"No problem; I emptied my cigarette lighter into the tank."

"I sure as hell don't want to go out there looking for plane wreckage because some damn fool has run out of gas. Don't do it again."

I said, "Refuel, Bobby."

One of the BASRA pilots stirred.

"I'll take you out again, Mr. Mangan.

I'm fuelled up. "

So I went out again. They all went out again. They were a good crowd.

And we all came back, but not Lucayan Girl.

The next few days were grim. People pussyfooted around me, not knowing what to do or say, and work went to hell. I felt as numb as though I had been mentally anaesthetized and I suppose I acted like a zombie, one of the walking dead. I wished I was dead.

Billy said, "This is no time to talk business, Tom. Let me know when we can get together again." He went back to Houston, but Debbie refused to go home and stayed on to look after Karen. I was in no mood to argue.

Looking back I can see that this was worse than a normal death in the family. There was no funeral, no assuaging ceremonial nothing to do. There was the ever-present expectation of a telephone call which would magically solve everything and restore my wife and daughter to me and bring back my old friend, Pete Albury. I jerked every time a phone rang anywhere.

The house was haunted. Although the pool was mirror-like in its quietness there was still held in the mind's eye the image of a lithe young body, sleek as an otter, breaking the surface with a shout of joy, and I expected, on turning a corner, to find at any moment the dark beauty of Julie perhaps going about some domestic chore like watering the roses.

I suppose I was a haunted man.

Debbie was very good. At first she sought to cheer me up, but I was impervious so she desisted and contented herself with acting as a barrier between me and the world of the newspapers. And she saw that I ate regularly and did not drink too much or, at least, drink alone.

She need not have worried about that; I have never considered that diving into a bottle could solve any problems.

She looked after Karen and played with her and stopped my little daughter from worrying me too much in those awful first days. Once I overheard Karen say to her, "What's wrong with Daddy?"

"Your father has some problems," said Debbie.

"Don't bother him now he'll be all right soon."

Karen had not been told, but sooner or later I would have to tell her that her mother and sister were dead. I wondered if the idea of death would mean much to a nine-year-old. I sweated at the thought of telling her.

And then there were Julie's parents, Mike and Ellen Pascoe. I did not know how to contact them because they were on the move, driving from Maryland to Miami where they expected to meet Julie at the Fontainbleu. I left a message at the Fontainbleu asking that they ring me immediately on arrival.

The call came two days later and Ellen was on the line.

"Julie isn't here," she said.

"Has she been held up?"

"Can I speak to Mike?"

"Of course." Her voice sharpened.

"Is anything wrong, Tom?"

"Just let me talk to Mike for a moment." Mike came on and I told him what had happened, and I heard his breath hiss in my ear.

He said, "Is there no… hope?"

"Oh, God! Hope is the only thing that's been keeping me going. But it's been nearly three days, and every hour that goes by Look, I'll send a plane for you. It'll be there this afternoon.

Just wait at the hotel for Bobby Bowen Okay? "

"All right," he said heavily.

Half an hour after that telephone call Debbie came into my study.

"There are two men to see you. Policemen."

I jerked around.

"With news?" She shook her head sadly and I sighed.

"All right; show them in."

Debbie led them into the study and then left. I stood up and looked at Perigord in some perplexity. Deputy- Commissioner Perigord, a black Bahamian, was the top- ranking police officer on Grand Bahama and I knew him slightly, having met him at social functions. His companion was also black but unknown to me. Both were in uniform.

Perigord said, "I'm sorry to have to intrude at this time, Mr. Mangan;

I assure you I wish it were otherwise. I put it off for as long as possible but.. " He shrugged.

"I know," I said.

"Won't you sit down?"

He took off his uniform cap and laid it on my desk together with his swagger stick.

"This is Inspector Hepburn."

I nodded in acknowledgement and sat down. Perigord said, "I knew Mrs. Mangan slightly; we met at PTA meetings our daughters attend the same school. If there is anything my wife and I can do to help then please call on us. However, 1 am here on a different errand. You must know that in circumstances like this there are questions to be asked."

"Yes," I said.

"Just get on with it."

He took out a notebook.

"The name of your boat is Lucayan Girl?"

"Yes."

"Where did she sail from?"

"Here." I pointed through the window towards the atrium.

"Her mooring is just through that archway."

"Would you mind if Inspector Hepburn looks at the mooring?"

"No but what does he expect to find?"

"I don't know. Police work consists of looking at a lot of things, most of which turn out to be useless in the end. But sometimes we get lucky." He nodded to Hepburn who got up and left the room.

"I don't see how the police come into it." I saw Hepburn walk by the pool and disappear through the arch.

"There is more to police work than crime; we fulfill many social functions. Were you present when Lucqyan Girl sailed?"

"Yes."

"Who was on board?"

"Julie, my wife; my daughter, Susan; Pete Albury, the skipper; and a crewman."

"What is the crewman's name?"

"I don't know."

Perigord frowned.

"You don't know!" he said with a tinge of perplexity in his voice.

"Pete Albury hired him. I didn't want my wife and daughter to sail with only Pete aboard so I asked Pete to hire a hand just for this trip."

"I see. But if you hired him you were obviously going to pay him. Was it to be by cash or cheque?"

"I don't know," I said to Perigord's obvious bafflement. As he made a disapproving clicking sound with his tongue I said, "That was Pete's business. He ran Lucqyan Girl; he had a bank account from which to draw funds, and I checked the account monthly. He'd have paid, but whether in cash or by cheque I wouldn't know."

"You must have trusted Mr. Albury," said Perigord.

"I did," I said evenly.

"Now, then; what did this man this crewman look like?"

"I don't know; I didn't see him."

Perigord definitely lost his composure.

"You mean you hired a man you didn't even seel' " I didn't hire him," I said.

"Pete did. I had every confidence in Pete to pick a good man. Look, I run a business. I don't hire personally everyone who works for me, neither do I necessarily know them by name or sight. That's known as delegation of authority."

"And so you bring your business practices into your household."

"I trusted Pete," I said stubbornly.

"How do you know that this… this stranger was on board when the boat sailed?"

"Pete told me. I asked him and he said the crewman was below greasing the shafts."

"But you don't know it of your own knowledge."

"I can't say that I do."

Perigord pondered for a moment, then asked, "Is there anyone else to whom I can refer who would know it from his own knowledge?"

I thought about that, casting my mind back to the scene by the lagoon. Billy, Debbie and I had walked through the archway together and if I had not seen the crewman then neither could they. I shook my head.

"No, I don't think so."

Inspector Hepburn came back and Perigord glanced at him.

"So what it comes to is this we have a man, probably dead, whose name we don't know and whom we can't describe. We don't even know his colour. In fact, Mr. Mangan; we might even be wrong about the sex this crew member could be a woman for all we know."