Dark Waters

by Susan Rogers Cooper

  But the most likely scenario was someone I didn’t know. Josh, as a teenager, probably roamed the ship at his leisure, so probably met a lot of people, including kids his own age. With the personality he appeared to have, it was likely he’d rubbed the wrong somebody up the wrong way.

  I’d have to ask the boys in the morning what they’d thought of him the few times they’d been around him.

  Johnny Mac – Day Five

  Johnny Mac woke up feeling good, until reality came crashing down on him. He’d lost his best friend and any chance of making Janna his girlfriend. He’d pissed off his mom and disappointed his dad. And he was stuck in this cabin or eating nothing but fancy food until the ship docked which, thank God, would be sometime the day after tomorrow. Another two days to get through, he thought.

  ‘You boys awake?’ his dad called from the other room.

  He heard Early say, ‘Yes, sir,’ and thought suck up, then said, ‘Yes, sir,’ himself.

  ‘Come on in here a minute, boys, we need to talk,’ his dad said.

  Johnny Mac sighed deeply and crawled down his ladder, avoiding eye contact with his former best friend. This is not going to be fun, he thought to himself. Of course, nothing as of late had been a bit of fun.

  They went into the other room and took seats together on his dad’s hastily made-up bed, Johnny Mac knowing his dad had made it himself – it sure wasn’t a professional job.

  ‘Where’s mom?’ Johnny Mac asked, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

  ‘In the bathroom, getting dolled up,’ his father answered. Then he sighed kind of heavy like, and Johnny Mac figured something else was coming down on his head.

  ‘Boys, something really bad happened last night,’ his dad said, and Johnny Mac braced himself for what was to come. Did they steal something really big this time? Roll another drunk? Because he knew it was them – Josh and some of the others.

  Then his dad said, ‘Josh Weaver was killed last night.’

  For the first time in almost twenty-four hours, Johnny Mac and Early looked at each other. ‘Shit!’ Early said.

  ‘Watch the language, Early,’ Johnny Mac’s dad said.

  The boys looked at each other again, silently asking each other, ‘Do we tell? Is it time?’

  Johnny Mac nodded at Early and said, ‘Dad, there’s something we need to tell you.’

  Meanwhile, Back In Prophesy County

  Dave McDaniel’s paint and body shop was on his way to work, so Emmett dropped by there first. Dave was in the small front office with a customer when Emmett walked in.

  ‘Be right with you, Emmett,’ Dave said.

  Emmett walked over to a wall that had pictures of a race car that he remembered Steve telling him about. Steve and his dad had built it when Steve was in high school, with the hopes of racing it one day. When the customer left, Emmett asked Dave, ‘You and Steve ever race this thing?’

  ‘Officer, I refuse to answer on the grounds that you’d lock my ass up and hide the key.’

  Emmett turned back to the counter and laughed. ‘I meant on a legitimate race course.’

  ‘Naw. Never could qualify. Still got it, though.’ He pointed with his thumb to the bays behind him. ‘Take it out for a spin occasionally. Wanna go with me next time?’ Dave said, grinning.

  ‘Think you can speed your ass off on the back roads if you got a sheriff’s deputy with you?’

  ‘It had crossed my mind,’ Dave said.

  Emmett grinned. ‘You bet your ass. Give me a call. Meanwhile, I need to interview your nephew, Malcolm. Understand he works here?’

  ‘Yeah, just a minute.’ He opened the door to the bays and said, ‘Leonard, go get Malcolm out of the paint room and tell him to come to my office.’

  Dave pointed to a door at the back of the small lobby area. ‘My office is right in there,’ he said. ‘You can use that to talk to him.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Emmett said as a young man opened the door from the bays. He had a painter’s mask hung around his neck and was wearing paint-spattered coveralls and heavy gloves which he was attempting to take off. As Grady mentioned, he was about five-eight, very thin, with straight black hair and brown eyes he kept focused mostly on the ground.

  ‘Malcolm, this is Emmett Hopkins from the sheriff’s department. He needs to ask you some questions about Darby Hunt,’ Dave said. ‘Just answer them truthfully then get back to work, ’k? I have to go pick up a part and I’ll be back in fifteen.’

  Dave went out the front door and Emmett ushered Malcolm into Dave’s inner sanctum. It was nothing to write home to mom about. Not much bigger than a walk-in closet, it smelled of grease and body odor and was hip-deep in paperwork and car parts. Emmett took the chair behind the desk and Malcolm pulled up a straight-back chair across from him.

  ‘Yes, sir?’ Malcolm said, his focus again downward and his demeanor timid.

  ‘Don’t mean to bother you, Malcolm,’ Emmett said, ‘I’m just interviewing everybody in the family about Darby Hunt’s murder. You know anything about that?’

  ‘He’s dead,’ Malcolm said.

  ‘Yeah, he is. You know who killed him?’

  Malcolm looked up, the brown eyes wide. ‘No, sir!’ he said, his voice a little less timid. ‘I surely do not.’

  ‘You hunt, Malcolm?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘You know anybody who hunts?’

  Malcolm looked up again and the look on his face seemed to indicate he thought the question stupid, which upon reflection, Emmett had to agree with.

  ‘Anybody using anything taking a thirty-thirty Win cartridge?’ Emmett added, to make himself seem a little less asinine.

  Malcolm shook his head and looked down again.

  ‘What did you think about Darby Hunt?’ Emmett asked.

  Malcolm shrugged. ‘I didn’t. Think about him, I mean.’

  ‘So when you heard that the guy who eviscerated your aunt was getting out of jail and coming back to Prophesy County, the man who had threatened your entire family, you didn’t think about that at all?’

  He shrugged. ‘Well, yeah, I guess.’

  ‘So what did you think?’

  He looked up again at Emmett. ‘That it was bad?’ he offered.

  Emmett nodded. This kid probably didn’t kill Darby Hunt. And so far he hadn’t found anybody who probably did.

  Milt, Day Five

  Before Johnny Mac could say anything, there came a knock on the door. I sighed and went to answer it. Mike Tulia – again. This time his daughter Janna was with him and she was red-eyed, snotty-nosed and hiccupping sobs.

  ‘Sorry, Milt,’ Mike said, ‘but Janna insists on seeing your son and she won’t stop crying until she does.’

  ‘I don’t see that as my problem, Mike,’ I said, ready to close the door.

  Janna burst into renewed tears as my wife stepped out of the bathroom. ‘Let them in, Milt,’ she said, and I had to wonder if she was going to bitch slap the defenseless little girl. You know, after what she’d said the night before.

  I opened the door wider and Janna ran into the room and right up to Johnny Mac who stood up, turned a deep purple, and patted Janna on the back. ‘It’s OK,’ he said.

  ‘No, it’s not!’ Janna cried. ‘Someone killed Josh! They’re coming after us next!’

  ‘What the f—’ Mike started.

  And I said, ‘Huh?’ just about the same time.

  Early stood up, a panicked look in his eyes. ‘Why?’ he demanded. All of us talking at the same time.

  ‘OK!’ Jean said from her sitting position on her bed. ‘Everybody shut up and sit down!’

  Jean has this way about her – we all sat down and shut up.

  ‘John, you and Early were going to tell us something earlier. Is what Janna is saying connected to what you were going to tell us?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Johnny Mac said.

  ‘Then the three of you can tell us what it is, but be polite and don’t talk over each other. Decide who speaks when and tell us.�
��

  Both Janna and Early looked at Johnny Mac, so he started. ‘Josh was bad,’ he said, and the other two nodded their heads. ‘He kept playing these games where he wanted us to basically steal stuff. Like at the pool –’ He looked at Janna, who took up the saga.

  ‘Yeah, he said it was a game, but he had us grab stuff that people had left behind at the pool, and the one with the most stuff won. When Johnny Mac told him that was stealing, he said he’d put it all back, but I don’t think he did.’

  ‘And then,’ Early said, ‘when we got to Georgetown, he wanted us to steal from a store—’

  ‘All at a different store—’ Janna interjected.

  ‘Yeah,’ Early concurred. ‘But I didn’t. And neither did Johnny Mac.’

  ‘No, Early was really cool about it,’ Johnny Mac said, grinning at his former, now again, obviously, best friend. ‘Dad, he used the money you gave him and bought something, threw away the bag and told Josh he stole it!’

  ‘But I have the receipt,’ Early said.

  Janna’s eyes got big. ‘Really?’ she said, looking at Early with those big blue eyes. ‘I wish I’d thought of that.’ She hung her head. ‘I sorta stole something,’ she said, her voice not much more than a whisper.

  Mike went up to his little girl and pulled her into his arms. ‘I’m so sorry, baby – I made you hang out with that asshole! Why didn’t you tell me what he was doing?’

  He put her back down and she said, ‘Because he would have done something bad, either to me, or you or Mama. He was really mean, Daddy.’

  ‘What about you, John?’ his mother asked.

  Johnny Mac blushed and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I ended up at a jewelry store and the money Dad gave me wouldn’t buy anything in there. So I stole a pen off the counter top and ran.’

  ‘Where’s the pen?’ I asked.

  Johnny Mac’s blush grew a deeper shade of red, and I saw Janna reach for his hand. ‘Josh threw it on the ground and stomped on it.’

  ‘Who all was involved in this?’ Jean asked.

  All three kids looked at each other then back at Jean. Johnny Mac stood up. ‘We’re not stool pigeons, Mom. We won’t rat out anyone else.’

  ‘Was Lyssa involved?’ Jean asked.

  ‘Lyssa and her mom weren’t with us that day,’ Janna reminded her.

  ‘How about Josh’s little brother, Ryan?’ Mike asked.

  There was no response.

  ‘What about the two Connelly boys?’ Jean asked.

  No response.

  ‘Do you think one of them may have killed Josh?’ I asked.

  All three jumped up. ‘No!’ they all shouted at once.

  ‘Well, somebody did. Was it one of y’all?’

  ‘Now, hold on, Milt—’ Mike started, but I stayed him with an outstretched arm.

  ‘Was it one of y’all?’ I repeated.

  ‘No, Dad,’ Johnny Mac said. ‘None of us did it.’

  ‘Then who do you think did?’ I asked.

  The three looked at each other, turned their backs on us grown-ups and did a whispered side bar. Finally Johnny Mac, as spokesman, said, ‘We think it was probably that man who accused us – that Mr Dunne. He found out who really did it, which would be Josh, and killed him. Which is just mean, we think!’

  ‘Yeah, that’s pretty mean,’ I agreed. ‘OK, you guys go in there,’ I said, indicating the boys’ part of the suite, ‘while us grown-ups talk out here.’

  They did, rather eagerly, I’d say, leaving me and Jean and Mike sitting on Jean’s bed.

  ‘Well, if Josh was doing this and getting the kids involved, I’d say his brother Ryan was definitely in on it,’ Mike said.

  ‘And Lyssa,’ Jean said. ‘I’ve rarely seen your daughter without Lyssa.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Mike said.

  ‘That leaves the Connelly boys,’ I said. ‘Unless there are other kids we don’t know about.’

  ‘Too bad they won’t talk,’ Mike said, indicating our kids in the next room with a nod of his head.

  ‘I learned to throw guilt from a Southern mama,’ I said. ‘Hide and watch.’

  I went into the boys’ part of the suite. All three were sitting on the bottom bunk, their feet hanging over the edge.

  ‘Hey, y’all,’ I said. ‘Look. There’s only one thing we can do. We have to go to the ship’s security chief about what you told us, and the problem is that without knowing what other kids were involved, I’m afraid he’s going to have to gather up all the kids on this boat, which means we might have to stay aboard longer than we planned. Not to mention that all the poor kids who had nothing to do with this will suffer.’

  Johnny Mac held up one finger then they all turned away from me for another whispered conference. They turned around and Johnny Mac sighed loudly. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Yeah, Ryan, Josh’s brother, was there every time, and the Connelly boys were there at the pool, but not in Georgetown.’

  ‘What about Lyssa?’ I asked.

  The boys looked at Janna. ‘She was at the pool with us, but not with us in Georgetown, and definitely had nothing to do with Mr Dunne because she was with us. We didn’t do that, Sheriff Kovak. Honest to God!’

  ‘Thank y’all for telling me. It’s best that we get this all out in the open.’ I patted Janna on the head as I left to go into the larger part of the suite. But I had to admit, my son had good taste in little women.

  Milt – Day Six

  I went down to A level to the security office and went in to see Chief Heinrich. He was on the phone and indicated that I sit and wait – I did as indicated.

  ‘We’ll dock in Galveston the day after tomorrow,’ he said into the phone. ‘Should we hold everyone aboard ship until—’ He listened then said, ‘I see. Yes.’ He listened again, then said, ‘Of course, we will continue our investigation aboard ship—’ Again he listened, and finished with, ‘Very good. I’ll see you then.’ And hung up.

  To me he said, ‘Mr Kovak, how may I help you?’

  ‘Got some info you might be interested in,’ I said. And proceeded to tell him what the kids had told us about Josh Weaver and what he’d been up to.

  ‘The little shit!’ Heinrich said, halfway under his breath.

  ‘Not the first time I’ve heard him called that,’ I said.

  ‘Do you know where he kept his – what should I call it? Booty?’

  ‘I think an interview with Josh’s brother Ryan might be in store,’ I said. Then asked, ‘So who was that on the phone?’

  ‘The Galveston police,’ he said. ‘The coast guard will be boarding when we dock, as will the police.’

  ‘And we all have to stay aboard while this is going on?’ I asked.

  ‘I’m afraid so. No one can leave until everyone has been interviewed. It may take quite a while. Five hundred souls, you know.’

  ‘Well, four hundred and ninety-nine,’ I said, by way of being accurate.

  ‘You have a macabre sense of humor, Mr Kovak,’ he said.

  I shrugged. He wasn’t wrong. So then I brought up what I’d come here for in the first place. ‘I’d like your permission, Chief Heinrich,’ I said, ‘to gather up the parents of these kids to tell them what was going on. I’m pretty sure Vern Weaver didn’t know what his son was up to, or both sons for that matter. I know the others didn’t.’

  ‘And why would you think I’d allow you to do this, rather than do it myself?’

  ‘Well,’ I said, ‘coming from me it wouldn’t be so scary. Like you mentioned, on this cruise I’m just another passenger, whereas you’re the authority. And maybe I can have a room that isn’t, you know, like in your security area? One of the small venues on the promenade level?’

  Chief Heinrich smiled, sorta. It was more like a grimace, but I think he meant it as a smile because he said, ‘You are very funny, Mr Kovak. To think I could give you access to anything on the promenade level! Most people on the ship have no idea about the boy who was killed, and we want to keep it that way until we dock in Galveston. That
is what the captain wants, and that is what I will do. So,’ he said, standing up behind his desk, ‘there is a small conference room on this level you can use, but I will be in attendance.’

  I stood up also. I moved forward and held out my hand. Heinrich took it and shook it and told me the room number of the conference room. I left the room feeling a trifle smug. Always ask for more than you want, ’cause then you might just get what you need. To paraphrase those most genteel Englishmen.

  Milt – Day Six

  We compromised and went to the buffet/food court for lunch. The food was good but not the fancy-pants stuff I was used to. I had some gigantic crab claws with a tub of drawn butter, peel-and-eat shrimp with a really good red sauce, some corn on the cob, coleslaw, potato salad, baked beans, a couple or four deviled eggs and a pitcher of beer. For dessert I got some chocolate-chip cookies, a piece of apple pie and a slice of red velvet cake. And some vanilla ice cream to be shared between the apple pie and the red velvet cake. My wife looked at my plate and just shook her head, mumbling something under her breath about a heart attack on a plate, but I wasn’t really paying attention.

  The boys’ plates were heaped high with corn dogs, pizza slices, corn on the cob, French fries and mac and cheese. Jean had a nice green salad. The woman has no idea of good food.

  Most of the tables were like picnic tables with bench seating. It took some doing, but we found a table with chairs for Jean.

  Once we were all settled, Jean asked me, ‘So what did Chief Heinrich say to your idea?’

  ‘He wants to be there, but I get the impression he’s OK with me running it. He gave us a conference room in the security office. And, honey, I’m gonna need you to be there. You know, in case anyone goes nutso about this, or maybe you can check people out and see who looks guilty.’