Jack Beale 00 - Dangerous Shoals

open. This caused the interior light to come on, and the night world that had become so clear, disappeared. As soon as both doors closed behind them, the light went out and the dark world reappeared. They walked together across the yard. As they reached the door, Jack stopped, turned, and looked up. “Do you remember those nights in Belize? How beautiful the stars were?”
    Max turned and looked up. She leaned back against him, and as he wrapped his arms around her, she held them tight in the same way one might pull a shawl close to ward off the chill of the night. “I do.”
    She didn’t say anything else so they stood there, in the dark, looking up, lost in their thoughts. Sometimes a moment will seem like forever and that is all that is needed. Finally, Jack relaxed his hold on her and turned to put his key in the lock. Max stopped him, pulled him toward her, and kissed him. “Mmmm. What was that for?”
    “Because.”
    “Because, why?”
    “Just because.”
    The movie was working and he grinned. As he turned and opened the door, they went into the inky darkness of the stairwell. Neither made any move to turn the light on. Clinging to each other in the intimate privacy of the dark, they made their way up the stairs. As they reached the top of the stairs, Cat mrowed a hello and rubbed against Jack’s leg. He bent down and scratched her head. “Hello Cat. Did you miss us?”
    Her reply was a loud purr.
    Compared to the dark stairwell, the apartment seemed bright as the light from the night sky filled the room. Jack could see the moon through the skylight. As they moved toward the bedroom Cat followed, still purring, still insisting on her share of attention, but finding that they were more interested in each other.
    * * *
    “Come on. Talk to me. Tell me what I want to know,” he said to himself as he listened to the sounds of two lovers who assumed that they were totally alone.
    “Mrow.” Cat’s voice, followed by loud purring, echoed in his ears as he tore the headphones off.
    “Fuckin’ cat,” he snarled. “You are rapidly moving to the top of the list.” He put the headphones back on, but the only sound he heard was the cat purring, more softly now, but still loud enough that he was unable to hear the two lovers. It was as if it was purposely interfering. He decided to call it a night. “Maybe tomorrow …” he thought.
    * * *
    The next two days were uneventful. Jack didn’t tell Max about the note. He couldn’t. He didn’t call Tom either. He kept the note in his pocket and while Max worked, he helped out at Ben’s, worked in his shop, or worked on the boat. There were no calls, no more notes, nothing. Everything was so perfectly normal that he was almost able to forget that Daniel even existed, at least until he put his hand in his pocket and touched the note, when all those questions came flooding back.
    While Jack and Max went about their lives, the watcher waited for that inevitable moment when he could finally satisfy his needs and get the hell out of this place.

CHAPTER 28
    “HEY MAX,” SAID JACK as Max brought him another beer. “You’re off tomorrow, aren’t you?”
    She placed the beer in front of him, leaned forward with her elbows on the bar, and looked deeply into his eyes. “I am. Why do you ask?”
    “The weather is going to be nice tomorrow, and I was thinking that maybe we could take off early and spend the day out on the boat. Just the two of us. Maybe we could sail out to Jeffreys Ledge and look for whales.”
    “That sounds like fun. Define early.”
    He hesitated before speaking because he knew that his idea of early was a bit different from what she thought early should be. “Sunrise,” he said quietly. Then before she could react, he added, “I’ll go out today and get some of those chocolate croissants you like for breakfast, and I’ll get some wine and food for lunch and dinner. You won’t have to do anything. You can even go right back to sleep as soon as we get underway.”
    “Sunrise?”
    “Come on. It’ll be great. Better than hanging around all day doing laundry or something.”
    “Okay, but do we really have to leave at sunrise?”
    Her protest was feeble and said with a slight smile so Jack smiled back and answered, “Yes.”
    * * *
    The sky had begun to lighten in anticipation of the sun’s rising. The sound of their footsteps clumping down the aluminum ramp blended right in with all the other early morning sounds of the harbor. They