Distant Thunder

50

Stone slept badly and awoke breathing heavily, sweating, and hearing distant thunder. He sat up and shook his head, yawned, sang a few bars of “Daisy Bell,” moved all his fingers and toes, sure that he had had a stroke. His vision tilted about thirty degrees. He wondered why everything on deck didn’t slide into the sea. He blinked furiously. After nearly a minute of this, he heard a woman’s voice: “Good morning, Stone.”

Then everything snapped back into place. Vanessa was sitting across from him at the table in a comfortable chair, almost dressed in a bikini.

“Not you,” Stone managed to say.

“Aren’t you glad to see me?” she asked.

He fell back onto the sofa, unconscious.

Someone was shaking him, then harder.

“Stone? Wake up!” It was Dino’s voice.

He opened an eye. Viv was patting his face with a towel. “What’s wrong, Stone?” she asked. “You’re soaking wet!”

He sat up and looked around. “Where is she?”

“Who?” Dino asked.

“Vanessa. She was just here.”

“Listen, pal. You snap out of it, or I’m going to have to throw you overboard to wake you up!”

“You were making terrible noises,” Viv said.

“Did you hear the thunder?” he asked.

Dino picked up an icy drink on the coffee table and threw the contents into Stone’s face.

“What was that?” Stone asked.

“A gin and tonic. I made it for you earlier.”

“What was in it?”

“Well, let’s see,” Dino said, scratching his head, “there was gin, and there was tonic.”

“Don’t be a smart-ass! What else was in it?”

“Oh, I remember,” Dino said, “a wedge of lime.”

“Where is it?”

Dino looked around and picked up something from the sofa, next to Stone. “Look, a wedge of lime.” He made to suck it, but Stone grabbed his wrist. “No. I want it analyzed.”

“Well,” Dino said, “I don’t have my lime juice analysis kit on me, so we’ll just have to wait until we get back to New York.” He popped the lime wedge into his shirt pocket.

“Don’t lose it. It’s important. Where’s Vanessa?”

“Still on a slab in the New York City morgue, I expect,” Dino said.

“No, she’s aboard.”

“Where?” Dino asked, looking around.

Viv was just peering into Stone’s face, without speaking.

“I think maybe you should lie back down for a while,” Dino said.

“I don’t want to. I want to see Vanessa. She has some explaining to do.”

“I don’t know what she could possibly tell us,” Dino said. “Are you looking for a message from the other side?”

“The other side of the coffee table,” Stone said, pointing at the empty chair. “She was sitting right there, in a bikini, almost.”

“Almost what?” Dino asked.

“I know what he means,” Viv said. “He’s not crazy, and he hasn’t had a stroke.” She reached into Dino’s shirt pocket and extracted the lime. She squeezed it slightly, then put it to her nose. “Amyl nitrate,” she said. “Or that’s my best guess, anyway. It’s been a long time.”

Dino smelled the lime. “Jesus, I think you’re right,” he said.

“You slipped me a mickey,” Stone said.

“No, somebody slipped me the mickey, and I unknowingly passed it on.”

“What were you drinking?” Stone asked.

“Scotch on the rocks,” they both said.

“No lime?”

“On Scotch? Are you kidding me?”

“It’s gone,” Stone said, pointing at the coffee table.

“The lime?” Dino asked. “Viv has it.”

Stone pointed at the table and shook his finger at it. “No, not the lime, the... other thing.” For the life of him, he couldn’t remember the word. Shaking his finger at the table wasn’t helping, but he continued to do it.

“The other thing?” Viv asked.

“What other thing?” Dino followed.

“The goddamned other thing that was there!”

“Stone, you’re babbling. Lie down again,” Dino said.

“I don’t want to lie down!”

And then they heard a faint noise from the cabin below.

“What was that?” Stone asked.

“A toilet flushing,” Viv said.

“Must be the maid,” Dino offered.

“Too early,” Stone said. “They don’t start before noon, in case we’re sleeping in.”

“I know what’s missing,” Viv said.

“What is it?” Dino demanded.

“The plastique bomb,” she said.

And then there was the sound of flip-flops from the companionway stairs, and Vanessa stepped onto the deck.