Evil's Root

Chapter 15

Gwen turned on the engines and set the throttle as she checked all the gauges, and then eased it forward at the same time hitting the outboard lights.

Ernie's sopping wet figure plastered to the windscreen made her shriek in horror, and she fell back off the captain's chair onto the bridge deck, banging her head and stunning herself momentarily. The engine stalled and the boat drifted back, bumping the one alongside. Sandra bolted forward and almost repeated the scene, then tried to slam the cabin door as Ernie shouldered his way inside.

"Sandra!"

"Ernie!" She backed away, unable to keep him out, and stooped down to help Gwen to her feet.

"You lied to me." His voice was pleading.

"Ernie no. I- it wasn't what you think."

"Oh yeah. It was." He leaned back against the door and wiped the drips from his face. "You lied to me and used me, Sandra. All that bit about how we would spend our time together. How we would spend our money."

"Just like her friend here. Only it was my money, buster." They all turned to the door to the lounge and saw Ted, cradling one arm and holding the gun on them with the other. "Hello Sandra. Hello to you too, wifey dear."

"You bastard!" Gwen stood up, slightly behind Sandra, her eyes blazing at her husband. "There's your big liar, pal." She said to Ernie. "He and your girlfriend here were going to set me up until she realized what a jerk he was. Tell him, Ted. Tell him how you both worked out your little scheme to screw both Ernie and me."

"Shut up, bitch." Ted wavered in the doorway; a look of pain crossed his face as he changed position of his arm. At the same moment, Gwen stepped from behind Sandra and swung the belaying pin that had hung on the bridge cabin wall, connecting with Ted's hand in a wet crack. He cried out and fell away, the gun rattling across the deck as she continued her assault.

"Gwen! No!" Sandra tried to pull her back but the next swing caught Ted squarely on the cheek and it split like a ripe melon, blood spraying the pristine cabin wall. He sank further down as she raised her arm back for another blow. It glanced off Sandra's arm and landed on the side of his head. Ted coughed a bloody gurgle and collapsed. "Gwen! For God's sake, stop!"

Ernie gaped at the ferocity of the woman's attack and hastily retrieved the gun from the deck."Yeah, lady, stop!" Ernie aimed shakily at Gwen, warning her to back off. The trio stood silently, noisy breathing the only sound in the cramped cabin as they all avoided looking at Ted.

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Heidi muscled Barry out of the water and onto the trot, all the time cooing encouragement to his limp form. She spread him on his back and immediately began CPR. Barry grunted once, bucked and turning his head, spewed up a lungful of oily harbour water. He coughed and rolled to one side letting Heidi pound his back, oblivious to the bleeding wound from the gunshot.

He managed to gasp out his command to stop, flailing one arm back and catching her on the knee.

"Heidi. my shoulder."

"Oh dear heaven!" She poked at the hole in his shirt, her finger coming away tacky and red. "Oh my goodness, Mr. Stein!" She slipped her arms under his back and in a move that would have impressed Olympic judges, jerked Barry from the ground right up to her chest and cradling him against her generous bosom, trundled down the trot to her boat.

Her use for Barry Stein wasn't finished yet; she didn't want anything to happen to him. As she passed the rental boat she heard one of the women screaming for Gwen to stop something, and fearing unwanted attention from any authorities, she hurried Barry up onto the aft deck.

Laid out on a lounge with a large towel jammed tightly against his wound, she kissed him and ordered him to hold it tight until she returned.

Ernie was listening with increasing doubt as Sandra wove her story, using every trick she knew to make him believe that it was she who was the jilted party. Gwen leaned sullenly against the cabin wall with the bloody belaying pin dangled from her limp fingers, listening silently and shaking her head, wondering how something so simple could go completely into the dumper so quickly.

"You were waiting to bring the boat back up the lake to pick me up as a surprise." Ernie's voice fairly oozed disdain. "Sandra, do I really appear that gold medal stupid to you?"

"Ernie, you have to understand-"

"Actually I don't. I do, but not what you think. I would have walked on hot coals for you." The gun wavered and his voice switched to a disappointed whine.

"Please, don't make me sick." Gwen snorted. "If that was true you wouldn't be holding a gun on us right now. You're as greedy as the rest of us."

Heidi paused mid-creep through the lounge when she heard the word, gun. She could see the side of a body in the doorway and determinedly looked about for some kind of weapon. The voices started up again, arguing and taunting one another with accusations of characteristics Heidi found incongruous in light of the circumstances.

She moved silently to the end of the lounge and lifted a small but heavy bookend cast in the shape of a tiny sailboat, with the sails furled and the mast jutting skyward. The arguing grew louder, and she heard the man's voice order them to shut up. In the next instance she heard the books behind her on the shelf all tilt over and crash to the floor of the lounge along with the mate of the tiny sailboat.

Ernie spun around and peered into the darkness of the lounge seeing the figure of someone approaching.

"Hold it right there!" He trained the gun into the lounge and immediately Gwen shoved Sandra hard into him. Sandra screamed. Ernie yelped. The gun fired and Heidi lunged through the cabin door, crashing into the group sending them all to the deck in a tangle of arms and legs.

Hearing the gunshot, Barry struggled into a sitting position, still clutching the towel and peered down the trot to the other boat. Surprising himself, his first thought was of Heidi, and not Ted who had shot him. He pulled himself to wobbly feet and edged carefully down the gangplank and along to the other boat.

He could hear noises but nothing identifiable, and the climb up to the deck using one arm took almost all his strength. As he staggered into the lounge and saw in the dim light the jumble of bodies on the bridge and instinctively called Heidi's name. Reaching the door, he looked down to see Heidi, face down on top of Gwen Hollinger; a dark pool was spreading from beneath them across the polished wood floor.