"Good hunting, my friend. Be careful."
"Wanna ride along?"
"I've got to find Jimmy before he gets hurt or hurts someone else."
Lester and Mad Dog were together, with Lester driving. Lester fisted his truck horn, stuck his head out the window and screamed at the truck ahead of his.
"Are you deaf as well as dumb and blind!" Lester screamed.
A sugar cane truck, as big as a two-storied house, crowned by cane stalks, was blocking Lester's truck. At the first opportunity, Lester passed it like a rocket.
Mad Dog said, "Relax, Lester."
"We gotta get off this island," Lester said.
"We will when the heat's off."
"It ain't never gonna be off of us after what we did."
Mad Dog corrected his son. "After what you did."
Lester was itchy. "We gotta get off this island."
Mad Dog said, "We need money to get away."
"Where we gonna get money?"
"Jeremiah Quint just sold his crop, right?"
"He's dead, daddy, remember? We don't even know where his money is."
Mad Dog said, "I wonder how hard it'll be to find."
"You think it's still up there?"
Rafferty left his parked rental outside the Ilima Chapel and walked up to the front door. A sign said "Ilima Chapel Virginia Hong, Prop." Rafferty entered.
Inside Rafferty met with Ginny Hong.
Rafferty said, "How's Eddie?"
Ginny fought hard not to cry. Rafferty embraced her. Pulling herself together, she pushed away and then went toward her private office. After a moment, Rafferty followed.
Ginny went to her desk. "Sheriff Hartman didn't arrest you."
"He thought about it," Rafferty said.
"He's a good man, Terry. You know, his wife died earlier this year. A drunk driver. They were the happiest married couple I ever met. Eighteen years together and they still walked hand-in-hand on the beach. The Sheriff was on duty that night. He heard about the accident and drove over there. My Eddie was the one who gave him his wife's wallet."
Ginny opened her desk and brought out a frosted bottle of cognac and two snifters and then poured great dollops in each. "Fortifier for my customers." After tasting hers she said, "Let's get outa here."
That twilight Rafferty and Ginny walked together on a country road, passing the bottle back and forth to fill their snifters.
Ginny said, "Janis Buchanan was a wild one. She surprised everybody marrying the Sheriff."
"And that nurse in the ambulance? That's her sister?"
Ginny nodded. "Janis might've been wild, but Nora was always much wilder. She's been through a lot of men."
"Anybody in particular?"
"This guy named Tomo. Part Tahitian, part Hawaiian. Big guy. "
"Ginny, tell me about Lester and Mad Dog," Rafferty said.
"Lester Rahler is pupule, a crazy man. Insane. His father Mad Dog is both a rock and a hard place. Those two aren't fit to breathe the same air as my Eddie."
Rafferty tried to pass her the bottle, but Ginny refused it. Rafferty put his arm around her shoulder, and they walked together in silence.
At the same time, wearing her nurse's uniform, Nora was leaving her apartment for her job at the hospital, and Henry held the door for her.
Nora said, "I won't let him die."
Henry watched her walk down the staircase.
Inside the Sheriff’s private office Paula Grayson was cradling her sleeping baby and watching her other daughter playing with a cap pistol on the carpet. Sheriff Hartman listened intently.
"I told him he shouldn't be doing it," Paula said. "He had kids and a wife."
Hartman said, "How was his crop this year?"
"His best," Paula said. "He harvested about fifteen days ago."
"Who was his buyer?"
"I never knew the details."
"How much did he get for it?"
"Audrey told me between seven and eight hundred thousand dollars."
"What happened to the money?"
"In the bank, I suppose," Paula said.
Hartman said, "If it isn't there, where would he hide it?"