“And then H says, ‘Let me deal with this.’ She gets out, she’s in her uptown clothes, and she goes up to the biggest one, saying he must be mistaken, we live just around the corner. We have all the required documents and permissions, and he needs to let us through. We have biz on the Mainland and we need to be there before the storm, so we don’t miss our connections. And she shows him the papers.”

“And he . . . ?”

“Rips them out of her hands. ‘These again,’ he says. He passes them along to the others. ‘We’ve seen a few of these today, right, guys?’ His guys pass them back and they’re all laughing, like how stupid do you think we are?”

Julian’s hands tightened to fists on his thighs. The words came faster now, like a flood he could no longer hold back. “So H throws a few names around, people she says won’t be happy if we don’t show up across the river. Big guy just shrugs. H goes: ‘So what are you saying?’ He goes, ‘I’m saying you got scammed, lady.’ And he ticks off papers, tossing them on the ground one by one: ‘There ain’t no ferry. Airport’s shut down. Heliport’s closed to the public. You ain’t goin’ nowhere.’ And H goes, ‘But I’m not the public, and who the hell are you?’ ”

Daniel hissed softly, an intake of breath.

“Yep, she starts giving him lip, and they’re both waving papers and yelling at each other, and I’m leaping to the dock, thinking to calm her down, then . . .” Julian’s fists flew to cover his face again. “Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! I can’t . . . !”

“Say it, Jules. You have to.”

“One of the other guys, like from the back, he’s messing with his phone. Suddenly he moves to Big Guy to show him the screen. Well, well, says Big Guy, and he steps up with his pistol drawn and puts it to her head. ‘Yeah, we know who you are.’ And H . . . she grins, like she’s daring him. The rest are still laughing and she’s making to slap the gun aside, and I’m, no! no! and he . . . and he pulls the fucking trigger. Right there, Dan! Just like that! He blows her away right in front of me, and I couldn’t stop him!” His hands wove frantic patterns of denial in the air. “She drops and her brains are on me and blood everywhere and there was nothing . . . ! I couldn’t do shit!”

He doubled over like a rag doll, seized by raw, childlike sobs. My eyes welled in stunned sympathy. I turned away, trying not to see what he’d so wrenchingly described, moment by moment. Daniel laid a hand across the back of Julian’s neck, his gaze distant, weary, infinitely sad.

When Julian could breathe again, Daniel said, “Not your fault, Jules.”