Vaughn turned at the sound, lifted a gun, and fired two wild shots that hit in the water some twenty feet to Frank’s right.
Vaughn was still holding the gun, but he stopped firing, hesitating, and Frank yelled, “Bring it over here! I’ve got the key!”
Vaughn looked down at the big, silent engine on the stern and then lowered his gun. He was struggling with the trolling motor, didn’t seem to understand how to use it, and Frank, trying to go out to meet the boat, was now in water up to his chest, holding the gun high to keep it from going under.
Vaughn finally got the boat pointed in the right direction, and when it reached him Frank caught the side, took one deep breath, and heaved up, got his knee on the side, and used that leverage to force his way onto the boat.
He was collapsed on the starboard seat, fighting for breath, when Vaughn let go of the trolling motor and turned to him with the gun held out in a shaking hand.
“Give me the key.”
Frank stared at him. “What? Get that gun out of my face, asshole.”
“Give me the key!”
Out on the lake a motor coughed several times and then caught, and both Frank and Vaughn looked toward the sound and saw that the aluminum boat was in motion again, headed toward another island, away from them. Vaughn kept staring after it, and Frank planted his feet on the floor, then rose and swept Vaughn’s gun down and away, hit him once in the chest with a closed fist. It knocked Vaughn back against the steering console, and Frank locked his left hand around Vaughn’s wrist and twisted until the fingers opened up and the gun fell to the bottom of the boat.
“What the hell’s the matter with you?” he said, his face close to Vaughn’s, whose entire body seemed to be shaking. “You could have killed me, you stupid bastard.”
Frank knelt and picked up the gun, wedged it beneath the seat, out of the way, and then put the key in the ignition and twisted. As the motor came to life, Vaughn moved away, and Frank straightened and stared out at the departing aluminum boat. It looked like Nora was at the motor. There was no way she’d hear him, so he lifted his arm and waved it in a slow arc. Finally she saw him and lifted her own hand, but kept taking the boat away, toward the other island.
“What’s she doing?” Frank said, dropping to the seat and moving his hand to the throttle.
“Renee was on that island,” Vaughn said.
“I think she’s on the boat now. What happened to the one who was with Nora on the boat, though?”
Vaughn didn’t answer.
“What about Ezra?” Frank twisted the wheel and turned the boat to go in pursuit of Nora and Renee.
“They shot him,” Vaughn said.
Frank spun to face him. “What?”
Vaughn nodded, his jaw trembling. “Somebody shot him. He’s dead.”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, where is he?”
Vaughn lifted an unsteady hand and pointed at the water.
36
__________
The sickness that had come and gone during those first few shots returned to Frank as he drove Ezra’s boat away from the island where his father’s old friend had been killed, was somewhere in the water now, joining Atkins, their blood spilling into the lake.
He imagined the bodies down there among the weeds and the stumps, fish swimming past, crimson clouds rising from the wounds and dissipating into the gray water, water that slapped gently against the log wall back at the cabin where Devin Matteson waited. It was on Devin, all that blood in the water, two more lives taken, adding to that total that included everyone Frank’s father had killed, included Frank’s father, who’d fired a bullet into his own mouth with the very gun Frank now held in his hand.
That would end today. Frank was going back to that cabin and he was going to kill him. That would be the last of it. He’d kill Devin, and the others could call the police, and then let it end however it would end. He couldn’t think about that, didn’t care about it, nothing mattering anymore but getting back across this damn lake to put a bullet into Devin Matteson’s heart.
“I’m sorry, Ezra.” He whispered it, and if Vaughn heard he did not react. There was some shared responsibility here, and all of his hatred for Devin didn’t blind him to that. Ezra was dead, and Frank had a role in that. He’d come here for blood, and now he’d seen plenty of it, hadn’t he? None from the correct source, though. That was the last thing he could make right, the only thing.
Nora had taken the other boat into the beach of the island, and as they approached Frank could see that she was still in the stern while Renee was onshore.
“What are you going to do?” Vaughn said. He was in the seat beside Frank, hands trembling on his thighs.
“We’re going to get them and get out of here,” Frank said. He’d brought Ezra’s boat in alongside the other, was staring across at Nora, who looked back at him without saying a word. There were red streaks across her face from the tape that had covered her mouth.
“You okay?” he said, dropping the motor to idle, speaking as his boat thumped against hers.
“I’m here,” she said.
“Ezra’s dead.”
She stared at him.
“Vaughn says they shot him. He’s dead.”
Nora didn’t answer. What did he expect her to say, anyhow? He said, “Get in this boat, and we’ll leave that one behind.”
She nodded and got to her feet, and he reached out a hand to help her step over. As he did it, he turned to Renee, who was walking down from the island. She was moving at a fast, confident pace, stepped right into the lake without breaking stride, moving toward his boat, a gun in her hand.
“Hey,” he said. “Get in. We’re leaving.”
She kept walking, the water up to her knees now. She hadn’t even glanced at Frank; her eyes were locked on Vaughn.
“Put that gun down,” Frank said.
She didn’t say a word. Just walked along the boat toward Vaughn. Frank’s own weapon was on the seat, and he turned and reached for it, thinking Vaughn might do the same, but instead Vaughn rose, climbing over the side of the boat and splashing into waist-deep water, moving toward Renee.
“Renee,” he said. He had his hands outstretched, reaching for her. “Forgive me. It was for you. I love you so much, and you could never understand that, you couldn’t see it, baby forgive me I did it because I love you so —”
He was a few feet away, still moving through the water toward her, still reaching for her, when she lifted the gun and fired. The bullet hit him in the temple and knocked him backward, snapped his head back and turned his eyes to the sky before he dropped into the water and then beneath it.
Frank had just gotten his hand on his own gun, and Nora was still standing in the rear of her boat, waiting to step across. She said something, some whispered gasp or oath or prayer, and Frank stood where he was, in a frozen reach for his gun, as Vaughn’s body sank.
“Let go of that.”
