by Matt Lincoln
“You’re right.” She nodded. “Might as well make the most of it. Let’s go see if our food is ready.”
We collected our dinner from the same window we’d ordered from and then headed down the beach toward the shore. The sun had completely set by now, but there was plenty of light spilling out of the restaurants behind us to illuminate us while we ate.
The beach was still full of people, but it wasn’t so crowded that we weren’t able to find a semi-secluded spot for the two of us to sit down on the soft sand to enjoy our dinner.
The conch fritters turned out to be a lot better than I was expecting.
“They kind of taste like scallops,” Olivia remarked as she popped another one into her mouth.
The lobster, too, was delicious. It wasn’t the kind of fancy seafood dish I might have found at a ritzy, upscale restaurant, but it was still good. Grilled and marinated in a rich sauce, its taste was completely unique to any lobster I’d ever had before.
After we’d finished eating, we returned to the restaurant where we’d bought our food and disposed of our trash in a large plastic bin set outside just for that purpose.
After that, at Olivia’s suggestion, we began to walk along the beach.
“I’m so full,” she sighed contentedly. “I wish I could taste more of this stuff, but I don’t think I could handle it, to be honest.”
“There’s always tomorrow,” I replied, hopeful that she’d be up to spend the evening together again the next night.
“You’re right.” She smiled up at me. “I can’t imagine we’ll have the entire case solved by tomorrow.”
As selfish as it was, I found myself hoping that we wouldn’t solve it for several days yet if it meant that Olivia and I would be able to spend more nights like this together.
“Oh, what’s that?” she asked curiously as she pointed at a building a little way down the beach from us.
There was music coming from it, and as we got closer, I realized that it was a small outdoor bar set up right on the sand. It was the kind of place that was definitely marketed to tourists, with overpriced drinks and decor that was a touch on the tacky side, but it worked. The convenience of being able to have drinks right at the water’s edge under the night sky was undeniable, so it wasn’t surprising that the place was bustling despite the fact that they were clearly overcharging on their drinks.
Still, the atmosphere was nice enough that I didn’t mind splurging a bit. After we got our drinks, we settled into a small table set just outside the bar on the sand. I had to hand it to whoever owned this place. It was an excellent idea. The ambiance was so romantic, it was no wonder people came here.
Olivia and I spent another half hour or so talking about whatever occurred to us, and it wasn’t long before the topic of conversation moved on from the details of the case and into more personal matters.
“So, what are you going to do when you find it?” Olivia asked as she took a sip of her cocktail. As it tended to do around me, eventually, the conversation had circled back to the Dragon’s Rogue.
“I don’t know, actually,” I replied as I thought about it. The goal had always been to find the ship. To be honest, I’d never put all that much thought into what would come after the search finally came to an end.
“What can you do?” she asked. “I mean, would you consider it your property if you found it? Or would it belong to the government of whichever country’s waters you found it in?”
“Well, that would depend on where it is,” I replied as I took a sip of my own drink. “Laws differ from place to place, and there are a lot of factors that go into deciding ownership in these kinds of situations.”
“Well, shouldn’t your lineage count for something?” Olivia asked with a sly smile. “I mean, it did belong to your ancestor, right? So, logically, if we were to follow the rules of inheritance, it should belong to you.”
“As appealing as that sounds,” I grinned, “I don’t know if it actually works that way. It would be considered a historical artifact. Plus, Grendel had stolen it. If he passed it down to one of his own descendants, then that could muddy things up.”
“Dang, you’re right,” she giggled. “Wow. If someone had told me last week that I’d be standing on a beach in Turks and Caicos discussing long-lost pirate ships with an incredibly attractive federal agent from some agency no one’s ever heard of, I would have called them crazy.”
My heart rate kicked up a notch at the phrase incredibly attractive, and I couldn’t keep the goofy grin off my face. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be standing on a moonlit beach next to a gorgeous woman just a few days ago, either.
Before I could say anything to that effect, though, an angry shout broke through the quiet evening air.
“I’m going to kill you!” I heard someone roar.
I turned to see what was happening. Just a few yards away, a tall, muscular man with tanned skin and curly hair was beating another man viciously into the ground.
“Hey! Stop!” I yelled as I flew into action. Even if it had nothing to do with our case, I couldn’t just stand by and watch someone beat someone else to death.
“You and every last one of your little group are going to pay!” the assailant roared as he continued his assault. The man beneath him was flailing around helplessly, his face slick with blood.
“Stop!” I growled again as I grabbed the man around the shoulders to pull him off the victim.
“Get off of me!” the man yelled.
The other man wasted no time in getting up and scurrying away, leaving a trail of blood droplets behind him as he fled.
“You imbecile!” the man screamed as she shoved me away. “He got away because of you! Don’t you know what he did? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I’m a federal agent,” I answered.
The man’s face went blank for a moment. Then, to my surprise, it twisted into an expression of pure rage.
“You!” he sneered venomously. “You’re the reason my brother is dead!”
“What?” Olivia snapped as she caught up to us, her voice laced with confusion.
“Kenny!” the man yelled at her. “Kenneth Johnson! He was my brother, and he was shot dead on this beach because of you two!”
I honestly wasn’t sure how to react to his outburst. We hadn’t killed him, but arguing with a grieving family member wasn’t going to do me any good.
“You should have never come here!” he yelled.
He was glaring at us with so much hatred it almost gave me chills. I guessed this was the end of our date night.
15
Ethan
“We’re not the reason your brother was killed,” I replied calmly. The guy might very well be armed, and the last thing we needed was another shootout on a crowded beach.
“Like hell, you’re not,” he snapped back angrily. “The only reason those thugs came after him was because you were sniffing around asking questions. If you hadn’t--”
“If you’re that mad at them,” Olivia interrupted him, “then help us find them. We’ll make sure they pay for what they did to your brother.”
“Ha,” the man grunted humorlessly. “You really expect me to trust you?”
“You don’t have any other choice,” I replied. “You really think you’re going to get anywhere doing what you were just doing? Going after them on your own and beating them to death one by one? You’ll get yourself killed doing that, and then there will be no one left to make sure your brother gets justice.”
We were still standing just outside the bar, and around us, curious onlookers were hovering around, listening in on our conversation. I wished they would just leave, honestly. We had no idea how violent this man might become, and they were putting themselves in danger by rubbernecking around.
The man’s jaw was clenched, and his nostrils flared as he took ragged, uneven breaths. For a second, I was worried he was going to yell at us again and refuse our offer.
“Okay,” he grumbled. “L
et’s talk. But not here. Too many people around.”
He turned and stalked off without another word. I didn’t really like the idea of blindly following this aggressive stranger to somewhere with fewer people around, but if he really was Kenneth’s brother and really did know about who had attacked us, then we couldn’t just let this opportunity pass us by.
I turned to look at Olivia. She glanced back at me. Her face twisted into a suspicious frown, but after a few seconds, she shrugged and began to follow the man. I followed right beside her.
He led us to a crowded bar just off the beach. No one paid us any mind as we stepped through the thick crowd and toward a table at the back of the place.
“I thought you said there were too many people on the beach,” Olivia noted as we squeezed into the small booth.
“Too many people out in the open,” he clarified. “In here, it doesn’t matter how many people are around. It’s too noisy for anyone to overhear what we say.”
I didn’t really agree with that logic, but I supposed if it made the guy feel comfortable enough to talk to us, it didn’t really matter.
“Seems like you’ve thought this through quite a bit,” I remarked suspiciously. “Or like you’ve had these kinds of clandestine meetings before.”
“That’s because I have,” he replied simply. “I conduct drug deals often here. It’s an ideal place to have quick, unnoticed transactions. My name’s Raymond, by the way. Raymond Johnson. ”
For a moment, I just stared at him, honestly a little stunned at how casually he’d admitted to being a drug dealer.
“You don’t care about that, right?” He looked at us intently. “You’re not here for me. You’re here for those low-lifes operating out of Grace Bay.”
That was the second time we’d heard that name. Frank had also pointed us toward Grace Bay. It seemed like he’d been telling the truth.
“What makes you think they’re behind what happened?” I asked him.
“People talk,” he scoffed. “If you don’t count all the tourists, there are less than five hundred people living in this part of the island. News travels fast, especially when it’s news about a bunch of federal agents rolling into town and stirring up trouble. I know you’re here asking about a prostitute. The guys over in Grace Bay are the ones who run all that.”
“I see,” I replied. “Do you know anything else about the girl who stole your brother’s boat?”
“Hell no, man,” he scoffed indignantly. “I may sell drugs, but even I’m not low enough to hang around with those types. I respect women! The kinds of things that go on in those places…”
He trailed off, shaking his head in clear disgust.
“What kinds of places do you mean?” Olivia prompted him to continue.
“Brothels.” Raymond shrugged. “Back alley rooms, dingy hotels. You name it. They don’t do it out in the open, where the tourists might see, but it happens everywhere. You just need to know what to look for.”
That was an unsettling thought.
“So, what do you know about these people?” I asked.
“Not much.” He shrugged again. “Like I said, I’m not the type of scum that abuses women or has to pay for sex. I do know that their leader’s name is Samuel.”
“How do you know that?” Olivia asked. “Seems like a pretty important detail for someone who supposedly doesn’t know much.”
“I just told you I move drugs, didn’t I?” He scoffed. “My work sometimes intersects with theirs. I couldn’t tell you where he is, but I’ve heard the bastard’s name enough times.”
“Why are you telling us all this?” Olivia asked, still skeptical if the tone of her voice was anything to do by. “Aren’t you worried about admitting your past crimes to a couple of federal agents?”
“I ain’t worried about anything,” he replied darkly. “To be honest, I don’t much care what happens to me right now. All I want is to get justice for Kenny.”
His voice wavered as he spoke his brother’s name.
“Kenny was a good man,” he muttered sadly. “He wasn’t like me. Wasn’t like the rest of the trash here on the island. He made an honest living fishing and taking tourists out for boat rides. It wasn’t right that he was the one to die. Of all the ugly people in Turks & Caicos, there was no good reason for it to have been Kenny.”
“I’m sorry about your brother.” I offered him my condolences. “You’re right. It wasn’t fair that he died, especially not the way he did. But they did that because he was trying to help us. Trying to help a poor woman who they’d been keeping captive for nearly twenty years.”
“He was a good man, my brother.” Raymond sighed before looking back up at us, his gaze steely. “If you want to find them, I’d start at a bar down in Grace Bay, near the edge of the town by the high school. There’s a bar by the shore there that a lot of them hang around at. You can see the girls there at night.”
He pulled a pen from somewhere in his clothes and plucked a paper napkin off the dispenser on the table before quickly scribbling out a quick note.
“This is my number. Call me if you need help with anything. You’d better get justice for my brother, agents, or I’ll be taking matters into my own hands.”
I didn’t even get a chance to respond before he suddenly got up and slipped his way through the crowd. He was out of sight in the blink of an eye.
“Well, that was an interesting chat,” Olivia murmured.
“Yeah,” I muttered as I stared into the spot where I’d last seen him standing before he’d disappeared like a shadow. “It really was.”
16
Ethan
It was the morning after the tumultuous evening that Olivia and I had experienced. We’d agreed to meet in the lobby so we could head out to the antique shop. Even though we’d gotten back late, I’d still woken up at the crack of dawn. My body was just too used to its internal clock for me to sleep in. Holm had done the same, and we’d spent the early morning having coffee in the lobby while we waited for Olivia.
In the meantime, I’d caught Holm up to everything that had transpired, including the information that had been revealed to us, and he was grumpy about the fact that he’d missed out on the events that had transpired as a result.
“That’s what I get for trying to be a good friend,” Holm grumbled before taking a sip of coffee. “Let my buddy have a night out with the pretty FBI agent, and I end up missing out on all the action. You two were out fighting bad guys and getting leads while I was here watching some weird variety show on TV.”
“You really didn’t miss much,” I assured him. “There wasn’t much of a fight, and the guy wasn’t exactly a wellspring of information. He disappeared just as suddenly as he showed up. Plus, if you had stuck around, you definitely would have been intruding on what was, up until that point, a pretty romantic evening.”
“No need to brag,” Holm sighed before draining the rest of his coffee. “I had quite a lovely evening to myself here in the hotel, for your information. It’s not often I get to enjoy a seaside hotel view on someone else’s dime. That variety show was pretty good, too.”
We talked for a little while longer as we waited for Olivia to come down from her room.
“Sorry I’m late,” Olivia apologized sheepishly as she suddenly appeared at the base of the stairs. I turned at the sound of her voice.
She was wearing a loose, sleeveless button-down top, and her hair was down and a bit tousled, as though she hadn’t had time to style it. Honestly, it didn’t look bad. It was definitely different from the usual ponytail she’d been wearing it in, but I thought it framed her face nicely.
“I think the power outlet in my room is broken.” She frowned as he ran a hand through her hair a few times in an attempt to smooth it out. “I put my phone on the charger, but it was dead when I woke up this morning. I never heard my alarm go off.”
“It’s alright.” I smiled at her. “We ready to go then?”
“Let’s go,” Holm repl
ied as he got up.
“Ready,” Olivia replied as she started to pull her hair up into a loose ponytail. I tried not to feel disappointed at that.
I handed her the coffee I’d saved for her, and the three of us headed out of the hotel to find a cab. We had more luck this time than he had at the hospital, probably because hotels surrounded us this time.
The taxi ride from Kew to Grace Bay took about twenty minutes. I took a moment to admire the scenery as we passed. The ocean was visible from literally everywhere, and it seemed to stretch on endlessly, a clear and shining blue.
“I can’t get over how pretty it is here,” Olivia hummed wistfully. “I wonder what it would cost to come here again for vacation, without having a case to worry about.”
“Yeah,” I replied as I finished off my coffee. “It would be a nice place to get some R and R.”
Everything seemed to move at an almost glacial pace here. No one seemed to be in a hurry, so it seemed like the perfect place to really slow down and relax.
Just a few minutes later, our taxi driver announced our stop, and the three of us climbed out of the car. By now, everyone had finished their coffees, so I grabbed all three cups and disposed of them in a metal trash can that was set on the corner of the street.
Even though it was still fairly early in the morning, Grace Bay was already bustling with people. The antique shop was tucked into the middle of a narrow street. It was nondescript enough that if we hadn’t been looking for it, we wouldn’t have even noticed it.
“I wonder who his target clientele is,” I mused out loud. “Probably isn’t getting a lot of tourists wandering in, and the population of the town is so small that I can’t imagine they have a large pool of repeat customers.”
“Unless the antiques stuff is a front.” Holm shrugged. “If the guy running the place is associated with human traffickers, then it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that he’s dealing in something more nefarious than antiques.”