by David Wood
“Wait! I’m with the police!”
She locked the door and turned to see him approaching, holding up his shield and identification. She let her shoulders sag, and lowered the window an inch.
“I didn’t mean to freak you out.” He tucked his badge inside his coat pocket. “I’m a detective. Can we talk?”
“First, you can send someone to my apartment. I think my neighbor is in trouble.”
“I know. I mean, I came to tell you not to go home.” He leaned down, putting his face inches from the window, and lowered his voice. “You’re in danger.”
Kaylin tensed. “How did you already know about my neighbor? I just called it in maybe two minutes ago.”
“I didn’t.” She was certain he was lying. The way his eyes shifted to the left as he spoke, his demeanor, even the sound of his voice set off alarms. “I just wanted to warn you about going home. If something has happened, then I guess I was right.”
“Thank you for your concern. If you’ll please follow up on it and make sure help is on its way, I need to go.” She put the key in the ignition and started the car.
“Wait! The envelope you brought in to the station. Are you sure you gave us everything? Was there anything else inside?”
“What? No. Captain Gerard has everything. Why would I go to him for help and then withhold the only piece of evidence I have?” Why was he asking about the envelope? This situation was all wrong.
“That’s fine. Just one more question before I go. Was there anything on the back?”
“I don’t know. Flip it over and look for yourself.” Not waiting for a reply, she put the car in drive and hit the gas, leaving him standing alone, looking dumbfounded as she sped away. She looked back, praying he wouldn’t follow her. If the man was truly working on Andy’s case, why did he need to ask her a question he could easily answer for himself simply by taking a look at the evidence? It just didn’t add up.
Just then, her phone vibrated. The number was local, but unfamiliar. She hesitated for an instant, then remembered her vow to start taking action.
“Hello.”
“Kay, it’s Amber.” Kaylin breathed a deep sigh of relief at the sound of her friend’s voice. “I’m sorry about that, but there was somebody in your apartment. He ran for it when I opened the door. He knocked me down and I dropped my phone. I’m talking it went flying. Two stories to the parking lot. Toast.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ll buy you a new phone.”
“Crazy!” Amber laughed. “I’ve got a replacement plan.” Her tone now turned serious. “Kaylin, I’m not stupid. Something’s wrong with you. What’s going on?”
Kaylin would have liked nothing more right now than to unburden herself to her friend, but she couldn’t do it. She needed to stay strong, and crying on Amber’s shoulder wasn’t the way to do that. “It’s one of those proverbial long stories. I’ll tell you sometime, but not now.”
“The police are here. They want you to take a look and let them know what’s missing.”
“Oh, okay, I can be there shortly.” She was about to hang up, but a thought crossed her mind. “By the way, did you get a look at the guy?”
“I got a look at the huge hand he put in my face when he shoved me out of the way. Other than that, I don’t know. The apartment was dark. He was a big white guy with short hair. Sorry.”
“No problem. I’m just happy you’re safe. I’ll be there soon.”
She ended the call, and stared blankly ahead as she drove along Murray Boulevard. A few boats, gleaming in the midday sun, plied the waters of Charleston Harbor. Looking at the boats, she sighed. They probably did not constitute a sign from above, or anything like that, but regardless, it was time to make the call.
Chapter 4
Daylight was fading, and the murky waters of Altamaha Sound grew dark. This would have to be the final dive of the day. That was all right. It had been a productive one, and the beer and ribs would go down nice and easy while they sat around a pile of Spanish gold. Dane Maddock tapped his wrist and motioned toward the surface. His partner, “Bones” Bonebrake, nodded, and they returned their attention the spot they had almost finished excavating. Bones held the dredge over the spot, sucking away the sand and silt, while Dane scooped up coins and deposited them in a mesh net. A few minutes’ work and he was satisfied that this area had been thoroughly culled. He gave Bones the thumbs up and, together, they began their ascent.
He broke the surface on the port side of their boat, the Sea Foam. To the northeast, the shadowy form of Wolf Island was already growing dark as the sun settled down for the evening. To the west, the Altamaha River shone blood red in the fading light.
Matt Barnaby, one of his crewmen, offered a hand and hauled him up and over the rail.
“We did it!” Matt clapped him on the back, relieved him of the coins he had collected on this last dive, and held them up for a closer look. “These babies will clean up nicely! Good work, guys. How about we find ourselves a place to anchor and fire up the barbeque?”
“Sound like a plan.” Dane grinned and turned to give Bones a hand. They stripped off their dive gear and settled into deck chairs, letting the fatigue from the day’s work melt away in the cool air.
“It’s Miller time!” a loud voice proclaimed. Willis Sanders, an old Navy buddy and occasional workmate, came up from below deck carrying a cooler, followed by Corey Dean, the last member of the crew. As Matt guided the boat toward shore, Willis passed out the drinks.
“You’d better have something better than a Miller in there.” Bones said, languidly stretching and yawning. “I am beat and I deserve a Dos Equis at the least.”
“At your service.” Willis produced a dark bottle with a black label, popped the top, and handed it to Bones, who rubbed the cool condensation across his forehead before taking a long pull. His eyes suddenly narrowed, focusing on something in the distance. “Hey, Maddock.” Bones sat up straight. “You see that blonde on the shore over there? Looks like she’s trying to get our attention.” He pointed to the south shore of Wolf Island, where a young woman stood waving.
Dane smiled. “I forgot to tell you guys. We’re expecting company.”
“No way, man. Why didn’t you tell me this was a coed trip?” Willis jibed. “I’d have brought me some company.”
“I don’t think your mom would fit in on this crew.” Corey blushed as soon as the words passed his lips.
“Ooh! The computer geek is trying you!” Bones clinked bottles with Corey. “Make it quick, Maddock. It’s your night to cook, and I’m hungry.”
Matt slowed the boat down and Dane headed to the stern, where they had secured their Sea Doo jet ski craft. He hopped on, fired it up, and headed out across the smooth waters of the sound.
Kaylin Maxwell waited on the shore. A wave of nostalgia passed through him when he saw her smile. The daughter of his former Navy commanding officer, he and Bones had once helped her solve a mystery her late father had been working on, and murdered over, and she had joined them on one of the improbable adventures that seemed to have become the norm for Dane and Bones in the past few years. Dane and Kaylin had dated for a short while afterward, but it had fizzled, mostly due to distance and disparate lifestyles. Dane was now seeing someone off-and-on, but long distance was an even greater impediment to that relationship. In any case, he had been surprised to get Kaylin’s call earlier in the day, and was curious why she wanted to see him on such short notice.
He was thirty yards from shore when a shrill scream split the air. He looked to his left to see a young girl on a canvas raft paddling furiously toward shore. Behind her, the long, dark form of an alligator swam toward her, its broad snout cutting a v-shaped wake in the water. Gators preferred fresh water, but it was not unusual to see them in brackish water, especially when they were hunting.
Dane veered the Sea Doo toward the intervening space between the girl and the predator that pursued her. For a brief instant, he considered trying to scoop her up
on to his jet ski, but that would require perfect timing and impeccable balance, his craft being too wide for him to simply reach out and grab her. Meanwhile, Kaylin had spotted the girl, and was splashing into the water toward her and the gator. Great! Dane would have to go for the alligator.
The primordial reptile, which looked to be a twelve-footer, closed the gap on the girl, who was still paddling furiously. In the distance, a man and woman were running along the shore in their direction, shouting and frantically waving. Dane was barely aware of them, so focused was he on his target. The alligator opened its jaws wide and Dane sprang off the Sea Doo.
He came down on the gator’s back, his momentum pulling it to the side, and causing its jaws to clamp down on empty air. Dane got an arm around its snout, wrapped his legs around its torso, and held on as the beast rolled in the water. Dane went under, had time for a quick breath as he came up, and then was taken under again.
Okay, I’ve got it. Now what am I going to do with it? he thought. He broke the surface again and took another breath of sweet air. He felt like he was riding the world’s wildest bucking bronco as the gator thrashed and twisted in the water. His body shifted forward and, for a moment, he feared he might lose his grip on the deadly jaws. He locked his legs tighter around and punched it in the head once, twice, three times. If the blows had any effect on the beast, they served only to further annoy it. It rolled again, and Dane banged into the seabed, almost losing his hold. He had not realized they had reached the shallows. If he could wrestle the gator to shore, he could get safely away, but, in the water, the gator had the advantage, and he did not dare take the chance of letting go of it.
With one arm around the gator’s snout, and another around its head, he unlocked his legs and scrambled for purchase in the sandy bottom. The beast thrashed its tail wildly, sending up a furious salt spray, and Dane felt the snout slipping from his grasp. He gritted his teeth and roared with the effort of holding on, but inch by inch he was losing his grip.
Dark forms burst from the water. Bones and Willis had come to his aid. Willis took hold of the gator’s tail and fought to keep it under control. Meanwhile, Bones hastily looped a rope around the snout, and wrapped it around several times. Holding the rope in his right hand, he took control of the head, wrapping his left arm around its head, covering its eyes. Dane moved to take hold of it around the middle, and the three of them hauled the gator, its struggles now subsiding, to shore.
“On the count of three,” Dan instructed. “One, two, three!” Everyone let go of the gator at the same time and moved well away as it twisted and shook until Bones’ rope, which he had not tied off, came free. Giving an angry hiss, it turned and took to the water, and soon had disappeared back into the sound.
The little girl, frightened but unharmed, had been returned to her parents, who thanked Dane and his friends profusely before departing.
“Not bad, Maddock.” Bones grinned. “But gator wrestling’s a sport for Indians, not white guys.”
“Bones, you’re a Cherokee, not a Seminole. How many gators did you wrestle up there in North Carolina, anyway?”
“All I know,” Willis interjected, “is I don’t want the tail next time. Reminded me too much of a snake.” He shuddered and exhaled sharply.
“Dude, how many hard, knobby snakes have you handled?” Bones looked at him with a mix of amusement and scorn.
“I ain’t handled no snakes, man, and I ain’t ever going to. You feel me?”
“Did you guys plan this show just for me, or is this all in a day’s work?” Kaylin walked up and stood between Dane and Bones, who gaped when his eyes fell on her.
“Maxwell! Maddock didn’t tell us it was you he was hooking up with!” He pulled her into a crushing bear hug, which she didn’t seem to mind, despite his salt water-soaked body. Willis greeted and hugged her as well.
And then she turned to look at Dane. “You told him we were hooking up?” Her flinty stare took him aback, and he found himself at a loss for words. She folded her arms and moved closer until they were almost touching.
“No, I didn’t say that. Really.”
Her eyes softened and she broke into laughter. “Come on, Maddock.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I know Bones better than that.”
He looked down into her emerald eyes and remembered all too well their time as a couple. Funny how time could erase the bad memories and leave him wondering how he had ever let this picture of perfection get away. “It’s good to see you.” He wondered if his words sounded as lame to her as they did to him.
Bones cleared his throat, drawing their attention to him. “So Kaylin, what brings you here?”
Blushing, she pulled away from Dane. “Actually, I feel kind of bad coming to you guys like this after not having stayed in touch, but there’s no one else who can help me.” She shot Dane a pleading glance and continued. “I’m pretty sure I’m in danger, and…” she bit her lip “…I sort of have a mystery I need help solving.”
“You’re freakin’ kidding me.” Bones took a step back and raised his hands. “If you tell me we’ve got to fish the Holy Grail out of a volcano or some crap like that, I’m retiring.” He smiled to assure her he was joking.
Kaylin grinned. “No, it’s nothing like that, but I do need your help.” She looked at Dane again, and he knew that, no matter what it was she needed him for, there was no way he could refuse.
“Well,” he began, “why don’t you come aboard and tell us all about it?”
Chapter 5
They sat on the deck of Sea Foam, watching the sun set and enjoying cold drinks after a long day. After a few minutes of awkward starts and stops to the conversation, they settled into an easy give-and-take. He and Bones filled Kaylin in on their exploits since the last time they had seen one another, and she, in turn, told them about her current faculty position at Charleston University, where she taught Fine Arts, and about her boyfriend Thomas, who was also a faculty member at the university.
Not wanting to seem like he was engaging in one-upsmanship, Dane did not mention his girlfriend, archaeologist Jade Ihara, but Bones being Bones, her name came up almost immediately.
“So, Maddock, have you told Jade that you’re hanging out with your ex?” Mischief glinted in his dark eyes as he grinned at Dane.
“Jade? Is that your girlfriend?” Kaylin’s expression was one of polite interest, though her voice sounded hollow. “Tell me about her.”
“She’s also a college professor and an archaeologist. I met her on our last little ‘adventure.’”
“You do seem to have a knack for that, don’t you?” Kaylin’s coquettish smile brought back good memories.
“It sure seems that way, doesn’t it?” Dane laughed. “I guess I can’t really call her my girlfriend. We don’t have any sort of commitment, what with her working about six thousand miles away.”
“You never change, Maddock. You know that? There’s always a reason not to get too close.” Seeming to realize she’d revealed something a bit too personal, Kaylin blushed and took a long drink, while an uneasy silence fell over the group.
“That’s me,” Dane added lamely, trying to ease the sudden tension. “So, are you going to tell us about this thing you need help with?”
Kaylin’s face fell. “My boyfriend, Thomas, is missing in the Amazon.” She dug into the small backpack she had brought with her, took out a picture, and handed it to Dane. “He left this picture with a friend of ours. It’s supposed to be a clue, the only thing we need in order find him.”
Dane held the picture up in order to best catch what remained of the fading daylight. Bones pulled his chair closer in order to get a better look.
“This isn’t the original,” Kaylin said. “I left that with the police. I took my own picture of it before handing it over to the authorities, and I had a print made on the way down here.”
It was a painting of a lean, angular man with a beard and a handlebar mustache seated in a Victorian-s
tyle armchair. His close-set eyes seemed to burn into Dane. It was a busy image by the standards of the time. The man held a book in his left hand, and a painting of a steamship hung prominently in the background over his right shoulder. A seascape, a dark island looming in the midst of a stormy sea, hung on the wall over his left. Exotic plants in amphorae framed the image.
“That dude looks familiar.” Bones took the picture and gave it a closer look before handing it back to Dane. “Not sure where I’ve seen him before, but I know he’s somebody famous.”
“It’s Percy Fawcett,” Dane said, passing the picture around so everyone could have a look. “He was probably the most famous explorer of the early twentieth century. He disappeared in the Amazon looking for the lost city of Z.” His stomach was doing somersaults. As a young man, he had been fascinated by stories of the famed explorer, and the man had always been something of a hero to him. He had a bad feeling about the direction this conversation was about to take.
“I’m sorry, Kay. If the only clue your boyfriend left you is a picture of Percy Fawcett, that isn’t going to be enough to go on. Not even close. People have been trying to find him ever since he disappeared. That trail has been cold for almost a century.”
“There’s a message in this picture,” Kaylin insisted. “And there was a code written on the back. Here!” She handed him another picture.
“Numbers and letters. It’s not longitude and latitude. We can’t punch it into a GPS.” Dane truly did want to help her, but he didn’t see how they had anything at all to help them even know where to start.
“But, the friend I mentioned, the one to whom Thomas entrusted this, was kidnapped, maybe even killed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but how do you know that picture is the reason…” Dane began.