by Caleb Wygal
He looked up to see one of the men jump from the speedboat onto the jon boat. Another tossed him rope with a hook attached.
Lucas heard Darwin huffing and puffing to his right. He sounded as though he was having a panic attack. Lucas had been in situations where he had had a gun pointed at him and lived to tell about it. He was determined that this would be another one of those events.
“Stay calm,” Lucas assured him. “We’ll get out of this.”
Darwin couldn’t answer verbally, but nodded his head emphatically. While Lucas was looking Darwin’s way, he saw that off to their right and behind them fifteen feet was the rock outcropping Darwin had investigated earlier. If they could reach that and lay flat, it might provide enough protection to shield them from any bullets.
Of course, they had to make it there without getting hit first.
A bullet thwocked off the ground a few feet away from Lucas, sending up splatters of mud. The shot jolted Darwin and Lucas reached out to grab his left wrist.
“Look at me Darwin,” he said. Darwin looked quickly at the men on the boats in terror and then to Lucas. “I’ll get you through this, but you have to listen to me.”
Darwin’s green eyes were as wide as flying saucers. He broke eye contact with Lucas and glanced at the man with the gun eighty yards away, mustered up some courage and then looked back to Lucas. “What do you want me to do?” he whispered.
Lucas took a deep breath. “Do you see those rocks behind you and to your right?”
Darwin chanced a look back. “Yes,” he said, returning to Lucas.
Another bulled deflected off the surface a few feet in front of Darwin. A spray of mud hit him in the face. He coughed, spat, and brushed the sandy sludge away.
“Listen, when I say go, get up, duck, and run to those rocks as fast as you can and get down. Can you do that?” Darwin indicated he could. “Great, leave your backpack here. You don’t need the extra weight on you.”
“Okay,” Darwin said and shrugged off the backpack.
Lucas looked back to the men in the boats. The man in their boat apparently finished whatever he was doing to the jon boat and reached out his hand for help to get back across to the speedboat. The leader took the gun down enough to reach out and grab his friend’s hand.
Lucas saw their chance. “Go!”
Darwin stumbled to his feet and ran as fast as his six foot eight, three-hundred plus pound frame could carry him to the crease. Lucas was right behind. With the nature of ground, the going was slow, but within seconds, they were lying flat on their stomachs on the other side of the rocks.
Lucas realized that the man in the speedboat didn’t fire a single shot at them as they ran for safety. He had counted seven shots fired and thought he remembered that a typical 9mm handgun holds fifteen bullets. The man shouldn’t have had to reload yet. Then Lucas grasped the reason.
“We’re safe,” he said.
Darwin was lying in front of him in the crease with his size fourteen feet at Lucas’s head. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, they stopped firing.”
Darwin came to that realization, turned, and raised his head above the rocks to look in the direction of the shore. He saw the man with the gun give them one last look before he hopped down from the gunwale and went to the controls.
A moment later, the speedboat roared and raced away with Darwin and Lucas’s jon boat in tow.
16
“Well,” Darwin huffed, “what are we supposed to do now?”
Lucas thought for a moment about their situation as they stood at the water’s edge. He had run back to the spot where their boat had been to see it trailing behind the swiftly moving speedboat. The irony that modern day pirates had just hijacked their boat while they were looking for a three-century-old pirate treasure near the final home of that pirate was not lost on him.
He checked Google Earth on his phone. The internet connection he had out here was slow. Their current location had them far from civilization. The large bay in front of them and the marshland behind them cut them off without a boat. It was the middle of the afternoon. All of the clouds trailing the tropical storm from earlier in the week had moved out to sea, leaving behind a glowing sun, baking the rocks and them under its harsh glare.
“Have any food or drink in that backpack?”
Darwin thought about it, started to unsling the pack, and stopped. “Nope. Everything we had was underneath the seats.”
Lucas cursed to himself. “I hate to say it, but do you still have Riddick’s card? We’re stranded, and he might be the person who can get us out of here the quickest.”
Darwin knew Lucas didn’t trust the man, and wouldn’t have mentioned him unless he thought they were out of options. He fished in his pocket and handed Lucas the card.
“Thanks,” he said and dialed the number on the card.
Riddick picked up after half a ring. He must have had his cell phone in his hand. “Hello?”
“Hugo? This is Lucas from earlier.”
“Yes! How are you lad? Find the treasure yet?” Riddick sounded delighted to hear from them.
“No, not exactly. Do you remember your offer from earlier to transport us around the area?”
“Yes. Yes I do.”
Lucas glanced at Darwin who met his eye. “I think we’d like to take you up on your offer.”
• • •
While they waited for Riddick to rescue them, Lucas thought that it almost seemed as though Riddick was awaiting their call.
They sat on the weather-beaten, eroded group of rocks that gave them cover before. Lucas noted the rock’s surface was somehow was clean of bird droppings. Unless the water washed over these rocks every day, it was a remarkable feat in this wildlife sanctuary.
Several different species of seabirds played about the bay, either soaring, floating on the calm water, or circling a small area in the water from up high before diving into the bay, trying to catch a fish. They saw a few successful attempts. An occasional ship passed by the opening to the trio of bays; however no one entered the area. They were too far away from the main boat lanes for anyone to see them. This was a quiet area. Lucas now understood why pirates hid in these bays.
Darwin’s phone rang. “Hello?”
“Darwin! Hey, it’s Lisa.” Then, without allowing Darwin to get a word in edgewise, she launched into what she’d found. “I asked Walt, you know Walt? Been here forever. I asked Walt if he remembered a guy by the name of Travis Cole. You know what he told me?”
Again, she didn’t wait for a response from Darwin before continuing. “He told me this Cole guy was a real nice guy. Came from a family of academics. He was shocked when he was found murdered. Said Cole kinda reminded him of you: a young guy who wanted to do big things in fieldwork. Hated being stuck in a lab.
“Anyway, Cole liked to take trips on the side—kinda like you’re doing right now—to research his own projects. Said he couldn’t remember Cole ever finding anything. Then, a couple days before he was killed, Cole told Walt he was going to the coast for the weekend to look into something. At the time, Walt worked at the information desk up front. He said a few days later, Cole came in with a box tucked under his arm, said hi to Walt and explained he was in a hurry before heading downstairs into the basement.”
She continued, not allowing Darwin to speak. “Walt said he got off work while Cole was downstairs. That was the last time he saw Cole alive.”
“Dang. That’s terrible. Did he say anything else about the box Cole had?”
“No,” Lisa answered. “Said he never thought about it again until I asked him about Cole just now. It wasn’t an area he worked, and he assumed Cole would have let someone else know about it. He said the police questioned him later, although he never mentioned the box. It was something he saw all of fifteen seconds, and forgot about it until now.”
“Hard to believe he recalled that after thirty years.”
“Well, you know Walt. He’s sharp as a tack when he
wants to be. A dim bulb when he doesn’t.”
“True,” Darwin agreed. “Do you think you could go down and grab the journal?”
Lisa hesitated. “Me? Go downstairs? I don’t like that place. Not enough sunlight. It’s depressing.”
“Come on. For me?”
Darwin could almost hear what seemed like an audible smile on the other end. “Okay, Darwin, I’ll do it for you. Where can I find it? What am I looking for once I find it?”
He told her where it was located. “I’m hoping she wrote something about the treasure in the book somewhere. Blackbeard may have told her something about it that she wrote down. Or maybe he told her something she didn’t know related to the treasure.”
“Cryptic, you mean?”
“Yes, cryptic. That’s the word. See if you can find something similar. How late do you work tonight?”
“Supposed to be five, but I’ll stay over if I find something interesting.”
An hour later, Riddick’s large yacht came around the bend and into the mouth of Rose Bay.
17
Riddick greeted Darwin and Lucas with a pair of cold beers pulled from a cooler in the galley. “So, they just took your boat, huh?”
“Yup,” Darwin answered. “Just like that. It’s as though they watched us go into the trees and saw their chance. Lucas said one of the guys had been watching us since we arrived in the bay.”
“Before that,” Lucas added. “One of the guys had a pair of binoculars trained on us.”
“Could have been that he was just birdwatching while his buddies fished,” Riddick said and added, “This is a big natural sanctuary for dozens of different types of birds.”
“Yeah,” Lucas halfway agreed. “Except they shot at us and stole our boat. The dude didn’t look like a birdwatcher either.”
“What?” Riddick said. An angry look crossed his face. “They pulled a gun on you?”
“Yeah, when we started running towards them, the short leader guy pulled out a pistol and just started shooting at us.”
“My goodness, lad. I’m sorry to hear that. I hope this doesn’t alter your perception of Outer Banks hospitality. Are either of you injured? Did they hit you?
“No,” Darwin said. “Came close a few times, but damn that was scary.”
“I bet.”
“Anything we can do to them? Have them arrested?”
“Did you get a good look at them?”
Darwin and Lucas shared a look. “Not very well. Two bigger, rough looking guys with bandannas and another smaller guy with glasses.”
“Hmm,” Riddick rubbed his chin. “What about the boat? What kind was it? What color?”
“It was red. That’s all I know,” Darwin said. “I’d never been around a boat until today, so I couldn't tell you what it was.”
Lucas scratched his head. “Yeah, I don’t know either.”
“Well, Coast Guard will need to know details such as that,” Riddick said. “There are a lot of rough characters around here and even more red speedboats. The color of choice for that type of person.”
“My question is,” Lucas said, “is why were they even shooting at us? If they were out just having fun, then why not just forget the jon boat when they saw us and leave? It’s not as though our boat could have caught them.”
“Good question,” Riddick answered. “I’d say since you caught them in the act, they had a choice—as you said—of either hightailing it out of there or getting what they wanted. They chose the latter and needed to buy some time while the guy secured your boat.”
Begrudgingly, Lucas agreed. “Yeah, but why bother to begin with? They could sell the thing, for what, a thousand bucks? I mean, what if they got caught? Would taking our boat have been worth it?”
Riddick shrugged. “I get your point. There’s another thing here to keep in mind.”
“What is that?”
He leaned in towards Lucas and smiled, “They could have just been imbeciles.”
Lucas couldn’t help but laugh, nor could Darwin.
As crazy as the whole situation was, that the trio of roughnecks could have just been dumb and wanted to do something to get their blood pumping. Why not? They were the only two boats in sight, tucked away back in a remote inlet. Darwin and Lucas were the only other people around. From the distance they’d been, they didn’t get close enough to get a good enough of a look at the marauders to pick them out of a lineup.
After the moment of levity died down, Darwin asked, “So, what are we supposed to do about the boat? Let them get away with it?”
Riddick looked back across the bay and arched his bushy eyebrows. “Honestly, from my experience, I’d wait a few days before reporting it. There are many not so endearing characters—probably idiots in this case—around the Outer Banks who like to believe they have pirate blood in them. They come out here, get drunk, do stupid things such as marooning a couple guys by stealing their boat. My guess is, once these guys get it back to wherever they’re going, they’ll find where the boat is registered, and then take it back to Bath next time they’re in the area.”
Darwin and Lucas gave each other a look communicating that what Riddick said did make some sense. They weren’t native to the area, but believed the tale of pirate blood in the area.
“What do we tell the harbormaster?” Lucas asked. “Didn’t seem like a forgiving guy.”
“Let me talk to Sal,” Riddick said, putting a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “See if we can come to an arrangement. We’ve known each other for years. We each have our secrets we’d rather not get out if you know what I mean.”
Darwin nodded happily, while Lucas wondered what Riddick’s secrets entailed.
• • •
They decided since the afternoon was drawing to a close, instead of going further out and covering more ground, they’d return to Bath and their motel for the evening. Lucas wanted to get a bite to eat, take a long, hot shower, and do some studying on Blackbeard. Darwin had the same thoughts, and wanted to explore the area around the Baymont Inn if enough daylight remained.
Riddick said he would take them out for dinner at a favorite local seafood establishment—his treat—if Darwin and Lucas were up for it. They declined, although they agreed to let Riddick take them out on his yacht the next day. After spending a couple hours on the jon boat, Darwin and Lucas agreed that in the future they would much rather sail from the extravagance of a luxury yacht after spending their first ten minutes aboard Riddick’s. They agreed to meet at first light the next morning.
On the return trip to Bath, Riddick regaled Darwin and Lucas with several tales of moronic events he remembered having to do with people in and around the Outer Banks. Such as the old unemployed crab boat worker who broke into a house and stole some jewelry. He got caught because he dropped his own unemployment check on the bedroom floor.
He said that while there are some less savory sorts of characters around, even the worst seemed to have a partially working moral compass. He told a story about a young hooligan who found an old lady’s purse left behind on a small tour boat. He looked inside, found hundreds of dollars in cash and credit cards. He went to a K-Mart over in Nags Head and spent over $3,000 on various sundries. Also in the purse was an envelope containing a power bill that was due soon. The man was caught when he paid the bill for her using one of her credit cards.
Riddick’s most unfortunate story was about a man who stole a car from a marina parking lot out at Lake Mattamuskeet. The cops found him, and chased him for several miles north along Route 94. The thief eventually drove the car over an embankment near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Preserve. The man climbed out of the car before the police could get to him and fled on foot over the cotton fields until he reached an inlet named The Frying Pan.
What the man forgot—or didn’t know—was that The Frying Pan, so named because of its shape, emptied out into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Darwin nearly got sick as Riddick described the police finding what re
mained of the man amidst a feeding frenzy of gators.
“There are just a lot of dumb people out this way,” he explained, gesturing over his shoulder to where they had just come from, “who will lie, cheat, and steal just for the hell of it. That’s probably all it was with your boys and boat back there.”
It was nearly six when they returned to the Bath Marina. They said thanks and goodbye to Riddick, and then returned down South Main Street to Lucas’s Jeep. While on Route 99 heading west towards Washington, Darwin used a restaurant review app to find them a place to eat. There was one seafood and steak eatery near the waterfront that came highly rated, touting “traditional Southern Style cooking with a modern and fun twist.”
Once inside, the atmosphere was easy and relaxed. The clientele was a mixture between families with a couple of kids to couples on dates to men just returned to land from a long day at sea. Island music consisting of Jimmy Buffet and Zac Brown Band tunes resonated softly from hidden speakers.
The place smelled amazing: a mixture of seafood, burgers, smoky pulled-pork barbecue, and mouth-watering steak. Lucas hoped the food tasted as good as it smelled. He looked at the prices on the menu and knew his friend came out here on a shoestring budget. He could see Darwin flipping back and forth between the pages on the menu, possibly thinking about what he could afford.
“You know,” Lucas said and Darwin looked up. “I think you were right about Riddick. I should have listened to you to begin with. Let me make it up to you by buying you dinner. My treat.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely,” Lucas said. “Don’t worry about it. My way of saying ‘I’m sorry.’”
“Well . . . thanks. Appreciate it,” Darwin said, and flipped back to the front of his menu where some of the pricier options were.
Lucas saw a look of relief flash across his friend’s face. Lucas was glad he could do something good for Darwin. To Lucas’s knowledge, Darwin never had much in his life. Lucas wanted to help.