I nodded.
'Back in the boat,' I said.
Chapter 20
It would have been peaceful drifting along on the river, under the trees, if there weren't somebody after us with a bowie knife. And if we had something besides Oreo cookies for breakfast.
'Do you think he's still after us?' Jeannie said.
I noticed dark bruises on her wrists. Probably from when her father grabbed her.
'Don't know that he's not,' I said.
'He'll be drunk,' Jeannie said.
'Still?' I said.
'He's drunk all the time,' Jeannie said. 'I don't think he can stand being him if he's sober.'
'I wonder how he got to be that way,' I said.
'I used to wonder that too,' Jeannie said. 'Now I don't even care. He's too awful.'
'Was there ever a time he was nice?' I said.
'No.'
'Poor devil,' I said.
'Poor wife and daughter,' Jeannie said.
'You don't like him at all,' I said.
'I hate him,' Jeannie said.
I had nothing to say to that.
Big drops of rain began to splat on the water, sending out wide ripples. I looked up through the leaves and the sky was dark. It got darker as I watched. And the rain came harder. Pearl didn't mind being wet. But she didn't like the feel of the raindrops hitting her. Jeannie unrolled the blankets and put one over Pearl. She offered me the second one.
'No,' I said. 'You.'
'But what about you?' she said.
'I'm a Spenser,' I said. 'Tough.'
She smiled and put the blanket over her head and around her shoulders.
'My hair must be a mess,' she said.
'Kind of,' I said.
'You didn't have to agree so quick,' Jeannie said.
'But you still look good,' I said.
'Ha!' Jeannie said.
The rain came harder. It was quite dark under the trees. The river meandered mostly, in big looping curves, so that ten miles on the river might be one mile as the crow flies. At the moment we were in one of the more or less straight stretches, and ahead of us I could see something through the murk. It might have been a bridge. The rain came straight down and fast. It was hard to see through it. We drifted toward whatever the something was, and when we got close enough, we saw it was a railroad bridge.
