but she held them back and I went on.
“That’s why you used the back entrance to Jimmy’s shop, to avoid the neighbours who knew Sherry. ““that’s why those two goons of Manny’s arrived to roast your fingers on the gas-ring. They wanted to find out who you were - because you sure as hell weren’t Sherry North. They had killed her.”
I wanted her to speak now. Her silence was wearing my nerves.
“What rank is Uncle Dan - Inspector?”
“Chief Inspector,“she said.
“I had him tabbed the moment I laid eyes on him.”
“If you knew all this, then why did you go through with it?“she demanded.
“I was suspicious at first - but by the time I knew for certain I was crazy stupid in love with you.”
She braced herself, as though I had struck her, and I went on remorselesly.
“I thought by some of the things we did together that you felt pretty good about me. In my book when you love someone, you don’t sell them down the river.”
“I’m a policewoman,” she flashed at me, “and you’re a killer.”
“I never killed a man who wasn’t trying to kill me first,” I flashed back, “just the way you hit Suleiman Dada.”
That caught her off-balance. She stammered and looked about her as if she were in a trap.
“You’re a thief,” she attacked again.
“Yes,” I agreed. “I was once - but that was a long time ago, and since then I worked hard on it. With a bit of help, I’d have made it.”
“The throne-” she went on, “you are stealing the throne.”
“No, ma’am,” I grinned at her. “What is in the coffin then?”
“Three hundred pounds of beach sand from Turtle Bay. When you see it, think of the times we had there.”
“The throne - where is it?”
“With its rightful owner, the representative of the people of St. Mary’s, President Godfrey Biddle.”
“You gave it up?” she stared at me with disbelief that faded slowly as something else began to dawn in her eyes. “Why, Harry, why?” “Like I said, I’m working hard on it.” Again we were staring hard at each other, and suddenly I saw the clear liquid flooding her dark blue eyes.
“And you came here - knowing what I had to do?” she asked, her voice choking.
“I wanted you to make a choice,” I said, and she let the tears cling like dewdrops in the thick dark eyelashes. I went on deliberately, “I’m going to walk out of this booth and go out through that gate. If nobody blows the whistle I will be on the next flight out of here and the day after tomorrow, I will swim out through the reef to look for the dolphins.”
“They’ll come after you, Harry,” she said, and I shook my head.
“President Biddle has just altered his extradition agreements.
Nobody will be able to touch me on St. Mary’s. I have his word for it.”
I turned and opened the door of the booth. “I’m going to be lonely as all hell out there at Turtle Bay.”
I turned my back on her then and walked slowly and deliberately to the departures gate, just as they called my flight for the second time. It was the longest and scariest walk of my entire life, and my heart thumped in time to my footsteps. Nobody challenged me and I dared not look back.
As I settled into the seat of the Swissair Caravelle and fastened my seat belt, I wondered how long it would take her to screw up her nerve enough to follow me out to St. Mary’s, and I reflected-that there was much I still had to tell her.
I had to tell her that I had contracted to raise the rest of the golden throne from Gunfire Break for the benefit of the people of St. Mary’s. In return President Godfrey Biddle had undertaken to buy me a new deep-sea boat from the proceeds - just like Wave Dancer - a token of the people’s gratitude.
I would be able to keep my lady in the style to which I was accustomed, and of course there was always the case of Georgian silver gilt plate buried behind the shack at Turtle Bay for the lean and hungry off season. I hadn’t reformed that much. There would be no more night runs, however.
As the Caravelle took off and climbed steeply up over the blue lakes and forested mountains, I realized that I did not even know her real name.
That would be the first thing I would ask her when I met her at the airport of St. Mary’s island, - Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
