken the last three years to get business back to where it had been before. Only the surreptitious renting of clients’ boats had helped him make it through.
    As he squinted out into the clear horizon, it was hard to believe that another violent storm was brewing out there, steadily growing, heading his way. Jerry took off his orange baseball cap and wiped the perspiration from his creased brow. The days of preparation were going to be long ones. Maybe the storm would fizzle out, but he wasn’t going to be caught unprepared this time.
    The office telephone rang, and Jerry went back inside to grab it. “Marina.”
    “Jerry? It’s Webb Morelle. Just checking that everything is on for tonight.”
    “Yeah, Webb. Your boat’s all fueled up and ready to go.”
    “Great, guy. Thanks. And you’re still on to take us up there?”
    The last thing Jerry needed right now was to waste his time chauffeuring Webb and his wife to that charity bash up at Cà d’Zan, but Webb was a good customer who always paid his bills on time and Jerry didn’t want to break his promise. “Yep. All set.”
    “Good, because Lou-Anne has a hankering to arrive by boat and make