Dead in the Water

by Lesley A. Diehl

  “What do you think is on fire? A cane field?” I was sitting on a downed limb taking a breather. Sammy stood leaning against a nearby sabal palm.

  “Too much smoke and too black. Cane burns smell sweet. This one doesn’t. It’s a structure fire.”

  “As in a building of some kind. Maybe a building with people nearby?”

  “Exactly. Let’s hurry before it goes out and leaves us with nothing to follow.”

  The acrid smell of the burn got stronger.

  “Listen.” Sammy put up his hand and stopped me. “An airboat.”

  “Signal it.” I rushed in front of him, running toward the sound of the whirring engine.

  Sammy grabbed me, pushed me to the ground, and fell on top of me. “It could be the Hardy brothers.”

  “I don’t care. We gotta get out of this swamp.”

  “We already are.” Sammy pushed aside the grasses. In front of us we could see the broad rim canal. “Look there.” Sammy pointed toward the east, down the canal. Smoke continued to pour from a building as fire fighters doused the flames with water.

  “It’s the Hardys’ produce stand and their airboat operation that’s burning.”

  “I wonder if they were inside,” I said.

  “They tried to kill us and you’re concerned about them?”

  “I’m not worried about those boys. I was talking about the baby gators they kept in the building.”

  Out on the canal, the airboat we’d heard sped by, but I couldn’t tell who was in it because Sammy and I ducked our heads down.

  “This way.” Sammy signaled me to follow him in the opposite direction from the airboat landing.

  “I want to see what’s going on.”

  “Not now. We need food and water first. Then we can find out what happened to our boys and their business. If they’re not dead, I don’t want them to know we aren’t.”

  “We’re going to your place?”

  He nodded and headed back into the swamp.

  “We could just hit the road and follow it home.”

  “Like I said, let’s keep our heads down for now. I don’t want anyone to see us. Yet.”

  The steel in Sammy’s voice told me he had something special planned for the Hardy brothers if they were still alive. I thought it might be better for them if they were dead.

  Another several hours of tramping around in the swamps until we arrived at Sammy’s house left me thirsty enough to drink swamp water and hungry enough to consider eating a salad of water lettuce dressed with pond scum. Instead we had tea and biscuits with homemade jam served by Sammy’s grandfather.

  I was too exhausted to talk much, so Sammy explained what had happened. Grandfather Egret didn’t seem too upset by what Sammy had to say. He puffed on his pipe and sipped his tea, finally pausing long enough to say, “I thought maybe I’d have to come looking for you.”

  “How would you know where to look? Sammy said you never go out in the swamps anymore, and besides, you didn’t know the Hardy brothers had taken us out there.” I stopped talking for a second. “Did you?”

  “I had a visitor right before the storm hit.” He set the pipe on the table. “Just a bit of a thing, but a good friend of yours.”

  “Madeleine was here? But how did she figure out where we were? I didn’t even tell her Sammy and I were going to the Hardy’s place to snoop.”

  Grandfather chuckled. “She’s got you down good. She knew you couldn’t stay away from there. She thought you might have hired Sammy to help you. I told her we couldn’t look until the storm was over. I told her things in the swamp—”

  “Get lost and then turn up again. You told me that once too.”

  Chapter 10

  Sammy and I hopped into his truck to head back to my place. He’d insisted on driving me home because he thought I was too tired to be behind the wheel. He was probably right. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I propped my elbow against the window and leaned my head on my hand. I was just drifting off when Sammy made a hard turn right that startled me awake.

  “Are we home already?” I looked around me. We were at the Hardy’s burned-out place of business.

  “There’s nothing here but charred timbers. Why are we stopping?”

  “Go back to sleep. I’m going to take a look around. I’m hoping I can find my airboat here someplace. It looks as if the Hardys or whoever burned the place took theirs. Maybe they didn’t sink mine or set it adrift and I can locate it.”

  As we pulled into the parking area, a police officer signaled us not to go any farther in. “Off limits.”

  We could see yellow tape strung around the place. This place was certainly getting its share of attention from the authorities. A crime scene twice over.

  Frida’s police cruiser pulled up behind us.

  “There you are. Madeleine called to tell me she heard from you. When were you going to pay me a visit? I understand the Hardy boys took you for a ride in the swamps. And you didn’t think I’d be interested?” Frida stood, hands on her hips and anger on her face.

  “I’m sorry, but all I can think of is sleep. I’m exhausted, and I have to go shopping for new boots.” I opened the door and stuck out my foot, showing her my ruined boot.

  She let out a guffaw of a laugh. “Only you would follow up near death with a shopping expedition. So I gather you’re okay?”

  I nodded. “Sammy and I took his airboat here to, uh, take a look at the place. The Hardys found us and decided we were getting too snoopy for them. Sammy’s looking for his boat.”

  “If he stays out of the taped in area, he’s free to search.” Frida signaled the officer to let Sammy proceed toward the canal. “Snoopy. Huh? You? I can’t believe that.”

  “Don’t get all snarky on me.”

  “While Sammy searches for his boat, you might as well tell me everything that happened in the swamp.” Frida took out her notebook and pencil and leaned against the truck.

  I had to tell her everything? Well, I told her most of it. I left out the part about the lustful thoughts I’d had about Sammy.

  Sammy was in luck. He located his boat adrift several hundred yards down the canal.

  “It was as if she were heading home to me,” he said.

  We both chuckled at the thought, although I wondered if Grandfather Egret had been using some kind of mojo to signal it back.

  “Look what I brought you from the airboat,” Sammy said, holding up my purse.

  I quickly went through the contents. Everything was still there, including my cellphone.

  Madeleine, probably because Frida had called her and told her we were on our way, waited for me in the driveway of my house. Sammy’s recuperative powers were better than mine. He jumped out of his truck and came around to help me out, chattering away about the night in the swamp. Finding the boat had made him positively perky. I was now so tired I welcomed Madeleine’s help into my bedroom. Sammy waited in the living room while she ran me a bath.

  “Okey dokey, Eve. The bubbles await.”

  I muttered something like appreciation and stepped into the water.

  “Take off your clothes first.”

  “Why? They’re dirty too.”

  Madeleine shrugged and closed the bathroom door. “Don’t drown in there.”

  The water revived me enough to allow me to pull off my sopping wet clothes and toss them toward the sink. I missed. I took a deep breath and submerged myself. When I came up Sammy stood over the bath.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Madeleine left for the store to get some tea. You’re all out. Your phone rang, and I answered it.”

  A red flush worked its way up his neck and onto his cheeks. Why, the guy was blushing. He held the phone in his hand, which trembled a bit. Shy fellow.

  “Here. Give me that before you drop it into the tub.” I grabbed the phone. Sammy beat feet back into the living room.

  The voice on the other end of the line spoke for a time while I listened, thinking that
what I was hearing had to be a prank.

  “Let me call you back.” I checked the numbers on my phone and connected to the lawyer in West Palm. I received the same message as he had delivered just minutes before.

  I disconnected and reached for my towel. I heard Madeleine’s voice.

  I wrapped the towel around me and strode into the living room. Sammy blushed again.

  “Look who I found while shopping.”

  Jerry stood behind her, as if her tiny frame might hide his presence.

  The doorbell rang. Jerry opened the door, and Alex entered. When he saw my choice of clothes for entertaining visitors and the identities of my guests, he too turned red. With anger.

  “Just get over yourselves. This is serious. Someone emptied all my uncle’s accounts. There’s not one cent left.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment.

  Madeleine set her bag of groceries on the sofa and sank down beside it. “Well, now you don’t have to worry about what to do with mob money.”

  “I was going to give it to some Russian thugs to rescue Sophia and Boris’ sister. Now what are they going to do?” I hugged my towel around me and looked down at my feet. Then I burst into tears.

  “We’ll think of some way to get her back.” Madeleine rushed over and threw her arms around me.

  I stopped blubbering for a minute. “I know that. But look.” I pointed to my boots still on my feet. “I forgot to take them off. Now they’re really ruined.”

  I wiped my nose with a corner of my towel. “I need, I need ….”

  Alex was at my side in one bound. He wrapped his big arms around me. Then Jerry joined Alex and Madeleine, getting in on the group hug. Across the room, Sammy continued to blush.

  “Hey. I can’t breathe here. Get off me. That’s not what I need. I need, I need ….”

  My groupies looked across the room at Sammy.

  “Hiiiim?” Alex stammered the word out.

  I shook my head. “Nappi. Get him on the phone for me, Jerry. I need money.”

  “I knew those boots were expensive, Eve, but I can loan you enough to buy a new pair.” Alex seemed relieved at my request for money.

  I stamped my soggy Ferragamo boot. My towel slipped a touch. Madeleine grabbed a corner and pulled it tighter around me.

  “I need half a million dollars to rescue the girl. It’s what Winston tried to do, and it’s for me to finish. Family was important to him, and it is to me, too.”

  “But she’s not part of your family, Eve,” Madeleine said.

  “Yes, she is. She’s Winston’s stepdaughter. He cared about her. Winston told me the day he was killed that family came first. How can I turn my back on that?”

  That night, after I’d gotten a few hours’ sleep—right after Madeleine had cleared my house of extraneous men, actually, all the men—Nappi arrived with a bouquet of red roses and a look of concern on his face.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Nappi asked.

  “Did you find out anything about Sophia and Boris’ sister or the Russian mob, anything that says I shouldn’t rescue this woman?”

  “You’re talking to the wrong person here. The Russian mob is something we in the ‘family’ try not to get involved with unless it threatens our business. It’s something I prefer to stay out of. On general principle, I recommend you do the same.”

  I took “general principle” to mean family principles, excluding foreigners who didn’t speak Italian and not to include anything like “it’s against the law” principles.

  “I can’t leave her to be sold into slavery.”

  “If their story is true.”

  “Winston thought it was. His effort might have gotten him killed.”

  “My point exactly,” Nappi said.

  “Why would they lie?”

  “Half a million dollars is a lot of money. They weren’t in his will, so they knew he wasn’t going to give it to them upon his death. It was supposed to be taken care of.”

  “But that’s just it. They didn’t know they weren’t in his will. They and Darlene were shocked to find out I was his heir.”

  Nappi got up from the couch and walked to the window. The night sky twinkled with stars, a light show following the storm. “I don’t like this, especially because it’s too connected with your uncle’s murder. It might be better to go to the police.”

  Nappi was suggesting police involvement? I couldn’t believe it. “Look, Mr. Napolitani, if you don’t want to loan me the money, I certainly understand. I’m willing to put up my share of the business for collateral, although I know it’s not worth that much. I’ll throw in the house too. The lawyer is trying to track down who emptied the accounts. Once he finds the money, I can pay you back.”

  Nappi came over to me and took my hand. “My dear, anything you want, I’d be happy to grant. It’s not the money, never the money. I’m worried about you. You just said it a moment ago. The last time anyone tried to pay the ransom, he got killed.”

  “I know, but I’m not the one at risk. The girl is, and maybe Boris and Sophia.”

  “It appears danger is cutting a wide swath. First, your uncle’s death. Then the ransom money disappears, you are run off the road and threatened, the Hardys search your uncle’s condo, and you and your Indian friend spend time in the swamps.”

  “But most of that was the Hardys’ doing. Frida’s searching for them now.”

  Nappi chuckled. “I hardly think they burned their own business, especially because it was doing so well.”

  “It was?”

  He nodded and appeared to want to say more about the Hardys, but then he stopped and changed the subject. “You’re making light of murder, theft, and kidnapping. Those weren’t the Hardys’ doing. They were the work of a person or people not yet identified, but probably more dangerous than two good old boys running an airboat operation.” When he said “airboat operation,” his tone of voice indicated he thought the Hardys had something going other than a simple “buy some veggies and fruit and take a ride” business.

  “What do you know about them that you’re not telling me?” I asked.

  “It’s not important now. Once we’ve taken care of this kidnapping thing, we’ll talk further.”

  “Fine. I’m determined to carry out what my uncle started. You of all people should understand family obligations.”

  “The money is yours, dear Eve. Now, how about dinner? I like that Burnt Biscuit place. I’m getting quite addicted to ribs.”

  Alex was in town and not about to let me get away without some time together. I’d promised to have dinner with him, but didn’t feel I could say no to Nappi. After all, the guy had just floated me a loan with no collateral required and no papers signed. When I told him about my previous engagement, he did the gentlemanly thing and tried to bow out, but I said no, insisting that Alex would be thrilled to see him. That was a lie, and Nappi knew it, but having a great sense of humor, he couldn’t resist tagging along to see how Alex would handle the threesome.

  Alex handled it as I had expected—with a grumpy smile and some mutterings about always having to share me with “my men.” He wasn’t far from right. When we arrived at the Biscuit, Jay Cassidy, his right hand man, Antoine, and several other cowboys from Jay’s ranch came over to say hi to the three of us. Nappi told them to pull up a chair, which they all did. Alex rolled his eyes and ordered a Scotch, neat, double, followed by another one a few minutes later.

  “Careful, sweetie. Remember what happened the last time you got drunk in this bar?”

  “I ended up in your bed, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, but you were alone and quite hung over. Unless you want a repeat of that sad experience, you’d better hold onto sober for the evening.”

  “Does that mean …?”

  “I’m not promising anything. I’m just saying I don’t share my bed with boozers.”

  We shoved two tables together, ordered ribs, and soon I was dancing up a storm with all the guys including, to my
surprise, Nappi, who preferred the slow tunes.

  It was Karaoke night, so in case the participants sang like screaming tomcats, we’d chosen a table in the dining room, right outside the bar area where the singing occurred. As I was picking my last rib clean of sauce and meat, I heard the announcer say “And now, our own singing Miccosukee, Sammy Egret.”

  I jumped out of my seat and ran into the bar. Sure enough, there stood Sammy, crooning one of my favorite country tunes. His dark hair was slicked back under a cowboy hat with a silver band and he wore tight black jeans and a knitted, long-sleeved shirt that hugged his biceps. Like all the ballads, this one was about lying, crying, and dying. Sammy did it well. And looked so good doing it.

  Antoine, an accomplished country artist in his own right, stood beside me. “He’s great, isn’t he?”

  “Yep. And he’s also good at swamp survival.”

  “So I heard.”

  I looked at him in surprise. “You did?”

  “It’s all over town how you and he spent the night in the swamps together. I thought Alex was the one.”

  “I thought I was too.” Alex stood beside me, and it was obvious he had heard what Antoine said.

  I could almost feel the angry fire coming off him.

  “Don’t you get all furious with me. You knew Sammy and I were left in the swamp together and that he took care of me, probably saved my life. Back off the jealously act, dearie.”

  For a moment I thought he was going to walk off, but the anger faded, replaced by a smile. “Eve, you are one sassy gal. You always tell it like it is.”

  Sure I did, except for leaving out one detail about that night in the swamp—that fluttery feeling in my stomach when Sammy looked at me. And I certainly wasn’t going to divulge my hunch that Sammy felt pretty fluttery, too.