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.Her sunken cheeks revealed a model's bone structure, but she was thin and blistered from exposure to relentless tropic sunshine.Long blond hair that had to have drawn admiring stares in better days now spread across her pillow like drab seaweed clinging to the body of a woman who has drowned.Her body, underneath the sheet, would doubtless be alluring, if and when she got herself in shape again, but at the moment she looked wasted, drained of all vitality."Ms.Arnutage?"Although he tried to keep his voice down, Remo thought it came out sounding harsh, unnaturally loud inside the nearly silent room.Despite his own perception, though, the woman in the bed didn't appear to notice him or recognize her spoken name.Her green eyes-once vibrant, he imagined, but sadly faded now-were fixed on a point to the right of the silent television, seeing God knew what on the pink pastel wall.Remo moved closer to the bed, not rushing it, making sure that he was well within the woman's range of peripheral vision.The last damn thing she needed was a strange man popping up from nowhere, at her bedside, peering down at her as if she were some kind of specimen prepared for mounting."Kelly?"Jumping to the point of first-name intimacy was a risk, he knew, but it appeared to break the ice.The woman turned her head to face him, frowning slightly, but at least she didn't flinch or scream.In fact, her eyes appeared to focus clearly for the first time since Remo had entered the room."I've told you everything I can remember," she declared.There seemed to be no point in telling her that they had never met.As an alternative, he said, "I hoped that if we went through it again, just one more time, you might remember something else.""Is that the way it works?" she asked.Her voice was small and faraway."Sometimes," said Remo."Oh." She thought about it for a moment, vision fading in and out of focus on his face, before she said, "All right.Where should I start?""At the beginning," Remo told her, "if you wouldn't mind.""Okay."She hesitated, whether marshaling her thoughts or simply losing track of them, he couldn't tell.At least a minute passed before she spoke again, but when she did, her voice was firm and clear."We started from Miami on a Friday," she began, and Remo wondered what the problem was, how anyone could call her incoherent."First vacation in a year.My Richard works so hard.Not anymore, of course.He's resting now."Tears shimmered in her eyes, prepared to spill across her blistered cheeks."You stopped in Nassau and at Caicos," he reminded her."I'm getting there," she said."Who's telling this?""I'm sorry." Remo was encouraged by the flash of anger, the display of spirit.Page 17ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"So, we stopped in Nassau, and at Caicos.Richard likes to gamble.He knows how to play.He's lucky.Used to be."The first tear left a shining path across her face.If Kelly noticed it, she gave no sign.Her eyes were focused somewhere in the distance now, beyond the pale acoustic ceiling tiles."We had a great time, really.Nassau.Caicos.Richard needed to relax.All by ourselves.""You went to Puerta Plata," Remo said.The woman grimaced, flicking her eyes toward Remo with a reproachful glare, as if the very name left a foul taste in her mouth, but she didn't reproach him verbally."We went to Puerta Plata," she agreed."And met Enrique.""Filthy bastard!" Kelly startled Remo with her sudden vehemence."He was a part of it, you know.Oh, yes.I didn't trust him from the first, but Richard told me everything would be all right.It wasn't.was it?""No," Remo agreed, "it wasn't.How'd you meet him?""Richard?""Enrique.""Bastard!" This time, Remo wasn't sure if Kelly was addressing him directly, or referring to the missing crewman."Richard found him.Tried to warn him, really.Didn't like the way he looked at me.He always smirked, the little shit! We never should have hired him.""Where did you go from Puerta Plata?" Remo asked."East," she replied, "and south.Down through the passage."That would be Mong Passage, Remo thought, the stretch of water separating Puerto Rico from the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic.He had learned that much from checking out a map in the in-flight magazine while airborne between White Plains and Bethesda."After that?" he prodded as gently as possible."It was supposed to be a real vacation," Kelly Bauer Armitage replied, slipping gears."No plans, no reservations.Living on the water.It was just supposed to be the two of us, but Richard took him on, in case we hit bad weather.There was nothing in the forecast, but he worries.Used to."Both of Kelly's sunburned cheeks were wet with tears now, but her voice was steady.One hand had worked its way out from under the crisp sheet that covered her, fingers curling around the side rail of her bed and tightening until the knuckles blanched.Remo noted that her nails were bitten or broken off down to the quick.Long scratches on the back of her hand had scabbed over, already healing, while the skin between her fingers was chapped from exposure to sun- and salt water.Remo took a gamble, asking, "Where did the attack take place?""I don't know, dammit!" Fury and frustration mingled in her voice."A day beyond the passage, was it? Maybe two.What day is this?"He had to think about it for a moment."Wednesday," Remo told her."Wednesday.No, that isn't right.It wasn't Wednesday.You're mistaken.""When the men came-""Men? You call them men? Those filthy animals? You still have no idea." Her eyes were wild now; she was trembling on the edge of panic."They killed Richard, did you know that? And they.they."Her tears were flowing freely now, her shoulders jerking as she wept.Remo moved quickly, touching her gently on the neck before she could notice what he was doing.The woman relaxed into the bed like a deflating hot-air balloon.The hysteria drained out of her, but the horror still lived in her eyes."You said they dressed like pirates," Remo reminded her."They were pirates," she said, her voice like someone whose mind was far away now."You didn't see them.You don't know [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]