Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 07:12:54 +0200
From: Amy Redek <adultreading@gmail.com>
Subject: Retribution. Part Six.

         This story is for persons of eighteen years or over.  All
comments, good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.

     Part Six

      There was a pounding on the cabin door in the morning and I was
quickly out of bed to open it and a naked Stella fell into my arms. Her
hair wild and tousled from sleeping and she was obviously distressed by not
having stopped to put any clothes on.

     `Muriel's gone! She's gone and I'm so frightened,' she sobbed,
clinging to me like a limpet. Even after last night's performance with
James, I was still aroused at the way her body ground into mine but I
managed to quell the carnal desire that she had engendered and brought her
into the room and sat her down on the bed. She totally ignored James and
seemed to be unaware of her own nakedness as she sobbed.

     `We went to bed last night. Kissed and cuddled a bit and then went to
sleep. I woke up a few minutes ago and found she'd gone!' she wailed.

     `Calm down, calm down. First, let's get dressed and we'll go and look
for her,' I said and she then seemed to come to her senses and realised
that I had James in my bed and she was now here, sitting on it naked
herself.

     `Oh,' she exclaimed and quickly looked round but James had already
managed to get out of bed unobserved and had disappeared into the bathroom.

     `Pass me a robe James,' I called out and went and took it from his
hand, noticing that he had put the other one on that had hung on the back
of the door. He didn't come out as I went back to the bed and helped Stella
up and eased her arms into it for her to fix the front as I found a clean
pair of shorts and put them on.

     `Get dressed James. I'm just taking Stella back to get dressed and
then we'll look for Muriel. We'd better check on Ralph too,' I said as I
steered Stella out and along to Muriel's cabin. I guessed right for that's
where her clothes were and it only took her a few minutes to put on a
bikini top and bottom wisp. We then proceeded along the passageway with me
looking into every cabin, even checking the bathrooms but not finding her.

     We met James coming up from the crew quarters with him shaking his
head.

     `He's not down there. I checked them all,' he said. We then went up
and checked the galley, lounge and saloon without finding either of
them. Neither James or Stella would follow me down into the engine room to
look around but that to was empty.

     `The bridge!' James said, and so we went up there to find it deserted
as well.

     `Not another drowning,' Stella said as she shivered at the thought and
so we went back down and out onto the deck. It was James who spotted it.

     `The dinghy, look,' and he pointed to the beach and we could see it,
not tied up but bobbing in the surf at the edge of the beach.

     `They've done a runner,' I said.

     `Rats deserting a sinking ship,' James put in.

     `Oh Muriel you fool, you bloody stupid fool,' Stella said.

     `Why?' I asked.

     `Don't you see! Ralph's the murderer. It's morning and we're still
alive!'

     `We'd better get ashore quickly and hope we're in time to save her,' I
said.

     `How?' she asked. `The bloody dinghy's over there!'

     `I'll get it. Get some water bottles to put in it,' I said to Stella
just before I dived into the sea and swam towards the shore. It only took a
few minutes and I was soon in it and started the engine and inexpertly
steered it back to the yacht and had James grab the rope to keep me
alongside or I would have drifted off. Both of us helped Stella into it
with her holding a bag with some bottles of water inside. James then got in
and pushed us away from the gangway for me to then head it back to the
beach.

     James jumped out ready to pull the dinghy onto the beach and I told
him to wait.

     `Now I want you to stay here Stella while James and I go to look for
them,' I said.

     `Noooo,' she wailed. `I'll not be left here on my own. What if he
kills you and comes after me? No. I want to come.'

     `No you will not,' I roared. `You will stay with the dinghy. It's the
safest place for you. Just get it out into the water and sit there till we
come back.' She carried on blustering but I got my way and showed her how
to start and stop the engine, the steering was self explanatory.

     `How long will you be gone?' she asked in a quavering voice.

     `About two hours I should think. I'm not quite sure how big this
island is, but don't worry, I'll be back, now get this dinghy out into the
middle and wait for us.' With that, I pushed the dinghy out and waited till
she started the engine and moved off towards the yacht before I turned to
James.

     `You go off to the right and I'll go to the left. Go as far as you can
and then turn inward about halfway and then make your way back here. I'll
do the same on my side. Now if you see them or either one, give out a loud
holler and keep hollering until I answer and can come to you. I'll do the
same if I find them. Understand?'

     `Yes Daniel. Two hours you think?'

     `Maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. Good luck,' and moved off to the
left while he went right.

                                                            *

     It must have been close on three hours before I got back to the beach
and got an excited wave from Stella out there in the dinghy. She fumbled
about but got the engine started and brought it into the shore.

     `Oh Daniel,' she cried as she jumped out of the boat and threw herself
into my arms. `I was getting so worried that I've got no fingernails left?'
I laughed and gave her a kiss.

     `Well?' she said as I pulled her up the beach and down onto the sand
with me.

     `Not a living soul,' I said as I kissed her and began to undo the thin
string of her bikini top.

     `What about James?' she asked as I pulled her top off and she rolled
over onto her front, burying her breasts into the sand. `He might see us.'

     `No he won't,' I said as I straddled her and sat on her lower back and
slipped the bikini top under her head and pulled it tight across her throat
and at the same time laid my body down onto her and held her there with her
face in the sand and the bikini top held tight cutting off her breathing.

     `I didn't want to do this Stella,' I said as her feet pounded the sand
for over a minute and squirmed beneath me but she couldn't move me and so
the movements slowed down and finally she became still beneath me. I laid
there for several more minutes before getting up and going into the tree
line to recover the spade. I dug down into the sand near where she lay
until I was well into the wet stuff before getting out and rolling her over
into it, looking at those lovely breasts for the last time before
shovelling the sand in to cover her.

     Next I went along to where all the other graves were and pulled out
the branches and threw them into the trees and obliterated all other
markings and levelled the sand until it looked as undisturbed as when we'd
first arrived.

     I put the spade into the dinghy and motored back to the yacht and
after tying it to the gangway, went up with the spade and left it on the
deck as I went through into the lounge and poured myself a drink. I wasn't
hungry and so sat there and mused over how all this started and what went
wrong.

                                                            *

     I'd started out from school as a cub reporter on a local newspaper and
two years later managed to get onto a major national paper. It was during
this time that I tried to write my first book but really didn't have the
time for it and so it was really on hold. The change in my life came when I
was twenty three and doing a piece on a new up and coming artist and was
wandering round a gallery that was showing his work when I bumped into
another young man, knocking him almost off his feet and spilling the
portfolio he was carrying.

     It was only when we were picking up his papers did I really look at
him and my heart suddenly started to pound fit to bust. Now I'd already
knew that I was bi-sexual but this was the first time that I really found
that I desired another man. He, well to my eyes, looked beautiful and I
would never have believed that I could have ever have fallen in love at a
first meeting and that it would be with another male.

     I kept apologising profusely and insisted on buying him a coffee over
which I found out that his name was Martin Towers and that he was a
designer. He showed me some of his drawings that he was trying to get
somebody interested in and I thought that they were brilliant.

     That was how we met and went on seeing each other for several months
before he said that he had fallen in love with me.

     I think that on quite a few occasions our hands would touch each
other, maybe in the passing over a bottle of wine or a coffee mug, but
these became more frequent as time went on. I too confessed that I had
fallen in love with him, and so we had left the restaurant where we had
been dining and went off to his flat. It wasn't until we were inside and
really alone did we move into each other's arms and kiss for the first
time, pressing our bodies up close and feeling that we were both aroused.

     So that night we became lovers and shortly afterwards, I moved into
his place and we lived together.

     We were both ecstatic that we should find someone else to love as we
did then. There was no husband and wife between us for we would both take
on both roles as we saw fit. He fitted me nicely and I fitted him, both to
our mutual pleasure. Love has no boundaries and the question of us being
both of the same gender never arose. We both loved the sucking and fucking
of each other and could never get enough, such was our love.

     He eventually landed a job as a designer with Sir Tobias Felting and
eventually rose up to become his chief designer. In the meantime, Martin
had read what I'd written so far of my novel and encouraged me to finish
it, convincing me enough to give up working for the newspaper and spending
more of my time in writing. All during this period, he supported me
financially and our love for each other, day by day grew stronger.

      The book, when finally finished, sold well and with money now
starting to come in from the royalties, I was able to buy him things and
now help with the money side of things in running our household. We kept
our love life very private and none of his colleagues knew of me and people
that I knew didn't know of Martin.

     He was quite excited the day he came home and told me that he was
going for a cruise with the boss and others with ideas for a new line of
clothes though somewhat downcast that I couldn't go along with him. I was
happy for him but disconsolate that we would be apart for that length of
time. But I put on a brave face and wished him a happy trip as we said
goodbye, though it was the last time I saw my love.

     He'd been away two months when I got his letter that poured out his
love for me and how he was really hating where he was. He went on to say
that Sir Tobias, Toby he called him, was constantly trying to get him to
bed and had so far, remained faithful to me and the letter really tore at
my heart strings of how he was struggling to keep himself only for me. It
really hurt and I prayed that he would last it out and come back home to
me.

     He didn't.

     I'd made plans for his arrival but the time came and went without him
showing up. I was frantic with worry and the fact that we'd kept our
relationship so quiet, nobody knew of me to tell me of what had happened to
him.

     Through journalistic acquaintances, I managed to find out that there
had been a small snippet in a Caribbean paper of a designer, one Martin
Towers on board the yacht of Sir Tobias Felting, had died of a massive drug
overdose. I nearly went berserk knowing that Martin had never ever taken
drugs and it only left that he was deliberately given it by none other than
Felting himself because Martin wouldn't bend over for him.

     I was also, using my press card which I had kept, able to talk to some
employees of Felting's and found out that Martin had died just one week
after he wrote the letter to me and I knew that he wasn't the kind of
person to commit suicide, though if he had, it still had to be because of
Felting's pressure on him. I vowed then I would take my vengeance out on
him regardless of how long it took.

     Then out of the blue like manna from heaven came the letter from
Muriel Burgess enquiring if I cared to meet to discuss writing the
autobiography of Sir Tobias Felting. Now I believe she got my name from
Martin by knowing where I lived and that I had already written two such
books. I don't think he would have told her of our relationship even though
she was his half sister. I believe she knew that he was a homosexual but
didn't have any reason to connect the two of us together.

     The difference in their surnames I knew, for Martin had told
me. Muriel was older than him by four years and when her father later died,
her mother, after a couple of years, took up with a man who eventually
turned out to be Martin's father, though the pair of them never got
married, Martin took his name when he was old enough to understand.

     Well I got the job and it was very frustrating at not really being
able to get close enough or alone to kill him and it was nearly a year
before I was invited to join him on his yacht to fill in the gaps of his
life that I'd not yet covered.

     I had four days of intensive studying of the type of yacht he owned
and also bought some items from a shady character who had a few fingers in
the underworld. I had loathing for Tobias and mentally rubbed my hands at
what could be the chance I'd been waiting so long for. It would be a case
of taking the opportunity when it arose.

                                                            *

     I duly flew out to Nassau in the Bahamas where the yacht was presently
moored and was soon on board to meet the other passengers who really turned
out to be other employees. I had lunch and was shown my cabin where I had a
nap from jet lag and after dinner, had Stephen show me some swim suits and
though he came on to me, I declined and slept alone that night.

     I was awake early to feel the yacht was moving and went up on deck and
met Stella properly and Tricia, both of whom liked sunbathing topless which
pleased me, and learned that Toby, as they also called their boss, out of
his hearing, was something of a sadist and liked to beat them. They also
told me that Stephen was gay which I'd already guessed and said that they
had liked Martin better though I didn't pursue this line. After breakfast,
I was shown round the yacht by the captain and professed an ignorance of
the workings though I knew exactly what I wanted to do when the time came.

     I spent a boring morning listening to Knox and was grateful when lunch
was announced and got propositioned by Stella with whom I spent the
afternoon in bed with.

     We moored for the night in a small bay of a deserted island but we
were still too close to Nassau for me to act. Here I went for a swim before
dinner and got another proposition, but from Stephen this time, but put him
off for I knew that Tricia wanted to share my bed that evening but promised
him he could have the following night.

     Late in the following afternoon, we dropped anchor in the bay of
another deserted island which I was told was one of the most outer islands
of the Bahamas group and it looked ideal for my purpose. I had promised to
go for another swim with Stephen who wanted confirmation that I would let
him sleep with me that night to which I agreed, for it was fitting in with
what I had planned, using him as my alibi if things went wrong.

     For wrong is what happened right from the word go.

     In my studying of this type of yacht back in London and talking to
people, knew exactly how to disable the vessel that would take any engineer
quite some time to find the fault but one that could be put right in a few
minutes if one knew where to look.

     So with this idea in mind, as soon as I'd finished my swim with
Stephen, instead of going to my cabin right away, I went down into the
engine room. It only took a few minutes to find what I was looking for and
set my plan to delay the yacht for a day at least when I heard someone come
down the companion-way into the engine room.

     `What are you doing there?' asked Engineer Campbell and seeing where I
was crouching, knew instantly what I was doing. `What the hell...,' and
turned towards a phone on the bulkhead. It was an impulse on the spur of
the moment that I took up the wrench I'd been using and hit him hard on the
back of the head.

     He went down like a sack of potatoes and knew almost at once that I'd
hit him too hard. Lying there on the deck plates, I could see the
indentation that the wrench had made to the back of his skull and I dropped
the wrench and knelt down to see if I could find a pulse at his
neck. None. The poor bugger was dead

     Shit! I cursed to myself. Why did he have to come down there just then
but it was too late now, I now had to see that no word of this got to the
outside world.

     I quickly went back up to the next deck and got a fright for as I
passed the galley, the cook had turned and clearly saw me coming up from
the engine room wearing only my swim suit. I cursed again at something else
going wrong and I had to think fast as I went along to my cabin and shot
into the shower, spending only enough time to get the salt off my body as I
stripped off my costume under the spray and then got out. I roughly dried
myself thinking fast and didn't dry my hair properly for I wanted it to be
seen wet when I faced the others. But I had to get up to the bridge first.

     I put trousers and a shirt on and put a comb in my pocket and taking
care that nobody else was moving about in the passage-way, slipped out of
my cabin and bypassing the lounge, made my way up to the bridge. It only
took me two minutes to put the radio beyond repair and then I was back down
on the next deck and here, combed my wet hair back and calmly walked into
the lounge for pre dinner drinks.

     My heart beat had already slowed down by now and mixed with the others
before sitting down to dinner with Stephen on one side and Muriel on the
other. The main course was over when the captain came in and upset the meal
having found the engineer dead. Murdered he said. He wanted to inform
Nassau but found the smashed radio and couldn't get the yacht's engines
started.

     I had Stephen in my bed that night and pleased him immensely with my
staying power for I spent most of my time when making love to him in his
way, thinking about what should I do about the cook who was sure to speak
of seeing me leave the engine room when we were all to be called in the
morning to explain our movements around the time of the engineer`s death.

     I had reasoned earlier that anybody could have been down in the engine
room at the time I was but I had been seen. Now I knew that he, the cook,
began work at six in the morning and James at seven, so I set my mental
alarm clock and was awake well before that time.

     I eased myself out of bed so as not to awake Stephen and I put on a
swimming costume and took a towel with me in case I met anyone else as to
my reason for being out that early. The yacht was silent as I made my way
up to the galley and saw the cook just starting to get things out for
breakfast. He never heard me pick up a big knife and with one swift forward
movement, buried it into his back and heart. He fell forward without a
sound and I could see that I'd silenced the only one who'd seen me leave
the engine room. I left as silently as I had arrived and just as quietly in
my cabin, peeled off my trunks and carefully got back into bed and snuggled
up to Stephen and waited for the ruckus to start.

                                                           *

     I had actually fallen asleep before the pounding of the door by James.

     Stephen and I met up with the others in the lounge to be told of the
cook's murder. We were interviewed in turn by Sir Tobias, my original
intended victim, and the captain. There were quite a few arguments in
between and I was called last though I was given food for thought by
Stephen who had gone in earlier. He'd come out and came by me and whispered
that he'd told them that we'd slept together that night which I'd allowed
for but it was something else he'd said that got me wondering. Fighting
back his tears he had said, "I didn't say anything else, honest." What did
he mean by that? Had he woken and found me gone or had he been awake the
whole time and not only saw me leave but return to the bed?

     There was a sad tinge to my feelings that I was afraid that I would
have to put him on the list after I had seen to Toby.

     I had my interview and gave them the same story as what Stephen had
told them and I was then asked to help with the burials because they
couldn't keep the bodies on board in the heat.

     I did as I was asked and helped bury the engineer and the cook and
when I was back on board, went and had a shower. While in there, I heard
the door of the cabin open and quickly moved out of the shower, leaving the
water running, and looked through the crack of the door and saw Tricia
standing by the bed with the bedside drawer open and she was reading my
letter from Martin.

     Oh you stupid bitch, I said to myself, why couldn't you have left
things alone. I watched her put the letter back after she'd read it, now
knowing that I had been Martin's secret lover, and she left, but more
silently than she had entered. I finished my shower and opened my door a
little while I got dressed and heard Stella talking as she went past and
with a quick look out of the door, saw that she was with Tricia. It was
only a minute or two before Stella went back up top and now I had Tricia
down below on her own.

     I waited inside my cabin until I heard her door close and left my
cabin as she came level with it.

     `Hello again,' I said, putting my arm round her shoulder as we walked
towards the companionway to go up to the lounge, but I pulled her through
the door that led to the galley and engine room.

     `Did you find what you were looking for in my room,' I asked, my mouth
up close to her ear as I spoke softly but holding her in a firm grip.

     `No...nothing. Nothing at all,' she stammered.

     `You read the letter though,' I said, `and so know that Martin was my
lover.' Her eyes were wild and kept darting backwards and forwards. `But
you're not going to tell anybody, are you?'

     She shook her head violently from side to side.

     `No you're definitely not going to,' I said as I grabbed her head and
gave it a savage twist, catching her by surprise and twisting it enough to
break her neck, having her fall limp in my arms and I just let her go to
fall down the stairs into the engine room. She bounced just the once before
sprawling out at the bottom and I left then to go to the lounge.

     Stella found me there with the captain and Sir Tobias saying that she
couldn't find either Tricia or James. The captain swore and shot out of the
lounge as James was coming in, so he carried on to look for Tricia.

     He came back to tell us that he'd found her and led Sir Tobias and me
to the top of the engine room stairway and I quickly went down and
confirmed that she was dead. I went and comforted Stella while the two
crewmen got her body up from there and out and down into the dinghy. I
again volunteered to give them a hand and helped to bury her alongside the
others.

     Honestly, I didn't poison or kill Knox. It was a self induced heart
attack and nobody was sorry to see him depart from this world. So back to
the beach I went and helped dig another hole but I didn't really want to
help for I had nothing to do with his death and believed that I should have
been allowed a rest from this one.

     They all understood when I pleaded tiredness and went off to bed early
but I didn't sleep, tired as I was. I had noticed that Toby went for a walk
round the deck after dinner and that was the time I was waiting for and I
was on deck when he appeared.

     I waited till he was at the aft end when I went for him. He was by the
open rail and as I grabbed him I heard someone call out.

     `Hey! What you doing?' It was Snares the crewman. I gave Toby a belt
in the solar plexus and turned to face Snares as Toby doubled up and fell
backwards into the sea.

     Snares had picked up a boat hook and came forward, but slow enough for
me to pick one up from the rail and face him. Just like two medieval
knights with pikes for though they had hooks on the end as the name
implied, they also had a spike at the end just above this hook.

     It was a matter of swinging at each other trying to hook an arm, waist
or chest or making stabbing motions. He was as inept in using this tool as
a weapon as I was. Slashing away at each other and thrusting it forward
while circling each other. It was on one of his swings which I just managed
to step back enough to avoid that he left himself open and I jumped forward
with a thrust and caught him square in the chest. He gave out a gasp and
back pedalled and I kept moving forward, twisting the boat hook at the same
time.

     He stepped back too far and suddenly went over the side, dropping his
boat hook and grasping mine. I didn't let go and went over too. It was only
about fifteen foot to the water and he was underneath me as we fell and he
landed right on top of Toby. This halted his fall but not mine and with my
weight still holding onto the boat hook, drove it deeper into his body and
surely pierced his heart in the process.

     He went under driving Toby down as well as I followed to flounder in
the sea. I knew that Snares was dead but I wasn't sure about Toby and as he
came to the surface to try and get some air, I pushed him back down beneath
the surface. I then took a deep breath and without letting go of him, jack
knifed my body and pushed him even further down into the now dark depths.

     To try and make it quick, I punched him again in the stomach but with
the water resistance, my blow lacked strength but it was enough to drive
what little air he had left in his body and his mouth opened with a big
bubble and then took in quite a quantity of seawater. That was it. He gave
a spasmodic couple of jerks and then went limp, his eyes gone and I let go
of him and went up into the air for my own breath.

     I swam up to the gangway and climbed up and made my way to my cabin
without meeting anyone for they were all in the lounge having drinks and
coffee. I showered the salt off and dried myself and went to bed.

     Stella came into my bed around midnight and at least gave me an alibi
for half the night.

                                                            *

     We were woken with the news that two bodies were floating in the water
and I did my duty again by diving into the sea and helped the captain and
Downes get the bodies to the shore where we buried the pair of them.

     Everybody was frightened now and tried to organise into pairs for
protection, me having both Stella and Stephen wanting to stay with me, but
I refused both and said that I was going back to bed on my own. They got so
confused among themselves that they all finished up alone and it was quite
easy to slip into Stephen's room.

     `Daniel!' he exclaimed from the bed where he was lying down, naked,
reading a male magazine. `I was just thinking about you,' he said which was
blatantly obvious of what he was thinking.

     `Have you any condoms here,' I asked as I opened drawers of his
dresser looking for something suitable to kill him with.

     `The left hand drawer,' he said, but I still had the right hand one
open and found some ladies stockings, underneath, a belt to hold them up as
well as some padded bras.

     `What's this?' I asked as I picked up a stocking and took it over to
the bed. He blushed as he put his magazine aside.

     `I...I...sometimes wear them when I'm alone,' he stammered. I got onto
the bed with the stocking still in my hand and he didn't know what I was
going to do until it was too late. I looped it over his head and twisted it
tight as I rolled over onto the floor taking him with me. I finished up on
top of him and he no way had the strength that I had and so he died there
with me strangling him with his own fetish underwear.

     He was light enough for me to pull him into the bathroom where I made
a small loop in the stocking and lifted up his lifeless body and suspended
him from the bathrobe hooks.

     I got back to my cabin unobserved and climbed into bed and went to
sleep. I was woken by James saying that it was nearly dinner time and with
everybody up in the lounge it was soon apparent that Stephen wasn't going
to appear.

     We searched the ship and found him but left his body lying on his bed
to be buried the next day. The captain was right pissed off and insisted
that we paired off properly. I got Stella and I took her to my bed where we
made love, enough to tire her out and go to sleep for I had other things to
do. Like hoping to find the captain alone for I had now begun to get
suspicious looks from him for I had been alone with the last three deaths
and I could see the wheels turning in his brain and decided that he was the
most dangerous one for me. Hence my prowling.

     The Gods must have answered my prayer for I spotted him alone in the
saloon, sitting at the dining table, writing. I went into the galley and
got a sharp knife and entered the saloon by the door that was behind him. I
was barefooted but even with shoes on I wouldn't have made a noise on that
thick carpet.

     He didn't know I was there until I grabbed his hair and jerked his
head up and slit his throat and lowered it down quickly so that the pumping
blood ran out over the table instead of spraying it. I left just as
silently as I had entered, washed the knife and put it back and was in bed
after less than fifteen minutes out of it. Stella didn't wake up so never
knew that I had left the bed.

                                                            *

     Muriel was a wreck in the morning after she saw the captain's body and
it was me, Ralph and James that got his body down to the dinghy along with
that of Stephen and we buried them next to the others.

     With only five of us left, they were all having the jitters and as
night approached, it was James who suggested that as Muriel wouldn't feel
safe with another man, that Stella should stay with her if he could stay
with me. He even offered me his body for the night which I took, for he got
Stella and Muriel to agree to the swap. I never did find out Ralph's
reaction to being the odd one out.

     Stella was the one having hysterics next morning for Muriel had
disappeared before she'd woken up. This was our final day on the island
though the others didn't know this at the time. We also found that Ralph
had disappeared too and with the dinghy being spotted on the beach we knew
they had gone into hiding.

     Stella was now convinced that as we three were still alive that the
killer must have been Ralph to which I gave an inward smile. She insisted
that we go and look and try and save Muriel. I agreed and swam to the beach
and returned with the dinghy for the three of us to return to the island.

     Stella didn't like the idea of only James and I doing the search but I
made her take the dinghy out into the bay and wait for us to return. I sent
James out on one side while I said I would cover the other.

     When out of sight of the others, I doubled back and picked up the
shovel and went after James. He was a steward on a boat and therefore had
no idea of how to move through brush without making a noise. At least I
moved much more quietly than he did and he never once looked back and so
never saw me coming up behind him. I swung the shovel with the edge towards
him and caught him at the back of the neck. The force of the blow almost
decapitating him. He never felt a thing and died instantaneously.

     I buried him where he had fallen. I then went looking for the other
two, moving much more quietly this time and found that it wasn't a big
island and so soon found them.

     They were in a very small clearing and Ralph was sitting down while
Muriel paced about wringing her hands as they spoke in loud whispers. I
slowly worked my way round so that I could come up behind Ralph hoping he
would stay where he was and got to within six feet from him and crouched
down to watch Muriel's pacing. She would take five strides before turning
and moving back towards Ralph before turning again for these five strides.

     So I waited for her to do a couples of turns and got ready when she
strode forward to Ralph and as she turned away, I moved forward fast and
caught him square on the back of his head and didn't stop to see what I'd
done but dropped the shovel and leapt further forward.

     She heard the noise of the shovel connecting with Ralph's head and
began to turn and only just had time to see me leap upon her. She might
have been my past lover's half sister but I hadn't loved her as I did him
and I couldn't leave any witnesses behind as I grabbed her head and
savagely twisted it and broke her neck.

     I dug a fairly deep hole and rolled Ralph in first and dumped Muriel
on top and covered the grave and smoothed over the top and scattered
brushwood about to make it look natural. It was only on my way back to the
beach that I realised that I hadn't checked to see if Ralph had been dead
or not before I buried him beneath Muriel. I shrugged my shoulders knowing
that he would be dead by now if he hadn't of been then.

     Well you know what happened to Stella, the last of the other twelve
people who had been aboard the yacht. The number thirteen was unlucky for
them.

                                                            *

     I gave a sigh and fixed myself another drink and went to the galley
and made myself some sandwiches for it was now late afternoon and I was
rather tired. I decided that I would have an early night and move the yacht
before first light. I took my food and drink to my cabin and ate and drank
my lunch stroke dinner and turned in.

     I saw that it was just after four in the morning when I woke up and
only put on a pair of shorts and went down to the engine room and made good
what I had done to disable it. I then went up and made myself a light
breakfast and just before dawn, got the anchor raised and slowly nosed the
yacht out of the bay and set it on a north easterly course. I ran it at
almost full speed for five hours before throttling the engines back and
bringing it to a stop, well out of sight of any land.

     I now retrieved from my suitcase a purchase I had made in London from
an underworld character. Half a pound of plastic explosive. I'm not going
to say how it escaped detection for the information cost me and I'm not
going to divulge it for free. As to the detonator I think the authorities
have cottoned on to that idea now.

     I'd bought a thick silver pen and with it unscrewed, I placed the
detonator inside and just left enough ink at the nib end if it was ever
tested. When at the airport, just before going through the metal detecting
arch, I placed my watch, loose change and this pen in the tray provided so
as not to sound off the alarm when I passed through. It was the plastic I
was more concerned about but either they didn't use sniffer dogs with the
luggage or what I had been told to do with it had worked, but of that, I
cannot be certain.

     Anyway, my first job when I got up was to retrieve the explosive and
place it where it would rupture the hull and sink the yacht. The detonator
I left till last for it only had a fifteen minute fuse.

     It pained me to tear up and dispose of Martin's last and only letter
to me and leave everything else behind. If ever they recovered the yacht,
which I doubted seeing as there was nearly a thousand feet between the keel
and the ocean bottom according to the echo sounder, they could then maybe
piece together some sort of scenario. By being on the burial detail for
every one of them, I'd made sure that they did not have any means of
identification buried with them at the same time.

     I took down to the dinghy, water and food for four days and stowed it
away and unshipped the outboard motor and let it sink into the depths. Back
up inside, I made the biggest meal I could eat and when I was full to
bursting, went down and inserted the detonator into the plastic explosive
and twisted the tube which then allowed the acid to eat between the two
halves to ignite and set off the explosive.

     I scrambled up from the engine room and into the lounge where I opened
a fresh bottle of brandy and took one healthy swig and took the rest of the
bottle with me down the gangway and into the dinghy. I untied the rope and
pushed us away and paddled for the next ten minutes before resting and look
back at the yacht.

     I was disappointed for I expected the whole thing to explode and shoot
skywards in a mass of flame and shattered timbers as you see in most films
of this nature. I heard the explosion but all that happened was that the
stern of the yacht lifted up and then settled back down, lower than before
and began to sink, stern first.

     Though I'd left the engines at idle, they now seemed to be moving the
yacht backwards as the rear end started to slowly slide down and then it
tilted upwards, bringing the bow up out of the water and it then slowly
began to move faster and silently disappeared beneath the surface, to
spiral its way down to the ocean's bed.

     I wasn't sure how far out from land that I was but I had four days
supply of water and food and so sank back in the dinghy and closed my eyes
against the sun's glare and let myself be lulled by the gently rocking of
the waves. No bodies floating about, no boat, just this one survivor from
an unexplained mishap. I smiled and said a prayer to Martin and told him
that I had seen to the avenging of his death.

                                                       * * *

                                                   EPILOGUE

     Daniel Redgrave had made two mistakes. The first being that he sank
the yacht outside of the usual shipping lanes and the second that he hadn't
taken into account the currents that flowed northwards.

     It was two weeks later that a private single engine aircraft spotted
the dinghy and radioed the position to the U.S. Coast-guard who sent out a
launch to investigate.

     They reported that they found the dinghy and that it contained the
dead, burnt, dehydrated and blistered body of a male Caucasian. No
identifying marks on either the dinghy or body to indicate what vessel he
had been associated with. No ships or boats had been reported missing and
therefore unbeknown to him, he entered history by being part of another
vessel that had disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.

                                                      *    *    *

 All comments, good or bad are welcome and all will be answered. Send them
to >adultreading@gmail.com< or my website >adultreading.es<. I can also
supply where my other books are listed with nifty.org.