by Josh Karnes
Chapter 30
Isla de Vieques, Puerto Rico
As it turned out, Ray Ortiz didn't have to round up Detective Vega. He was already on his way along with the two detectives from Fajardo, Rivera and Torres. They had a one o'clock “task force” meeting with Lieutenant Ramos, Morales and Ortiz at the Vieques police department in their temporary command post. Ortiz held off on sending the Grady family back over to Isla Roca until after the briefing was finished. He didn't want to pull Vega off of a critical search vector if one was identified.
The task force detectives, along with patrol officers on Culebra, Vieques and in Fajardo, had turned over every rock and questioned everybody who might have had a chance to see a seventeen-year-old Norte Americano boy, but they had turned up nothing. At least, they turned up nothing on Joseph.
The questioning did yield some interesting responses from the locals. A few missing persons reports were already on the books from the past twenty-four months where the missing had last been seen near El Pliegue. These remained unsolved. It was assumed that the missing had drowned, but having not produced a body, each case remained open. On top of these existing reports, many anecdotal reports came in—more like recent folklore—of mysterious things happening at El Pliegue. They would be easily dismissed as ghost stories if not for the consistency and number of them. Things, it seemed, had a way of disappearing near El Pliegue.
Now, this was perfectly reasonable. El Pliegue is a seven hundred foot deep sinkhole that is an impenetrable patch of midnight blue in a sea of otherwise crystal clear waters, in stark contrast with the whole of the area. If you drop an object off of your boat, such as a fishing net, SCUBA tank, that kind of thing, then ordinarily you can see it beneath these picturesque waters of the Caribbean. Then it is a simple matter to dive down and retrieve it, or say goodbye to it forever. However, if you lose something over El Pliegue, it's going to sink to a place where not only can you not see it, but you can't dive down and get it, even with SCUBA equipment. It takes specialized equipment and experience to dive to the bottom of El Pliegue. It's just not done.
However, the reports were not of small objects you often lose in the ocean like nets or tanks. Entire boats are reported to have disappeared, complete with their contents, leaving no sign. Objects that ordinarily float, like oars and kayaks, are said to have disappeared from the surface of the water, sinking immediately, not to be seen again. While the rational among the task force sharing these reports sought reasonable explanations for these mysterious reports, such as a vortex sucking up floating things, there was a troubling sense from the locals that they actively avoid the place. The only boats that have been reported in the area over the past few years are the ubiquitous diving tour boats like the ones Joseph and his brothers were on, and the mysterious Zodiacs launched from Isla Roca. Everyone else, including ferry operators, yachtsmen, deep-sea fishermen, and other tour guides, avoid El Pliegue completely. This complete sense of dread from those familiar with the place was unsettling to the task force, and even to the FBI agents present who are ordinarily very disinclined to believe in such nonsense. Nobody missed the irony that they were searching for a lost boy in this area. It is difficult to dismiss reports of people and things disappearing from El Pliegue when your very mission is to find such a missing person.
In addition to the “Bermuda Triangle” styled reports of El Pliegue, there also was reported a consistent sense of distrust and suspicion towards the inhabitants of Isla Roca. Every person who didn't think that El Pliegue must have swallowed Joseph whole thought that somehow the “military” facility at Isla Roca must be to blame. There was a strong sense that even though Isla Roca was supposedly in use by a private company, it really was the American military pulling the strings. And Puerto Ricans, especially those on these islands, have a strong suspicion of the American military.
While the locals' theories and suspicions reported by the task force were legion, real leads to find Joseph Grady were totally nonexistent. Given the summary of these reports, it became tempting for Ray Ortiz to give up hope and assume that indeed El Pliegue had swallowed up Joseph Grady, if not literally then figuratively, and he had drowned. But that was an investigative cop-out. It's a non-answer, and until they had a body, it was not provable. So Ortiz pushed that theory to the back of the list and refocused the task force on finding Joseph on dry ground.
Once the task force briefing had concluded, Detective Alex Vega was tasked with escorting the Grady family out to Isla Roca by way of the FBI helicopter, where they were to commence the search of the island's shores and the depths of El Pliegue with the assistance of Thermion's men wielding a wealth of equipment. Ortiz gave Vega instructions and handed off this leg of the investigation to him, while in the back of his mind processing with horror the possibility that he may be sending the Grady family directly to where they would find Joseph's dead body. But he still refused to accept that Joseph was dead and all was lost. They would find him. He was sending Vega and the Gradys on a fool's errand. He was sure of it.