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.You had to conserve your strength for when it mattered.He had Eddie in a lifeguard’s hold.He tried treading water for a while, but his muscles quickly began to tremble with exhaustion from the effort.He rolled three-quarters of the way onto his back with Eddie cradled against his chest and prayed he’d be able to keep the two of them afloat until daybreak, when he might have a chance to strike out for shore.Maybe if he left Eddie behind he’d be able to make it to shore right now.If he didn’t have to cart one hundred and sixty pounds of dead weight, he’d have a chance to get out of this mess.He thought of his mother and how much she’d done for him all these years, and he felt like crying.If he died, a part of her would die, too, same as a part of John had died after his kids were killed in that car crash.John had aged right in front of them, his face crumbling in on itself at the funeral when those little white caskets were carried up to the altar and placed on either side of Libby’s big mahogany casket.He’d never realized a human face could look like that, as if all of the pain in the entire world was right there in his eyes.He didn’t want that to happen to his mother.If he died, she’d be left alone.Maybe she’d even turn to that bastard Brian Gallagher if Mark wasn’t there to stop her.It wasn’t so hard to imagine it happening.Hell, he’d seen them together tonight through the living-room window.All he had to do was leave Eddie to fend for himself.They were out beyond the breakers.Eddie could probably float on his back for a good half hour or so.That would be plenty of time for Mark to get to shore and find help before anything awful had a chance to happen.That wasn’t being selfish, was it? He was only sixteen years old.He hadn’t even slept with a girl yet or bought his first car.He was too young to die.Eddie had lived his life.He wouldn’t want Mark to sacrifice himself so an old man could have a few more years.But what kind of mans would he be if he saved his own ass and let his own grandfather die?* * *John rowed his way blindly through the dark, fog-shrouded waters.The flat-bottomed garvey moved noiselessly.The only sound was his heart double-thumping inside his chest.He could feel his pulse beating crazily at the base of his throat, in his ears, at the top of his skull.They’d tried to tell him something terrible was going to happen to Eddie, but he wouldn’t listen.He’d clung to Dr.Benino’s sleepwalking diagnosis as if it were a lifeline, clung to it for so long that it had managed to turn into a hangman’s noose.The fog clung to his skin like a damp spider’s web.He knew he couldn’t be more than a few hundred feet away from the end of the dock, but already the structure had disappeared into the darkness.He stopped rowing and closed his eyes, trying to regain his bearings.There was no moon, no stars to help him.No landmarks on shore.Nothing but his powerful, bone-deep need to save his father’s life.He wondered how long Eddie had been gone.If he’d left right after John went to the Save Sea Gate meeting, he could be long past Cape May, on his way down to the Chesapeake.John wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in the garvey.He’d told Alex to go back to the house and call for help.He should have told her to call the coast guard.The cops wouldn’t be able to help him out here.Why the hell hadn’t he thought of that before he jumped into the boat? All he’d been thinking of was Alex and whatever it was she wanted to talk to him about.She’d looked so serious.so sad—He pushed the image from his mind.He had to stay focused for Eddie’s sake.He had to try to think like Eddie, figure out where he would go.When John’s mother was alive, Eddie used to like to take her up to a little cove near Old Barney, the lighthouse on Barnegat Island.It was their spot, one of those Shore secrets that the old-timers knew about and refused to share.The last few days Eddie had been doing a lot of reminiscing about Rosie and the early days of their marriage.The cove near Old Barney was as good a place as any for John to start his search.Now, if he could only figure out which goddamn way was north, he might stand a chance.Based on the direction of the current, he made a calculated guess, and had rowed a good thirty feet when he heard a sound.He stopped rowing and listened.Nothing.He picked up the oars and began rowing again.“Help!” The voice was shadowy, indistinct.It could belong to anybody.“We need help!”John lowered the oars once again and cupped his hands around his mouth.“This is John Gallagher.Where are you?”He couldn’t make out the words, but the sound was coming from his left.A sense of foreboding snaked its way up his spine.He grabbed the oars one more time and prayed he wouldn’t be too late.* * *Alex locked Bailey in her house, then ran as fast as she could to the marina.She tried to ignore the tearing pain in her hip, but it put a hitch in her step that slowed her down even more than her growing belly.“Thank God,” she whispered as the flashing lights of a squad car cut through the fog.The car screeched to a stop a few feet away from the door to the marina office.Dan Corelli and a rookie leaped from the front, and to her shock Dee and Brian Gallagher climbed out of the backseat.Her shock must have been obvious, because Dee immediately came to her side [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]