Chapter 50

“WHAT EXACTLY’S WRONGwith her?” Tox asked.

“Murray said she’s got some kind of kidney thing,” I said. “I don’t think she’s had her medication. That’s how the family knew something was up. Why they reported them missing.”

My whole body ached to be on that boat. Though she wasn’t giving us any details, I knew Hope could have wounded Jenny with that gunshot, just to mess with us. The shot could have tipped Jenny over the edge into a seizure.

Hope walked to the end of the upper level of the boat and looked at the vessels ringing her, paced back again and stared at her victim, now still.

“Hope, are you willing to let us send a medic on board?” Murray said.

Hope went to the end of the boat again, lifted her gun and started firing. I ducked, but she wasn’t firing at us this time. Murray’s boat had been carried forward a little farther than the others as we came to a stop behind the New Hope, and she was warning him back. I saw all three officers on board dive for the deck.

“Girl’s gonna run out of bullets in a minute,” Tox grunted.

He was right. Hope stopped firing and returned to the bridge. When she reappeared she had a hunting rifle in her hand. She pointed it skyward and fired at the coastguard chopper, which was hovering high above us. She only gave it one shot. This was probably her last gun.

“Move back!”her voice screeched on the radio. Murray put his boat in reverse and came into line with the rest of us.

Every second of growing darkness was agonizing. Jenny wasn’t moving. A couple of times, rogue officers on the water police boats tried to creep forward into the circle we’d established around the New Hope. But she spotted them soon enough and forced them back.

I could see the air compressor she’d tied Jenny to. A third of the heavy, squat machine was hanging off the edge of the boat, just beyond the gap in the bridge wall. When she felt threatened, Hope would go to the machine and rattle it, push it farther over the edge and then pull it back. I waited for Jenny to move. She didn’t.

I couldn’t take it any longer. All of the vessels around the New Hope had their spotlights trained on the water around the hull. I got an idea, and flicked ours off.

“What’s the plan now, genius?” Tox asked.

I switched radio channels onto the coastguard channel, so that Hope couldn’t hear me. I radioed the three coastguard boats spread throughout the circle.

“Coastguard, coastguard, this is Detective Harriet Blue, over.”

“Coastguard here.”

“Can you guys wait a few minutes, then switch your lights off? I’m trying to set up a path in, over.”

Hope had noticed I’d switched my spotlights off, and that the ocean in front of my boat was black. I played it casual, leaning on the top of the bridge, talking to Tox. If I was careful, she’d think I was just switching the big light off to conserve my boat’s battery power. I could feel her watching me, but she said nothing to Chris about it as they negotiated over the radio.

My plan was working. After a time, one coastguard boat switched off its light. Then another. Hope hardly noticed. She was ranting and pacing.

“You don’t fucking understand. You’re a man. How could you? You probably grew up in some mansion in bloody Mosman or something. You probably went to private school, didn’t you? You were a poor choice of negotiator, my friend. There’s no way you could possibly understand me. All right? So don’t say that you do.”

“We had another negotiator for you.” Chris sighed. I could hear his dismay over the radio. “He’s been held up.”

Half the ocean around the New Hope was in darkness. The police boats cut beams of light through the black waves. It was time to go.

“You coming?” I asked Tox. He looked bewildered, until I started taking off my shoes.

“Oh, shit.” He sighed, peeling off his jacket.