Chapter 18

The State Police were as busy as a swarm of bees. Anyone that had a pulse was questioned with vigor, and then re-questioned. It was beyond their ken that no one inside the building had seen a thing! The buildings, and we, were searched for weapons. The police couldn't, or wouldn't, accept the fact that the bikers had some sort of an internal struggle.

Since two of the bodies were lying next to my Can-Am, the detectives came at me for a third time.

"I have some more questions for you, Mr. Mohr," said the detective as he walked toward our table again.

By now my patience was wearing thin and I snapped back, "More, or just a rehash of the same questions that you asked me the other two times?"

Anger flashed in the man's eyes as he asked, "Are you refusing to answer my questions, Mr. Mohr?"

"Did I say that?" I asked acidly.

"You intimated that you are no longer going to answer my questions! Do you want to answer my questions, or go to the station?"

"Let me ask you this? What does the average person do when they hear gunfire? Do they immediately run into harm's way, OR do they wait until the shooting stops to find out what's going on?"

"They go look what the problem is."

"Again I ask you? Do they wait for the shooting to stop first, or run right out to look?"

The man was getting angrier because I was boxing him in; but, to his credit, he answered me, albeit through gritted teeth.

"They wait!"

"Well, there you have it, Detective. The shooting stopped and then we all (I indicated the staff and patrons of the restaurant with the sweep of my arm as a group) went out front to look. All any of us saw was a bunch of bodies lying on the ground, and the one biker roaring away on his machine. That is the sum total of all that we saw, period. Did any one else see it differently? Huh?"

I could see the veins swell on the man's temple, and his color changed to a deep red. I did a scan into the mind of the man, and found that he had been put on probation for poor performance. He hadn't cleared a single case in six months, and was near to losing his job. The man was so worried that he was fast becoming an alcoholic. I could see that this troubled officer was now fixated on me as the cause of this firefight. If I didn't move quickly, things would get very sticky for me.

"Okay ... there are EMTs here, so something medical would work with only a small risk. Ah, yes ... APPENDICITIS! That will work!" I thought.

The next instant, as the detective was reaching for his cuffs prior to arresting me; he turned green, doubled up, and collapsed onto the floor with a loud groan.

The EMTs were on him like flies on cow pies, and he was loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital. As the medical people were doing their thing, I cleared the detectives' mind of Adin and myself.

"I probably just saved your job for you, you incompetent bastard," I thought as I joined Adin and Erik.

The detective had put a sour taste in my mouth and I wanted out and onto the water. Alas, it was not to happen. The on-scene detective decided that all of the 'witnesses' were to be questioned again. One of the sticking points was that two of the dead bikers were lying next to my Can-Am. Therefore, in their minds, I must be involved with the gang. After all, even though the thing has three wheels, it's still a 'motorcycle.'

Finally, at seven thirty, we were let go ... but only because I had resorted to implanting thoughts into the minds of the police that Adin and I were innocent bystanders.

I called Tony to let those at home know what was going on. Adin and I then went out to my Can-Am trike, to move the machine to the marina parking area. We got our 'to-go-bags, ' while Erik got the needed provisions for our little trip. We met at the boat, cast off right away, and motored across the bay. We dropped anchor just as the sun was setting and settled in for the night with a great sigh of relief. Adin, however, was so exhausted by the stress of police interrogation that she fell asleep in the cockpit on the way to the anchorage. After helping Erik put the vessel to rights, I carried my wife to our cabin and settled down next to her on our berth. I, too, was asleep before my head hit the pillow. We both needed this vacation, badly.

The next morning we woke late, a testament to just how exhausted we were. I tried to get my wife up but she only mumbled, "Noooooo ... let me sleep," as she burrowed deeper into the covers. Just to be sure I did a light general scan of my beloved and the surroundings. Finding nothing to be alarmed about I simply shrugged my shoulders, and headed toward the smell of coffee drifting from the galley.

I could hear the Captain moving about on deck as I poured myself a coffee and went into the saloon. I was most certainly not firing on all cylinders, yet. I decided that all I wanted to do this first day aboard was to decompress from all that had been going on. To that end, I perused Erik's books while sipping my coffee. Selecting a book on the fundamentals of sailing, I settled down on the dinette cushions and began to read. I love to read and learn new things. Early on in my new life of magic, I had cast a spell to give myself eidetic memory, coupled with super speed-reading. Fifteen minutes later I had absorbed the entire book and was looking for a second, when Erik came down the ladder.

"Ah ... You're up. I was just coming to get you so that we can get under way. Is your wife ready?"

"No, she needs to rest. She is still recuperating from some serious injuries, not to mention all that chaos, yesterday. I don't want her taxing herself. I'll be your deck hand for today."

Erik shrugged and said, "Fine with me. We're only making a downwind run to the island that I told you about. The two of us shouldn't have any trouble. Let's up anchor and be on our way then."

"Okay, or rather: Aye-aye, Cap'n," I said with a smile.

Erik just smiled and turned back to the ladder.

We went up on deck and Erik asked, "Do you know anything about sailing?"

"Well, I know the theory, but I haven't done any actual sailing."

"Okay, then, I guess that we need to do a bit of schooling."

The two of us moved around the boat as Erik taught me the ins and outs of sailing. Then we reversed our way as he asked me questions and had me run a few drills. Finally, Erik went aft, while I stood at the anchor windless and waited for his order to raise the anchor. At his command I raised the hook and then moved to raise sail. We were under way in minutes just ghosting along, wing and wing*, on a following soft wind. Now that we were moving, I went below to check on Adin.

I found her standing in the galley, sipping her first cup of coffee. She was a sight! She was wearing a wrinkled hockey jersey, and bikini panties. Adin was not one for body modesty, and her hair was sticking up in every direction. She still had creases from the wrinkled bedding on the side of her face, and it was obvious that she was still bleary eyed. But, in spite of all of that, to me she was a vision of loveliness! My heart filled to near bursting with love.

I moved to her and she instinctively pulled me into a sweet hug as she murmured, "Morning, my love."

"And good morning to you, my dear wife," I said as I kissed her forehead.

"Feels like we're moving."

"Yep, we're on our way to the island."

We sat down at the dinette, maintaining body contact the whole time and Adin said, "I haven't slept like that since the hospital, Kade. I still feel strangely logy after all of that sleep. Please run a deep scan on me. It scares me feeling like this."

*There is a good video of wing and wing sailing on utube

Adin's request concerned me and I said, "Come back to bed, and we will check you out."

"We?"

"Ryn and I."

"Oh ... Okay..."

Once Adin was settled back on the bed, but before I could call Ryn to me, Adin turned green and pushed me out of the way as she rushed to the head! Before I could gather my wits, the sounds of my wife's retching filled the air.

"Ryn, to me, NOW!"

A cloud of glittering specks appeared and coalesced into my friend and teacher.

"I sense fear, Kade! What is the matter?"

"Adin is sick, and wants me to scan her. I thought that two scans would be better than one. Please do a deep scan on her, while I help her."

"Of course, Kade."

The head was too small for two people, so I needed to wait until she finished retching. Once she had brought up her morning coffee (and anything that was left of last night's dinner), she just about fell backwards out of the head and into my arms.

The poor thing had puked onto her hair because she had not been able to move her hair out of the way quickly enough. If anything she was even greener than before, and quite weak. I scooped her up and brought her to the galley where I could rinse her hair. As soon as that was done I settled her stomach with as strong a spell as I could think of under the circumstances.