The Plan

Chapter 45.

IT WAS JUST BEFORE SUNSET WHEN LUCINDA RAN THE rubber Avon up to the dinghy dock in Avalon Harbor. The harbor reminded her of an Old World painting. The ba y w as a huge horseshoe with red-and-white mooring can s s trung in the water in semicircular rows like party decorations. A brightly painted green pier and a turn-of-the -century dance hall stood guard on opposite sides of th e b ay. It was the off-season and the boat traffic was light.

She tied up the dinghy and walked on bare feet into the tourist section of town and asked an island policeman to direct her to a good meat market.

"Tannyhill's, on the corner of Descanso and Third, is my favorite. They're open till ten," he answered.

"Thank you," she said. "And is there a hospital on the island?"

"Right up Falls Canyon Road." He pointed at a narrow street that wound up the hill.

She decided to go to the hospital first. She needed to find a doctor soon to look at Ryan's leg.

The Avalon Municipal Hospital was a Mexican-style one-story structure with an arched front door and a red file roof. Lucinda opened the screen door and looked into a bare but clean reception area.

"Anybody here?" She heard a door slam, and then a young woman wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt came in from the back and stuck her hand out.

"I'm Dr. Andrea Lewis."

"I'm Lauren," Lucinda said, suddenly deciding it would be a mistake to give her real name.

"How can we help you, Lauren?"

"My boyfriend has a bad leg and it was sewn up by a doctor back east, but it may need to have the dressing changed, and I was wondering if I could bring him in here and you could look, at it."

"I'm not a specialist, but I'll be happy to have a look," Dr. Andrea Lewis said, smiling. "What kind of 'bad leg'?"

"He was in an accident a few days ago. It got ripped open and they had to do a lot of reconstruction."

"Sounds like he should be in a hospital. Where you staying?"

"The motel in town," Lucinda lied, beginning to realize these questions could be dangerous if somebody came looking for them.

"Which motel?"

"The… uh… the little one… "

"The little one," Andrea repeated flatly, the smile fading.

"Okay, look, we're not married and his parents are real strict, and he's afraid they're going to make him come home if they find him," she said, realizing how stupid it sounded the minute she said it.

"If you want, I'll look at him. What's his name?"

"Bill. Bill Williams." She was fucking this up terribly. She felt her face reddening. "Maybe we could come in the morning…"

"I'll be here," Dr. Lewis said. Lucinda smiled, then turned and got the hell out of the hospital. She could feel the doctor's eyes on her back as she moved down the road.

She bought the steaks at Tannyhill's Market, and some frozen vegetables she could zap in the microwave, lettuce, and the ingredients for salad dressing. She got California Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon and watched as the clerk bagged it all and took fifty dollars of Elizabeth's money. As she left the market, she saw a pay phone across the street. Suddenly, she felt she had to talk to her mother. She crossed to the phone, took some change out of her pocket, and dialed her home in New Jersey. She could feel her heart pounding. If Mickey answered, she would just hang up, she reasoned. Her hands were shaking, but she needed to hear her mother's voice. The phone rang five times and she was about to hang up when Penny came on the line.

"Mom, it's me. I wanted to tell you I'm okay and I'm sorry if I've made you worry."

"Lucinda, where are you? I want you to come home."

"I can't, Mom. I just can't. You have to trust me. But I miss you and I love you. And I'll call again, soon." "Come home, Lucinda," Penny said, her voice cracking w ith emotion. "I miss you, honey."

"I can't, Mom. Please understand. I gotta go now, but don't worry about me. I just called to say I love you." She hung up quickly, unable to endure her mother's plead-. ing.

She headed the small Avon into the light swells, and after a mile could see the ketch, lit by mastlight and moonlight. She pushed away her worries as she hurried back to fix Ryan's dinner.

Mickey scrolled the Pin Tel until he found the number that had just called. He'd removed the phone speaker from the headset in his office two days ago, so his breathing would not betray him as he listened in on random calls. He had just overheard the conversation between his sister and mother. Lucinda had not given away her location, but the Pin Tel did.

He picked up the phone and dialed the number on the printout screen. Mickey let it ring almost twenty times before a young man's voice came on the line.

"What's happenin'?" the unfamiliar voice said. "Where is this phone?"

"Pay phone, man. I was walking by, I picked it up." "Where is it?"

"Catalina Island, across from Tannyhill's Market."

By ten o'clock that night, the Ghost was on his way to California to finish the job Thirteen Weeks and New York Tony had both bungled.