by Gregg Stutts
“Dan?” Willy called out just louder than a whisper.
The only reply was the creak of the dock and the rustle of leaves being blown by the breeze coming off the lake.
“Dan?” Max tried this time, a little louder. When there was no reply, he looked at Willy and said, “This is ridiculous.” Max stepped onto the boat and walked around the entire deck, then said, “I’m going inside.”
“I’ll wait here,” Willy said.
“Oh thanks.” He used his flashlight to make his way inside the cabin. “Dan?” When he didn’t get an answer, he descended several steps to go below deck.
If I don’t make it as a coach, I’m going into sales.
At the bottom of the steps, he turned left. The boat was much larger than it looked from the dock. He opened a door and shined his light inside. It was a bedroom with bunk beds and a television with some kind of game system. “Dan?” he whispered, but got no response.
He made his way forward to another closed door. He slowly turned the handle and pushed it open. “Dan?” Still no reply. This room was larger. He stepped inside, but failed to see the raised threshold, which he tripped over and fell to the floor. He lost his phone in the process as it flew from his hands and slid across the wood floor. Without it, the room was instantly dark.
He crouched low and saw it still shining facedown on the other side of the room. He crawled on his hands and knees to retrieve it and felt a man’s clothes strewn across the floor. Only then did it occur to him that Dan was probably asleep just inches away and would not appreciate waking up to find Max poking around in the dark. He grabbed his phone and quietly got to his feet.
When he turned to leave, his flashlight illuminated the family pictures on the wall. Dan had a beautiful wife, a son and a daughter. What he saw next caused him to stumble backwards and crash into a table. He quickly scrambled to his feet, felt his way to the stairs and hurried up to the deck as fast as his wobbly legs could move.
Chapter 20
He reached the deck, took a deep breath and steadied himself on the handrail.
“He’s not there?” Willy said.
Max took another deep breath then staggered off the boat. “Oh, he’s there.”
“What did he say? Is he coming up?”
Max was already heading back down the dock toward the truck. “No, no, he’s not coming up. Let’s go.”
Willy was trying to keep up. “Max? What’s wrong? What did he say? Did he change his mind about meeting?”
Max stopped, turned and said, “He’s dead.”
“He’s what?” Willy said. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about he’s dead.”
“Are you sure?”
Max stopped again and placed his hands on Willy’s shoulders. “Listen to me. I only want to say this once. The man has a hole in his forehead. Trust me. He’s dead.”
“This isn’t good, Max. Not good at all. We’ve got to…”
“Shhhh,” Max interrupted. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Willy whispered.
“That.”
“What?”
“The siren.”
“Oh, now I hear it,” Willy said. “Did you call the police?”
“No, I didn’t call the police. The second I saw Dan’s face, I got out of there.”
“Well I didn’t call the police. I forgot my phone at your house.”
The siren was still in the distance, but getting closer.
“So, what’s our contingency for this?” Max said.
The siren was getting louder by the second. Willy looked back at Dan’s boat, then at Max.
“Maybe we have nothing to worry about. We didn’t do anything wrong. All we did was come here to talk to Dan. Maybe we should just wait here for the police,” Max said.
“Nothing to worry about?” Willy said. “You just told me Dan Jenkins is down there with a hole in his head. And now, you and I, who haven’t exactly been the best friends of the Lakeside police department over the last year, are standing here on the dock with his dead body fifty feet away.”
“Good point. We better go,” Max said.
This time it was Willy taking the lead who reminded Max of Gandalph from Lord of the Rings. It was a sort of half-run, half-walk. If he wasn’t so scared, it might have been funnier.
As they reached the parking lot, the siren wailed louder as it closed in on the marina. “We’re not going to make it, Max.”
“Just keep running, Willy. Or whatever it is you’re doing.”
The two men made it to the woods between the marina and the park when Max said, “Oh no.”
“What?”
He felt both front pants pockets then both back pockets. “My phone.”
“What about it?”
“I must have dropped my phone when I saw Dan.”
The two men stared at one another in silence. Then Willy spoke. “That’s not good.”
The siren sounded like it was almost to the marina.
“You get to the truck. I’ve got to go back for my phone.” Max turned and sprinted back across the parking lot and down the stairs to the dock. The fog was thicker now and without a flashlight, he had to slow his pace or risk tripping over a loose board and landing on his face or falling head first into the water.
He looked over his shoulder and saw a police car with flashing blue lights race into the parking lot, followed by a second one. The entire area was now enveloped in a blue mist. He only had a minute to find his phone and get off the boat before the cops made it to the dock. He stepped onto Dan’s boat to the sound of car doors slamming behind him. A minute might have been too generous.
He descended the steps into the dark cabin and tried not to think about Dan’s face. It creeped him out even knowing Dan was there in the dark. With a hole in his forehead. He’d never erase that image from his mind. He got down on all fours and swept the floor with his hands searching for the phone. He could feel his pounding heart in his neck and temples. It was no time to be thinking about his blood pressure, but it had to be scary high.
Sweat dripped from his forehead as he searched frantically along the floor. He guessed he might have only half a minute before he had to be off the boat and out of sight. He began a silent count down. Thirty…twenty-nine…twenty-eight…
He continued sweeping the floor with both hands and then his hand hit something. It was something in the pocket of Dan’s jeans. It couldn’t have been his own phone, but he reached inside anyway, removed Dan’s phone and slid it into his pocket. He still needed his own though.
…thirteen…twelve...eleven...ten...nine...oh please, God!
He continued his frantic search and just as his internal clock hit four seconds, his left hand bumped it. He grabbed it, slid it into his other pocket, hurried for the stairs and hoped it wasn’t too late. He scrambled up to the deck just as the cops finished searching the boat two slips from Dan’s. He crept quietly around the deck to the other side of Dan’s boat.
Going back up the dock to meet up with Willy wasn’t an option now and he couldn’t stay where he was. Beams of light were illuminating the fog, giving the air a greyish glow now. He only had one choice. He swung his leg over the rail then quietly lowered himself over the side of the boat. He slipped into the water and slowly dog-paddled around toward the dock. If he could get underneath it, he might be able to slip away unseen. A second later, two of the officers stepped onto the deck of Dan’s boat while a third one waited on the dock shining his flashlight on the adjacent boat.
Suddenly, the cop aimed his flashlight on the water just inches from Max’s face. He ducked underneath the water and hoped he hadn’t made a splash. He held his breath and remained as still as he could with the light dancing on the surface of the lake two feet above him. It only took seconds for his lungs to start burning, but he couldn’t risk swimming away or coming up for air. He wouldn’t be safe until he could get underneath the dock and out of the path of their flashlights.
But his lungs were screaming for oxygen.
Chapter 21
The woman waited until she was several miles from the marina before reaching into her purse for her real phone. She touched the screen to make the call. “It’s done,” she said.
“It’s about time,” the man said. “Any problems?
“No. No problems.” She really hated the way he doubted her.
“And you called the police?” the man said.
Even worse was the way he treated her like a child. “I said I would, didn’t I?”
“My men are on the way,” he said, then hung up.
She was ready to be done with him and this town. And she almost was.
Chapter 22
Willy watched from the park. The police cars had come screaming into the marina, one after the other. Their flashing blue lights lit up the marina parking lot. He was safe, at least for now. He couldn’t say the same for Max.
Four officers exited their cars, made a quick search of the area surrounding the parking lot. One cop remained with their cars while the other three headed for the dock where they began a boat-by-boat search. He glanced at his watch. It was 11:46. It felt like they’d been there for an hour, not sixteen minutes.
He regretted getting Max involved. He should have seen this coming. Or perhaps he should have listened to his suggestion to call the police. It wouldn’t have mattered that the police were already on their way. They could have been on record as having reported the crime. But it was too late for that now.
Or maybe it wasn’t. There was no evidence to link them to Dan’s murder. There might be some uncomfortable questions for a few hours, but the police would realize he and Max weren’t the ones who had killed Dan. The timing of their presence at the marina, while suspicious, was actually quite innocent.
Willy had his hand on the door handle and was about to get out and go talk to the police when a large black SUV pulled into the marina parking lot and parked behind the two police cars. Four men in suits got out.
Chapter 23
Max knew he was out of breath and out of time. He could only hold his breath for a few more seconds. But if he came up for air, he expected to see a gun pointed at his head. Or worse, there might be no pointing. Just shooting. If they weren’t already aware, these cops were about to discover Dan’s dead body. The whole area was about to become a crime scene. And who would look guiltier than a man hiding in the water?
And when he couldn’t last another second, the water went dark. His lungs were screaming for relief as he gave one hard stroke to come up for air. He tried not to gasp or make a splash when he broke the surface. Quickly, he moved underneath the dock while willing himself to take slow, steady breaths.
One cop remained above him on the dock while the other two searched Dan’s boat. Max stayed under the dock and moved slowly away from The Integrity in the direction of the park, where he hoped Willy was still waiting. But the more he thought about it, he realized the truck wasn’t an option. Hopefully, Willy was long gone.
Other than putting some distance between himself and Dan’s dead body and the cops with their bright flashlights, he didn’t have a plan. He just knew he had to get away from the marina.
He stopped for a moment and held onto one of the pilings and guessed he’d made it about twenty-five yards from the boat. Instinctively, he reached for his phone to check on Willy and realized his blunder. It was in his pocket under the water. He started to dog paddle again when he heard several car doors slam.
Chapter 24
Willy decided that reasoning with the police didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. Not until he knew more about the new arrivals. He let go of the door handle and remained right where he was.
The cop who’d remained behind in the parking lot was talking with the four men in suits. A moment later, he led the way as the men followed him down to the dock. Right toward Max. Or at least where he’d been.
Willy assessed the situation and concluded that staying where he was and watching the action from the cheap seats was risky. His vantage point in the park only felt safe. But it wasn’t. It would only take one beam of light, from a headlight or flashlight, to hit his truck and give away his position. No doubt the police would soon begin a search of the area surrounding the marina, including the park. As much as he hated to leave Max alone, he wasn’t doing him any good from where he was.
If it was anyone else, he would have had second thoughts, but Max Henry was someone who had a knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. The one Willy was watching unfold in front of him now was by far the stickiest yet.
He turned the key and hoped his old truck wouldn’t be loud enough to alert anyone to his position. He put it in gear without taking his eyes off of the scene in front of him. Slowly, he made a U-turn and headed toward the exit. Not until he exited the park did he turn on his headlights.
It was contingency plan time.
Chapter 25
Max could hear voices getting closer and another beam from a flashlight coming from the direction of the parking lot. He couldn’t tell how many men were approaching, but could feel their steps shaking the dock. Three cops were at Dan’s boat. Even more were coming.
Now that he’d been in the water for fifteen minutes, he was beginning to shiver. Hanging around wasn’t going to work for much longer. And then the men on the dock suddenly stopped right above him. He could see there were five of them. He shivered again. But not only because he was cold.
One of the men said, “So you said there are three other officers on-site? No others?”
“Oh, yes, sir. “It’s Larry, Mikey and Bubba. Well, that’s not his real name, of course. His real name is George, but he don’t like being called by his real name. So ever since high school, we’ve always just called him Bubba.”
One of the others said, “We’ll take it from here.”
“Oh, yes, s…”
Max heard a “thwoop” sound. And then a body fell hard to the dock right above him.
“Get him out of here,” a man said. Another man shoved the body off the dock with his foot. The dead policeman hit the water a few feet from Max’s face. The remaining four men continued down the dock toward The Integrity.
As the man slipped the beneath the still black water, Max caught a glimpse of the hole in the man’s forehead.
Chapter 26
It was one minute before midnight, when Willy exited the parking lot and turned toward home. He had two hours to reconnect with Max before the deadline to report into Rose and Michelle. There was no way he wanted to tell Michelle he’d lost her husband somewhere.
He also didn’t like the idea of not cooperating with the police, but he’d dealt with tougher moral dilemmas than this one. He took a quick glance at his phone to see if Max had tried to call, but he hadn’t. He thought about calling him, but didn’t want to risk it. If he was in hiding, then the last thing he needed was the sound of his phone ringing or buzzing in his pocket.
As he drove toward home, he slowed the truck more than once as he considered turning around and going back for his friend, but he knew that would only make things worse. He would have to trust Max to carry out the contingency plan they’d agreed on.
Chapter 27
Tuesday, August 5th
Whoever else the men were on the dock above him were, they were now also cop-killers. Cold-blooded cop-killers. And maybe they’d also killed Dan, an elected city councilman. Regardless, he had no doubt these same people would be willing to kill a football coach. Michelle’s intuition had been right. She’d sensed something was coming. He should have listened more carefully.
Getting away from the marina had just become even more urgent. If he could get to the other end of the dock, which he guessed was another fifty yards or so, he might be able to continue along the shoreline until he came to the park. He might be able to hide out there until the police were done investigating at the marina. That could take all night though.
&
nbsp; He was kicking himself for letting Willy talk him into this. When had anyone ever heard of a late-night meeting at a marina turning out well? The answer was never.
His entire body was trembling now and he wanted nothing more than to crawl into his nice warm bed next to Michelle who always felt like she was throwing off more heat than their fireplace. He pushed off from the piling and started to paddle. He kept moving to put as much distance between himself and Dan’s boat as possible. His heart was about to pound out of his chest.
He paddled along in the dark water underneath the dock, leaving behind the dead young police officer. He wanted to forget everything about this night. Pretend it never happened. But he was the only person alive who knew what had just happened.