She had on teddy bear pajamas, no makeup. She must have washed her face before going to bed; if she had gotten that far. Her big brown eyes were a mystery. He had expected to find her either scared or excited or a combination of both. But there was sorrow in her face, coupled with a peculiar detachment. That was his Amy—a complex nothing. He had known her almost three years and he hadn’t the faintest idea what went on in her head.

“David’s asleep,” she said.

“Good.” He sat up and reached for his GPS.

She nodded to the Farallon. “What’s that for?”

“Our escape.”

“What?”

“I’ll explain.”

“You’d better hurry. David could wake up any second. Why did you want me to come down here?”

“We need to talk.”

“About what? You’re not changing the plan again.”

“I am. We’re not going to kill David.”

“What?”

“Shh. Gilbert will hear you.”

Amy was livid. So much for the mystery. She practically hissed as she spoke.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind? After all the trouble I’ve gone through to set this up? You’re chickening out?”

He spoke in a calm voice. “I’ve come up with an alternative plan. It’ll solve all our problems if you’ve the guts to follow it.” He tapped the GPS. “This is what is called a global positioning device. It’ll tell me when we near a boat I’ve anchored in the middle of the ocean. Our course will pass near it. I doubt the boat will be more than a quarter of a mile away when we leave the Stardust.”

“Leave the Stardust? Make sense, Matt.”

“You know I have to leave here before we dock. Well, I’m leaving earlier than you expected. The two big changes I’m making to our plan are that you can leave with me, and still leave your husband alive.”

Amy shook her head. “That’s crazy.”

“No. It’s sane. What we were plotting was crazy. Don’t you see the beauty of what I’m proposing? Before we were going to have David disappear into the ocean. But we can achieve the same effect by having you disappear. You can be the one the whole world thinks fell overboard and drowned. Only you will live. We will jump overboard together and ride this Farallon to the boat I’ve set in place. I’ve brought wet suits for both of us. At this time of the year the water isn’t that cold, anyway. We can get to my boat in a few minutes. I have clean towels and a change of clothes waiting for you. We might reach the marina before the Stardust. David probably won’t wake until then. Either way, it doesn’t matter, we’ll be long gone before then. Jimmy included.” He added, “Plus we’ll have the money.”