Bogart the Boat Salesman's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

The second call came in on top of the first. Bogart froze with the yellow suit half on. A pontoon two miles out, one person in the water. A sinking boat a mile past that. Two boats. One crew. He had to choose which one they ran to first, and the wrong choice meant a body. He grabbed the scanner off the counter and turned the squelch down. Both mayday channels bled through the speaker. The pontoon caller was a woman, shouting. Her husband had gone over the rail. He wasn't wearing a jacket. The sinking boat was a man, calm, saying his bilge pump had quit and the water was at his knees. Diane was already at the wheel of the rescue boat, engine warm. Denise stood on the dock in blue, hood up. They watched him. "Which one?" Diane called. Bogart ran to the end of the dock and lifted the binoculars. He found the pontoon first. Its running lights were on. He saw a woman waving both arms above her head. He couldn't see anyone in the water near her. He swung the glasses further out. The second boat sat low, no lights, just a shape against the dark water. No one on deck that he could see. He lowered the binoculars. A man in the water without a jacket had minutes. A boat taking on water slow had longer, unless it rolled. "Pontoon first," he said. "Swimmer in the water, no jacket. We grab him and run to the second boat after." Diane nodded once. Denise stepped onto the deck and clipped in. "Call the coast guard on the second," Bogart told the scanner mic. "Rescue crew is two miles out, pontoon first. Sinking boat needs a second unit if you have one." A voice came back. One unit, twenty minutes out. That was all. Diane pushed the throttle forward. The hydrofoil lifted and the marina fell behind them. Bogart braced against the rail with the line coiled at his boot. Denise crouched at the gunwale, watching the black water ahead. They found the pontoon in four minutes. The woman was still waving. Denise was over the side before Diane cut the engine. She came up with the husband under one arm, coughing but breathing. Bogart pulled them both to the ladder. Two minutes on deck, jacket on the man, blanket around him. Diane already had the boat turning. They ran for the second boat at full speed. They saw it from a hundred yards out. The deck was empty. The cabin was dark. Water was over the gunwale on the low side. Bogart lifted the binoculars again. He saw an orange jacket in the water, twenty yards off the stern, face down. He had chosen. He had chosen right on the first boat. He had chosen wrong on the second.