Part Forty-Two

(Continued from Part Forty-One. This concludes the Maine episode and the trip to the East Coast.)

It was a quiet morning on Osprey Island in Maine. Taylor was in the shade of an ancient elderberry tree, busy with his sketch pad and charcoal pencils, producing a drawing of Raoul. He was doing this from memory, because Raoul himself was in the kitchen making blueberry brownies. Deidre was also in the yard, tackling the screen door project. She had propped the door on two carpenter's horses behind the house and was carefully lifting the thin strips of old wood so she could tack down a fresh piece of screen. She occasionally looked over at Taylor, absorbed in his drawing, and she wondered what his interpretation of her father would be. She almost didn't want to know. She had discovered that Taylor had a sardonic sense of humor that she found jarring but refreshing compared to her stuffy routine at The Wharton School.

Peggy, meanwhile, was hidden in a patch of spruce forest near the shore. She had a battery-operated music player with relatively large speakers; it was capable of significant volume when turned up loud enough. She also had a pair of binoculars.

She looked at her watch. It was almost time. She heard footsteps behind her. Raoul came down the path.

"Brownies are in the oven," he said.

"Our friend is due at any moment," said Peggy.

"This guy must be a real amateur," said Raoul. "He's been paddling in front of our house several times a day. Does he imagine for a moment that we would mistake him for a lobsterman?"

"Who knows. We're dealing with the government here." Peggy saw a movement on the water, then the bow of a canoe was visible through the trees. She raised the binoculars to her eyes. "That's him. Right on schedule."

The man wore a hat. Peggy studied him through the glasses, and noticed that the hat was new. It had Eaton's Lobster Pool stitched on the front. He had been hatless for a few days after the incident on the roadway with the Crannies.

Peggy lowered the glasses. "Here we go," she said.

The music player was mounted on a sturdy tree branch, facing the water. She pushed a button. The sound that filled the air was unlike anything that anyone vacationing on Osprey Island was likely to hear on a typical summer morning.

Click here to listen.

It was Athan, an Islamic call to prayer. Even though the hour was well past sunrise, Peggy had chosen the first prayer because it sounded more dramatic to her. She figured the man in the boat would not know the difference anyway.

The man's reaction was instantaneous. The moment the eerie chant reached his ears he sat up like someone had called his name on a loudspeaker. Then he stood, causing his canoe to rock. He had a pair of binoculars, which he raised quickly to his eyes and scanned the shoreline and the house while trying to maintain his balance. Peggy had anticipated as much: the plan was for him to see nothing but an empty-looking house and yard.

Peggy looked at Raoul. He had his camera raised and was firing off picture after picture. She giggled. "I wonder what's going through his mind. Maybe he thinks we're holding the first annual Osprey Island Jihad Conference."

Raoul looked at her. "Now I know where Taylor gets it. You have a rebellious streak in you, don't you? You like to challenge the system."

"The system needs to be challenged, it was designed by men. Women can't play nice if they want to be noticed."

Raoul lowered his camera, as though struck by a thought. "Can I ask you a very personal question?"

"Sure."

"What did your late husband think of your views?"

"He was very supportive of them," said Peggy.

Then they heard a commotion on the cove. They both turned and saw the man trying to talk into a cell phone while looking through the binos. But meanwhile the canoe had drifted into the outer tip of Laughing Lizard rock. The collision was just enough to through the man off balance. He cried out as he fell into the water.

Raoul tossed his camera down. "I'd better check on him." He rushed down to the shore. Peggy followed.

The man waved his arms frantically, trying to grip the edge of the canoe. He managed to shove it away from him. Peggy saw fear in his face. The cold water must have shocked him, she thought.

Raoul scrambled over the rock and down the other side. The tide was halfway up the face of the rock.

"Can you reach my hand?" Raoul called out, stretching.

"My legs won't move," said the man, gasping.

Raoul crawled down the rock. The man was going under. Raoul leaped into the water and grabbed one of the man's arms. He dragged him toward the rock. Peggy was there waiting. Raoul got a foothold and climbed onto the rock, dragging the man with him.

"Give me your other hand," said Peggy.

Together Raoul and Peggy pulled the man onto the rock. By this time Deidre and Taylor were on the shore.

"The tide's coming in fast," yelled Deidre.

"Taylor, take the kayak and see if you can retrieve that canoe," said Raoul.

Taylor ran off toward the spot where the kayaks were beached.

"We have to get off this rock," said Raoul. "It's going to be underwater in a little while. Can you walk to shore?"

The man nodded. They helped him down the shore-side of the rock and onto the beach, above the tide line. He sunk to his knees and took deep breaths.

Peggy waited a moment, then said, "What were you doing out there? Why have you been following us around?"

"What makes you think I was following you?"

"Because we saw you in Camden, then again in Searsport, and our neighbors helped you get your car unstuck at the bridge, and you've been paddling your canoe past our house everyday."

"You saw me in Camden? And Searsport?" The man had a dejected look on his face. "I had no idea."

Peggy felt herself grow hot with anger. "Well?"

"I'm doing a favor for my brother-in-law. He owns a private investigative service and he has a contract to check up on people who might have ties to terrorism. But he has more work than he can handle, so he asked me if I want to make a few hundred bucks following that guy right out there." He pointed to Taylor, who was towing the canoe.

"Who is your brother-in-law working for?" asked Peggy.

"I don't know. He never says who his clients are," said the man.

When the canoe was ashore, Peggy said, "I want you to get in that canoe and go away and not come back. Or else I'm going to call the police."

The man shrugged. "Sorry. It was a lousy job anyway." He climbed into his canoe and paddled away quickly.

Raoul looked at Peggy. "He could have drowned."

"He should have thought of that ahead of time," said Peggy.

"You were playing a dangerous game in my opinion," said Raoul.

"What would you have done?"

"My suggestion was to simply go out and wave him in and ask him what he was doing?" said Raoul.

Deidre turned to go. "I think there's something in the oven." Taylor followed her back to the house.

"I didn't like that suggestion," said Peggy. "I thought he needed to be taught a lesson."

"Sounds like an emotional reaction to me," said Raoul.

"I didn't stop to analyze it."

"Sometimes that kind of confrontational approach can work against you," said Raoul.

"Don't start lecturing to me. My son's being hounded by the police and I'm angry. And this is my way of getting even."

"I can't say I'm a fan of your methods," said Raoul.

"That's perfectly fine with me. I don't need a fan club."

The brownies were burned.

The next day the party said goodbye to the Crannies and drove to Portland, Maine, where they boarded trains and planes for points south and west. Peggy and Raoul hardly said a word on the long flight to Seattle. They took a taxi from the airport to the ferry terminal and then walked onto the Bainbridge Island ferry. It was evening. Peggy gazed at a full sky of stars over Puget Sound and it reminded her of the clear nights in Maine. She was happy to have a place like Bainbridge to come back to.

When the ferry docked Peggy and Raoul walked down the ramp. Raoul got a taxi and offered to take Peggy home, but Peggy said that she was okay lugging her suitcase-on-wheels up the road to her house. They said goodbye.

She opened all the windows of her house when she got inside and then walked barefoot in the backyard to look at her garden, even though it was dark. The dry grass crackled and crunched beneath her feet. Fortunately, her neighbor had watered the flowers and plants, and Peggy could see that her tomato plants were heavy with small yellow fruit.

In the kitchen she made red herb tea and sat at the table, and enjoyed the silence of the house.

She breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be alone.