Wood's Harbor Read Online Free PDF Page B

hundred gallons, he estimated with a quarter-tank they could make fifty miles if they didn’t push too hard. 
    Trufante ran down the path towards him and he brought the boat forward. “Take the car. I’ll meet you in Marathon in the morning.” 
    The Cajun stopped short. “I ain’t driving that road in this condition.” 
    Mac saw the Cajun’s hands shaking in the moonlight and realized he was right. He would have to take him. “Can you get the car back to the Bight.” The marina was only a few blocks away and her car would blend in there. “I’ll meet you there.”
    Mac paused, realizing he was moving too fast. With the characters involved here, the slightest misstep could get someone killed. He would have to slow down and be more careful. He checked his wrist out of habit, but the dive watch had been lost in the wreckage. With a glance at the moon, he figured it was close to one. Annie would be expecting him back in an hour. “Call her and tell her to take a cab or whatever - I’ll pay her back.” 
    Without waiting for an answer, he put the port engine in reverse and nudged the starboard throttle into forward. The boat started to spin. When it faced the bridge, Mac pushed both throttles to the idle stop and slowly motored to the skinny opening between the water and steel structure of the bridge. He glanced back. Trufante was gone. He looked up at the T-top over his head and then at the bridge above, trying to gauge whether the boat would fit. There were likely several antennae and possibly a radar bell mounted to the top, invisible from below. Without the electronic console, they were expendable. He held his breath as the boat approached the bridge. Trufante had said they brought the boats out at low tide. It was far from that now, the late summer moon bringing two and a half feet of water into the lagoon. He guessed this was not the tallest boat they’d brought through here, and with no choice, he eased the boat under the bridge. The bow fell into its shadow and the hardtop followed. He heard an antenna drag and then snap as it broke off and fell into the murky water. Another crack and the radar dome followed, but the leading edge of the hardtop was in the clear. 
    The boat cleared the obstacle and he pushed the throttles slightly, looking behind at the small wakes as the boat picked up speed. Mangroves blocked the opening, but he sensed where the main channel was and steered towards the area where the water seemed to be moving fastest. Branches brushed the boat as it exited the lagoon, but he knew he was in the right spot when they opened slightly, revealing clear water ahead. 
    Without the electronics, he had no idea how deep the water was. Finally the high tide would be to his advantage here. The lack of houses and docks lining the shore told him the water was not navigable. Just as he thought it, the lower units brushed the bottom, but his instincts automatically moved his thumb to the buttons on the side of the throttle handle. A small motor whined. He watched the engines lift from the water. He didn’t expect the hull to ground, but the deep draft of the 225 HP motors was a problem. Slowly he raised the twin engines, watching the water stream from the small exit holes that showed the units were cooling as they lifted from the dark water. The stream of water continued to flow and the tips of the propellers were just visible when he released the control button and breathed out. The boat continued at an idle across the flat. He cut the wheel to the left and headed for the security of the houses on the seaward side of the Bight, the boats moored on their seawalls a sure sign there was deeper water. With the motors back down, he idled through the narrow cut and into the protection of the harbor. A quarter mile away, five docks jutted out from the seawall directly in front of him. He steered towards the middle, looking for a place to tie off and wait for Trufante. 
     
    ***
     
    Yesterday, Norm had the