Without landmarks, he had to time his estimate of how far he had traveled. When he had gone what he thought was three football fields, Matt paused and searched in every direction. He was surprised Kelly had yet to show, but understood that at night it was difficult to guess distance over water. If her binoculars were powerful, she might have trailed the Stardust by as much as a half mile and not realized it.

Matt could not find David. The strength of the panic that swept over him stunned him. For over a year he had thought about little else than hurting the guy. Now he felt sick to his stomach because he could not save him. That was the reality about death, though—it dwarfed all other human preoccupations. Amy had said she had put Valium in his liquor. He had probably been semicomatose when she had shoved him overboard. The shock would have been overwhelming. A lungful of seawater and he would have sunk. Still, Matt searched.

“David! David!” he shouted.

Kelly showed a minute later. Her ship was without lights. There was a short on the control board, she explained. She could not turn them on.

“I don’t even have a flashlight,” she called to him in the water. “I was looking for him back a ways.”

“Is that where he went in?” Matt shouted back.

“I don’t know! You have a light. Do you see anything?”

“No. I better come aboard. My light will work better if I’m out of the water.”

Kelly lowered a ladder. He was aboard with his equipment in less than a minute. But that was a lot of wasted seconds when they were talking about a drowning man. Matt ordered her to return to the spot she had originally searched. She was the one who had seen David go overboard. Her estimate of David’s location would be more reliable than his.

Still, there was nothing. While Kelly steered left and right and shouted until she was hoarse, he raked the light over the surface. The Stardust’s wake was history—he couldn’t find bubbles, never mind foam. He began to wonder if they were even near the correct spot. As a last resort he had Kelly kill the engine and remain silent. The night settled over them like a smothering blanket. He stood beside Kelly as the boat faintly rocked from side to side. The stars were bright holes in a black canopy. There was no worse tomb than the sea. It buried what it swallowed.

Chances were David would never be found.

“I have a GPS.” He held up the phosphorescent display on the instrument. “We should note our location.”

“Are you giving up?” she snapped.

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to give up. I know you hate him. You don’t care if he dies. David! David!”

“Kelly.” He tried to stop her. She shook him off.

“Leave me alone! David!”