Sam nodded at the blood-soaked sleeve of her shirt.
'We know these people. Relatives of Helen's. Our plane had a rough landing after we lost oil pressure. You're soaked. I'm wounded. That's the story. Let's just hope they don't look inside the plane.'
'Where are we going?'
'Summer home for a UW faculty member with wealth from way back in his family,'
Haley said. 'Friend of Ben's. Another scientist. The name is Williams. Ellis Williams.'
She helped him through the building while they talked.
'This Williams hasn't cut his ties with you after the Sanker flap?' Sam asked.
'Of course, he has, but he doesn't remember-I'm hoping-that he told me where the key is, and I'm equally sure that he never thought I'd have the gall to use it without permission.'
They climbed in a ten-year-old Chevy Blazer with leather interior and traces of mold. It had seen better days. She put down the blanket. 'Belongs to one of the workers who's gone for the winter. They take turns driving it to keep it running. Tonight we're elected.'
He had a spate of shaking from the cold that nearly amounted to a convulsion.
'They said the heat in this old Blazer works well.'
'I hope so.' He felt unbearably miserable. He forced his mind to work, to continue the conversation. It was difficult to focus on anything but the misery.
'I've got the important papers with me,' he said through chattering teeth. 'They're wet, but I think we can still use them.'
He could feel the heating system start to work as Haley drove. It felt good.
'We may find more at the beach house. Grant told me Ben had used him to fly lots of people to Orcas. A bunch of people knew Ben was up to something big. Even Grant. He said there's some manifesto Ben worked up.'
Sam's eyes widened at that.
'They had a big confab at the beach house. Now I see it in a whole new light.
Oceanographers discussing the bottom of the sea. I think the papers related to that get-together are in the filing cabinets in the garage. We need to look there.'
Sam nodded, still pondering the word manifesto.
'Of course, Ben never bothered to give me the slightest hint about any of this.' Haley set her jaw in the familiar expression and shook her head.
'I know that hurts,' Sam said.
'Wait, don't tell me-it was for my own protection.' She shook her head again and kept driving. After a moment she said, 'You know what?'
'What?'
'I'm sure now that the beach house meeting had to do with Ben's secrets.'
'It means we definitely need to check the beach house.' Sam was feeling almost human again with the powerful blast of the Blazer's heat. 'So what did these 'few good men' talk about, then? The end of the world in a giant cloud of methane?'
'Something like that, I guess.' She saw Sam's look and sighed. 'Really, I'm trying not to be upset about Ben keeping me out of it. At least some things are making more sense.'
'Do you know anything about a meeting with Nelson Gempshorn and Sarah James together on a Sunday? I found a note in Ben's pants at Sanker.'
'Nelson Gempshorn and Sarah James together?'
'That's what the note said.'
Haley shook her head. 'Nope.'
'You're sure. Not on a Sunday?'
'Not on any day.'
Sam looked at her.
'Well, not with Sarah and not on Sunday. I met with Nelson Gempshorn. It was after that time when I found them with the IV I didn't mention it expressly because they asked me to pretend the meeting never happened.'
'So tell me what did happen.'
'I feel so stupid now,' she said. 'I believed the whole thing was about cancer and Nelson wanting to hide it from his family. But he spent half the time telling me what a great man Ben was, in epic terms, as if he were Julius Caesar. I couldn't relate cancer to the epic 'historical figure' stuff. Now, of course, a different possibility is emerging. But still it tells us nothing concrete. That's another reason I didn't mention it.'
'I think Ben planned for you and Sarah to meet with Nelson today.'
'You're kidding.'
He showed her the piece of paper while she was driving. 'See the bit about the flowers?'
'That's no surprise. Sarah would be elated, because I don't think Ben's been that overt, but it's hard for the rest of us to miss.'
'I have a hunch that had everything unfolded as planned, he would have had you and Sarah go away from here today,' Sam said. 'We just never got there.'
Haley thought about that for a moment.
'I think somebody may be following,' Sam said. 'Headlights behind us. Douse your lights. Before the next intersection, take the corner hard left and ditch him.'
Haley did as he said. They could see almost nothing without the headlights. She turned and found the road, but slowed because of the visibility problem.
Traveling past the intersection, the car following, not a marked police car, turned hard, lost control, and slid off into the forest edge.
'Take off,' Sam said.
She turned on the headlights, accelerated, and followed the road to where it made a ninety-degree turn to the right, and then after one more intersection, rejoined Mud Bay Road.
'Not good,' Sam said. 'They probably have the license number.'
'We'll be at the Williamses' place soon. I'm going to take the long way around because the shortest route brings us near Ben's.'
It took only about ten minutes to find the private gravel drive. Sam now had a steady blast of heat on his legs and torso that made it tough to leave.
As they exited the Blazer, lights came on overhead, from a motion detector, Sam assumed.
'That's not helpful,' Sam said, hating the light and the signal it would give to anyone who might see the place from around the bay. It was unnerving and that, no doubt, was the purpose.
The Williams home sat on a flat nestled between a few trees to either side and overlooking the quiet bay. A quarter of a mile down the bay, Sam saw a trawler-design yacht riding at anchor. In the light of the full moon, he could see that she was a substantial little ship, maybe seventy feet long and probably a multimillion-dollar vessel.
'Do you know anything about that boat?' Sam asked.
'No. Maybe someone in for Thanksgiving?' She pointed inland. 'There's a house up a bank there-you can see the lights behind a couple trees.'
'We better hope they don't notice our lights and make phone calls.'
'Those people keep to themselves; I doubt they'll be calling anyone.'
The Williamses' two-story house had been well-designed and obviously built by a rich man. A lawn sloped toward the beach and above it grew well-groomed gardens fenced in to keep out the deer. A covered porch featured handmade balustrades; copper gutters that reflected gold in the night light. Houses such as this, on the waterfront, were either built long ago or recently by the wealthy.
They walked along the path from the parking area and intermittent shallow steps formed of rock. Haley went to a man-made garden pond, which had a ceramic frog in it. In the bottom of the frog was a key. They opened the door to exquisitely planned, early-American decor. Haley went straight to a thermostat and turned on the heat. Then she went out the back onto the covered porch.
'Hopefully, the caretaker won't come around for the few minutes we're here,' she said when she came back
