Dead in the Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

shells.”
    â€œNot a good idea,” Patrick said, shaking his head. “If those guys are poachers, the last thing you want to do is go poking around.”
    â€œYou think they’d be dangerous?” Joey sounded disbelieving.
    â€œIf they were poaching abalone and they were caught, yeah. They’d have a lot to lose.” Patrick was answering Joey, but his eyes were fixed on Olivia.
    â€œBut—,” she started to protest.
    He shook his head. “I mean it, Olivia. You’d be best to just mind your own business and stay out of their way.”
    â€œI can’t do that,” Olivia burst out. “If they’re doing something that actually threatens the survival of a species—”
    â€œMollusc,” Blair said, and he and Joey started laughing.
    â€œDrop it, Olivia,” Patrick ordered. “I’d hate to see anything happen to you.”
    I could tell by the set of Olivia’s jaw that she wasn’t going to drop it. It wasn’t in that girl’s nature to drop anything. There was a long silence, or at least as much of a silence as there could be with the wind howling. Finally Patrick sighed. “Get everything well stowed,” he said. “I think we’d better head out this morning after all.”

chapter seven
    To borrow my dad’s expression, the wind was strong enough to blow dogs off chains.
    Up at the mast, I unzipped the sail cover and unfastened the ties that held it in place; then I pulled it off to uncover the mainsail, still securely tied around the boom. The wind tried to rip the cover from my hands as I bundled it up and stowed it in a cockpit locker. The sky was just getting light, a streak of white staining the dark gray horizon.
    Olivia, Joey and Blair huddled under the dodger as we motored out of the anchorage. Patrick was at the helm, his face grim. I stood beside him, waiting to take the helm. He’d told us that I would take the first watch and that Olivia could navigate. Of course, he was watching and supervising, but he’d only step in if we needed him to.
    After what I’d read last night, I couldn’t believe we were leaving Bull Harbour in this weather. I listened to Patrick telling Joey and Blair to raise the sails, and I wondered what he was thinking. Obviously, he knew these waters a lot better than any of us did. He wouldn’t take us out there if he didn’t think it was going to be safe. Or would he?
    Twenty minutes later, I was hanging onto that wheel as if it were a life ring and concentrating on keeping the pancakes down. Beside me, Olivia’s face had taken on a greenish tinge. Patrick and Blair were up at the mast, shortening the mainsail with a second reef and Joey was down below.His response to seasickness seemed to be to go to sleep.
    â€œThis is pretty intense.” Olivia spoke like she was trying to sound casual, but her voice sounded tight and about an octave higher than usual.
    The wind was a shrieking monster behind us, and
Jeopardy
was barely in control, surfing down steep waves with an eerie roar as the water rushed under its hull. Every so often, a wave came at us beam on—sideways— rolling us dangerously to one side. I’d been out in all kinds of weather, but I’d never seen waves as steep as these. “It’s nuts,” I said flatly. I raised my voice so that she’d be able to hear me over the screaming wind and the crashing water. “And it’s only going to get worse. I don’t think we’re even on the bar yet. We shouldn’t be out here.”
    â€œI guess Patrick knows what he’s doing,” she shouted back.
    â€œUh-huh.” I watched our instructor up at the mast, wrestling with the sail. He was shouting orders to Blair, but the wind snatched his words and carried them away.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWell, I just wondered about what he said this morning. I got the impression we