Robert Walker - Grave Instinct

Konrath checked his watch, went to a nearby phone and called up to the captain. “We're in position, Captain.”

“ Stand by,” Quarels said. “The island has come into sight. Searching for the right house and dock.”

“ We'll stand by.”

Moments passed like hours as the storm slammed the lifeboat into the side of the hull and they waited for the go sign.

Finally, the captain rang their position. “Konrath, we've located the dock-a police boat is tied there. It's directly off our starboard bow.”

“ We're on our way then, sir.”

“ Good luck and be careful. Keep in radio contact… Out.”

The two armed guards stood nearby. Konrath indicated the hatchway door, and one of the Coast Guard men turned the wheel on the hatch, and in a moment it was pushed open. Rain and wind stormed through the hatch, making it difficult to see, and just below the hatch, the lifeboat swung wildly in and out against the side of the cutter. Overhead, crewmen worked to hold tow cables firm to keep the boat from thrashing about wildly, but the cable was being given a battle by the wind and water.

Joe Konrath went first, leaping across the sometimes short and sometimes gaping space between the large cutter and the small lifeboat. Jessica was then helped across by Konrath onboard the smaller craft and Sorrento from behind. Finally, Sorrento joined them, along with the two armed crewmen. The only light Jessica could see at this vantage point was that coming from the hatchway they'd exited. A moment later even that small beacon was shut off when a crewman, struggling with the door, finally closed it from the inside.

The tow cables came off the boat and rattled upward and disappeared like angry snakes. The smaller craft bobbed and whirled uncontrollably at first, but in a moment the crewmen, under Konrath's orders, had manned the oars and stabilized the boat. Though they had an engine on the boat, Konrath suggested they go in as quietly as possible. The cutter overhead of them had long since shut down its lights.

When they pulled silently into the now-crowded dock, Konrath ordered the line secured. The nose of the craft nestled into the front of the dock and they disembarked from there. First Mate Joseph Konrath shouted over the wind, ordering his two men to follow his lead. He said to Sorrento and Jessica, “I'm taking my men with me up those stairs and to the house.”

“ Wait here until we've had a chance to check out the yacht,” said Sorrento, urging Jessica into the boathouse. The two of them climbed aboard Swantor's craft.

“ We've got to locate Potter. If he's still alive, we can get him medical assistance on the cutter,” she said.

“ And if he's dead, it's my damned fault. If only I could’ve gotten him to listen to me!” complained Sorrento.

“ Yeah, if the old fool had only listened to you.”

Sorrento insisted on leading the way down into the yacht. The rainwater dripping from their slickers puddled and ran down the steps ahead of them.

His gun in the ready position, Sorrento lost his footing, going to his back and sliding down the final stair and into the living room area. Jessica was blocked by his body. If someone should come from the control room the other side of the stairs, Sorrento was a dead man. She leapt over him and turned, her gun pointed into the control room.

“ Nobody here,” she told Sorrento.

Mike made it to his feet, his gun still held firm. Jessica looked about the room they stood in, filled with computer equipment and two screens she remembered well from Florida. Splashed across one screen were the remains of the Skull-digger's second-to-last victim, Selese Montoya. Jessica gasped anew at the sight and shut the screen off.

“ Oh, Christ… look at this,” said Sorrento, staring at the second screen.

Jessica gazed at the prone body in a yellow rain slicker with the letters that spelled out SHERIFF in black. The man's head was smeared with blood and bone that had caked his hair. Potter lay on his stomach, the back of his head splayed open, the wound obviously the work of the Skull-digger's bone cutter. “Sonofabitch,” Jessica muttered.

“ Was the old fool deaf? Why didn't he listen to me? Why'd he go near Kenyon?”

Sorrento went deeper into the bowels of the ship, kicking open each cabin door, his gun pointed and ready. Jessica sensed that no one but the dead were aboard. She held back, waiting for Sorrento.

When he was satisfied that there was no one else aboard, Mike relaxed his grip on the gun, put it away and returned to her.

“ Both Swantor and Kenyon must be up at the house. Potter must have helped Kenyon to get free, and that”- he indicated the screen displaying Potter's body-”that's what Potter got for his trouble. Damned old man. Why didn't he stop talking long enough to listen to reason?”

“ Shut it off,” Jessica said of the screen, but Mike continued to stare at Potter's body.

“ It's not your fault, Mike.” Jessica cut off the image on the second screen.

“ Tell that to my priest.”

“ You couldn't have predicted this. All you asked of the man was to give you a phone number. He wanted to play hero, get her off the island. You begged him to wait until we got here, and you tried to tell him to stay away from Kenyon.”

“ Let's get up to the house before these butchers kill someone else.”

“ Shoot to kill,” she told him.

He took a deep breath and nodded. “Count on it.”

Jessica and Sorrento made their way topside and off the death ship. Stepping out of the boathouse, Jessica and Sorrento found themselves in a renewed, vigorous downpour and alone. Konrath had taken his men up toward the house.

They rushed up the rain-slicked cypress boards of the stairs leading to the mansion. Jessica stared up at the house as she went. The place was cloaked in a kind of ethereal green darkness from all the ivy on its walls and the foliage all around the structure. All the lights were out except for one that appeared on the third floor. Ahead of them, they saw the cautious Coast Guard men inching ever closer to the house.

“ Wish we knew the lay of this place,” said Jessica, near breathless. She slipped but caught the handrail and continued. Sorrento had gotten twenty yards ahead of her. He stopped and turned, asking if she were OK.

“ Keep moving. I'm fine,” she called back softly. Looks like G.I. Joe Konrath intends a frontal assault on the place.”

“ He should've waited for us like we asked.” “Everyone wants to be a hero, bring down the Skull-digger.”

Inside the house, Jervis Swantor inched his way toward the master bedroom and bath, and looking into the bathroom, he found Lara, her head on a satin pillow and her eyes closed in a bubble-filled tub. “How's the water, sweetheart?” he asked in a chillingly calm voice.

“ Jervis, my God!” she replied, her eyes coming open in shock. “I

… I didn't expect to see you here tonight.” She recalled yesterday's visit from Sheriff Potter, asking after Jervis's whereabouts, and she'd thought then of vacating the place, but then she had James to protect her. “What do you fucking want, Jervis? What are you doing in my house?”

“ I have someone I want you to meet. We're all going for a nice cruise to Cancun.”

“ You're mad.”

“ I know. Now get up and come with me.” He jabbed her cheek with the barrel of his gun. “I said get up from there, you cunt!” he ordered.

She took in a deep breath of air, wondering if he'd harmed James and left him bleeding somewhere in the house. “Jervis, what the hell are you doing? What more can you possibly want from me?”