In his smooth Nat King Cole voice, Romeo described the sights of Prince George Town through a tourist microphone as if he were a tour director.

"And on your right you have the plaza, which, if I'm not mistaken, will soon be graced by an avant-garde creation of the imminent Boston sculptor, Mrs. Carla Paxton Brody—"

"Eminent," Carla said with a sigh. "Sculptress. And I'm now from Whiskey Cay, not Boston. Romeo, if you're trying to sound like William Buckley, get it right."

They approached the town's sole traffic policeman, stationed at the intersection of Kingston Road and Highbourne Way. He stood on a canopied kiosk in the middle of the street, wearing whites, a pith helmet, and a gleaming gold badge. His black face shone with sweat.

A fish truck dripping with melting ice lumbered up from a side street. The Cadillac could easily have beaten it to the intersection, but the policeman held up his hand imperiously, stopping them.

"He's my brother-in-law, you see," murmured Romeo. "Thoroughly detests me." He rolled his window down. "Yah, mon. Why you stoppin' these tourists? I gwine tell your wife. You pay no heed to island economy?"

The officer's hand stayed up scornfully. Then things began to happen very fast.

A motor scooter pulled up beside them, its engine popping, with two men astride it. The man on the back was enormous. He wore a tan tropical suit and a Panama hat, mirrored sunglasses, and a flowing white mustache disguising buck teeth.

Suddenly he was leaning toward them, squinting into the rear window of the Cadillac through the tinted glass. Ellen saw his hand creeping toward his coat.

"Go, Romeo," said Hoagie tersely, then exploded into action. He yanked Thea from the jump seat and threw Carla to the floor. He flung himself on Ellen and slammed her to the seat, covering her body with his own. "Get this hunk of tin in gear and go!"

Ellen was crushed backward as the Cadillac took off. She heard the blast of a gun. A bullet slammed into the trunk. Then she was smothering, squirming under Hoagie's hard body, fighting for air.

From below window level, she glimpsed the policeman as they rocketed past. She heard his whistle shrill, then grow fainter. They rounded a corner in a shriek of smoking rubber. Held down on the seat, she glimpsed stilted wooden houses with hex signs and weather-beaten paint, palm trees and balconies and scraggly potted plants. She saw laundry flapping and TV antennas and a towering coconut palm.

By the time Hoagie let her up, she was drenched in sweat. Thea was crying. Carla was stunned. Michael was glaring at Hoagie. They were parked outside a wooden building. Above it flapped the turquoise, yellow and black flag of the Bahamas.

"Welcome to Prince George Town," rumbled Romeo. He patted the wheel of his car. "Mon, you can't beat General Motors, that's a fact."