Children of the Storm

voice, either.”
        “Of course they would.”
        “Why?”
        “They know me, of course.”
        “They know Bill, not you!” she said.
        The conversation had gotten to be something like a scene from Alice In Wonderland, nearly nonsensical, but she felt that through the nonsense she was reaching him, just barely, just a little, but reaching him beneath the layers of insanity.
        He had been shaken by her statement, and he had no answer for it.
        She started in on him again, quick, before he could regain his composure. She said, “Why did you ever conceive of hurting Alex and Tina?”
        He looked at the children, back at her, lifted the point of the knife until it was angled straight toward her slim throat, only a couple of short feet away from a clean, quick, deadly slice.
        He said, “The Doughertys have always had things so good, too good, better than they deserve. They've never suffered, and someone had to show them that suffering was necessary.”
        “You're talking nonsense,” she said, sternly.
        “No-”
        “Yes you are. What are your real reasons behind this whole affair, Jeremy? Your real reasons.”
        He floundered for a moment, then said, “Bill could have such a much better job than he does.”
        “How?”
        “With the Blenwells.”
        “They offered him a job?” she asked.
        “Yes.”
        “When?”
        “About a year ago.”
        “Why would they offer Bill a job, when they know he works for Mr. Dougherty and when they don't care at all for the Doughertys or their people?”
        “It was a deal,” Jeremy said. “A special deal. They offered Bill this job, same job at their place that he now has at Seawatch. All he had to do, to get it, was talk to Mr. Dougherty about selling Seawatch, maybe snoop around a little and see if Dougherty had special reasons for holding on to his part of the island.”
        “What do you mean-'special reasons'?” she asked.
        “They thought he might intend to build a resort hotel, or something like that, if he could get all of the island for himself. They wanted to know if that was true.”
        “Was it?”
        “No. And poor Bill,” Jeremy said, “was too nice a guy to figure out any way of driving the Doughertys off Distingue. Here were the Blenwells, willing to double or triple his salary. Here was a chance for him to have something nice for the first time in his life, maybe a boat of his own, a real nice cargo sailboat, and he was too nice a guy to figure out how to drive the Doughertys off Distingue.”
        “But you solved that problem for him,” Sonya said.
        “Yes, I did,” Jeremy said. “I figured if I could make the family run to Distingue, I could kill the children here, just like I threatened, cut them all up. Then Joe Dougherty would fall all over himself to unload his share of the island. He'd never want to live here again.”
        To keep him off balance, Sonya said, “I still don't see why you had to kill Hayes.”
        “He wanted to go through with the kidnapping, what I told him we'd do in the beginning. A month ago, I told him it was off, that I'd decided we couldn't get away with it. But he wouldn't let up on me. Sunday, when he found out the Doughertys were gone, he rented a boat and came over here to Distingue. He was getting in my way. I had to kill him.”
        She thought she heard something in the corridor, outside, but she could not be sure if it was someone who had come up from the storm cellar, or whether it was only a noise that the storm had made.
        Sadly as she could, as if she sympathized with him, she said, “But Jeremy, you won't help Bill at all, if you kill Alex and Tina. The Blenwells never meant for you to go this far to get the Doughertys off Distingue. When they realize what you've done to help Bill get that job, they'll never hire him.”
        “They don't have to know it was done for Bill,” Jeremy said, smiling slyly. “They never have to know.”
        She thought fast, still listening for a repeat of that noise from the corridor, and she said, “If you do escape, do you realize who they're going to blame for Rudolph's death-for the children and for me?”
        He looked blank.
        “Bill,” she said. “Bill's the only man that's not in the cellar. Nobody on Distingue even knows about you. So Bill will become your fall guy. They'll send Bill to prison in your