Rock drove down the lane to Bayside Marina. As a familiar sea breeze scent filled the truck, Jeanie craned her neck to see the sights. The weathered wood of the marina shop and dock looked like they had seen better days. Large and small vessels dotted the slips, with most of the dockage empty, but the boatyard was still rather full. The orange cast of the sunset-tinted water reminded her of fire. Beyond the docked boats, a watery expanse separated the mainland from the barrier island. From the map in her lap, she knew it was called Pamlico Sound.
It was where Rock had nearly died when his boat exploded.
Rock parked by the Bait and Tackle shop. The “a” in Bait had burnt out, cementing the neglected air of the place. Something wasn’t right here. She felt it in her bones.
“Come on in,” Rock said. “I’ll introduce you to Larry. This is his marina.”
Jeanie glanced over the seat, reluctant to leave the relative safety of the vehicle. “What about the dogs?”
“They come with us.”
From his clipped tone, she discerned the dogs were for defensive purposes too, which suited her agenda of taking Tarpley down as soon as possible. “Cool.”
They didn’t get far before a ruddy-faced, barrel-chested man in a brown ball cap stepped outside to greet them. Jeanie instinctively edged closer to Rock and reached behind her with one hand to have ready access to the handgun tucked in her waistband.
“Rock Mackenzie, as I live and breathe,” the man drawled in a nasal tone. “I didn’t expect you for another week. You look darn good for a man who nearly got blowed all to hell and back.”
Rock shook the man’s extended hand. “Something came up, so I’m here early. Larry, this is my friend, Jeanie.”
Jeanie nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
A few fishing yarns later, Rock got down to business. “Tarpley’s still alive. Have you seen him?”
“Get out!” Larry laughed and punched Rock’s bad shoulder. “Alive? Impossible.”
The dogs stirred at Jeanie’s feet. She placed her hand on Castor’s head to settle him. A quick scan of the place showed what she’d suspected all along. Except for Larry, this place looked deserted.
Rock seemed transfixed by the jovial man. “Not sure how he survived the accident, but we’ve seen him.”
Larry shook his head. “I’m stunned. Never heard of such a thing.”
The dock master was either the best actor Jeanie’d ever met, or he was as surprised as the cops had been at the notion of Tarpley surviving the explosion. At least he hadn’t laughed at them or told them they were grasping at straws.
Like the cops did.
They’d been lucky to escape Mayfield’s law enforcement. If not for Laurie Ann, they’d still be detained for questioning. But the cops’ skepticism worked in Jeanie and Rock’s favor. This way they had first crack at neutralizing Tarpley. Neutralizing was her newest favorite word. It fit her Super Jeanie persona. It was the quickest means to insure her safety.
“Well?” Rock asked again.
“I ain’t seen him,” Larry said, his voice trailing off.
“But?” Rock prompted.
“Been having me some trouble around here. Thought kids were sneaking onto the boats and stealing stuff, only I never could catch ʼem.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Things missing here and there from the shop. Some stuff stolen from boats. People claiming someone’s been on their boats when they weren’t here. Sounds when there shouldn’t be any. Seeing things out of the corner of my eye. That sort of thing.”
Rock nodded. “It could be he’s hiding here somewhere. Any cars go missing?”
“Yeah. An old ruster. Dodge Charger, I think. One of my mechanics reported it stolen last week. Said the car disappeared right in the middle of the day.”
Jeanie gripped Rock’s arm. “That’s the one.” The car with the reeking laundry. Jeanie shuddered. Tarpley had been here. Had he circled back to his bolt hole after kidnapping her?
Rock glanced at the sagging eaves of the bait shop. “You need more security cameras around here.”
Larry shook his head. “With the economy and all, I’m barely gettinʼ by, like everyone else in this business. Times are tough. Summer and tourist season can’t come fast enough for me.”
“You mind if we look around the marina and boatyard? If Tarpley’s here, I’ll find him, and half your troubles will be solved.”
“Let’s form a posse,” Larry said. “Come on inside while I get my shotgun. If there’s a stowaway on my property, I want to help flush him out.”
Rock commanded the dogs to guard the door. “We could use an extra set of eyes. There are a lot of boats in the boatyard to search and not much daylight left.”
Larry shuffled toward the counter. “Where’s my manners? You folks traveled a long way to get here today. Would you like something to drink or a snack?”
As Rock declined, Jeanie wandered over to look at the rack of kid-sized T-shirts with fish on them. Then she admired the rods and reels, the nets, maps, and nautical accessories. She rounded a counter to see what else was in the shop and walked straight into the business end of a pistol.
“Hands up or die,” Tarpley ordered, a fevered look in his feral green eyes.
“Rock!” Jeanie tried to yell, but her voice came out one tick above a whisper.
“Rock’s a little tied up right now is my guess,” Tarpley said, spinning her around and grabbing her Beretta. “He has piss poor timing when it comes to women and money.”
Chapter 51
Events transpired as if in slow motion. Rock saw Jeanie disappear behind an aisle of shop merchandise. Larry bent down behind the counter to retrieve his shotgun. As he stood, he pumped the shotgun and pointed both barrels at Rock.
“Gun, and anything else you got,” Larry demanded. “Now. Nice and easy or I ventilate your lungs.”
“What? How?” Rock sputtered.
“If you don’t put the gun on the counter in five seconds, I’ll tell my partner to put a bullet in your girlfriend. One. Two. Three—”
“Okay. Stop counting.” Rock pulled the Colt Defender from his waistband and placed it on the shop counter next to the brightly colored lures, small multi-purpose knives, and a tower of energy drinks. Then he pulled the knives from his ankle sheaths.
He raised his hands, though the left didn’t reach as high as the right.
Shock warred with surprise. Larry? He’d never figured Larry to be in on the bad things that had happened to him.
Larry grabbed the gun and tossed it out of Rock’s reach. “Hands in the air where I can see them.”
He could call the dogs, and they’d jump through the window to get to Larry, but Larry could take them down quickly with buckshot. That wouldn’t help any of them.
Larry strode from behind the counter and craned his neck to glance across the store. “Got her?”
“I do,” Tarpley said, pushing Jeanie in front of him.
Only the gun Tarpley held kept Rock standing still. Tarp had gone crazy. That was the only rational explanation. Either that or his medications had sent him into psychosis.
“Looks like Christmas came early,” Larry drawled. “I got what I wanted without having to go hunting for ʼem.”
“What do you want with us?” Rock asked. Jeanie’s hands were in the air like his. Odds were Tarpley had removed her gun.
“I want treasure, before I get rid of your worthless hide. Don’t mind if I help myself to the girl before she joins you in the deep. It’s win-win for me.”
“I can’t give you what I don’t have,” Rock said, ignoring the filthy taunt meant to make him snap. “My stuff was stolen when I was in the hospital rehab center.”
“Lies.” Tarpley sneered. “All lies. No one feels sorry for you. No one believes you.”
Rock faced his accuser. The man’s bloated face and twitchiness added to the sinking feeling in Rock’s gut. Still, he had to try. “Tarp. What’s going on? Why are you doing this?�
��
“Hands,” Larry reminded.
Rock lifted his hands higher. He tried to recall the items on the counter and if any of them could be used as a weapon. “You owe me an explanation.”
“I owe you nothing. Nothing, you hear me?” Tarpley’s voice echoed in the small shop. “All my life I’ve been compared to you, and I always came up short. I’ve had enough. Time to get what’s mine.”
Rock blinked. Tarp, too, was trying to rattle him. “What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?”
“Are you sick? Is it the steroids, man? Where have you been?”
“Why didn’t you die? You were supposed to die.”
Something flickered in his peripheral vision. Jeanie seemed to be wobbling. Was she in trouble or trying to create a distraction?
Rock transferred his weight to the balls of his feet, flexed his knees slightly. “Let’s put the guns away and talk this out, Tarp. I want to understand how you came to this place and time.”
“You don’t need to understand anything, except that this time I’ll make damn sure you stay dead. You and the girl.”
“Leave Jeanie out of this.”
“No can do. She knows too much.”
There was a sharp intake of breath, then Jeanie pitched forward. Rock forgot about the guns. His hand swept across the counter, and he lunged to catch her head before it thudded against the floor planks. Outside, the dogs barked nonstop.
He caught Jeanie in nick of time and stashed the utility knife he’d palmed into her back pocket. A soft flutter of her eyelashes assured him she’d faked her faint. The barrels of Larry’s shotgun bored into his spine.
“Nobody said you could do that,” Larry said.
“Nobody with half a brain would stand by and let a woman faint,” Rock said.
“Doesn’t matter,” Larry said. “You’re both going to die tonight. Get up real slow and leave her on the floor. You try anything and I’ll fill her belly full of lead.”
Rock rose, hands in the air.
Larry motioned with his gun. “Fetch one of those balls of crab line, Tarpley. Tie him up.”
As Tarpley wound the cord around Rock’s wrists in front of him, he glared at his former partner. Rock accepted that Tarpley had planted the bomb, but he didn’t understand why his friend hated him so much. Seemed a fella would sense that about his best friend.
“You don’t have to do this,” Rock said, keeping an even tone.
“Shut up,” Larry said. He waved Tarpley over to Jeanie. “Tie her hands and feet. If she can’t run, he won’t run.”
“I’ll give you whatever you want,” Rock said. “Leave her out of this.”
“Not a chance, hot shot. You’re worth more to us dead. Once you’re gone, Tarp can come back to life.”
Rock chewed his lip. This was beyond bizarre. “How?”
“He’s going to claim amnesia. He’ll say he washed up on the shore and didn’t know who he was or where he was. He’ll say he’s been drifting around the state doing odd jobs, which he’s been doing enough to get an alibi.”
“The cops won’t buy that. They know what he did. And you know what else?”
“Shut up.” A window of fury opened in Larry’s eyes. “You’re gonna pay for putting my cousin in jail.”
Rock stared. “Huh?”
“Palamiri. He’s my cousin.”
“You’re all in this together?”
“Yep, me, Tarp, Palamiri. We even hired that Shandy woman to go down there and throw you off track. Yeah, shaggy Shandy.”
A conspiracy. That explained why he couldn’t get a handle on a single suspect. But nothing explained the missing treasure. If these three and Shandy were on the same team, then who had his treasure?
Was he smelling a double cross amidst the conspirators?
Larry jabbed him with the shotgun. “Move. Outside.”
Rock refused to move. He couldn’t stand that Jeanie lay on the floor so helplessly. “Why?” he asked.
“The dogs. We’re not stupid. Put them in your truck, or we shoot them on the spot. Maybe we can sell them afterward.”
Rock walked slowly. Once the dogs were out of the picture, he had few resources left. He glanced around the empty parking lot. Only Larry’s old truck was visible. No customers. No boat captains. No opportunities.
He called the dogs to him. With a hunter’s calm, Rock unlocked his truck and asked the dogs to jump inside. “I should crack the windows if they’ll be in here very long.”
“Do it and you’re a dead man. Shut the door and march back into the shop.”
With a last glance at the dogs, Rock obeyed. Clouds covered the setting sun, darkening Rock’s hope. They’d keep him alive as long as he had something they wanted. He’d cooperate as long as they held Jeanie hostage. Either way, it looked to be a long, painful night.
Chapter 52
“Where are the coins?” Larry asked.
“I don’t know,” Rock said, bracing for another gut punch. As soon as they entered the shop, the men had tied Rock to a chair and carted Jeanie outside somewhere. Then they’d started beating him. So far he’d held together, but he was reaching the end of his limits. “I already told you. The coins were stolen.”
“I’ve never beaten a woman in my life,” Larry said, “But if you don’t give me the right answer, I’ll start in on your gal.”
“She has nothing to do with this.” His face hurt. His ribs ached. One eye was swelling shut. Not good. But Larry hadn’t mentioned the wooden chest or the journal. Rock clung to those facts. “I thought Munro stole the treasure, but he said he didn’t. All I know is the coins are gone.”
“We got an ear out for Munro, don’t you worry about that. Those coins aren’t getting away from us. I gotta ice my hand after that last punch. Tarpley, you’re it.”
“Where are the coins?” Tarpley asked, circling Rock’s chair. He jabbed Rock’s sore arm.
Rock gritted his teeth. “All those times I helped you, Tarp. Why?”
In the pale light, Tarpley’s flushed, moon-shaped face had a demonic appearance. His red-rimmed eyes appeared watery. “I’ve hated you for years. Ever wonder why we had the same blood type going in the Navy?”
“We do?”
“I noticed when we enlisted.”
“So?”
“We’re related.”
“What the—? You mean we’re cousins?”
“Think again.”
Rock snorted in disbelief. “No way my mom had a kid I didn’t know about, and my dad died before I was born.”
“Your dad wasn’t your dad.”
A roar filled Rock’s ears. “The hell he wasn’t. My father was Benson Mackenzie.”
“In your dreams. We had the same dad. Our mothers worked at the textile mill before we were born. Same guy knocked ʼem up. Piece of work, right? Your mom found a good guy. My “dad” beat the crap out of me and Mom until someone else killed him when I was in first grade.”
Rock didn’t know what to think. What if Tarp was telling the truth?
“We were friends,” Rock stated, sticking to the facts. “We did everything together. Even if somehow we’re brothers, that shouldn’t make you hate me.”
“Oh, but it does.”
Tarpley’s voice edged back into surly, reminding Rock of other times Tarpley had sounded like this. Come to think of it now, yes, it had been that way ever since he started on the steroids for his joint problem. Damn, why didn’t he catch the signs sooner?
“Every time I messed up, our real father held you up as a shining example of how I should act,” Tarpley said. “I should get good grades. I should manage my money better. I should be nicer to my mother. The list of shoulds went on and on. And you, you never did anything wrong.”
“That’s bullshit, Tarp. I’ve seen you work hard when it mattered to you.”
Tarpley slapped the back of Rock’s head with the flat of his palm. “Asshole. I don’t want to work hard. I wan
t to live the good life. The life I was born to live. Offing you and cashing in on the insurance was my last big chance. But no, you managed to come out ahead, one more time.”
The wills had been Rock’s idea when he started Mackenzie Charters. Tarp was his heir, and he was Tarp’s. How ironic. In trying to help Tarp, he’d signed his own death warrant.
“So who is he then?”
“Why should I tell you? You’re already dead. You and that pink-haired bitch.”
The white-hot buzz of panic filled Rock’s ears. “Don’t do this. She’s got kids who need her. Be bigger than this, man.”
“Where are the coins?”
Tarpley fired off a jab to Rock’s gut, but it didn’t pack the heat Larry’s punches had held. Rock tried to figure out what that meant. Was Tarpley taking it easy on him? Was he letting Larry think he was running the show?
“You can have my truck, my furniture at the apartment. Take everything I own. It’s yours free and clear if you let Jeanie go.”
“Can’t do that, dude. She knows who we are.”
“Money won’t keep you warm at night, Tarp.”
Tarp snorted. “Money’ll get me all the girls I want. I’m moving to a tropical island where I’ll be surrounded by bikinis all day. Your money’s going to put this bad boy on easy street.”
“You won’t have clean hands. Even you aren’t that cold.”
“Wrong. I’m colder than a rattler in the winter, just as full of venom too. You’re nothing but a bucket of bait to me. Something to use to get what I want. Like feeder shrimp in a bait well.”
Footsteps approached from the other room. Unless someone else was in on the plan, Larry was back. Rock tugged at his bonds, rocking his restraint chair. He wished they had left Jeanie in the shop so he could see if she’d recovered.
“You get anything out of him?” Larry asked.
“He won’t talk,” Tarpley said.
Larry swore. “Dump him and his girl and get the hell outta here.”
“I want the sovereigns,” Tarpley said. “I earned ʼem.”
Rough Waters Page 20