Ask a Shadow to Dance (33 page)

“Sorry, Doctor.
First light. Not before.”

“You’re the captain.” David gave him what he hoped would look like a reconciled smile and went toward the stern. He found a shadowed corner and waited, hoping the Captain would leave the deck soon. Since Portia and Jacob were using his quarters, David wondered where the Captain would sleep tonight.

The Captain wandered around the deck, staring at the river, paying attention to nothing specific David could detect. He decided he must be settling his mind before sleep.

It was the longest five minutes of David’s life.

When the captain finally left the deck, David rushed to the bow and untied the ropes securing the boat. He picked up one end, testing weight. Barely eight feet long, it wasn’t too heavy to lift over the side. He had to get Lisette, Portia, Jacob—and Eddie. David prayed the boat would be big enough for all of them.

Lisette wasn’t in her quarters. David found her across the way with Portia and Jacob. Again, he wished he could let them rest until morning, but they were out of time.

When David entered the room, he knew something was wrong. After a quick exam, he verified Jacob had died in his sleep. Not unexpected. And unavoidable,
damn it
, under these primitive circumstances.

Lisette’s eyes glimmered with tears. “It happened an hour ago. Aunt Portia didn’t want to disturb us.” She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, her shoulders shaking.

Portia waved away David’s question about why she hadn’t called them. “There wasn’t a thing you could’ve done, David. One minute he was breathing, the next he wasn’t. It’s exactly the kind of death I would’ve wished for Jacob. Peaceful and calm.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, unable to say more.

“David, how can we leave him?” Lisette gripped David’s hand until his fingers stung with the pressure.

“We have to. It’s time. Bring Aunt Portia quickly, all the way to the bow.”

“But, David—”

“Hurry!
I have to find Eddie.”

Lisette, resigned, helped Portia to stand. She seemed shaky at first, then stronger. David had to trust both of them to find the strength for what had to be done.

In his search for the sounding boat, he had seen Eddie Crump entering a stateroom on the port side of the third deck. Staying in the shadows, David went directly there, avoiding several deck hands on the way, losing precious time waiting for them to pass through on their way to other parts of the boat. Sweat trickled into his eyes. He squelched the impulse to look at his watch again.

In the gloom of night, every door looked the same. When he’d narrowed the choices to two, he tested each door—unlocked, oddly enough—and peered into the room. In the first, a man snored loudly.

In the second, he heard faint breathing coming from the bed, and once his eyes were adjusted to the dark, saw tousled hair sticking out above the covers. Eddie was traveling alone on this trip. Unusual for a boy this age, yet David knew from his reading that Edward Hull Crump was no ordinary boy, just as he was destined to be no ordinary man. David sat on the edge of the bed and touched Eddie’s arm lightly.

“Eddie, wake up. Eddie!”

He came from deep sleep, a difference in his breathing marking each level as he rose to consciousness.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re Edward Crump, isn’t that right?”

“Yes.” He rubbed his eyes with his fists.

“Edward Hull Crump?”

“What’s this all about? Who are you? Are we there?”

“You have to come with me. I’m a doctor. I’ll explain as we go.”

“Go? Where are we going?”

“We don’t have much time.”

Whether it was his half-asleep state or just his upbringing, Eddie rose, pulled on his clothes and followed David out of the room and toward the bow. On the way, David whispered urgently, trying to simulate an action adventure movie in tone.

“We’re leaving the boat.”

“Leaving? Why?”

“The boilers.” He would string out the information to keep him moving. A kid like this would never run from the end of a story this fantastic.

“What about the boilers?” His eyes were wide open now. Sleep had left him completely.

“They’re rigged to explode. Hijackers.”

“Hijackers?
What’s that?”

Damn.
A twentieth century word. “People trying to steal the boat. I just found out. There’s no time. We have to get off.”

His voice rose from a mimicked whisper to normal volume. “Shouldn’t we tell the captain?”

“I’ve told him, but he won’t listen. He’s trying to keep us all on the boat. He may be one of the hijackers. We have to escape. Hurry!”

He balked. “Why are you saving me?”

Good question. “Because you’re Edward Crump.”

“So? I don’t know you. Why aren’t you saving everyone?” His eyes grew even rounder. “You’re trying to kidnap me!” He opened his mouth to scream.

David slugged him. Not too hard. Just enough, right under the chin, to knock him out. Then he caught him when he sagged. David swung him over his shoulder, then headed for the sounding boat. Lisette and Portia were standing beside the boat. A third person stood beside Lisette, holding her arm behind her back.

Andrew Westmoreland.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

When Andrew stepped from the shadows and grabbed Lisette, blood trickled from one corner of his mouth. His clothes were filthy, as though he’d been wallowing on the floor. He twisted her arm painfully into her spine. Aunt Portia was too weak to be of any help whatsoever.

“David is coming. If you harm us—”

“Shut up. I’m counting on the good doctor to be here any minute. I want all of you to watch as I sail away.”

She was about to plead with Andrew to have mercy when David appeared, carrying the red-haired boy like a sack of flour.

“David!” Andrew gave her arm a cruel twist.

“Well, Doctor Stewart, I see you’ve stooped to kidnapping too. Perhaps you and I are not that much different.”

Lisette could see anger boiling in David. The boy moved, groaned.

David didn’t say anything to Andrew at first. He propped the boy against the nearest wall and approached them. “Lisette, are you and Portia all right?”

“Yes.”

His eyes were hard and fixed on Andrew. “If you so much as redden her skin, I’ll—”

“Now, Doctor, I wouldn’t make any threats if I were you.” Andrew shoved her hard against the rail. “Unless, of course, you want to see how well she can swim.”

Lisette could swim quite well, thanks to Aunt Portia, but David had no way of knowing. And neither did Andrew.

“I can’t swim, Andrew, and neither can Aunt Portia. We’ll die if you throw us into the river. I can’t believe you’d be so cruel.” He’d already proven how cruel he could be. Would he believe this lie? He paused to consider, then loosened his grip just enough for her to twist out of his grasp. David didn’t waste an instant. He rushed toward Andrew, knocked him flat on the deck, pinned him down, and pounded his face until blood spattered everywhere.

“You’re killing him!” She pulled at David’s shoulders, hoping he would realize what he was doing. “He isn’t worth it!”

Relief surged through her when David stopped his assault.

Breathing hard, David said, “You’re right. He isn’t worth skinning my knuckles.” He looked at her, then to Aunt Portia. A backward glance produced a long sigh.

Eddie was gone.

“We can’t look for him, David. We’ll have to hope he isn’t the same Edward Crump.”

“The same as what?” A head of tousled red hair popped up from the sounding boat. “Who do you think I am?”

David turned Andrew facedown on the deck and secured his hands behind him with a belt while Lisette went to speak to Eddie.

“If you’re the Eddie Crump we think you are, you’re going to be a very important person in Memphis. That’s why Doctor Stewart and I want to save you from dying on this boat. Won’t you come with us? I don’t think you want to die.”

He digested this information,
then climbed out of the boat. “Let’s get out of here!”

David left Andrew bound and unconscious and came over to the boat. “Help me get it over the side and into the river?”

“Sure!” Eddie looked over the edge, to the second deck and pointed. “Why don’t we get those guys to help?”

A dozen deck hands heard Eddie and immediately headed for the stairs. They’d be here in seconds. David gripped Eddie’s shoulders. “Now, Eddie! They’re the ones who’ve rigged the boilers to blow!”

Lisette had no idea why David told Eddie that ridiculous story, but it made an impression on him. He grabbed one end of the sounding boat and lifted it as far as he could. David lifted the other end. Lisette ran to help Eddie. The boat teetered on the rail before plunging into the river. The
Cajun Star
moved past it so fast she feared they would lose it before they could climb down and inside, but a rope tied to the front caught and held. David must have planned this too.

“You first, Eddie.”

“Aye, aye, sir!” He scrambled over the rail and dropped into the boat, appearing terribly small, bobbing in the wake.

Shouts and voices converged on them. They put Aunt Portia over the rail next. She was almost spent. Eddie grabbed her legs and caught her as she fell into the boat.

“Now you, Lisette.”

Climbing over the rail, she shouted, “I love you, David!” and dropped into the blackness below. Her knees crumpled when she landed in the boat. Eddie wrapped his arms around her and kept her from pitching into the river.

There was barely enough room for the three of them.

“David!”

He had just climbed over the rail when the deck hands surrounded him. Lisette screamed his name, but he’d been dragged away. She couldn’t see him anywhere. One of the hands reached down to grab the rope.

“A knife!
We have to cut the rope!”

“I have one!” From his boot, Eddie pulled the skinning knife they’d seen him brandish earlier. He sawed away at the rope. It broke free just as one of the hands was climbing down from the rail.

The sounding boat shot backward, bouncing in the wake of the
Cajun Star
.

Frantically, Lisette searched every face, trying to locate David, but they were already too far away. He had to escape the boat!

The
Star’s
whistle blasted through the night.

“The boilers!”
Eddie shouted. “That man said they were rigged to blow!”

Lisette’s throat clamped shut, her lungs refusing to draw breath. David! Her mind screamed his name again and again, until she found her voice.

“David!”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

David was almost over the rail when they caught him. The captain was among them, shouting, “Hold fast that man!” At least four hands seized David and dragged him from the rail.

“We have to get off this boat!” David shouted to the captain. “It’s going to disappear and everyone on board with it. We have to go now. Midnight! Do you hear me? Midnight!”

The captain gave David a look of horror and disgust. He’d classified David a mad man.

“Secure that sounding boat! Get those people back on board.”

“No! It’s midnight! We’re all going to die if we don’t leave this boat!”

“Shut him up,” the captain ordered.

A hand clamped over David’s mouth, and an arm came around his throat tightened until speech was impossible. How could he make him understand?

An eerie stillness settled over the
Cajun Star
. A tremor passed through the bow, as though the riverboat had shuddered.

A horrendous, thundering explosion tore through the boat!

The captain was thrown to the deck, then David and the men holding him were struck by the force of the blast and smashed against the railing. Steam hissed when the decks in the center of the boat fell in upon themselves, crushing everything below. The pilothouse collapsed into the bottom of the boat. Live coals from the ruptured boilers were flung upward in a macabre imitation of a fireworks display. The massive smoke stacks swayed, then plummeted into the river. Red-tongued flames and acrid black smoke engulfed the boat like thick fog. People screamed in fear and pain.

Squinting through the haze, David spotted bodies on the deck and in the river. Had Lisette been far enough away to escape this nightmare? There was no way to tell. Bodies hurled high into the air by the blast were falling into the black waters of the Mississippi with heavy splashes and agonized screams of terror.

Blood ran into David’s eyes. A piece of shrapnel had imbedded itself in his scalp, but the wound was nothing compared to those he saw around him. He pulled the iron shard from his skin, tore off a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around his head to soak up blood and keep it out of his eyes. Summoning everything in his training to delay his shock and horror, he went to help the injured. He was a doctor. People were dying all around him.