The Stranger in the Lifeboat

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“A lot of folks have been looking for you.”
The man said nothing. LeFleur squatted down next to him.
“How long have you been on this island? Really?”
“A little while.”
“And that raft had been here long before you came to the station.”
“That’s right.”
“You always knew I’d find that notebook, didn’t you? You’d already read
it.”
“Yes.”
“And you left me those last pages in that envelope.”
“I did.”
LeFleur pursed his lips. “Why?”
“I thought they might help you.” Rom turned. “Did they?”
“Yeah,” LeFleur sighed. “Actually, they did.” He paused, studying Rom’s
face. “But how did you know I needed help?”
“When we first met. The photo of your family. Your wife. Your little girl.
I saw the pain in your eyes. I knew you must have lost someone in that
picture.”
LeFleur grunted. Rom raked his hands through the sand.
“Did you believe the story you read, Inspector?”
“Some of it.”
“Which part?”
“Well. I believe Benji was in the raft.”
“Just him?”
LeFleur thought. “No. Not just him.”
Rom wiggled his fingers and produced a tiny crab. He held it up. “Did you
know a crab will escape its shell thirty times before it dies?” He looked out to
sea. “This world can be a trying place, Inspector. Sometimes you have to
shed who you were to live who you are.”
“Is that why you changed your name?” LeFleur asked. “Rum Rosh? ‘God
lifted your head’?”
The man smiled but never looked his way. LeFleur felt the hot sun on the
back of his neck. He stared at the empty blue horizon. The distance from
Cape Verde to this beach was thousands of miles.
“How did you do it, Benji? How did you survive all that way alone?”
“I was never alone,” the man said.