Chapter 29

The ceiling fan rotated as it lazily cut the air above us. Slowly my heartbeat returned to normal. The pace of my breath slowed. Ranger lay next to me, his hair damp with sweat. He gathered me close, kissing me softly, still holding onto my hand. His grip held strong from the final moments of his surrender. In the darkness, the blue iridescent digital clock read 3:15 am. My head rested on his chest. I focused on his pulse. My eyelids already heavy, the anticipation of sleep taking over. I could feel my body calming down. I was satisfied, relaxed.

Ranger drew spirals on my skin, hypnotizing me with his touch."I need to set up a meeting with Morelli." Ranger stated quietly."How early can you call him?"

My eyes opened a little wider. If Ranger was going to tell anyone what happened, I wanted to be there. Joe's work schedule was not something I kept track of anymore. I didn't even know if he was working vice or homicide. My cards were on vice. He didn't like to dress in a suit, and homicide demanded it. Shifts fluctuated. He hadn't looked washed out or tired when we last spoke. I thought it was safe to say he was working normal hours. "I think if I call him after seven, he won't hang up on me." I said. "He wants to talk to you anyway. He told me to call if I saw you." Two birds, one stone. I thought to myself.

Ranger looked over. "He said that?"

"Trisha found a black piece of cloth on the boat. It looked like "ALS" was embroidered into it. A lot like your "SEALS" cap. He might be thinking the same thing."

Ranger growled. "Shit, I liked that hat." he paused. "That makes it even more important that I talk to Morelli. I want to know what he is going to do. If the cops have my hat, then they already consider me a suspect. I don't want to wait for lab results to tell them Les Sebring wasn't on the boat when it exploded."

I sat up on my elbows. "Les Sebring wasn't on the boat?"

"No." Ranger said, with a shake of his head.

"Then who was?" I asked, perplexedly.

"I'm guessing Sebring's family. Wife, two kids and a man dressed like Sebring. Tall, gray hair, mid sixties."

"Geez. You saw them alive?" I asked.

"I never said they were alive, babe."

I considered that for a moment. "Are you sure they were dead?"

"Unless they were vampires." Ranger stated unhappily.

"How did you end up on his boat?" I sat up, completely awake. I was a little more than just curious as to what happened. I needed to know if Les was still alive.

"I was staking out Sebring's wife's house." Ranger started. "I had a feeling he would go there. When the garage door went up at 4am, I figured it had to be him. A silver BMW drove out slowly. Sebring was at the wheel. I followed him to Bay Cove Harbor. He was in a hurry. I watched him scurry towards the boat slips, and use a keycard to open the gate. If I was going to follow him, I had to go into the water. I had no choice. He headed towards a large yacht. I was able to climb onto the swim platform. The moment my feet were out of the water, he started the engines. All I could do was hold on and hope for the best."

"You were just on the platform?" I was listening intently, wondering if I would ever be brave enough to do something like that.

"I've traveled in worse places."

"Your lucky he didn't see you."

"Luck has nothing to do with it. I think he only had one thing on his mind, and that was getting that boat out of there, quick. Plus, you can't see the platform from where he sat. As soon as he cleared the harbor, the throttle was down. I wasn't exactly prepared to go for a ride."

"Joe said they found the boat about 20 knots out." I told him.

"It seemed like he drove for hours, but I think it was because it wasn't all that easy to hold on. Everything was slippery. The boat was moving fast enough for me to rethink where I was stationed. I was about to climb further into the boat when he started slowing down. I went back into position and waited. The engines shut off and we were drifting. I heard the anchor drop, so I went back into the water.

"What were you going to do?" I asked him.

Ranger paused, watching me. What I want,and what I do are usually different. I wanted to kill him. Doesn't mean it would have played out that way. It didn't matter, I never got the chance to decide one way or the other. He dropped into a small boat I hadn't seen. It was tucked under the yacht. He was on it and away before I could do anything."

After he left, you got back on the yacht?

"I didn't have much of a choice. I climbed onto the boat, and did a quick search. I knew something was wrong. No one just abandons a vessel. The bodies were in the second stateroom. I checked them quickly to see if they were alive. My cellphone was dead. I went to find the radio. That is when I spotted the bomb. I jumped off the boat seconds before It went off."

I felt my heart flutter. It almost dropped out of my chest and did little flip flops on the sheets.

"Are you okay?" Ranger's voice was full of concern.

I shook my head. "No. I am not okay. You could have been killed."

"Your not going to get all emotional are you?" He picked my chin up and made me look at him. "I'm alright." Ranger said, smiling.

"You shouldn't have gone alone. We could have helped."

"Stephanie, I have never done it any other way."

"Well, I don't like it."

Ranger's mouth tugged at a smile. "Babe, I can't say that will change."

I rolled my eyes. "Finish the story. What happened after the boat exploded?"

It wasn't that I didn't realize who Ranger was. I knew how he worked. I respected him for it. What I didn't expect was my reaction to what he told me. I couldn't imagine life without him. That was the scariest feeling of all.

"Not a lot more to tell." Ranger started. "There were two more explosions after the first. Probably another bomb near the fuel tanks. By the time the Coast Guard arrived, the boat was engulfed in flames."

"What kind of a bomb would it take to make a boat burn like that?" I asked.

"Once fiberglass starts to burn, It moves fast and hot. You do not want to be anywhere near it. The chemicals coming from the smoke can cause your lungs to contract, making it impossible to breathe. Two pipe bombs, full fuel tanks, and maybe a couple full gas cans, and you can pretty much guarantee fiberglass will burn. It's not the glass, but the compound that holds it together that actually burns."

"How did you get back to shore?"

"I hitched a ride with the Coast Guard. They kind of picked me up, more or less."

"Why would Les kill his family?" I asked.

"Same reason he killed the man I found with them. To make it look like Les died being the true family man. Taking the family out on a cruise, then tragedy strikes. Everyone would call him a wonderful husband and father, no one would believe he was capable of killing Jeanne."

"Was his reputation really worth killing his family?"

"Sometimes people do things that don't make a lot of sense." Ranger said. "What ever the reason, It was a good way to make everyone believe he was dead. If I wouldn't have been on that boat, He would have gotten away with it, at least until they could ID the body. Good way to start over, or at least buy him some time to get away."

"It would have given him some time." I said. I was now even more concerned with my stalker. "When you saw Les, What color was his hair?" I already knew what his answer would be, I just needed to hear it out loud.

"Brown. Dark brown. I think he dyed it."

I leaned back against the headboard. "I was right. That was him."

Ranger's eyebrows went up. "You saw him?"

"Yesterday. Right before they brought the boat in."