“Barry!” she shouted as she banged again.
Still nothing. The rain, as impossible as she thought it was, came down harder. She looked around. No sign of anyone out at all…and still no lights. She took a deep breath and turned the handle of the door. Luckily, it opened and squeaked inward. She breathed a sigh of relief to be in out of the soaking weather. Glancing around, she realized she couldn’t see very well. The windows were covered with thick curtains and the cabin was dark.
“Barry?” she called nervously toward the back of the trailer.
No answer. She inched down the hall, certain that she was going to be attacked at any second. That was how it always happened in those cheap horror movies. There wasn’t much to search, a small bathroom, a closet and a bedroom. There was no one here.
Then she remembered Barry’s text about having to run into work. Maybe he hadn’t gotten back home yet. She glanced down at her phone. Still no message from him. She tapped out a new text to him.
-Found your place. I’m inside waiting.
She sent it. Nothing came back, but she thought he must be working and either didn’t hear his phone or didn’t want to touch it with fish guts and gore all over his hands. Out of habit, she reached into the bathroom and flicked the switch. Of course, nothing happened.
“Power’s out, you idiot,” she reminded herself.
Fumbling around, she found a towel and dried herself off as best she could. She couldn’t see her reflection, but she knew she must look ridiculous. Oh well, not the best first night together, but what the hell. She wrapped the towel around her head and wandered back into the bedroom. She felt excited, nervous, scared, and thrilled all at the same time. She didn’t know what they would do together, but it was partly the unknown that made her feel this way. She sat down on the bed and pushed a big cardboard box out of the way. She laid back and rested her head on his pillow. Looking at the ceiling, she listened as the rain pounded away on the metal roof. It was rhythmic, slow, steady, and even. Actually, very even…like a metronome.
Wait, she thought, that doesn’t sound like rain.
She listened as the sounds came for a minute, then stopped, then resumed in exact cadence. Weird. She determined that the sound was coming from outside the bedroom window rather than the roof. She crawled across the bed and pulled back the curtain.
Outside, she saw the white edge of a cooler lid propped up against the window obscuring the lower half of her view. Above it, she saw Barry. She had found her rhythmic sound. He was swinging something up and down, up and down. Whatever he was doing, she couldn’t see it because of the freezer lid.
Pecking on the window, she tried to get his attention. She called his name, but it soon became obvious that he couldn’t hear her. She slid down off the foot of the bed and pulled open the closet door. She screeched a few hangers back and forth and found that apparently he didn’t own a raincoat. She pulled a sweatshirt off a hanger and threw it over her own wet T-shirt…at least she’d be a little warmer.
She walked to the door, unwrapped the towel on her hair, and draped it over her head and shoulders. She swung open the door and jogged around to the back of the trailer. When she rounded the corner, she saw him.
He had his shirt off and was soaking wet, his red hair slicked down almost into his eyes.
“Hey!” she yelled. “I’ve been trying to get—.”
She froze as his eyes snapped up at her. He looked like feral animal. As she took in more of the scene, she saw that he held a long sword in one hand that had red blood running down the blade. He took a step toward her.
That’s when she saw what he had in his other hand. He held a bloody leg, severed just below the knee. And the skin was peeled back in a long sheet. Riley bent over and threw up.
“What the frick are you doing here?” He demanded taking another step toward her.
“I…we…you said to come…didn’t we have…”
She was backing away as she tried to form a complete sentence. He took another step, faster this time, almost lunging at her. She jumped backward and slipped. She fell and landed hard on her butt, and he leapt on top of her. She felt the weight of his body slam down on her and the breath left her lungs.
She opened her mouth to scream…but nothing came out.
Part II
A Knife And A Nudist
“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
-Warren Buffett
14
Thunder And Lightning
Troy shook Meira’s shoulders lightly as the rain began falling in heavier and heavier sheets. She was dead to the world…perhaps one beer too many. Lightning flashed in the distance and a boom shook the beach under them. Afghanistan had been hard for a lot of guys, but not so much for Troy. He’d basically spent his time in the war shuttling around the top brass, but there had been a few rough spots. Harry Nedman had lost his life in one of those rough spots. Sometimes the blast that ripped his friend’s legs off came back to him.
There was something in the sound the thunder made that shook Troy. Strange how these episodes always seemed to come at night, but he guessed that was because all the terror in wartime happened at night. He felt a cold sweat bead up on his forehead under his hat. Heavy curtains of rain began to soak them, but Meira only groaned and leaned into his shoulder.
It might have been the motions he was going through, or the continued booms of thunder that sent him into an episode, but suddenly he was back in the war.
Harry’s legs were gone; the bomb had torn them off. Troy’s ears rang with the sound of the blast and he felt a sharp pain in his knee. He looked down and saw his old desert camo soaked with blood. Shrapnel.
“We’re gettin’ outta here, Harry,” he said to a figure lying on the ground.
He hooked his hands under the person’s arms and heaved. Another boom came as he hauled his companion up onto his shoulders, their arms wrapped around his neck. He sloshed through the sand toward the…chopper? No, it wasn’t the chopper…a Humvee? No, it was a pickup truck.
Strange to see one out here in the desert, but he didn’t care. They were taking fire and Harry needed a medic.
“Hang on, buddy,” Troy said to the figure slumped on his shoulders.
He trudged through the last few dunes and jerked open the door of the white truck. He threw his friend in and slid in behind the wheel. He reached down to start it and another flash hit close. The thunder was deafening. Fear sliced through him. He wasn’t sure if it was rain, sweat, or tears in his eyes.
He reached for the ignition. No keys. Dangit. He checked his pockets. Nothing. He had no keys for the truck. Another flash and boom and he fell down behind the wheel, huddling as low as he could under the dashboard. He checked the slumped body of his friend beside him. Harry? He couldn’t tell if his friend was still alive or not, but he knew he needed attention right now.
Out the window of the truck, the rain eased up enough that Troy could see down the sand. Water? The river, he thought. We must’ve made it to the Panj River. He scanned the shore and could see a small rowboat. It was a long shot, but it might be the only way they’d get out of here alive. He waited for the next flash and bang, but it never came. Maybe the enemy had gone past, thinking they’d killed them all.
He cracked open his door and slunk out. He crouched low and ran around to the passenger door. He pulled his friend out, still unconscious. They must’ve got Harry bad.
“Don’t worry. I gotcha.” Troy hauled his friend up, this time like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. “Hang on. I’ll get us out of here.”
The sand was loose here and his footing was hard. Somehow, Troy saw he’d lost his boots and now had only sandals on. He must have gotten them from a local. No matter. He hiked down the beach to the shore and found the rowboat. He dumped Harry in and shoved it out into the water. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he knew they had to get away.
A distant boom sounded and he flinched. It wasn’
t as close…they were moving away. He rowed hard, his muscles straining. He did his best to point the boat north and rowed as hard as he could. The effort was oddly relaxing and he began to feel confident they were going to make it. Rain still pounded down on them making visibility next to nothing on the rough water.
He rowed for what seemed like an hour and suddenly the small boat thumped hard onto something. He turned and was shocked to see another, much larger boat. It was dark and there was no sign of anyone on board. He grabbed a rope that must have been attached to the boat’s anchor and hauled his rowboat up close.
This bigger boat had a tall mast and a white hull. It looked like a sailboat. Strange for this part of the world. In another distant flash of light, he saw a ladder hanging off the back. Slowly, he pulled his smaller dingy around to the rear and tied it off on the ladder. With his last bit of strength, he picked up his unconscious friend and climbed aboard the sailboat. He slipped in the rain and the person he’d been carrying tumbled down on the deck.
She moaned when she hit the slick wood.
She? Troy squinted his eyes. It wasn’t Harry. God, something weird was going on here. The body lying in front of him was decidedly female. He shook his head trying to clear his mind. He fell to his knees and flung his hat off. He buried his face in his hands and cried.
This wasn’t Afghanistan at all. Harry was long gone. He was in Nags Head, North Carolina. For a long time, he sat there letting the rain wash the episode away. That was a bad one. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. A chill raced through him. He reached down and cradled Meira’s head in his hand. He felt her pulse in her neck and could tell she was still breathing. If he’d done something to hurt her, he’d never forgive himself.
She took in a deep breath and moaned. “Can we go inside?”
Her eyes were still closed. Troy found the strength to pick her up and cradle her in his arms. He eased down the steps, opened his stateroom door, and laid her onto his bed.
He fell down on the floor beside the bed and darkness took him.
Meira Carr woke to the gentle sloshing sound of waves hitting the side of the boat.
“The boat!” she called out in surprise, jerking upright.
She then immediately grabbed the sheet that had been covering her, as she realized she was completely naked. No one else was in the room, but even with her runner’s body, she was still demur. She stumbled out of the bed careful to wrap the sheet around her. Phone, phone, phone, she thought, where the hell is my phone? She found it sitting on the bedside table. Clicking it on, she found that she still had plenty of battery life, but absolutely zero signal. She tried to put a call through to Riley anyway, but of course, it wouldn’t connect.
“Okay, calm down, Meira,” she said to herself. “Assess the situation.”
Her fears last night about Troy possibly being the killer and trapping her out here on his boat were suddenly back. Glancing around the room, she searched for something to use as a weapon. A couple of pillows, a small table lamp, and her flip-flops, there was nothing that could do any damage. She jerked open a nearby closet and found only a few T-shirts and one navy windbreaker. Propped in the back corner she found an old wooden tennis racket. She grabbed it and swung it a few times to test the weight. Shrugging, she gripped the racket tight in her right hand, held her sheet up in her left and crept to the door.
Pressing her ear up against it, she could hear the sound of music playing low and a man singing along…poorly. Steeling herself, she took a deep breath and jerked open the door. At the same time, she screamed and raised the racket above her head. A man standing over the tiny stove fell back, stumbling over a nearby chair. He had on a pair of khaki shorts, no shirt, and a straw cowboy hat. Things began to come back into focus.
“Holy dangit!” the man said as he picked himself up.
In one hand he held a spatula, in the other, a fork. Both of them were raised in a defensive gesture. Meira realized she still had the racket raised over her head.
“I take it you don’t like pancakes,” Troy said.
“Huh? Oh, uh, sorry,” Meira lowered her tennis racket of death. “I forgot we came out to your boat. My memory is kinda hazy from last night.”
“Well, you probably don’t remember it ‘cause you were passed out. I was gonna take you home, but…I couldn’t…find…the…”
His voice trailed off and Meira saw a strange, hollow stare take over his face.
“Troy? You okay?”
He shook his head and his broad smile came back.
“Yeah. Yeah. I’m good. I hope yer hungry, cause I made a mess of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and mimosas.”
She felt a throbbing suddenly pop up in her head, now that the rush of adrenaline was easing. Her stomach rolled and she dropped the racket.
“Mimosa,” she groaned and held out a hand.
Troy took two red solo cups off the counter, handed her one, and they clinked them together. She took a sip and a new panic jumped at her.
“Riley! It’s a school day. I have to get home to get her to school. What time is it? I need to get in to shore!”
“Calm down, Meira,” Troy said. “It’s half-past nine. She’s probably at school already. If she ain’t, she can play hooky for one day. It’ll be okay.”
“Troy, this is my thirteen-year-old daughter we’re talking about here. I have trouble getting her to school on normal mornings. She’ll probably be a zombie until noon.”
“Well, there ya go. She’ll likely be hangin’ out doin’ kid stuff until you get home.”
“Phone. I need to call her. Now!”
“Ain’t no service out here, but I do have a CB to talk to the shore.”
“Good. Where is it?”
Troy pointed up to the deck. “Upstairs.”
Meira walked to a set of stairs and hopped up them two at a time. She spotted the receiver near the wheel and yanked it out of its holder. She clicked the dial to a familiar law enforcement channel.
“Nags Head P.D. anyone listening?”
For a second, nobody answered.
“Nags Head police, anyone on the line?”
What the hell? She thought, nobody on the radio? The line crackled and a voice broke through the static.
“This is Officer Duffy of the NHPD. Who is this?”
“Duffy, this is Meira Carr.”
“Hello, Meira. Um…what can I do for you?”
“I’m on a boat with no reception, need to get in touch with my daughter.”
“Wouldn’t she be in school right now?”
Meira sighed. Really, Duffy, you’re judging me right now? She clicked the handle.
“Yes, she would be. But I spent the night…away…unexpectedly and I don’t have cell service to check in on her. Can you call her or something, please?”
“I suppose I can do that. What’s the number?”
Meira rattled off Riley’s cell number.
“Gimme a second. I’ll call her right now.”
A minute passed and Duffy came back on the line. “No answer. Tried it twice. Went straight to voicemail both times, but that would be right if she’s in school. They make ‘em turn off their phones when they get in class.”
Meira took a deep breath. “True, but could you maybe just do a quick drive by the school to see if she’s there? I know it’s a lot to ask, but…”
“Where does she go? I’m a ways out, but I’ll get by there as soon as I can.”
“First Flight Middle,” Meira said.
“Got it. I’m down by Sandspur. Probably take me a few minutes.”
“Oh, wait, you’re down by my place. Can you check there?”
“Meira, you know that this is not part of my regular duties, right?”
“Please, Duffy. I owe you one big-time.”
Silence.
“Duffy?”
“Okay, okay. Give me the address.”
Meira recited it as Troy appeared at the top of the stairs.
“I
’ll radio when I get there.”
“Thanks, Duffy,” she said and turned to face Troy.
“You get a hold of her?” he asked and then turned his head away quickly.
“Well, I got Officer Duffy to run out and check on her. Her phone was off. She’s probably in school…thank goodness.”
Troy sniffed, but didn’t look at her.
“Troy? What’s the deal?”
“You, uh…you lost somethin’ there.”
She looked down and realized that she’d forgotten completely about holding her sheet up. She was completely naked.
“Oh, shit, sorry.” She bent down and grabbed the ruffled sheet at her feet.
“Not a problem,” he said and she could see a smile forming under his dark beard.
“How much did you see?”
“I’ll never tell.”
“Well, I guess you saw more than that last night when you undressed me.” She laughed as she said it.
“To tell ya the truth, I don’t remember much at all.”
“Do you remember what you did with my clothes?”
He turned to look at her with a sheepish grin on his face. “Um…nope.”
Meira looked around, scanning the open water around them. The sun was warm and she was starting to feel normal again thanks to the mimosa and Officer Duffy checking on Riley. She let the sheet fall loosely over her shoulder, barely covering her.
“I suppose I don’t really need clothes out here anyway…right?”
The sheet fell the rest of the way off and she saw Troy’s eyes widen. He blushed…a cute reaction for someone his age. God, how old is he? She thought, but then, why do I care?
“How about another mimosa?” She winked as she asked. “And I’ll look around for my clothes.”
“Comin’ right up,” he returned the wink and dashed down the stairs.
The Complete Troy Bodean Tropical Thriller Collection Page 99