Stranded

Chapter Five -- Frankenstein

Day Four

After a quiet night on the beach, Sonny woke early and decided to try to catch some more fish. He'd had some success the night before, and although he wasn’t quite sure what kind of fish it was, they ate well. Taggart had been impressed. Sonny had wrapped the fish in banana leaves and cooked it on the open fire. Then, he cut up some papaya to serve with it. "You're a regular galloping gourmet," Taggart joked. "Yeah, another thing the ladies love me for," Sonny joked back. As they ate, Taggart asked Sonny what he thought the chances of them being found were. "You don't think Mac will keep looking for you?" Sonny asked back. "He might, but frankly, he might think you did me in and dumped me somewhere. They might not think to look this far out." Sonny shook his head, "he wouldn't think that." "Why not?" "Because Mac knows me." "Oh, that's right, I forgot, you're not a killer…right?" Sonny stared at him, "that's right." "Just because you claim you didn't kill Deke, that doesn't mean you haven't killed. Get real Sonny, we both know you have." "You don't really expect me to respond to that?" "Go ahead, this is all off the record." Sonny snorted, "yeah right. Like I'd believe you. The minute we get home you'll use anything I say here against me." "No I won't…you have my word." Sonny shook his head, "well excuse me Lt., but your word means exactly nothing to me." Sonny got up and walked off, leaving Taggart behind shaking his head.

Now, he stripped down to his shorts and picked up the spear he had fashioned from a stick sharpened with the knife he'd found. He waded into the water focusing his eyes on the best looking fish he could find. He speared it after only two tries; "hey I'm getting good at this!" He returned to their "campsite" with his catch. Taggart had just woken up. "Breakfast," Sonny stated, holding up the fish. "Excellent," Taggart replied, "I'm starved." His eyes fell on Sonny's chest. "Damn man, you're like fucking Frankenstein." "Huh? What are you talking about?" "Those scars…how many do you have?" "Enough," Sonny curtly replied. "Come on, seriously. OK, the one in the middle, the large one, that must be from the Christmas shooting." Sonny nodded his head, but didn't respond. "What about the others?" Sonny stared at him, "you must know detective, since you've made me your life's work." Taggart thought about it, then replied, "OK, I'll take a shot at it…oops, sorry, bad choice of words." Sonny gave him a brief smile, then went back to scaling the fish. "The scar on your left arm definitely looks like a bullet wound; so does the one on your upper right chest. But I don't know when you got them…New York maybe?" Sonny shook his head, "nope." "And then there's that scar on your side…now that looks like a knife wound. And it looks a lot fresher than the others. Somebody stabbed you?" "I need to get some more banana leaves," Sonny stated, putting the fish down on the few that he had, and turning around to walk away. "And then there's that scar on your upper back. I noticed that before. But it doesn't look like either a gunshot or a knife wound." Sonny whipped around, "no, that one you can thank your hero for."

Day Five

"You guys are wasting your time; we're not going to find him out here." Johnny spoke up before Jason could, "listen buddy, you're being paid very well to take us around on your boat. Keep your comments to yourself." "Whatever," the man replied, steering the boat out into the ocean. Jason stared ahead, scanning the horizon. He couldn't even let himself think that Sonny was really gone. After everything they'd been through, it couldn't end like this. He remembered that Sonny once said he wanted to die with honor. Jason didn't think there was much honor in being lost at sea…with a crazy cop.

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