Die a Stranger

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“This is how it’s gonna work.” She had stepped away from me. Now she was four feet behind me. Maybe five.

“You’re making a mistake,” I said.

“Shut up,” she said. “Not another word, do you understand? I’ll drop you right here and nobody will have any idea what happened. I’ve got the gun inside a plastic grocery bag right now. Don’t turn around, just take my word for it. It’s inside this bag and if I need to shoot you I will. Everybody will start screaming. Nobody will know what the hell is going on. Nobody will see the gun. I’ll just drop the bag and run away, like everybody else. You get what I’m saying? Just nod your head if you do.”

I nodded.

“All right, then. There’s a parking lot next to the post office. Across the street. You’re going to turn around and you’re going to walk to it. You’re not going to make a sound. You’re not going to look at anybody. You’re going to look straight at the ground. If you so much as take one step in another direction, or if you so much as raise one hand… If you do anything that isn’t one hundred-percent perfect and cooperative… I will shoot you without even blinking. Again, are we clear?”

I nodded.

“There’s a black Jeep Cherokee on the left side of the lot. When you get to it, I want you to open the driver’s-side door and get in. Sit with your hands in your lap and don’t do anything else. Last time, are we clear?”

She’s talking a good game, I thought. But I can’t imagine she really wants to shoot me. Not unless she’s a psychopath or something. Problem is, her finger’s no doubt on the trigger. She probably has the damned thing half-squeezed already. If I do something stupid, she might react without even thinking about it.

As I turned slowly, I got a quick look at her. She was a little older than me, one of those women who say the hell with it and let their hair grow down over the shoulders, no matter how gray it is. Green tie-dyed summer dress with a black belt. Her eyes were sharp and quick and she had probably been attractive in some other decade, but even I could have told her that green was the worst possible color on her. It made her pale skin look purple and the ugly sandals didn’t help one bit. Not that she would have cared one little bit what I thought of her appearance. I or anyone else. No makeovers for this woman. She had the hard-set mouth of someone who stands around sucking every last ounce of poison out of a cigarette and complaining about life.

“Nice and easy,” she said as she moved around behind me. “You’re doing just fine. I’m glad you’re not as dumb as you look.”

I crossed the street and headed for the parking lot next to the post office. Give her a minute or two, I thought. Until we’re in the vehicle and she gets a little more comfortable. Maybe even relaxes the grip on her gun. Then try to talk to her.

“All right, everything nice and slow now,” she said as we got closer to the black Jeep Cherokee. “Remember, open the door and get in. Do it in slow motion. Then just sit there and keep your hands in your lap.”

I did as I was told. I sat down in the driver’s seat and put my hands in my lap. I took one quick peek back across the street. The boat was still a few minutes from docking. There’s no way I’d be able to stall her, and even if I did, Lou would have to hit shore and somehow notice me sitting over here. And then actually do something about it.

I was expecting her to come around and sit beside me, but instead she opened the door right behind me and sat in the backseat.

“This gun is six inches away from the back of your head,” she said. “Do one thing wrong and I will literally paint that windshield with your brains. Are you with me? Are we still on the same page?”

I nodded. Then I heard a collection of keys hitting the seat beside me.

“Take the key that says ‘Jeep’ on it and put it in the ignition.”

Under different circumstances, I would have had a quick comeback to that. Like thanks, I would have tried this house key instead. But this obviously wasn’t the time for wisecracks, so I did as I was told. I put the right key in and turned it. The engine came to life.

This is the vehicle that was missing from the farmhouse, I thought. This is the vehicle that brought Vinnie and Buck to this place.

“Now you’re gonna back out and then go to the street, at which point you will take a smooth left turn. You need to keep believing me when I tell you that I’ll kill you in a second if you give me any reason. At this point, I will happily tell the police that you tried to kidnap me, and then I grabbed your gun and shot you with it. The gun is not registered to me, and I am a very good liar. So I’m quite sure I’d get away with it.”

I’m quite sure that would make me the most inept kidnapper in history, I thought. But if the paper on that gun was really that clean, I had no doubt she’d be able to sell the story. Or at least that she believed she’d be able to sell it, which was all that mattered.

I put the vehicle in Reverse and backed it up using only the mirrors. Something told me she wouldn’t have appreciated me turning around. I put it back in Drive and went to the street. I waited for a few cars to go by. Then I took the left.

“Now you’re going to keep going straight and you’re gonna keep the speed at exactly twenty miles an hour. You got that? If you hit twenty-one, well, you know what happens.”

There was a strange spin on everything she was saying now. When she had first stuck that gun in my ribs, back on the dock, I could hear the fear in her voice and I could practically feel her hands shaking. Now, she had clearly gotten her nerve back. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn she was almost enjoying this.

How ironic it was, having had two different men point a gun at me that week, first Dukes with his already-cocked revolver stuck stupidly down his pants, then Perry with the empty shotgun. Both bumbling and useless in their own way, and now here was this woman a few years older than me, and she was clearly starting to get the hang of this.

“May I say something now?” I said.

I felt the sharp jab of the gun barrel against the back of my head.

“You’ll speak when I ask you a question,” she said. “For now, just keep driving. When this road comes to a T, you need to make a right.”

I wasn’t about to tell her that I knew that. I still had the map from the postmaster, after all. We were cutting through the interior of the island, and then we’d have to head north along the western shore.

“Okay, so here’s your chance to talk,” she finally said. “How stupid does Corvo think we are?”

“What are you talking about?” I expected the gun barrel to jab me in the back of the head again, but it didn’t.

“I thought we were square,” she said. “After today we’re all back in business, and everybody knows we’re gonna play nice from now on. That was the deal.”

“You’ve got the wrong idea, ma’am. That’s not why I’m here.”

I heard a sharp intake of breath. I waited for what was going to happen next.

“I should kill you right now,” she said.

I struggled to keep my foot light on the gas pedal. One good push and I could send her backward in her seat. Then slam on the brakes and with any luck she’d be dumped right in my lap.

Just thinking about it, I was already starting to creep up above her twenty-miles-an-hour speed limit.

“You’re going too fast,” she said. “Slow down right now.”

I eased up on the pedal. It would be a high-risk move and she was agitated now, making it even more likely she’d pull that trigger. Maybe the first shot would go through the roof, but I didn’t like my odds on the second.

That’s when my cell phone rang. It was in my right pocket.

“Who’s calling you?” she said. “Is that Corvo?”

“No, it’s not.”

“Toss your phone back here. Without answering it.”

I leaned over so I could reach into my pocket. I had to struggle to keep the vehicle going straight while getting the stupid phone out, while at the same time not doing something that might be construed as offensive. When I finally got the phone out, it had rung a few more times. I tossed it into the backseat. I heard her fumble to pick it up off the floor and for one split second I thought I had a chance to do something.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said, a genuine mind reader on top of all of her other charms.

She flipped open my phone and apparently looked at the display.

“There’s no name,” she said. “Big surprise. But the number has a 702 area code. That must be one of those other Chicago area codes, right?”

“That’s Las Vegas,” I said, picturing Lou still on the boat, close enough to the island now to be in range. Calling to check in, to see if I’d made any progress.

“Las Vegas, what the hell? Are you kidding me?”

She snapped the phone shut.

“You know, they make real cell phones now,” she said. “This thing belongs in a museum.”

“That was Vinnie’s father on the phone,” I said. “He’s looking for his son. Vinnie and Buck, both of them. That’s why I’m here. I’ve got nothing to do with Corvo.”

“You don’t say,” she said. “Just looking for the Indians. Wouldn’t that be interesting.”

“It’s the truth. I need to know if they’re alive.”

“You need to shut your mouth is what you need to do. Make this right turn, then I’ll tell you when we get there.”

“You’re not going to shoot me. We both know that.”

Say it like you believe it, I thought. Like it’s a calmly observed statement of undeniable truth. If she had any doubt, she’ll start to believe it. At least that’s the general idea. Whether it really works or not, I guess we’re gonna find out.

“The day is young,” she said. “I got a feeling a lot of different things are gonna happen before the sun goes down.”

The phone rang again. She didn’t answer. She didn’t even look at it. I tried to guess how much time had passed, tried to imagine where Lou was at that moment. Maybe off the boat by now. Standing on the dock, looking around and swearing at his phone. Maybe his car was off by now, maybe not. Either way, it was hard to put together any series of events that would lead him my way.

Unless…

“We’re close now,” she said. “Slow down.”

Unless he follows the same general plan that I did. Take a look around at the main street, register the fact that everybody seems to know everybody else. Then start fishing. All you have to do is walk into that post office and you’ll be one big step closer.

“I said slow down!”

I hit the brakes, not quite hard enough to send her flying but I heard her give out a little yelp of surprise.

“You want to die right now?” she said. “Turn into this driveway.”

I made the turn. There was an empty driveway leading to a nice little summer house. The trees were thick on either side of the house, but I could see the lake through the branches. I could gun it right now, I thought. Make it through that one gap in the trees and I’d be in the lake before she could even think twice. She’d shoot me for sure, but at least she’d probably drown a few minutes later.

“Right here is fine,” she said. “In case you’re wondering, the houses on either side of us are empty right now. I could shoot this thing as many times as I want and nobody would notice.”

Not exactly true, I thought. If you shoot outside, they’ll hear it halfway around the island. If you shoot it inside, you’ll still get people all up and down the street looking up from their papers and wondering what the hell just happened. Of course, maybe she knows that and she’s just saying it for my benefit. Somehow, I didn’t think it would be worth calling her bluff.

“Take the key out of the ignition and toss it back to me,” she said when we were stopped.

“I assume you want me to put it in Park first.”

“Watch the mouth,” she said. “Yes, put it in Park.”

I took it out of gear, turned the vehicle off, and tossed her the key.

“Now open your door, but stay seated.”

I opened the door. She got out behind me and came up next to the side mirror. My door wasn’t all the way open, so for one instant I thought about kicking it right into her, but she took a step backward before I could even try it. She kept taking quick looks behind her, as if expecting someone to come out of the house.

“Get out and put your hands on your head,” she said. “You leave them there until I say otherwise. You got that?”

I didn’t bother answering. I got out of the car and stood in the sunlight, with my hands on my head like some kind of prisoner of war. In a way, maybe that’s exactly what I was.

“Turn and walk to the house. Nice and easy. You keep cooperating, you stay alive.”

The first positive thing she’d said, I thought. The first ray of hope.

“Harry!” she yelled. “Where the hell are you?”

There was no answer from the house.

“God damn him. Just keep walking. Go all the way onto the back porch.”

There were stairs leading up to the side door, and that same landing wrapped around to the rest of the porch. I went up the stairs, looking for some advantage, something I could use to knock the gun from her hand, or at least to use as a shield. But she was being way too careful.

As we turned the corner, I saw two men sitting there on the porch. They were both in their twenties, one of them long and lean, the other shorter and heavier. They were both wearing long shorts and elaborate tennis shoes and nothing else. The shirtless look did a lot more for the lean guy than the heavy guy, but either way it was like a visual battle of the tattoos. Between the two of them, they must have been carrying around ten square feet of ink.

“Sugarpie and Dumpling,” the woman said. “Get the hell up and take care of this fool for me.”

It took a few seconds for the two men to process what they were seeing. The joint they were sharing probably didn’t help any. When it finally broke through that a stranger was standing on the deck and that Jo was pointing a gun at his back, they jumped up out of the chairs and grabbed me by each arm. The joint got put down in the ashtray and there it lay, still smoking, filling the porch with a dull haze.

“I didn’t say pull him apart,” she said. “Just sit him down there.”

They did as they were told, planting me in the chair and standing over me like they both expected me to try something. Even though one had a few inches on me and the other about eighty pounds.

“Who is he?” the tall guy said, looking down at me with his hands clenched. “What the hell’s he doing here?”

“We’re still trying to figure that out,” she said. “Where the hell is Harry, anyway?”

“He’s not back yet.”

“Not back from where?”

They both sneaked a look at her and then at each other.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “Are you seriously telling me that Harry went out there by himself?”

“He had a lot of money with him,” the heavy one said. “I guess he doesn’t trust us.”

“What were you gonna do, Dumpling?” she said, going over to the heavy man and squeezing his cheek. She literally squeezed his cheek like he was five years old, and at the same time she solved forever the mystery of who was Sugarpie and who was Dumpling. “Did he think you were gonna run off with the money or something?”

“Apparently that was the general suspicion, yes.”

“God damn,” she said, turning to the other one. Sugarpie, apparently. “And you just let him go on with this foolishness? You let him go all the way out there by himself? What, like ten miles of open water?”

“What was I supposed to do?” the tall one said. “He had his mind made up. You know how he is.”

“He’s an idiot is how he is. God damn both of you. You should have tied him up right here on this porch, like this guy. Which by the way I notice you haven’t done yet.”

“I’ll go get the zip ties,” Dumpling said. He bounded off the deck and down the stairs. That left me with just Sugarpie hovering over me, balancing on the balls of his feet and extending his hands out in front of him like we were about to wrestle.

The woman went to the railing of the deck and looked out onto the lake. She still had the gun, and she was still too far away for me to make a move for it. Especially with Sugarpie watching me.

I turned my head to look out at the lake. It was a beautiful view, I’ll say that much. There was a path leading down from the house, through the wildflowers surrounding the trees. Out on the water, the sunlight was dancing in every ripple. The shoreline itself was rough and unforgiving, but for me that would have made this place even better. No docks, no boats, no noise beyond the light breeze tickling the wind chimes hanging in the corner. On any other day, this would have been the best place in the world to be.

Today, well, maybe it was just the perfect place to spend my last hours on earth.

“Eyes straight ahead,” she said without looking at me. “Sugarpie, keep a lid on our guest, will you?”

He went to grab my hair, but I dodged my head out of the way. He responded to that by smacking me across the face.

“You don’t have to beat him to death,” she said. “Just keep a lid on him.”

He folded his arms and stared down at me with a sick little smile.

“It’s not like he could have gotten lost,” she said, turning back to the water. “It’s impossible, right? Even for him.”

“That’s right, Jo. I’m sure he’s okay.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s okay,” she said, speaking more to herself now than to anyone else. “There’s no way anything could have gone wrong.”

We spent another couple of minutes this way, as she stood there watching the lake, rocking back and forth in her sandals. Finally, the sound of a motor began to cut through the breeze. It was coming from the lake. A boat.

No, not a boat. As it got closer, I could hear that the motor was in a higher register. It was a small craft, probably a jet ski. Which made sense because you sure as hell weren’t about to dock a boat down on that rocky shoreline.

In my peripheral vision, I saw her whole body language change as she watched someone dock whatever it was he was driving or riding, and then she followed his progress up the trail to the house. I was interpreting everything through her face, because it was all happening behind me, but she was obviously relieved and for one quick moment I could almost even see her smiling.

“What the hell were you thinking?” she screamed at him as soon as he was close enough to hear her. So much for smiling.

“That was the worst ride of my life,” the voice said from behind me. “I’d like to see you go try it.”

“You had me worried half to death, you idiot.”

“Hey, I got back here as fast as I could! The currents were a lot stronger than I thought, so just get off my back, okay?”

I heard steps on the stairs and then the man himself, Harry, came around the corner, onto the back deck. He was dressed in a wet suit, and his hair was slicked back against his head. He was bald on top, but he was one of those guys who tries to make up for it by growing it as long as possible on the sides. Whether he tried to comb it over or not, I couldn’t say, because now he just looked like a half-drowned rat.

He might have been older, but he processed the situation a lot quicker than Sugarpie and Dumpling had.

“Who the hell is this?” he said, nodding at me. “What’s going on?”

“He’s been looking for us,” she said calmly. “He was asking about us, all over town.”

“What are you talking about? How was he looking for us? How did he end up here? How did he…”

His brain overloaded about then and he couldn’t speak any more. He just kept looking at his wife, then me, then Sugarpie, then back at his wife. All the while he continued to drip water onto the nice wooden deck.

“I thought he must be working for Corvo,” she said. “I thought maybe we were getting double-crossed or something.”

“What, you mean sending one of his men out here? Are you serious?”

He came closer to me, bending down a bit to look closer at me like I was some kind of exotic animal.

“Is that what this is?” he said to me. “Is this the old double-cross, Corvo-style?”

He straightened up and looked at his wife before I could answer. Then he bent down again. He was dripping water on my shoes now.

“I did everything he told us to do,” the man said. “The Indians are out in the boat, along with the money.”

That got me to the edge of my chair. Sugarpie knocked me back with one long arm and then he put his hands on my shoulders. If the railing hadn’t been behind me, he would have turned the chair over with me in it.

“Stay right there,” Jo said, pointing the gun at my head. “You try that again and I’ll kill you.”

“Are you talking about Vinnie and Buck?” I said. “God damn it, where are they?”

“He doesn’t work for Corvo,” she said to her husband. “There’s no way.”

“I don’t know,” Harry said. “Why else would he be here?”

“Look at him. He’s too old, for one thing. And he’s not all pumped up on steroids.”

“I don’t care who sent him,” Harry said. “He’s still trouble. He could have messed up everything.”

“Relax,” she said. “We’ll be out of here on the next ferry, remember? We’ll be long gone by tonight.”

“What, you mean just leave the boat out there?”

“It’s a piece of crap,” she said. “And it’s not even ours.”

“Vinnie LeBlanc and Buck Carrick,” I said, my head still pushed back onto the rough wood of the railing. “They came to the island with you, right?”

She looked at me, deep in thought.

“Who are you, really?” she said. “Tell me the truth.”

“My name is Alex. I’m a friend of Vinnie’s. I came here looking for Vinnie and his cousin. I swear to God, if you’ve done anything to them…”

She didn’t bother to laugh at that. She gave Sugarpie a little nod and he pulled the chair back up. He kept one hand on my shoulder, just in case.

“Did you come alone?” she said. “No, wait, that person who called you…”

I hesitated over that one, trying to decide which was better, the truth or a lie. I settled on a little of both.

“I’m not alone,” I said. “I’ve got five other people on the island with me. You’ll never get away, believe me.”

“Where were all of your friends when I found you at the dock?”

“They were on the ferry. I flew over separately and I was waiting for them. By now, they’re all over the island. Five men, all looking for me. And for you. They know everything about you.”

“That’s a lie.”

“All we want is Vinnie and Buck,” I said. “You give them to us and you walk away.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to tell you,” Harry said, “but you’re a little too late for that.”

“Harry, shut up,” the woman said.

“I’m not shutting up, Jo. Don’t tell me to shut up.”

“Just be quiet for one second so we can think this through.”

“There’s nothing to think about. We made our deal and now we can get the hell out of here.”

A phone rang. They looked at each other until finally she remembered my cell phone in her pocket. She took it out and opened it.

“This time it’s a 313 number,” she said. “That’s Detroit.”

It took me a second to figure it out. Then it came to me. It was Janet Long, returning my call from this morning. An actual FBI agent on the phone, but a hell of a lot of good it would do me now.

“Now I know he doesn’t work for Corvo,” Harry said, taking the cell phone from her. “I mean, look at this thing.”

He tossed it to Sugarpie, who looked at it with wonder, like an archaeologist examining a dinosaur bone. When he was done, he dropped it onto the table, next to the ashtray.

“That’s one more of my friends,” I said, trying to put a little edge into it now, like this was just an inconvenience to me, something that happened all the time. “They must be all over the place by now. Maybe even right outside. I tell you, all you gotta do is give us Vinnie and Buck. We have no interest in you at all.”

“And I told you it’s too late,” Harry said.

His wife reached over and gave him a little cuff on the cheek. Not quite a slap, but a hell of a lot stronger than a love tap.

“Ow,” he said. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

“Take off those wet clothes,” she said. “Then get your ass into the house. We have to talk about this.”

“What about him?” the man said, nodding at me.

“Dumpling’s getting the zip ties. They’re out in the car, right?”

“No, they’re in the house.”

“Well, go get one, genius. And take off those clothes before you ruin the deck.”

She watched him walk into the house, leaving a wet trail behind him. He was clearly doing things in the wrong order and she looked at me, shaking her head, like I was supposed to be on her side all of a sudden.

“You need to tell me what happened to Vinnie and Buck,” I said to her. “Are they alive or not?”

“You need to stay quiet and relax,” she said, as if that were possible. “But yes, they’re alive. Maybe you’ll even get to see them.”

She gave me a grim smile and now I had no idea what to think. Then Harry came back through the door with a plastic zip tie about a foot long.

“He’s going to put this on your wrists,” she said to me. “It’s for everybody’s benefit. Then we’ll take you to see your friends.”

Harry stopped dead and looked at her like she was crazy. She raised one eyebrow at him and gestured to me, like, get on with it already.

“Hands together,” he said to me. “Don’t try anything funny.”

I put my hands in front of me. In one smooth expert motion he lassoed my wrists and pulled the zip tie tight.

“Do the ankles, too,” she said. “Just for now.”

“You said get one zip tie. I only brought one.”

“So go get another. But first take off your-”

He let out a breath and went back into the house before she could finish. On his way back out with the second zip tie she smacked him in the back of the head. He stopped and looked at her and I thought for a second they were gonna start swinging, but then he got down on one knee in front of me.

“Feet together,” he said. “Slightly off the floor.”

The second zip tie was a little bigger. He was able to slip it around my feet and pull it tight. This was not the first time he had done this. Probably not even the first time today. Wherever Vinnie and Buck were, I was pretty sure they were wearing the exact same things.

“Okay, now what?” he said.

She just looked at him until the light bulb finally went on. He stripped out of his wet suit right there on the deck, down to a tight little Speedo swimsuit. He was in decent shape for his age, but it still didn’t exactly flatter him. There was a key on a plastic lanyard wrapped around his wrist. He took that off and tossed it on top of the wet suit.

“All right, I’m gonna go have a quick chat with Mr. Olympia here,” the woman said. “Sugarpie’s gonna keep you company.”

The tie around my ankles was even tighter than the one around my wrists. I couldn’t have gotten up out of the chair even if the house had been on fire. But Sugarpie pulled up the other chair right in front of me and sat down. He folded his arms and watched me. All I could do was sit there and look at his tattoos. A dragon and some barbwire around the biceps, all brilliantly original work. Some birds and some Chinese characters, and for some reason a clock on his chest with the hands at twelve and three.

I got tired of looking at his ugly skin and his ugly face. So I put my head down for a while and just hoped to God that Vinnie and Buck were still alive.

Dumpling came back up the steps and onto the deck.

“I couldn’t find the zip ties,” he said. “We’re gonna have to-”

He stopped dead when he saw me trussed up like a turkey.

“Your turn to watch him,” Sugarpie said. “I need a little smoke.”

Dumpling took his place in the chair, giving me a whole new set of tattoos to study if I wanted to. This guy had more space to work with, but he obviously hadn’t spent the money. Half of his ink was cheap stuff that looked like it had been drawn by a kindergartner.

The sliding door opened again. Harry and Jo came back out.

“Okay, Alex,” she said, her voice different now. Like I was their houseguest and she had kept me waiting way too long. “Here’s what we’ve decided. It’s good news.”

She paused and looked to her husband for confirmation. He just stood there. His hair was still wet.

“Harry’s gonna go put on some clothes,” she said. “Then we’re going to go for a drive. Have you ever been to Beaver Island before?”

“Where are Vinnie and Buck?” I said.

“I’ll take that as a no. In which case, we really need to take you on the tour. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

She looked at me with her eyebrows raised, like she actually expected an answer.

“Harry, go get dressed,” she said to him, “and boys, put your shirts on. You look like a couple of monkeys.”

“Where are they?” I said. “God damn all of you.”

Dumpling looked up at her to see if she was offended, but she just smiled at him and gestured for him to get up and put his shirt on. He shrugged and then hauled himself to his feet. Sugarpie had picked up the joint and was busy smoking it down to nothing. Dumpling gave him a look and grabbed his shirt off the railing.

When Harry finally came back out, his hair was dry and it was sticking out in both directions. He had glasses on now, and the overall effect was that of an eccentric English professor. The kind who sells marijuana by the planeload and who knows how to zip tie your hands and feet.

“Okay, it’s time to go,” Jo said. She still had the gun, of course. Something told me she wouldn’t have trusted her husband with it. Not for a second.

Harry cut the zip tie from my ankles. He left the tie around my wrists. They led me off the deck, all four of them, to the driveway. I looked around for some way to distract them. Some way to escape. I didn’t see any opportunity. None at all.

Harry opened the back door and motioned for me to get in. Sugarpie got in behind me, and then Dumpling squeezed himself in on the other side. Then Harry got behind the wheel and Jo sat beside him. She didn’t bother pointing the gun at me, and I didn’t blame her. What the hell was I gonna do?

“Time to go set you free,” she said in a voice as cheerful as an icicle. “Just like a little bird.”

Then we were off. It was a beautiful, picture-perfect day on the island, and I was being driven to my own execution.