Page 4 (2/2)
"The fisher," Kip said "In the e claio from there"
As the constable and Moore started down the wharf Reynard called after them, "Just remember, both of you The boat is as much your responsibility as mine I hold you both accountable"
"Understood," Kip said
The two h the crowd that had streaawk They climbed into the constable&039;s old rust-eaten jeep, which was parked beneath a group of high pal Front Street, through the tangle of fisherh Street, which would carry thee They passed a cluster of bars, a few small stores, and drove on toward the Square, where the constable arees watched the constable&039;s jeep as it passed along High Street Then he turned his attention back to the harbor and the object he&039;d seen driven upon the reef by the currents Dam&039; my eyes if that ain&039;t it, he said to hiarette to his lips and when he did the fingers treothirty-five, forty yearand now this bastard coht Ain&039;t no sense to be made from it But I see it and by God I know thass it He flicked the cigarette stub to the ground and stepped on it, then began walking quickly down High Street, past the bars, past thehi to coax money Ordinarily he would have been inclined, especially when he saw that slender high yelloho&039;d co to et to Trinidad But there was no time now
He walked around to Front Street, past islanders whoabout the boat; he saw the looks in the eyes of a few of the older fishermen, and he saw they knew and did not wish to know just as he did not He left the wharfs behind,at a black dog that came at hi off Beyond the village, where the green jungle greild and thick and the birds screeched fronarled red bottlebrush trees, and where Front Street turned into a rutted sand path He continued on, deeper into jungle, hearing the sharp, plaintive cries of the birds When he came around a thicket of thornbushes he saw the church just ahead
It was a sh, pointed steeple Front Street ended here Beyond the church was a cemetery bordered by an ill-kele was creeping in, grasping wood-plank grave ers Painted across the sides and front of the church itself were drawings: faces, nuba The paint, black and red, had strearound There were two shuttered s, both closed
The black man approached the church door, took hold of the unornamented metal knocker, and rapped sharply on the wood
Silence
He put his ear to the door, then rapped again
"It Thomas Lacey, rev&039;rend!" he said after anotherpause, the silence unbroken but for the birds and the breeze sweeping through foliage Then the noise of a bolt sliding back The door was pulled open A face - gray goatee, eyes saucer-shaped behind thick wire-ri chin - appeared in the opening The eyesthe other man in, and then the reverend said in a thick French accent, "Enter"
Tho wooden pews There was an altar at the center and a podiue within the church, the odor of incense which was almost overpowered by the reek of tobacco When the reverend shut the door the rooh broken places in theshutters, casting dim shadows about the walls The reverend slid the bolt home and turned to face the other man "What is it you wish?"
"It what come up out of the sea," Tho echoing around the walls,like smoke in a box "It what been thrown up on Kiss Botto in yellohites, narrowed a fraction His tall, almost frail body bent anxiously toward Lacey "What are you saying? I don&039;t have tio divin&039; into the deep water today," Thoht it up; it was hi, that thing be across the reef"
"Ma foi!" The reverend was
"The boat!" Tho in the corner of his mouth "It come up from the deep water"
"No," the reverend said, very softly
"I seen it with my own eyes I seen it there!"
"No" The voice was still soft, but a co note had crept into it, and Tho at him fearfully
When Tho time It tore up, twisted, but thass the one"
The reverend stared into the otherthe "C&039;est possible?" he asked quietly, without expecting an answer His shoulders sagged forward perceptibly, the sharp blades protruding "Non, non" A bird screale of a protective perch "The white ht"
"Leave o away and leave , worried that he had somehow hurt the old man He wiped his hand across hisaway
Thomas backed toward the door, unbolted it; the reverend alking down the aisle between the pews,toward a doorway on the far side of the podium He disappeared into the shadows as if consumed by them Tho fro back
In hisquarters the reverend lit a candle and watched the flarow to a tall white point He reached into a dresser drawer and brought out a locked black box, setting it on top of the dresser He took a sh the contents - a white rabbit&039;s foot, a vial of dark-colored liquid, grains of so dark in a paper packet, silver-painted candles, a pair of glasses with tinted lenses Finally he found what he sought Oui There
A silver case
He withdrew it and opened it; inside there was a glass eye - blue - on a coiled silver chain He put everything away again but the eye, and this he fastened carefully about his neck so that it lay across his chest outside his shirt
He stepped forward, cupped a hand about the fla in the thick darkness, he asked in French, very softly, as if speaking to so just beside him, "What do you see? What do you see?"