I padlocked the door. It would keep them in, but it would also keep the crew out.

“Hi, my name’s Ron,” the crewman said. “Do you think I can play with the kids sometime?” he asked as we went back out on deck.

“Uh…we’ll see,” I said, glad I was behind him and he couldn’t see my expression. I had no intention of doing anything other than using Ron’s desire against him.

He led me to an upper deck and from there to the bridge. Quince dismissed him with a wave of his arm. I put my hand in my pocket to feel the key to the padlock.

“We’re about to cast off,” he said. “You and I have to work together.”

“Agreed,” I said.

Quince nodded. Then he said to the helmsman, “Give the order to cast off.” The helmsman shouted to the men on deck and on the pier.

For several minutes there was a flurry of activity as the boat moved away from the dock. Tilman was still standing on the wharf, watching as we eased out onto the river. I hoped Karen had gotten away.

Finally, with the few lights on shore distant points, Quince turned his attention back to me. “You take care of the passengers, the kids, and your doctor. I’ll take care of my crew.”

“What if your crew doesn’t leave me alone?”

“They’ll learn that’s not a smart thing to do. But a gun going off can cause a lot of damage on a boat. Take yours, unload it, and put it away.”

“And let Vern do whatever the hell he wants?”

“I know where the money comes from. Vern seems to have forgotten that. If he forgets it again, he’ll make my life hard. Anyone who makes my life hard regrets it.”

“Fine. As long as he leaves me alone.”

Quince didn’t reply. He’d said what he needed to say.

I watched the black water slip by for a few minutes, then I asked, “We’re going down the river?”

Quince nodded. “The river’s wide,” he commented. “The waterway isn’t. Here, no one on shore can see the kids.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Taking the river itself is the long way to the Gulf. Usually ships use the Intercoastal Waterway or the Harvey Canal rather than following the winding curves of the Mississippi. But Quince was right, the river was wide, and under the cover of night, who could possibly see a child waving through a window?

I climbed down from the bridge, then wandered around the deck. I was on an upper deck. It covered about half the boat. In front of the bridge was a small swimming pool surrounded by deck chairs. The deck served as the roof of the passenger cabins. I went down to the main deck, heading past the cabins to the bow of the boat. A lifeboat was on either side of the Earthly Delight.I glanced back at the stern to see that there were two there, also. On this part of the deck there were outdoor tables and chairs. The ones on the port side of the boat were under a tarp to keep them in the shade. The tarp made it hard to see the port lifeboat from the bridge.

I considered getting Cordelia and the kids and casting off in the lifeboat. At the moment, I had some freedom. Quince had told me not to use my gun, but he hadn’t taken it from me. No one appeared to be checking on my movements. I glanced at my watch. It was a little after eleven. We would probably arrive in Biloxi during the pre-dawn hours. Darkness was perfect for the purpose of this cruise.

If I was going to put out in a lifeboat, it would be much better to do it off Biloxi than here in the river. The Mississippi Gulf Coast was dotted with small towns along some twenty miles of beach. Next to the beach was a busy highway. The Gulf waters near the coast were shallow and calm. The Mississippi River, on the other hand, was riddled with treacherous currents, hidden from the small towns on its banks by the levee. Once those small towns were passed, there was nothing except the river and the swampy delta surrounding it. You would be spat into the Gulf miles and miles from any place to land.

The lifeboat would be a last resort. I continued around the deck. The nice cabins were on this level. There were ten of them. Nice to know I rated one. Or maybe I got it because it was easier to keep an eye on me here, with windows for eavesdropping.

As I walked by the cabin where the children were, I heard soft crying, not just one child, maybe two or three. I thought of going in, but knew I could offer no comfort that Cordelia couldn’t do better.

I went down the stairway that led to the crew deck. The cabins were smaller here. Back toward the stern was a kitchen and a mess area. A couple of men were playing cards in the corner. They ignored me. Beyond the kitchen was a storeroom. Next to that was a cramped radio room where a crewman was glancing through Playboy.

“I never read it,” he said when he saw me. “I just look at the pictures.”

I smiled at his attempt at humor. I didn’t need to have the whole crew ready to kill me. “You must get bored down here. I don’t imagine you send or receive many messages.”

“A few now and then. Mostly ‘we’re in the channel, stay out of our way’ shit.”

“If I wanted to send a message, what would I have to do?”

“Be real nice to me.” He grinned, then continued, “Write it out exactly as you want it, then give it to me. It’s best if you can give me a little leeway as to when it needs to go out. Why, you got a message you need to send?”

“No, just curious. I want to find out how things work here.”

“Hey, I like these kinds of girls.” He waved some airbrushed tits in front of me. “But not those kinds of girls.” He nodded his head in their direction. “It’s just the money.”

“Yeah, you and me both,” I replied.

I slipped back out and poked my head into the storeroom. One of the card players turned out to be the cook, who asked me what I wanted.

“Do we have a first-aid kit anywhere? And maybe something for the kids to eat?”

He didn’t get up to help me, instead calling out directions of where things might be in between poker hands. I finally found the first-aid kit and also snagged a bag of cookies.

The cook made no objection to my taking the cookies. His only question was, “Do you mind if we drink beer?”

I suspected he was playing me off against Quince, but as far as I was concerned a drunk crew was a happy crew. “No, I don’t care,” I replied. “Just make sure everyone gets his fair share.” Being run aground by a drunk crew and having the Coast Guard rescue us would be manna from heaven to me.

Below this deck, there was one more level. I glanced down the hatchway. It was the engine room.

“Cookies for us?” one of the men down there called to me.

“No, the kids,” I replied. “But cook’s giving out beer.” That said, I clambered back up to the deck level.

I almost barreled into Quince as I headed for Cordelia’s cabin.

“Cookies for the kids?” It was almost a sneer.

“The merchandise shouldn’t be hungry and sullen.”

He nodded as if I’d given him a rationale he could comprehend. “Some of the men are asking about the doctor,” he said.

“Yeah? What about her?”

“Why pay if you can get it for free?”

“I want her to take care of the kids.”

“Or do you just want her for yourself?”

It’s unfortunate that lesbianism is so “in” these days. It seems even evil assholes notice us. “What difference does it make to you?” I shot back.

“Not much. Just want to know what ground rules to set. If you want, I’ll tell the men to stay away.”

“Yeah, tell them to leave her alone.”

“But, remember, you don’t outrank me. If I want her, I’ll take her.” Quince gazed at me levelly, waiting for my smallest reaction, anything he could use against me.

It doesn’t matter, Micky. You won’t be on this boat long enough for him to ever get the chance.“I have no problem with that,” I replied evenly. “I get tonight, you can have tomorrow night,” I added, to preempt his suggesting the opposite.

“Fine,” Quince shrugged. Then he eyed me and asked, “How does a woman make a woman do it?”

“What do you mean?”

“How do you force her? She doesn’t look like the easy type.”

I had no idea. But Quince wanted an answer, so I gave him one. “I take the gun that she doesn’t know is unloaded and I point it at her head.”

“Do you tie her hands?” Quince was playing a game with me, trying to shove me against my limits. He was a man very good at seeing fear and hesitation and using them.

“Are you getting off on the idea?” I threw back at him. “Or is it the little girls you prefer? You wouldn’t even need to tie their hands.”

For a moment, anger glittered in his eyes. Then he hid it away. “Just remember our bargain. Tomorrow night I’m going to make her scream. Just remember that.” Quince stalked off, out to the deck.

I stood foolishly, holding the first-aid kit and cookies, a thin line of nausea curling in my stomach. I had to stand there for several minutes telling myself there won’t be a tomorrow night, not on this boat, not with him.

Finally, I fumbled in my pocket for the keys to the padlock.

Cordelia just stared at me as I stood in the doorway. I knew she’d heard everything in the hallway.

“I brought the first-aid kit and something for the kids to eat,” I said stupidly. I held them out.

Keeping as much distance as she could between us, Cordelia reached out and took them. “Can’t you get any real food?” she demanded. “Some of these children haven’t eaten since lunch.”

“Look, I’ll do…” Someone came up behind me. I turned to look.

“Hi,” Ron said. “How are we tonight?” he said over my shoulder to the kids. “Anyone want to go out on the deck?”

“Uh…not tonight, Ron,” I told him. “The kids are tired, they need some sleep. Think you might be able to talk the cook into sandwiches or something for them?”

“Hey, no problem, I’m the galley slave on this scow. How about soup and sandwiches? It’s gotten a little chilly tonight.”

“That sounds great. Thanks,” I said.

“Water. Something to drink,” Cordelia added.

“I’ll bring some milk, too. Growing girls need their milk.” Ron counted the girls, then headed for the galley. Another day or two of this and they would trust him, he would be their friend. And then he could easily get what he wanted.

Cordelia was across the cabin, kneeling beside the sick girl. She was taking a thermometer out of the first-aid kit.

“How is she?” I asked as I came into the cabin. I noticed there were six girls, all white except one very light-skinned Creole. Bigotry among child molesters.

“Her fever seems to be going down. It’d be better if she could go to a hospital and we could rule out things like meningitis,” Cordelia said in her professional voice.

It was risky to tell her in front of these kids. I didn’t know them or their emotional state. What if one of them blurted out something in front of Quince or one of his crew? There was also the possibility that one of the crew might overhear. I had heard soft crying when I was out on the deck, someone standing where I had been might easily be able to eavesdrop on our conversation. Or perhaps the cabins were bugged. The radio man might be listening to more than just ship traffic.

“We’ll dock in Biloxi in a few hours,” I told Cordelia. “If she’s not any better by then, we’ll take her ashore.”

Cordelia didn’t reply. She took the girl’s temperature, not bothering to tell me what it was when she was done.

There were six bunks in this cabin with a small couch long enough for one of the kids to sleep on. I busied myself finding blankets and pillows for them all. Cordelia never once looked at me.

Ron returned, carrying a tray loaded with soup and sandwiches, a gallon of milk in the middle of it. “Here we go,” he said, placing it on the coffee table in front of the couch. He and Cordelia began passing out the food to the children.

“Ron, can I ask you something?” I said to get him away from the girls. I motioned him out into the hall. “How does this thing work?” I pointed to the head.

“Just like a regular bathroom,” he explained.

“Well, I’m going to have to show our guests around, so I need to get everything straight.” I asked him about disposing of tampons and condoms, and how much hot water there was and what happened if all the toilets on the boat flushed at once and every stupid question I could think of.

Ron was affable, taking my questions at face value. He showed me the other head on this deck, down at the end of the hall.

Having run out of bathroom questions, we finally went back to the kid’s cabin. They had all finished eating and only empty plates were left. I quickly picked them up and placed them on the tray.