by Matt Lincoln
“Oh? So you were here before you started caring about the journal?” I asked him.
“Oh yeah, way before that,” Joey said. “We bought the house, after all. Didn’t even know about that stupid journal until you came along.”
Another surprise. So it was all a coincidence, after all? That still struck me as unlikely.
“Okay, hold on,” I said, holding up my hands in the air for emphasis. “What do you mean ‘until I came along?’ I got the fake journal sent to me while I was in Haiti.”
“Uh, yeah,” Joey said, giving me a look as if he was concerned I was the stupid one. “What did you just say about that case a minute ago?”
I groaned as I realized his meaning and ran a hand across my forehead, slapping my notebook against my thigh in frustration.
“They caught on to me while I was down there, figured out what I was doing somehow, probably by tapping into my tablet and started tagging me after that,” I mused aloud. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
It’s not like I hadn’t considered this possibility before. I wasn’t exactly shocked. But it still hit hard, knowing that these people had been creeping on me for some time now. That being said, it wasn’t as long as I had originally suspected, a year or more. It was just a couple of months. I tried to tell myself that, anyway, but I didn’t feel any less violated somehow.
“The Hollands know how to get what they want,” Joey muttered.
“Are those their real names?” I asked him, latching onto this. “Chester and Ashley Holland?”
“Who the hell knows?” Joey spat, laughing for real this time. “They have so many of them. It’s impossible to keep track. Most of us call ‘em the Hollands, though. Which makes me think those aren’t their real names, honestly.”
I thought similarly. There was no way that the Hollands would use their real names like this. Not this widely. Their true identities were probably long since lost in a sea of paperwork, changed identities, and years of schemes on the wrong side of the law. Their real names probably wouldn’t even be a lot of use to us at that point, but it would still be nice to know. It would feel more like we were on the right track, as though we had the upper hand, or were at least closer to getting it.
“Alright, so let’s get back to how you ended up in Newport News in the first place,” I said, eyeing Joey carefully. “And don’t even try to pass it off like it was just another one of the Hollands’ investment properties, and it just so happened to be in the same location as Grendel’s journal. I already know your bosses are nautical enthusiasts and that they found Lafitte’s ship. Besides, if you’re their right-hand man, they wouldn’t waste you for so long on such an inconsequential property now, would they? You’ve been here from the beginning, yes? You already told me as much.”
The goon scowled yet again, seeing that I had covered every angle of a possible lie he could feed me. The only option left for him was the truth.
“Fine,” he muttered, almost pouting now. “They bought the Hawthorne house ‘cause they thought they’d find the Dragon’s Rogue here. They had a page out of the journal telling them as much.”
“There are more loose pages?” I asked, perking up at this. “Where did they find them?”
“I don’t know, somewhere in Hawaii,” Joey said, waving his hand in the air dismissively. “I wasn’t there back then. Anyway, the old guy was a nut, so they were only really able to figure out what he meant about a year ago. They thought the ship was here, realized that he wrote about staying here in this house for a while. Then they figured out that that lined up with local legends, so they sent me here.”
I had found my journal pages in Hawaii, I remembered. A few more must’ve been scattered on the island, just for the Hollands to find them years before I found the others. I had to admit that I felt a little swell of pride at having found something that the couple had failed to in the same location. Maybe I wasn’t so far behind them in the search for the Dragon’s Rogue after all.
“Do you have these pages?” I asked Joey, thinking back to that table covered in old documents that Tessa and I had found, just waiting for me to look through them and obsess over them as I had the fake journal and the pages that I did have from the real one.
“Yeah, they’re back over there,” Joey sighed with a dejected nod in the direction of the front room where the table lay in wait for me.
I glanced back over my shoulder longingly, wanting to abandon this conversation with this low life and go sift through the table’s contents now. But I realized I couldn’t yet as I shook my head to clear it and turned my attention back to Joey. Not yet. I still didn’t have the full story.
“So what did you find when you got here?” I asked the goon. “Is the Dragon’s Rogue here, or isn’t it?”
This last part came out a bit more intense than I’d intended, and Joey leaned back against the side of the kitchen island, pressing himself away from me.
“Whoa, dude, you’re a little weird about this stuff, aren’t you?” he asked, giving me a bewildered look. “You remind me of them.”
“Them?” I repeated, shaking my head in confusion as I was barely paying attention to him anymore, my mind with the ship I had sought for so long.
“Yeah, them,” Joey said blankly. “The Hollands.”
“Oh, right,” I muttered, the words bringing me straight back to reality. I definitely didn’t like the sound of that.
“As for your question,” Joey continued, relaxing a bit now as he saw that I had done the same, “No, the ship isn’t here. We looked forever, but it’s not here. Then you turned up, and we shifted our focus to the museum.”
“Well, do you know where it actually is?” I asked him, more than a little annoyed by this new piece of information. I hadn’t dared hope that the Dragon’s Rogue might actually be here, but I was disappointed despite myself. So close, yet so far once again.
“Nah, but we were hoping that book will tell us,” he sighed. “I guess it’ll tell you now.”
“What book?” I asked, my disappointment suddenly dissipating. “The journal? So you did take the real one from the museum? Is it the real one?”
“Whoa, man, you need to chill out,” Joey said, leaning back as far as he could away from me again. “And yeah, we have it. It’s with the other pages. It’s the real one, as far as I know, and we had a guy check to be sure. He is some expert the Hollands are friends with. He helps them with all this stuff.”
“What’s his name?” I asked sharply.
“I don’t know,” Joey said, shaking his head. “I never met him. No one did. The Hollands are super cagey about the whole thing. I don’t know anything about him, other than that he’s a him.”
“Okay,” I said, breathing a sigh and attempting to calm myself from this new burst of information, too. “So let’s go back to the journal. When did you take it from the museum?”
“Just last week,” Joey said. “I did it myself. We didn’t dare take anything before then, but we thought you’d moved on, and the Hollands wanted the journal for themselves.”
“You thought I’d moved on?” I repeated, arching an eyebrow at him. “So you didn’t know that I knew the journal was a fake?”
“No, we didn’t,” Joey said, shaking his head. “Not until you called the old broad from the museum. Then we knew. It got really important that we focus on that ship after that.”
“Right, let’s talk about that a bit,” I said, almost as interested in figuring out what was up with the fake ship as I was about the journal. “What’s the deal with that? Was that for my benefit?”
“Yep, that was the plan,” Joey sighed, shaking his head dejectedly. “Fat lot of good all that work was for now.”
“Wait, but you said that you didn’t start tailing me until Haiti,” I pointed out, eyeing the goon with more than a little suspicion now. “But according to your neighbors, you’ve been building that thing for a while yet. How’s that work out?”
“Well, we didn’t know it was yo
u specifically,” Joey explained with a shrug, without missing a beat, which told me that he was likely being honest. “But we knew that there was at least someone else on the ship’s tail. There’ve been whispers for a long time about some law enforcement dude asking questions about it, and before you, it was some old dude. But that was before the Hollands’ time, I guess. He never found it, though.”
My blood boiled as I realized that the goon must be talking about my grandfather, who had passed down his interest in the Dragon’s Rogue to me. He was long dead, but I nonetheless hated the idea of people like the Hollands tarnishing his memory. I hated the idea of them stealing away his life’s work even more.
“Alright, then,” I said, running a hand across my face wearily. “So you started making the ship to mess with me, or the person who turned out to be me, at least.”
“You shouldn’t feel bad,” Joey said, shooting me a grin. “They’ve been trying to figure out who you are forever, and they only just found out recently. That’s more than most people could say, I’ll tell you that.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly, though if I was honest, that did make me feel a little better about the whole thing. “I guess that’s another reason for you to trust me over them, then.”
“Another good point,” Joey mused, frowning as he considered this. “Are you done with me yet, then?”
“Just one more question,” I told him. “What about Henry, the old appraiser for the museum? You took him, didn’t you?”
“Ah, nah, he’s fine,” Joey said, waving away the notion that the goons would hurt him. “The old geezer’s a genius, sure, but he’s fading. When we shipped him off to his grandson’s babbling about pirates, the grandson never thought twice about it.”
“So that was really his grandson who talked to Martha that day?” I asked, more than a little surprised at this.
“Oh, hell no,” Joey said, shaking his head. “That was Buck. You killed him earlier. We just drove him to his grandson’s, took his key card, and changed his email password so he wouldn’t have access to it. The old geezer’s fine unless he’s croaked of natural causes by now. It wouldn’t surprise me, honestly. He was really old. I was shocked that they still let him work.”
“You know I’ll be confirming everything you’ve told me,” I warned him, narrowing my eyes at him and meeting his gaze firmly, searching for any sign of dishonesty there or that he was holding anything back from me.
“Oh, I got that,” he assured me, rolling his eyes. “Look, I’m betting I’m going to be doing a lot of these interviews for a long time. Some of ‘em even with you again. So how about we just call it a day on this one? I’m tired, and you shot me twice, and I want some drugs in me to make the pain go away.”
I studied him for a moment more and then nodded.
“Alright,” I said, nodding to him again in thanks. “I appreciate your cooperation. I imagine you’ll get a witness protection gig after all is said and done, given the nature of the crime.”
“That’d be grand,” Joey said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Just stick me in some gas station in the Midwest to rot, why don’t you? I’d rather go to prison.”
I smiled as I walked away, relishing the idea that the goon might not be getting such a great deal after all, from his own point of view.
But within two steps, I’d already forgotten him. I had other, more interesting things to worry about. And I’d never been more determined to find the Dragon’s Rogue.
28
Ethan
By the time I made it back to the front of the house, Tessa was coming back up the stairs. Her shirt was covered in blood from when she’d fought off that last goon.
I had originally meant to go straight to work sifting through the contents of the Hawthorne house, chief among them that table, but concern for Tessa and gratitude that she was safe overwhelmed everything else at that moment.
I rushed out across the lawn to greet her, passing the helicopter and a forensics team as I went. She looked up and saw me, and her tired face brightened as she rushed into my arms.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close, burying my face in her hair and soaking up every inch of her that I could.
“Are you okay?” I murmured, my voice muffled by the top of her head.
“Yeah, I’m good,” she breathed into my chest. “You?”
“I’m good, too,” I assured her, giving her one last, tight squeeze before letting her go, though not completely. I kept my arms around her waist, and she kept her face only a few inches from mine.
“That was a lot,” she said with a low, almost nervous laugh, shaking her head in disbelief. “But I’m glad it’s over. It is over, right?”
She gave me a sly look as if she half expected me to tell her that no, we had a whole other staple of goons to fight off and a whole other journal and ship to go find right this very moment.
“Yes,” I laughed, shaking my head and brushing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. “Yes, it’s over. We can go home now. Or you can go home now, at least. I have a feeling that I’m going to be here for a few more days going over evidence.”
“Well then, I’ll be here for a few more days, too,” she assured me with a laugh and another squeeze. “This is our vacation together, after all.”
“Vacation?” I repeated, shaking my head again. “I’m going to need a vacation from this vacation!”
“So will I, so let’s pencil that in for somewhere down the line,” she laughed, the sound trickling above the sound of the waves below and blending in pleasantly with them. “But for now, let’s enjoy the one we’ve got and hope that it’s smooth sailing from here on out, so to speak.”
“I thought that it was never smooth sailing where we’re concerned,” I reminded her in a gently teasing tone.
This was proving itself to be more and more true by the day, I realized, and certainly by the mission. Holm and I had even gone on shore leave once, only to find ourselves in the middle of an international incident. Most of the time, I wouldn’t have it any other way, but right then, I just wished that I could be with Tessa without any of the theatrics for once. Maybe we’d get that now, at least for a few days.
“That is true,” Tessa admitted. “But I like that. It keeps me on my toes. And you know how much I love adventure.”
“I do,” I confirmed, a smile escaping across my lips.
“Anyway, can you think how awful it would be if things were just boring all the time?” she asked, meeting my eyes, and I could see that hers were dancing with excitement, though there were bags beneath them that indicated that she needed a good night’s sleep. Mine no doubt looked the same.
“Dreadfully awful,” I agreed, leaning in and pecking her on the cheek since we weren’t exactly alone, though the forensics team had gone back to whatever they had been doing before I arrived and weren’t paying us much attention. “So, how are the Carltons?”
“Oh, they’re alright,” Tessa sighed, her face suddenly darkening. “I think they’re going to be shaken up for a while. I mean, who wouldn’t be? But they’re glad to have their kid back and their bad neighbor situation taken care of. Though I doubt they’ll be any less protective after this experience, no matter who their neighbors are.”
“Can’t really blame them for that,” I mused. “Though it did bite them in the back with the boy. If they’d let the kid outside alone at all, he might not have pulled that stunt tonight.”
“That’s a good point,” Tessa agreed with a nod. “Either way, they’ll need counseling, all four of them. They agreed that’s probably a good idea.”
“And maybe a move,” I added. “I mean, I agree this place is amazing, and I would’ve loved to grow up here, but come on. Staying might not be the best idea going forward.”
“I said the same thing to them, but they didn’t want to hear it,” Tessa said with another, bigger sigh this time. “They’re determined to stick it out, saying they worked hard for this place, and they’re not going t
o give it up. I guess they bought the land and built the house themselves. That’s how they could afford it.”
“Wow,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “I didn’t realize that. Well, I guess I can’t fault them for wanting to stay, then. I hope everything works out for them.”
“So do I,” she murmured, resting her chin on my collarbone gently. I rested mine on the top of her head in turn.
We stayed like that for a while, just enjoying the silence but for the sounds of the waves and the crew working behind us and each other’s presence. It was the first moment of calm I had felt all day, I realized, and I couldn’t believe that it was just that morning that we had first walked into the nautical museum, trying to figure out what was going on with that strange old manager who kept dodging our calls.
It was safe to say that this had been one of the longest days of my life, and that was saying something, given my career path.
“So, what were you up to while I was at the Carltons?” Tessa asked me after some time, pulling herself away from me again with a small groan as if that was the last thing that she wanted to do. I felt similarly, but there was still work to be done, sifting through this house, before I would be comfortable heading back to the bed-and-breakfast for a good long sleep.
“Come on, let’s sit down,” I said, gesturing for her to sit beside me on the rickety top step etched into the side of the cliff.
I plopped down there, and Tessa nestled in beside me soon after, and we looked out at the water. Man, was it a sight to behold. There was mist hovering above the water, but from this angle, we could really see the whole of the sea as the bay stretched out into the ocean. There wasn’t a single person or ship in sight, and I thought that this might rank in my top three views of all time. They were all of the water, of course. What else?
“Wow,” Tessa breathed as she followed my gaze. “How did I not notice this before? I bet it would be even better in the daytime.”