Sail - v4 by James Patterson

Author:James Patterson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-07-21T12:17:03+00:00

Chapter 62

IT WAS BARELY 9 A.M. in Miami and the temperature outside the Coast Guard base was already pushing up into the high eighties, and it was humid.

As for the temperature inside, it wasn’t much lower. The central AC was seemingly waving the white flag again, and the vents in Andrew Tatem’s office were trickling the lukewarmest of lukewarm air.

Great, just great. Splendid . . . and now things get really hot, right?

Tatem picked up the phone and dialed. As much as he hated to take shit from anyone, that’s exactly what he was about to do in a big, unpleasant way.

“May I speak with Peter Carlyle, please? This is Lieutenant Tatem of the Coast Guard.”

Another night had come and gone without finding The Family Dunne and its crew. After ordering the search effort to continue around the clock and adding a slew of helicopters and man-hours, Tatem and his Coast Guard unit had turned up absolutely nothing.

Now, in what had become a twice-daily routine, Tatem had to call New York and share the news. Or rather, his no-news.

“I don’t get it!” barked Carlyle over the phone, his patience clearly waning, if he ever had any. “You said you had their coordinates, am I right? Didn’t you tell me that, Lieutenant Tatem? I made a note of it.”

“We thought we did.” The bastard is making notes. For the lawsuit, right?

“What about your maps? Are you sure you’re reading them right?”

Tatem closed his eyes, blinking long and hard in an effort to maintain his usual even keel. Reading our maps right? What does he think we’re using, an old foldout Rand McNally from the glove compartment?

“Mr. Carlyle, this is one of the largest search efforts we’ve ever made. I assure you that we’re doing our very best,” said Tatem.

“Then your best needs to get a whole lot better,” he heard back. That was followed by a loud click!

Carlyle had hung up on him, and he wanted Tatem to know he’d been cut off.

Oh, well.

Such abuse was nothing new to Tatem. He was used to family members expressing their frustrations. More important, he understood it. It was only natural. Very human. And thus forgivable.

What struck Tatem as being a little odd, though — or at least different — was that he wasn’t getting the abuse face-to-face.

He’d been involved in over a hundred search-and-rescue efforts for people missing at sea. Most of the time, “loved ones” felt compelled to travel to the base, especially if they could afford it. They wanted to be closer to the action, feel more part of the effort. “It’s the least we can do,” he often heard.

Not Carlyle, though. He wanted to know everything that was happening, only he wanted to know it while he was back home in Manhattan.

Granted, his rushing down to Miami wouldn’t make any difference in the search effort itself. In fact, as the search dragged on, it could only complicate things, especially since the media had really latched on to the story.

Carlyle’s appearance on The Judith Fox Show had all but set the table.

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