All the pumpkins were still glowing as I passed the Jolly Pipemaker’s Shop, Peter’s Pub, the Honey and Herb Shoppe, and the Monastery Bakery. The Village looked serene and otherworldly. A small breeze shivered through the skeletal trees set up and down the street. I glanced into the darkness of Sherwood Forest and thought about going that way for Robin and Alex along with a few dozen Merry Men. I wasn’t looking forward to going to visit the pirates, but I kept an image of Chase in my mind for strength. He needed me. I wouldn’t let him down.
The Queen’s Revenge was berthed on the side of the lake closest to the main gate tonight. That would save me some time. Of course, it also meant the pirates were mostly on board the ship. When they spent the night on the other side of the lake, some of them were likely to be at the Lady of the Lake Tavern.
Either way, probably not good news for me. At least Rafe wasn’t the Pirate King anymore, and Crystal seemed to have an old-flame thing for Chase that could work in my favor. I just had to get past all the other pirates, who were as likely to throw me in the brig for the rest of the night as they were to take me to see Grigg.
I walked cautiously up the gangplank to the heart of the ship. The pirates slept below deck in a makeshift room filled with hanging berths. Some of them were asleep on deck since it was a nice night. A few looked as though they had gone to sleep where they fell on the rough, wooden planking.
Where to look for Grigg? He could be anywhere. I was about to invade the Pirate Queen’s lair when one of the pirates yawned and rolled over in his sleep. I jumped out of the way and kicked another pirate in the side. It took only a few seconds before they’d realized I’d boarded illegally and they raised the alarm.
“I only want to talk to Grigg,” I told them. “Something’s happened to Chase and I need Grigg’s help.”
The older pirate gave me a squint-eyed look. “That’s why ye came with yer sword and baseball bat? I be thinkin’ you be here to cause more mischief. Like what ye did to Rafe wasn’t bad enough.”
“I say take her below and leave her for the captain in the morning,” suggested the second pirate (the one I’d kicked).
The first pirate agreed, but there was no way I was waiting in the bottom of the ship until morning. I wouldn’t wait at the dungeon. I sure wasn’t waiting here.
I grabbed my sword at the same time that I jumped next to the older pirate, putting the blade against his Adam’s apple. “Find Grigg or your friend goes down to Davy Jones’s locker.”
Like I said, the sword wasn’t real enough to cut the pirate, but he didn’t seem to know that. The younger pirate could’ve tried to jump me, but he wasn’t that ambitious. He went tearing off toward the captain’s quarters, screaming his loudest.
“Ye’ll get it now,” the old pirate said. “We don’t take kindly to scallywags.”
“Yeah. Well, I don’t take kindly to being threatened. You guys are way too far into this part. I mean, what would you do if you had to go sell insurance or something? Maybe you should take some time off.”
“Argh!”
I didn’t bother responding to that. Besides, everyone was awake by then. Crystal was dragging herself out of her quarters while the other pirates, including Rafe, were crawling up from the bowels of the ship.
“What’s going on?” Crystal demanded. “It’s too late at night for this. If you want some kind of revenge on Rafe, Jessie, I suggest you do it during the day.”
“That’s not why I’m here.” I explained the situation to her. “The police won’t help me. Grigg is the closest thing we have here to a police officer with Chase gone. I need his help.”
She nodded. “Let my man go and we’ll talk.”
I looked around me at all the angry pirates. “How do I know you won’t just throw me in the brig?”
“You don’t.” She tossed her long silver hair back over her shoulder. “And I might if it wasn’t for Chase being in trouble.” She glanced around the deck. “Grigg, you and Jessie come into my quarters. The rest of you, go back to sleep.”
I let the old pirate go. He rubbed his throat as if my fake sword had hurt him. There was a lot of grumbling and muttering, but no one went against the queen. Grigg and I went into Crystal’s private quarters with Rafe coming up behind us. I sheathed my blade warily, keeping a close watch on my one-time lover.
“Tell us all again what happened.” Crystal gestured for us to sit down at the heavy wood table. “Make sure you don’t try to hide anything. I don’t want to have you locked up while we investigate what happened.”
Leaving out the more private details, I told them exactly what had happened. When I was finished, Crystal was staring off into the darkness and Rafe seemed to be asleep.
Grigg sat forward in his chair. “The police never look for any adult who doesn’t have a medical or some other problem for forty-eight hours. It’s the way things work. I don’t know what I can do to help.”
“You could look over the dungeon and see if there are any clues to what happened,” I told him. “Chase didn’t just wander away. Someone had to take him against his will.”
Rafe seemed to perk up at that idea. “Good luck with that. I wouldn’t want to be the man who tried it. We got into a little dustup last year. He’s strong and fast.”
Crystal sighed. “I know. I did my best to turn him into a pirate. His heart just wasn’t in it.” She looked at me thoughtfully, then looked away again.
“At least come back with me and take a look around,” I implored Grigg. “If you think nothing happened, maybe I’ll be able to relax until morning.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Just for the sake of argument, have you checked the parking lot to see if his car is gone?”
We dutifully checked the parking lot after leaving the Queen’s Revenge. Chase’s car was still parked close to mine. The cars looked so forlorn out there. It made me want to cry.
“Well I guess he’s here somewhere,” Grigg said. “Let’s take a look at the dungeon.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate you doing this.”
We walked together—me, Grigg, Crystal (she left her baby with one of the pirates), and Rafe. It was a little after midnight according to the street clock on the main gate. There was no ducking in and out of shadows this time. I felt even more empowered surrounded by the pirates. Even Rafe seemed to take Chase’s disappearance seriously.
A large shadow loomed up out of Squire’s Lane, and I knew that familiar black robe before he spoke. “Hello, lady. Are you out for a stroll? Who are your friends?”
Doesn’t anyone sleep around here? “You know the pirates, don’t you? Pirates, Death. Death, Pirates.”
Rafe laughed. “I’ve been outwitting you all my life. Welcome!”
“I don’t think so,” Bart disagreed. “I think you might be older than me. Where are we going?”
“Chase is gone,” I told him.
“Gone where?”
“I don’t know. That’s why we’re going to the dungeon. I think something bad has happened to him.”
“I want to help,” he offered.
“That’s kind of funny,” Crystal said. “Death wants to help us find Chase. Does anyone else see the humor in that?”
Rafe yawned. “Not really. But you’re the queen, right? Whatever you say.”
“That’s right,” she pointed out. “And don’t you forget it.”
We walked past a silent Dutchman’s Stage and were joined by Brother Carl from the bakery. We told him what had happened, and he fell in line with us. I was beginning to feel like Chicken Little broadcasting to all my friends that the sky is falling. Losing Chase would be about as bad as the sky falling for the Village and for me. I hoped everyone appreciated him as much as I did.
“I’ll unlock the door,” I said when we arrived at the dungeon. “The banshee will wail, but it stops after a few minutes. I don’t know where to turn it off. Not that it ever does much good.”
I slid my key in the lock and opened the door, but there was
no banshee. Surprised, I pushed the door open all the way. Still nothing. The others crowded in after me, and I switched on the light.
“Tell us again what happened,” Grigg instructed as he began looking around.
The fake cells were supposed to be replicas of a real dungeon in England during the Renaissance. They were nothing but some cement and boards painted to look disgusting. There was a little loose straw on the floors as there would have been during those days.
Other than that, there wasn’t much to see. With the unearthly red light and groaning from the fake prisoners (scarecrow figures on the floor), that was about it. I followed Grigg as he searched the area, hoping he’d see something I’d missed. It had been almost five hours since Chase had disappeared. I didn’t want to imagine what someone could do to him in that amount of time.
Crystal put her hand on my shoulder, obviously guessing what I was feeling. “Like Rafe said, Jessie, Chase is tough. Somebody might’ve gotten him, but they’ll have a hard time keeping him.”
I winced at the thought. “That’s kind of what I’m worried about. I’d rather him be a live coward than a dead hero.”
“Well there’s no doubt in my mind that someone kidnapped Chase or at least persuaded him to leave the dungeon.” Grigg squatted down and came up with something in his hand. It was a two-way radio. “I don’t think he’d leave this behind.”
The awful thing was, I couldn’t confirm that Chase had the radio with him when he came downstairs. If he had, he must’ve picked it up on his way out the door without me noticing. Of course, that could’ve happened. I wasn’t really paying attention.
“How can we know if this is Chase’s radio?” Rafe asked.
I was relieved not to be on the spot. “It should have the number 01 on it. But to be sure, we can call it with another radio. Chase has his own frequency.”
“It says 01 on it.” Bart read over Grigg’s shoulder.
“I can call his frequency,” I said, taking out my radio.
“That’s okay.” Crystal took out a two-way we both knew she wasn’t supposed to have. “What? It’s not a bad thing to have around here.”
“You were supposed to give them all back after you were finished patrolling,” I reminded her. “Do you know the right frequency?”
She smiled at me in a purely competitive female way. “Yeah. I have his number.”
Only a moment after she called him, the radio in Grigg’s hand beeped. There was no doubt that this was Chase’s radio.
I felt like dropping to the dirty floor and wailing like the banshee. It wouldn’t do any good, but I felt like it anyway. I kept it together for Chase. We had to figure out what happened to him and find him. Be strong. I focused on communicating telepathically with him. Help is on the way.
I had no way of knowing if he’d pick up on my thoughts. He didn’t answer back. When I was in college, I used to go to the psych department every week to earn easy money doing telepathy experiments with a really cool but weird professor. I never guessed anything right. I hoped that wasn’t a signal that Chase wouldn’t hear me. Didn’t they say that telepathy increased with stress?
“Look over here.” Grigg walked toward the red letters on the wall. “You see this smear? It looks to me like someone dragged something through it after it was written.”
“You think Chase was trying to tell us something?” Crystal asked.
Grigg touched the red letters and smelled his fingers. “It smells like blood. No way to know without proper analysis whether it belongs to Chase. Sorry, Jessie.”
By now my heart had given up beating. It was too exhausted from all that pounding. “But you think I have something to show the police?”
He shrugged. “Probably not before tomorrow morning. I wish I had better news. This might convince them to start a search sooner, but it would take more than this to get them out here tonight.”
“There’s no sign of a struggle,” Rafe said. “I can’t believe anyone took Chase from here without a major effort.”
“How about with a major gun?” Crystal suggested. “Just because he’s big and strong and really knows how to please a girl doesn’t mean he couldn’t be shot and killed on the spot.”
I just thought my heart had stopped beating. Now it zoomed up into my throat at the idea that Chase might have been shot. Not that I didn’t know it was possible. I just didn’t need reminding. I ignored Crystal’s meaningless and inappropriate remark about him knowing how to please a girl. Where did she get off anyway?
“We have to do something now.” I paced the dungeon floor. “By the time we find out this is Chase’s blood all over the wall, he might not have any left. He must be in the Village somewhere. We just have to find him.”
Bart sort of put his arm around my shoulders. It was kind of awkward with him being so much taller and bigger, but it was a nice thought. “This is a big Village. We don’t know where to look for him. What can we do?”
“I think you’ll have to wait until morning,” Grigg repeated. “Whoever did this didn’t necessarily want Chase dead. If he had a gun, he would’ve killed him right here. There must be more to the plan.”
“Maybe, but whatever it is, there has to be some way to take action now. Later might be too late.” I stared into the faces of the Villagers around me.
“I guess we could rouse the Village and security.” Grigg looked from Crystal to Rafe.
“It’s not exactly keeping with the pirate code to help the bailiff,” Crystal responded. “But what the hell? It would be a bad world without Chase. Let’s do what we can.”
“And as soon as it’s daylight, we’ll call Detective Almond,” Grigg said in a conciliatory manner that I knew was supposed to make me feel better.
It didn’t. I took out my cell phone. “The police might not show up by themselves.” I dialed 911. “But they always come with the fire department.”
Twenty-three
The Myrtle Beach Fire Department made it to the Village in three and a half minutes flat. They came in full gear with two ladder trucks, a fire chief car, and a paramedic unit. It was impressive to say the least. They were accompanied, of course, by two Myrtle Beach police cars.
Unfortunately for the Merry Men, the only smoke visible was from a campfire in Sherwood Forest. The whole group of firefighters and cops descended on the three men sitting around the fire. Let’s just say it was more than extinguished.
“Where’s the big fire?” the fire chief demanded in his gruff, smoky voice. “I know you all didn’t drag us out of bed at this hour for a campfire.”
He looked at me, Rafe, Crystal, Grigg, and Bart as though he were daring us to admit it was a prank. I was about to launch into my story about Chase when Roger joined us near the main gate with Mary at his side.
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded. “Has someone lost their mind? Why is the fire department here?”
Grigg was closest to him. He muttered, “So the police would come.”
“What?” Roger glared at him. “Who thought of that stupid idea?”
He glanced at me and I waved, borrowing Bart’s cute little-finger motion.
“Chase is missing.” Grigg shrugged. “We think something happened to him.”
“Something like what?” Roger leaned heavily on his cane.
By this time, Mary had come to stand beside me. “Okay, Jessie. What’s going on?”
I explained everything I knew. “I really think Chase is in danger. The police just blew me off with this forty-eight-hour scenario. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Basically you’re saying this was a false alarm purposefully phoned in to get us out here,” the chief summed up. “Do you realize there’s a penalty for false alarms? You could all go to jail.”
Grigg responded (in typical police officer fashion), “Actually you’d need to know exactly who called in that false alarm to press charges, Chief. You’re not going to get that information here.”
I could’ve kissed him for s
ticking up for me. Worrying about going to jail was the least of my concerns. We were all just standing around while Chase was somewhere maybe in pain or scared.
“Now you listen here, young man,” the chief began, shaking his finger at Grigg until I was afraid it might fall off. “I can lock up the whole kit and caboodle of you. I don’t need to know one person in particular.”
“There are about five hundred people who live and work here,” Roger chimed in. “I think it might be difficult to lock us all up.”
The chief gave him a sour-grapes face and did the I-wash-my-hands-of-you wave, then briskly walked toward his men.
“What’s so important that you’re willing to take a chance on the fire department not showing up the next time you have a real emergency?” one of Myrtle Beach’s finest asked. “Is that you in there, Grigg? I’d heard you’d gone native.”
“Yeah. It’s me, Blackman.” Grigg shook the other man’s hand. “As long as you’re out here, maybe you could take a look at a situation we have.”
Blackman’s partner nodded, and the two men fell in step with what had become a huge group of Villagers heading back to the dungeon. Grigg filled him in while we walked. “You know, we aren’t detectives,” Blackman said. “But if it looks like something suspicious, we can get those other guys out here.”
Grigg smiled. “That’s what I was counting on.”
Everyone but Grigg and the two police officers stayed outside the dungeon while they looked around inside. I paced the ground with frantic strides. It was nearly three thirty A.M. Chase had been gone for too long. I felt as if I wasn’t doing anything to help him even though the police were finally here. Who was to say he was still alive? If that really was his blood on the wall . . . I couldn’t finish the thought.
“It’s gonna be okay, Jessie.” Mary put her thin arms around me and squeezed tight. “Chase is a tough boy. He won’t go without a fight.”
Grigg and the officers finally came back outside. Blackman glanced around at the group. “I definitely think something is wrong here. Where’s the girlfriend?”
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