Case of the Ostentatious Otters

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  “Umm, thanks,” I said, as I nodded. “To be honest, I’ve been wanting to ask that question for a while now.”

  “You have?” Jillian repeated, amazed.

  “You have?” Vance echoed.

  I shrugged, “Of course. Once I realized I was open to the idea of getting married again, it was all I could seem to think about. So, I figured this setting would be perfect, thus allowing everyone to relax and enjoy the sun, beach, and water.”

  “But we’re leaving tomorrow!” Jillian protested.

  “Are we?” I slyly asked. “We’ve pretty much worked our whole vacation. I already arranged it with the hotel. We’ll be leaving in four more days. That is, if you’re amendable to spending more time here with me.”

  “Absolutely!” Jillian exclaimed. She drew me in for a kiss, which earned us some hoots and hollers from our friends. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Well, I thought we could take our first set of SCUBA lessons here.”

  “Wait, I thought we were all gonna try to lose some weight first,” Harry protested.

  “You can if you want to,” I told my friend. “However, I should also inform you that… how do I put this? Muscles weigh much more than…”

  “…fat?” Harry finished for me. “Is that what you were gonna say, bro?”

  “Harry, I’m trying to tell you that, right now, you have the advantage. Don’t you remember our swim test? We had to tread water for at least fifteen minutes. Both of us had a very difficult time with that.”

  “True,” Harry slowly admitted. “I don’t know, man. This is kinda sudden.”

  “Did I mention that the aquarium is not only picking up the tab, but will also be loaning us the equipment? We don’t even have to rent anything.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Vance wanted to know.

  “Zachary and Harry already have their open water certification,” Jillian explained. “Julie and I don’t. We were going to get certified so we could dive together.”

  “Dude, you’re a diver?” Vance asked me, impressed. “I didn’t know.”

  I grinned, “Hey, I’m versatile. What about you, pal? Want to take the class with us? Do you think your mom could watch your girls for another couple of days?”

  Tori triumphantly held up her phone, “I already asked, and yes. The answer is ‘yes.’ How exciting! I’ve always wanted to go scuba diving!”

  “There’s one other thing I ought to tell you,” I said, as I looked at my group of family and friends. “The SCUBA lessons? They’re being held in the aquarium, in one of the tanks.”

  “Ooo, count me in!” Tori exclaimed. “Vance, what do you say?”

  “Sure, why not? Sounds like fun!”

  I looked over at my parents. “Mom, dad, I assume you’re heading back to Phoenix?”

  My parents both nodded. “But not until tomorrow,” my mother added.

  “Good. We would like to show you around, starting with a new playmate we discovered for the dogs.”

  “Where are Sherlock and Watson?” my father wanted to know.

  “They’re back at the hotel. I was planning on stopping by to pick them up.”

  “And towels,” Jillian reminded me. “Don’t forget to bring towels.”

  “And towels,” I sighed. “Dogs. There’s never a dull moment.”

  “So when are you going to tell us what you’ve been up to?” Vance inquired, as he took the bottle of beer that was just placed before him and took a healthy swig. “From what I hear, you four have been having the time of your lives!”

  Harry, Julie, Jillian, and I shared a conspiratorial look before bursting with laughter. I nodded, raised my own beer, and took a drink.

  “What’s so funny?” my detective friend wanted to know.

  “Dude, I have no idea where to begin.”

  Tori clapped her hands and settled back in her chair, “Ooo, I do like a long story. Especially when you’re telling it, Zack.”

  Vance’s smile melted off his face and he frowned at his wife.

  “Really, Tor? Must you bring up that here?”

  “Bring what up here?” my mother wanted to know.

  “Since you let it slip about what type of books I write,” I began, as I smiled at my mom, “all of my friends have taken the liberty to see how well I write. Tori was already a fan.”

  “I looooove his stories!” Tori confirmed, winking at her husband.

  “I feel like you’re hitting on my wife whenever she does that,” Vance grumbled, which caused me to nearly choke on my beer.

  “I’m doing no such thing!” I protested.

  Tori reached across the table and laid her hand over mine, “Don’t you let him bother you. He’s just teasing, aren’t you? Vance?”

  “Yeah, sure. Jerk.”

  Thankfully, he had a grin on his face when he said that, which caused the rest of the table to erupt with laughter.

  “Let’s see,” I said, after I took another pull from my bottle. “This vacation started with us discovering a dead body.”

  Vance’s attention was suddenly focused entirely on me.

  “You’re kidding.”

  I shook my head, “Nope. He was a diver. We found him floating not far from here, in McAbee Bay.”

  “Who was he?” Wyatt asked.

  “A well-known SCUBA diver by the name of Jack Carlton,” Jillian answered, looking at her future father-in-law. “He was employed at Monterey Bay Aquarium, but he also worked for National Geographic. They sent him all over the world.”

  “That’s cool,” Vance decided. Realizing how that must have sounded to the rest of us, he paled. “I mean, not that he’s dead, but what he did for a living.”

  “Then,” I continued, “Sherlock and Watson made some new friends. A whole raft of them.”

  Jillian smiled as I referenced the otters, especially since I used the correct term for them and only a very few of us knew what that meant. As I expected, the rest of the table looked at me with blank expressions on their faces. My mother was first to raise a hand.

  “A what of otters?” Dana quietly asked.

  “It’s what you call a group of otters in the water,” Julie explained. “Jillian, didn’t you say something about them being called a different name when they’re on land?”

  “A romp,” Jillian confirmed. “On land, they’re a romp. In the water, they’re a raft.”

  Vance nodded, “Weird, but okay. What do the otters have to do with anything?”

  “I’m coming to that,” I said, grinning at my friend. “Now, it just so happened that these otters…”

  “Don’t forget to tell them about Chet,” Jillian interrupted. “You might want to get that in there first.”

  I snapped my fingers, “Oh, right. I need to backtrack just a bit. Now, it turns out that the dogs were recognized, here in Monterey. Can you believe that? The local police department even asked if we’d be willing to look at one of their cold cases, namely locate a missing coin stolen from a local coin collector eight months ago.”

  “Is that this ‘Chet’ person?” Tori wanted to know.

  “Chet Mayberry,” Jillian confirmed. “He and his husband, Roger, are affluent members of the city, and when one of Chet’s coins was stolen, an 18th century Spanish real, the local police investigated.”

  “Investigated, but never located,” I added.

  Vance shook his head, “Dog Wonder and his accomplice found it, didn’t they?”

  “On the very next day, bro,” Harry confirmed. “Those two dogs are truly amazing.”

  I cleared my throat.

  “Technically speaking, Sherlock didn’t find the coin. He found a coin, yes, and it just so happened to be another Spanish real, same year, only we figure it was just a fluke coincidence.”

  “Did we ever find out who stole Chet’s coin in the first place?” Julie asked.

  I nodded, “Actually, we did. Mary called this morning, and… sorry. That’d be Officer Marianne Adolphson, of the Mont
erey Police Department. As I was saying, they got a full confession. Who did it? Well, that would be Mike, Beth’s boyfriend. Apparently, his dad worked at the company that installed the security system at Chet’s house. Mike admitted his father told him about the coins, so one day, Mike and his father paid Chet a visit, just to look at the coins. Don’t get me wrong, Mike’s father wasn’t scoping the joint out. He was actually interested in the coins. Mike, however, was only interested in coins that could be found in the water.”

  “And Chet showed him the real,” Vance guessed.

  “Right,” I nodded. “Later, once he and Beth hatched the plan to locate the San Augustin, Mike broke in and stole the coin.”

  “Why?” Harry asked.

  I shrugged, “Maybe Mike thought it’d help Beth with her research? I don’t know.”

  “Then why the hell did he pass up so many more coins that were worth thousands more?” Harry sputtered. “Was he that much of a dumbass?”

  “Harrison, watch your language,” Julie warned.

  “That’s the only thing Chet can figure,” I said. “He said the thief probably didn’t know more valuable coins were nearby. So, yeah, he was a dumbass. Anyway, at some point, Beth and Mike located the sunken ship…”

  “Ooo!” my mother exclaimed. “How wonderful!”

  I shook my head, “Not really. They were planning on stealing the treasure for themselves.”

  “Wouldn’t it be theirs if they were the ones who found it?” my father asked.

  I shook my head again, “No. There’s an act in place that specifies any sunken treasure found within the United States’ boundaries becomes its property.”

  “Sucks to be them,” Vance decided.

  “Wanna know who else found the wreck?” Harry eagerly asked.

  “The dogs!” my mother chimed in, delighted.

  I stared at my mother with a look of surprise on my face.

  “How, mom? The wreck was underwater! Do you think I rented the dogs a canine SCUBA setup?”

  My mother’s face sobered, “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. Then, who else discovered the ship?”

  “The otters!” Harry said, grinning. “Those little critters were all using Spanish coins as tools to bust open shellfish.”

  Wyatt shook his head, “If the public ever learned about something like that, then it’d be pandemonium at that beach.”

  “You got that right,” I confirmed. “That’s why we enlisted the help of the aquarium, who advised us to get the coins from the otters before that very thing happened.”

  “And did you?” my father asked.

  I nodded, “We did. The problem was, every time we relieved the otters of their coins, they’d simply get new ones. It was the damnedest thing to see.”

  “Where does the dead diver fit in?” Vance asked. “Was he searching for the treasure, too?”

  “That’s what we all thought,” I told him. “As it happens, he really wasn’t involved in any search for missing treasure. He was collateral damage.”

  “Then why was he killed?” Vance wanted to know.

  “Jealousy,” Jillian announced. “Jack Carlton was very popular. He was famous among aquariums. Everyone wanted to volunteer for him, seeing how he was known to take trips across the world and take an assistant with him to help him out.”

  “All expenses paid?” Wyatt asked. “That’s the way to travel, right there.”

  “There were two volunteers,” Jillian continued. “A girl named Sherry, who was the target, and a young teenager named Beth, who we’ve mentioned before. She was the mastermind behind the whole thing. She put a juvenile, blue-ringed octopus in Sherry’s mask, intent on getting her out of the picture, only Jack grabbed the wrong mask by mistake.”

  Vance raised a hand, “A what kind of octopus?”

  “Blue-ringed,” I clarified. “They’re small, about the size of your fist, and are only found in tropical waters much warmer than this. The juveniles are about the size of a pea right now. That’s what was placed inside the mask. Sadly, it was easy to miss.”

  “And he paid the price,” Jillian’s mother quietly observed.

  “Something the size of pea can kill you?” Vance skeptically asked. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “It’s possible,” Jillian answered, “and it depends on how many times you were stung. But, more than likely, a juvenile would only have enough venom to paralyze you.”

  “Which is still bad,” Vance decided. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the greatest, but it’s better than death.”

  “Not really,” I added. “If you can’t move, then you can’t breathe. And if this happens while you happen to be underwater?”

  Vance’s eyes widened, “Oh. I get it. The diver drowned, didn’t he? Cause of death was originally thought to be by drowning?”

  I nodded, “Yep. But, it was later revealed that… hang on, I’m gonna get it right the first time. Tetrodotoxin. Hah. I did it. Anyway, tetrodotoxin was found in the bloodstream, and it didn’t take long to trace it to the one and only species at the aquarium which carried it.”

  “That fancy octopus,” Vance recalled. “Crazy.”

  “Beth placed the octopus in the mask, Jack Carlton grabbed the mask, and the rest is history.”

  “I still can’t believe a high school student was responsible for pulling this whole shindig off,” Vance said, amazed.

  “Such a tragedy,” Jillian agreed. “Such a young girl, with so much potential.”

  “And that’s what got her,” I said. “She may be mature for her age in some areas, but she’s still a young girl at heart. An adult would have realized that a grown man would never get involved with a teenager.”

  Vance wrinkled his face, “Eww! Is that what she wanted?”

  The four of us nodded.

  “Did that other girl ever turn back up?” Harry asked.

  I looked over at my friend.

  “Who, Sherry? Yes. She had been hiding out with her brother. Just so you know, her brother reported Beth to the police, only they blew it off. Yesterday was the first day she had left her brother’s house since the body had been discovered, and that was only because the police called to confirm they had Beth in custody.”

  “Poor girl,” Jillian lamented.

  My father suddenly picked up his glass of wine and held it high.

  “A toast. To my son and his future bride.”

  Everyone rose to their feet. I felt my face flush with embarrassment. Jillian slipped her arm through mine and leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder.

  “I didn’t think I’d ever see you this happy again, son, and it warms our hearts. Jillian? Take good care of him. I believe I can speak for everyone here when I say… sorry. He’s your problem now.”

  Laughing, everyone clinked glasses together and congratulated the two of us. Looking around at our circle of friends and family, I could only shake my head with amazement. I didn’t know how it was possible that I lucked out and found two beautiful women in one lifetime. I don’t know what I did to deserve Jillian, but I certainly planned on spending the rest of my life making sure she stayed by my side.

  THE END

  Zack and the corgis will return in

  Case of the Dysfunctional Daredevils!

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Anyone familiar with Monterey, CA, and the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, is going to notice right away that I took some liberties with its design, exhibits, and policies. I tried to stay as accurate as I could, but since I am the author, I felt I could bend a few things to make it fit my needs. Plus, I have nearly 7 years of experience working in a zoo, both in maintenance and animal husbandry. It was fun to dust some of that knowledge off and introduce it into the books, but by all means, just know that this is all fiction. Yes, characters and experiences are based on people that I knew back from my zoo days, but in no way should it be inferred that these people are real. It’s all fiction.

  The San Augustin is, in fact, a real ship, and
it really did put in to port at Monterey waaayyy back in the day. And, it did sink and, at present, still hasn’t been located. Could it actually be somewhere near Monterey? Technically speaking, it was possible, only highly unlikely. I did mention in the book that the wreck was believed to be about 170 miles further north than I put it, but again, it’s all fiction, so I moved the wreck a wee bit closer. Plus, the actual years of the wreck is believed to be 1595, not 1735, so again, I took a few liberties. Please don’t be mad. :)

  I hope you enjoyed the story! Zack and his friends will be back, but not before we explore the new world of Andela, and the dragons that reside there. What’s so special about them, you ask? Well, they’re going to learn that having a human rider can – and does – bring out the best in everyone! Let me give you a little taste on what’s to come.

  The isolated kingdom of Andela is separated geographically by very distinctive climes. There are the ice plains in the west, green prairies to the east, and lava fields in the high north. The two dominant species of this land, dragons and humans, have lived together in relative peace for centuries. While mainly avoiding one another, the two species will sometimes seek each other out to the mutual benefit of both parties. A human who can bond with a dragon, or a ‘Kai’, can share the dragon’s abilities and even enhance it with their own magic. However, only a select few humans can perform magic, and for those that can’t, it can be expensive to purchase from the Mages. Therefore, there are only a very select few who are Kai. Compounding the problem is that only those dragons living in the same geographic region as the Kai are compatible with one another. A Kai living in the north cannot approach an ice dragon, and just as you’d suspect, an ice Kai cannot bond with a fire dragon. It’s the way things have been since time has been recorded.

  However, things change, whether you want them to or not.

  An unknown power is threatening to shatter the peace enjoyed by all Andellians. Something is weakening the magic holding the various pieces of Andela together: the Ice Plains are melting and the Lava Fields are cooling off. Desperate to stave off their imminent destruction, the human king and High Dragon secretly meet to decide what to do. In a land of magic and sorcery, it is decided only the Kai have a chance to defeat this new threat.