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.Perry Skinner called it a “recycler’s wet dream.”Sammy Tigertail pointed to the Calusa shell mound.“She’s camped on the other side.”Skinner ran up the slope, the Seminole two steps behind.At the top, Sammy Tigertail pointed out a clearing, fifty yards away.They saw a couple of pup tents, but no sign of Honey Santana or the remaining Texan.Skinner was halfway down the hill before realizing he was alone; the Seminole hadn’t moved.“What’s wrong?” Skinner called out.Sammy Tigertail motioned for him to return, and Skinner jogged back.There was no easy way to tell him, so the Indian said it directly: “He’s not dead, Mr.Skinner.”“Who’s not dead?”“That guy I hit with the rifle butt.The one with the tape on his hand that you said was after your wife.I told you I killed him but I guess I didn’t.”Skinner grabbed Sammy Tigertail’s arm.“How do you know?”“Because this is the spot where I hammered him.He fell into that cactus patch and now he’s gone.”“Show me.”The Indian walked him to the place, careful to avoid the spiny plants.Skinner noted numerous crushed leaves and several loose threads of cloth.“Maybe somebody moved the body,” he said quietly.“No, sir, I don’t believe so.” Sammy Tigertail pointed to a furrow where something large had slid down the shell mound into the pile of Busch cans.“Like a gator drag,” the Indian said.Nesting alligators grooved similar trails while hauling themselves back and forth to the water.This one had been made by a human.Skinner quickly scouted Beer Can Gulch.He discovered a line of unmistakable tracks leading up another slope; recurring impressions of kneecaps and elbows.“The bastard’s crawling,” he said.Sammy Tigertail had mixed feelings.He was relieved that he hadn’t killed the white man and set loose another bothersome death spirit.At the same time, he was sorry that the guy was still around to cause trouble.“What’s his name again, Mr.Skinner?”“Piejack.”“As bad hurt as he is, he won’t get far.”“He doesn’t need to.It’s a small island, like you said.” Perry Skinner pulled the.45 from his waist and clicked off the safety.He said, “Sammy, I forgot to thank you for finding my son.”“He’s a good kid,” the Seminole said.“It would destroy him if something happened to his mom.”“Or to you, Mr.Skinner.”Gun in hand, Fry’s father disappeared over the crest of the Calusa mound.Sammy Tigertail sprinted after him, kicking up a dust of ancient shells and warrior bones.Twenty-threeAs the helicopter sped north along the coast, Eugenie Fonda frowned out the window.One minute she’d been watching snowy egrets scatter like confetti across a carpet of mangroves; then abruptly the view had changed to a dreary checkerboard of parking lots, condo towers and suburbs.Eugenie had anticipated a rush of relief at the first sight of civilization, but instead she felt depressed.Gillian was chatting up one of the Coast Guard spotters, while another crewman tended to the private investigator.Eugenie couldn’t hear a thing over the turbines, which was fine.Her thoughts turned to the boy in the football helmet, Honey’s son.Eugenie tried to imagine what it was like living in the backwater of Everglades City, where there were no Jamba Juices or Olive Gardens or Blockbusters; where the only entertainment was a swamp bigger than Dallas.Fry seems like a fairly normal kid, she thought.A happy kid, too.She was sure that his old man would find him soon, and run him to a doctor.Eugenie also wondered about the tall blue-eyed Seminole.She was glad that she hadn’t tried seducing him to get a lift off the island, because that would have hurt Gillian, of whom she’d grown fond.It also averted the humiliating possibility that the Indian might have refused to have sex with her.Eugenie was unaccustomed to such rejection because she was unaccustomed to dealing with men of character.Exhibit A being Boyd Shreave.On the regret meter, Eugenie Fonda had passed the “What was I thinking?” stage and was cruising toward “Boyd who?” Their fling had been an idle blunder of her own devising, and she bore him no malice.In fact, she would’ve been bummed if he were mauled by a panther, poisoned by a coral snake or otherwise savaged in the boondocks.But Eugenie doubted that a fate so colorful would befall her dull Boyd
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